Hi guys, today, 25 June 2005, I passed GMAT third and the last time. It was a really long way to join 700-club. This way was difficult and not straightforward. However, I learned a lot, and I am eager to share this knowledge with you. It gonna be long post.
To all readers of this post:
Please do not criticize my style, structure, and language. It is 22nd hour since I woke up this morning, therefore I'm a bit exhausted and relaxed. I just don't feel any energy to reread what I just wrote. But I feel I should write this message today while my feelings and observations are still fresh. OK, I'm going ahead.
Thanks
Stolyar invited me to this exciting community a couple of years ago. He is the only man I owe my success. Also I ought to express my thanks to bb (for this site), Praetorian, AkamaiBrah, Paul, HongHu, and many other people who wrote their insightful GMAT experience and discussed difficult questions. In addition, I must say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to guys who push Challenge initiative which I consider the best practice for actual test.
Background
Project manager in investment company. Hold BA in Science and MA in economics. International. 28y.o. Married.
Result
700 (93%) - Q50 (95%) / V34 (72%)
GMAT history
1st attempt: July 2003 - 610 (Q49, ~V24) {so-so practice, low focus, low stamina, bad strategy}
2nd attempt: May 2004 - 690 (Q47, V37) {good practice, good focus, high stamina, bad strategy}
3rd attempt: June 2005 - 700 (Q50, V34) {so-so practice, good focus, so-so stamina, good strategy}
Ha-ha-ha, it was a long and, in some aspects, funny way...
Scheduling the test
Being waitlisted in top3 b-schools this year, I decided to reapply for the next year. To enhance my GMAT score was a part of my reapplication strategy. In May 2005 I passed a Powerprep 1 (last time I saw
OG 1 year ago) and scored 770 (Q51, V44). I thought that one month is more than enough to revive my GMAT skills. Therefore, I scheduled the test for 25 June 2005.
Preparation
I redid Powerprep exercises, Challenges #22, #23, and #24, "The Best Verbal discussions" and "Share your GMAT experience" branches of this forum, and "Just finished my GMAT test" branch of GMAT-forum at
https://www.testmagic.com. Also I redid math lessons on this site.
TEST EXPERIENCE
AWA-section.
It was good. Easy topics.
2 min remained in each essay.
Quantitative section.
Started with two easy questions, then #3 - simple combinations. And the difficulty level increased and remained stable from #3 to #33. I stuck in #6 because I solved PS and found out TWO RIGHT ANSWERS. In the first moment I thought that it was an experimental questions, but God defended me this time. After 5 min of different recalculations I saw a typo in my initial calculations, laughed over myself, and went to the next question (my thoughts ran back to this question again a couple of times while I was in Q-section but I tried to kill them). I met two-three questions on each type - probability/combinations/mean/median, although there was no standard deviation. Surprisingly, there were many geometry questions.
1.5 min remained.
Verbal-section.
After Q-section I felt that I was in 49+ range, therefore I understood that the crucial part of exam is in Verbal-section. #1 question was easy SC. Then #2 medium SC. Then #3 - medium CR. Then #4 medium SC again. Then medium 45-line RC1 (science) and difficult 55-line RC2 (science) back-to-back. Then #10 BF CR. Then number of SC and CR of medium and difficult level. In #21-#24 there was 65-line RC3 (women rights). Then medium to difficult SC and CR again. #28 - BF CR again. Then in #33-#36 medium 70-line RC4 (business). Then I felt that the level of questions comes down (I think I missed a few questions consequently). There were easy SC and CR from #37 to #41.
50 sec remained.
Overall
Q-section was in line with Kaplan Math 800 and a bit easier than Challenges. V-section was in line with
OG.
GMAT experience snapshot (for future test-takers)
Guys, there are five success factors you should be aware of before going to exam.
1) practice with RIGHT SOURCES (
OG 10th edition, Powerprep, LSAT, VStudy, GMAT+, Kaplan Math 800) and try to develop good speed with no errors;
2) train your "FOCUS"-muscle (by doing 37- and 41-sets of
OG questions and by doing full-time CAT tests, BTW don't forget about essays). Do not think about previous question, do not think what you say to friends/family after the test, think only about this particular question.
3) gain your STAMINA during two days before test (for full-time workers: try to sleep 9 hours every day during last week before exam).
4) develop RIGHT STRATEGY. I mean in Verbal section you should be extremely careful with your first 20 questions (first and second RC passages), then I must enforce yourself to run through 21-31 questions (third passage), and then again try to be extremely careful with 32-41 questions (fourth passage). And in Math section you must be careful (with double-checking) of answers for 1-25 questions, then running through 26-37 questions.
5) When you do the test, you must CONTROL yourself to be in line with right strategy. It is so difficult to force yourself to be quick-solver in verbal 21-31 questions.
And remember: NEVER GIVE UP! Everyone can reach 700 and more.
BTW, do NOT pay much attention to AWA-section. The best way to crack the AWA essays is to developed cliches. I believe that a test-taker should synthesize his own cliches from the number of offered by different sources (e.g. Kaplan, Princeton) and he/she should practice not more than five essays on both types. After that, he/she do not even need to read the full set of 250 topics. After good practice, cliches can crack any topic.
Guys, I am going to sleep and then celebrate again. I'll be back to this site a couple of days later to kindly answer your questions.
P.S. FUTURE TEST-TAKERS, you are especially welcome to ask any questions (as I was in your skin just a day ago), including ones about strategies to approach each type of PS/DS/SC/CR/RC questions, which I consider the most value-added.