-
parore26
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:43 am
- Location: New York, NY
- Thanked: 19 times
- Followed by:1 members
I joined the BeattheGMAT community sometime at the end of April. I spent some time before that reading other people's posts, experiences and strategies. I began my preparation seriously in July.
During the first week of July, I scheduled a free practice test with ManhattanGMAT. I scored a 660 on it without having had any practice whatsoever. I knew that I just had to fine tune a little bit to achieve over 700.
From that point on, I spent a month just reviewing Quant material. I did all the questions in Official GMAT and Official GMAT Quant Review. I got very few questions wrong and on average I was taking less than 2 minutes per question to solve. In addition to that practice, I reviewed Geometry, Probability and Combinatorics closely through additional material found on this site and elsewhere on the Internet. In Hindsight, I spent too much time on Combinatorics and Probability. I saw only two questions of these on the test but almost spent 3-4 hours reviewing and solving problems on these two topics.
I spent the last two weeks in August studying Critical Reasoning. I saw a post by someone who was successful in the GMAT and he suggested that solving sample LSAT Critical Reasoning questions was a good way to prepare for this section. I strongly agree with that suggestion! I bought a book titled “The Official LSAT Superprep” and it had a good review of all the types of questions generally tested and it also outlined common strategies and pitfalls. In addition, the book had about 100-150 questions on Critical Reasoning. One word of advice, while most of the questions in this book are tougher than what you’d expect to see on the GMAT the question types are similar. After that I proceeded to work on the Critical Reasoning questions in Official Guide and the Official Guide Verbal editions. The one thing I noticed towards the end of my CR preparation was that just reading an argument gave me a hint as to the type of Question (Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, etc…) I was about to face and also once I read the question I knew what type of Answer GMAT expected. It is difficult to explain, but it is almost as if my mind was on auto drive!
After finishing the Critical Reasoning preparation, I decided to take the first GMAT Powerprep test. I managed to score a 710 (Q51, V35) and got very few questions wrong on the Quant and the CR and RC questions of the verbal portion. While I was happy with the score, I knew I had to up the ante and kick start my preparation for Sentence Correction. For whatever reason, it never started. In September, I hardly studied I just failed to get motivated, part of which was due to my apprehension of the Sentence Correction questions.
In Mid-October I went for a GMAT meetup activity where I got to meet a few people and formed a study group. This was crucial in getting me back on the GMAT horse and I also picked up a few tricks. Especially in Sentence Correction I noticed how the two partners were solving the questions correctly and I shamelessly adapted their strategies. During these study sessions we mixed different type of questions. We’d solve a few of CR, then move onto DS and finish with SC. Everyday we’d attempt a set of questions from two to three different sections under time constraints. This was useful to test my pacing and also my ability to quickly switch from one type of question (SC) to another (CR).
In the meantime I practiced the Reading Comprehension section on my own for about two weeks. Generally, I didn’t have much trouble with these questions. Over the last year I got into the habit of reading Financial Times Opinions and Editorials. Each of those articles, unlike factual news articles, argued for something, criticized something or evaluated view-points etc. When I’d read an article I’d try to make mental notes of the general attributes of the article. These articles were also very useful to Critical Reasoning as the authors often attempt to persuade you by constructing sound arguments. I don’t know just how useful this turned out to be on the GMAT, but I definitely improved my ability to read somewhat dense passages constructed with complex arguments and understanding them in a short period of time.
From mid-November to mid-December I focused on Sentence Correction exclusively. I used Manhattan GMAT’s Sentence Correction guide, Sahil’s notes, Spidey’s notes and our very-own Eric’s flash cards to help prepare. It did no good. I was consistently getting only 60% of the questions correct no matter what I used or did. This was very disheartening as I had spent so much time and I could smell the finish line but this section kept knocking my confidence. One thing I noticed straightaway was that I would study a chapter in Manhattan GMAT’s guide book then solve the OG Questions that tested this particular topic. For example, one of the chapters in the guide is Pronouns. At the end of the chapter they have an exercise that gives you a chance to test the material you learnt and list the questions in Official GMAT guides that test this particular topic. Unfortunately, the list is far from accurate. Most SC questions test more than one different topic and this confused me as I was looking for the wrong type of error. I gave myself a week’s break and tried again this time without knowing what type of error the sentence has. This was slightly more useful but still I was getting under 70% correct. I then decided to go back and review the strategy for each of the question I got wrong at least 2-3 times, until I was dead certain. This was the turning factor. I had now memorized almost every strategy that was outlined in the two books. I tried two sets of 22 questions from old GMAT tests that I’d never tried before. I got about 85% of them right and on most of those I got wrong I was able to eliminate all but two of the answer choices and the one I didn’t pick was the correct choice. This got me a bit more confident.
I decided that I had had enough of the preparation and that I should take some prep tests to ensure that I can weather the three and half hours and also get some much needed practice on the writing sections. With five days to go, I took the first GMAT Powerprep test again, most of the questions this time were different, and I scored a 710 (Q51, V38). I was happy but I got only about 70% of my SC correct again. So I once again went through the list of errors I made. The next day I took the second of the Powerprep tests and scored 720 (Q49, V40), this time around I got about 80% correct on SC and I was much happier with this result. I had now sat through two tests continuously and had the stamina to withstand the time and also had no issues with the pace of my test.
With Three days to go, I did a few questions from RC, CR and did a few practice writing samples. Two days before, I re-installed the GMAT Powerprep and took test 2 again. This time I once again scored 710 but I had seen most of the questions before and therefore I didn’t concentrate that well. The last day I spent going over some tough Quant problems and reviewed Eric’s Flash cards and went over some sample writing essays. The night before I ensured I slept well.
On the day of the test I arrived at the test centre 30 minutes prior to my appointment. I was finger-printed about 200 times before I could take the test. They briefed me about things that I should and shouldn’t do. I felt like I was serving a jail sentence of some kind with all their security measures. GMAC definitely needs to review their testing procedures and make them friendlier.
The actual test itself was a breeze. I sped through my essays. I felt happy with the quantity and quality of both my essays. I had a few minutes at the end to review each of the essays. I had no issues with the Quant section. I felt the questions in OG were representative of the questions I saw on the actual test. I also didn’t think they were any more difficult than the questions I saw towards the end of the Official guides. I finished the section with a few minutes to spare. In the verbal section when I answered CR and RC questions my Brain was on auto-drive. I just read the questions and answered them. I also felt that the Sentence Correction questions were easy. I was very confident in the answers I choose, and for a brief period made me wonder if I’d screwed up the verbal section. I quickly got over it and decided that the best thing was to march ahead and maintain focus.
Once I finished the last question I had about ten minutes left. Then I had to complete the Background Information section. How I hated it for those brief five minutes! Then I was given ten minutes to decide if I wanted to get the score reports. It took me about five seconds to go ahead. I read the first line: Q 49 89. My heart sank a little. I read the second V 45 97. I quickly scanned down to notice 750. It took me a brief moment to realize what had happened. Over the last couple of weeks I had hoped to get 51 on quant and high 30s in the verbal. That is all I wanted. That is all I needed to break the 700 barrier. Now, I had a surplus of 50 points
My Advice
1) Read the posts here by various people who were successful in their GMAT preparation. Be open to suggestions that are out of the norm. For ex. Reading LSAT prep to get better at tackling GMAT CR.
2) Don’t get married to a score. Please don’t think you’ll ever be able to achieve a set score on the GMAT. I read many posts and blogs were they wanted a 740 or 760. To get that precise when the GMAT officially states that it has an error or SD of 29 points is insane.
3) Create your own strategy. Eric’s strategy of methodically eliminating weaknesses by keeping track of detailed statistics would never work for someone like me. I’m an impulsive person and the strategy I outlined here worked for me and I won’t guarantee that it will work for you.
4) Pay little attention to simulated tests that aren’t GMAT’s original tests. Some scoring algorithms are weird and the questions they use are not representative of the questions you’ll see.
5) It’s just a test! Life goes on. No one ever got into HBS on the basis of an 800 on GMAT and conversely no one got rejected by HBS due to a 660 on the GMAT.
Suggested Resources
Official Guide, Official Guide Verbal, Official Guide Quant, LSAT SuperPrep, ManhattanGMAT SC Guide, Free Powerprep software from MBA.com, and old paper tests from GMAC.
Finally, I'd like to thank Eric, moderators and the rest of the crowd for helping me achieve a good score on the GMAT and for enduring this long post. Good Luck to everyone!!
During the first week of July, I scheduled a free practice test with ManhattanGMAT. I scored a 660 on it without having had any practice whatsoever. I knew that I just had to fine tune a little bit to achieve over 700.
From that point on, I spent a month just reviewing Quant material. I did all the questions in Official GMAT and Official GMAT Quant Review. I got very few questions wrong and on average I was taking less than 2 minutes per question to solve. In addition to that practice, I reviewed Geometry, Probability and Combinatorics closely through additional material found on this site and elsewhere on the Internet. In Hindsight, I spent too much time on Combinatorics and Probability. I saw only two questions of these on the test but almost spent 3-4 hours reviewing and solving problems on these two topics.
I spent the last two weeks in August studying Critical Reasoning. I saw a post by someone who was successful in the GMAT and he suggested that solving sample LSAT Critical Reasoning questions was a good way to prepare for this section. I strongly agree with that suggestion! I bought a book titled “The Official LSAT Superprep” and it had a good review of all the types of questions generally tested and it also outlined common strategies and pitfalls. In addition, the book had about 100-150 questions on Critical Reasoning. One word of advice, while most of the questions in this book are tougher than what you’d expect to see on the GMAT the question types are similar. After that I proceeded to work on the Critical Reasoning questions in Official Guide and the Official Guide Verbal editions. The one thing I noticed towards the end of my CR preparation was that just reading an argument gave me a hint as to the type of Question (Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, etc…) I was about to face and also once I read the question I knew what type of Answer GMAT expected. It is difficult to explain, but it is almost as if my mind was on auto drive!
After finishing the Critical Reasoning preparation, I decided to take the first GMAT Powerprep test. I managed to score a 710 (Q51, V35) and got very few questions wrong on the Quant and the CR and RC questions of the verbal portion. While I was happy with the score, I knew I had to up the ante and kick start my preparation for Sentence Correction. For whatever reason, it never started. In September, I hardly studied I just failed to get motivated, part of which was due to my apprehension of the Sentence Correction questions.
In Mid-October I went for a GMAT meetup activity where I got to meet a few people and formed a study group. This was crucial in getting me back on the GMAT horse and I also picked up a few tricks. Especially in Sentence Correction I noticed how the two partners were solving the questions correctly and I shamelessly adapted their strategies. During these study sessions we mixed different type of questions. We’d solve a few of CR, then move onto DS and finish with SC. Everyday we’d attempt a set of questions from two to three different sections under time constraints. This was useful to test my pacing and also my ability to quickly switch from one type of question (SC) to another (CR).
In the meantime I practiced the Reading Comprehension section on my own for about two weeks. Generally, I didn’t have much trouble with these questions. Over the last year I got into the habit of reading Financial Times Opinions and Editorials. Each of those articles, unlike factual news articles, argued for something, criticized something or evaluated view-points etc. When I’d read an article I’d try to make mental notes of the general attributes of the article. These articles were also very useful to Critical Reasoning as the authors often attempt to persuade you by constructing sound arguments. I don’t know just how useful this turned out to be on the GMAT, but I definitely improved my ability to read somewhat dense passages constructed with complex arguments and understanding them in a short period of time.
From mid-November to mid-December I focused on Sentence Correction exclusively. I used Manhattan GMAT’s Sentence Correction guide, Sahil’s notes, Spidey’s notes and our very-own Eric’s flash cards to help prepare. It did no good. I was consistently getting only 60% of the questions correct no matter what I used or did. This was very disheartening as I had spent so much time and I could smell the finish line but this section kept knocking my confidence. One thing I noticed straightaway was that I would study a chapter in Manhattan GMAT’s guide book then solve the OG Questions that tested this particular topic. For example, one of the chapters in the guide is Pronouns. At the end of the chapter they have an exercise that gives you a chance to test the material you learnt and list the questions in Official GMAT guides that test this particular topic. Unfortunately, the list is far from accurate. Most SC questions test more than one different topic and this confused me as I was looking for the wrong type of error. I gave myself a week’s break and tried again this time without knowing what type of error the sentence has. This was slightly more useful but still I was getting under 70% correct. I then decided to go back and review the strategy for each of the question I got wrong at least 2-3 times, until I was dead certain. This was the turning factor. I had now memorized almost every strategy that was outlined in the two books. I tried two sets of 22 questions from old GMAT tests that I’d never tried before. I got about 85% of them right and on most of those I got wrong I was able to eliminate all but two of the answer choices and the one I didn’t pick was the correct choice. This got me a bit more confident.
I decided that I had had enough of the preparation and that I should take some prep tests to ensure that I can weather the three and half hours and also get some much needed practice on the writing sections. With five days to go, I took the first GMAT Powerprep test again, most of the questions this time were different, and I scored a 710 (Q51, V38). I was happy but I got only about 70% of my SC correct again. So I once again went through the list of errors I made. The next day I took the second of the Powerprep tests and scored 720 (Q49, V40), this time around I got about 80% correct on SC and I was much happier with this result. I had now sat through two tests continuously and had the stamina to withstand the time and also had no issues with the pace of my test.
With Three days to go, I did a few questions from RC, CR and did a few practice writing samples. Two days before, I re-installed the GMAT Powerprep and took test 2 again. This time I once again scored 710 but I had seen most of the questions before and therefore I didn’t concentrate that well. The last day I spent going over some tough Quant problems and reviewed Eric’s Flash cards and went over some sample writing essays. The night before I ensured I slept well.
On the day of the test I arrived at the test centre 30 minutes prior to my appointment. I was finger-printed about 200 times before I could take the test. They briefed me about things that I should and shouldn’t do. I felt like I was serving a jail sentence of some kind with all their security measures. GMAC definitely needs to review their testing procedures and make them friendlier.
The actual test itself was a breeze. I sped through my essays. I felt happy with the quantity and quality of both my essays. I had a few minutes at the end to review each of the essays. I had no issues with the Quant section. I felt the questions in OG were representative of the questions I saw on the actual test. I also didn’t think they were any more difficult than the questions I saw towards the end of the Official guides. I finished the section with a few minutes to spare. In the verbal section when I answered CR and RC questions my Brain was on auto-drive. I just read the questions and answered them. I also felt that the Sentence Correction questions were easy. I was very confident in the answers I choose, and for a brief period made me wonder if I’d screwed up the verbal section. I quickly got over it and decided that the best thing was to march ahead and maintain focus.
Once I finished the last question I had about ten minutes left. Then I had to complete the Background Information section. How I hated it for those brief five minutes! Then I was given ten minutes to decide if I wanted to get the score reports. It took me about five seconds to go ahead. I read the first line: Q 49 89. My heart sank a little. I read the second V 45 97. I quickly scanned down to notice 750. It took me a brief moment to realize what had happened. Over the last couple of weeks I had hoped to get 51 on quant and high 30s in the verbal. That is all I wanted. That is all I needed to break the 700 barrier. Now, I had a surplus of 50 points
My Advice
1) Read the posts here by various people who were successful in their GMAT preparation. Be open to suggestions that are out of the norm. For ex. Reading LSAT prep to get better at tackling GMAT CR.
2) Don’t get married to a score. Please don’t think you’ll ever be able to achieve a set score on the GMAT. I read many posts and blogs were they wanted a 740 or 760. To get that precise when the GMAT officially states that it has an error or SD of 29 points is insane.
3) Create your own strategy. Eric’s strategy of methodically eliminating weaknesses by keeping track of detailed statistics would never work for someone like me. I’m an impulsive person and the strategy I outlined here worked for me and I won’t guarantee that it will work for you.
4) Pay little attention to simulated tests that aren’t GMAT’s original tests. Some scoring algorithms are weird and the questions they use are not representative of the questions you’ll see.
5) It’s just a test! Life goes on. No one ever got into HBS on the basis of an 800 on GMAT and conversely no one got rejected by HBS due to a 660 on the GMAT.
Suggested Resources
Official Guide, Official Guide Verbal, Official Guide Quant, LSAT SuperPrep, ManhattanGMAT SC Guide, Free Powerprep software from MBA.com, and old paper tests from GMAC.
Finally, I'd like to thank Eric, moderators and the rest of the crowd for helping me achieve a good score on the GMAT and for enduring this long post. Good Luck to everyone!!
Last edited by parore26 on Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
