Wanted to share my experience taking the GMAT.
First of all, all praise and thanks be to Allah, as without His blessings, I would not have been able to score 750.I studied for the GMAT for about a month and a half. I studied every day for 2-3 hours, and for 5-6 hours on the weekends. There was about a week's worth of days when I could not study as I was traveling. My taking the GMAT was necessitated by my poor planning in applying for graduate school and by UC Berkeley's insistence that I do so.
I used Manhattan's quantitative books and CATs, the GmatClub Math Book and questions, the various OGs, a couple of VeritasPrep books, and the "Sandeep Gupta Quantitative Question Set". I pretty much focused on studying for the quantitative section and didn't pay much attention to the Verbal outside of taking the practice CATs. This came back to bite me on test day as I got a measly V41.
I know that I did not perform as well as I had expected. My main flaw throughout the test was poor timing. I managed this relatively well on the math section but completely bombed it during the Verbal section. I had about 12 minutes left for the last 12 questions of the Verbal and those were some of the wordiest questions I ever saw. They beat some of the wordiest Manhattan and VeritasPrep verbal questions. My lack of a sense of timing was exacerbated by two events: half-way through the quantitative section a gentleman started hammering away at his keyboard; I could not focus on the questions until 30 minutes later when that hammering finally stopped. Half-way through the verbal section, the invigilator came to tell me that I was "whispering too loud"; I lost a couple of minutes trying to regain focus after that. Ultimately though I only blame my inability to stay focused and my poor sense of timing for this atrocious score.
My background:- Pakistani male (aka Indian for most adcom)
- 32 years old
- Physics major, and Math and Computer Science double-minor with an abysmal GPA (some very personal mitigating circumstances, as well as sub-par performance on non-science 5-credit courses such as French and Arabic)
- 10 years experience in various software companies with increasingly broader responsibilities
Motivation for MBA: none at the moment. Needed to take a standardized test for a graduate program in IT and thought to kill two birds with one stone. The GMAT might come in handy a couple of years down the line if I decid to go for an MBA.
Test Day ExperienceWhat went well:
- Got to the test center on time
- Test center staff was polite
- the quant section was alot easier than I had anticipated
- Got an OK score
What didn't go so well:
- the hammering during the quantitative section
- the test center lady coming to tell me that I was whispering too loud
- I did not pace myself well on the math and verbal sections.
- I spent too much time on the first few questions in the verbal section
- I did poorly on the verbal section and not too well on the math section either
What I could have done better/differently:
- taken more time to prepare for the test. I feel that I needed a minimum of 3 months to be adequately prepared for the GMAT. In the last couple of days of preparation, I was developing a much better understanding of the quantitative concepts. I felt that I would have internalized those concepts much better if I had another few weeks to practice.
- kept my focus during distractions
- timed myself during preparation; although I did time most of my practice CATs
Review of the prep materialsManhattan Books and CATs:
The math books are awesome. The CATs are alright. I found the Manhattan CATs' quant sections to not be well representative of the actual GMAT. The Manhattan math questions required a lot of tedious calculations and/or tested how well you could recall some obscure properties. In addition to this, I found the
MGMAT quant questions to be worded in an intentionally obscure manner to make them look harder than they really are. The verbal questions are pretty much the same as any one would find in another not-official prep material.
VeritasPrep Free CAT:
Nothing to write home about. The verbal section is not at all representative of the actual GMAT. I found the verbal to be intended more for catching common mistakes that an Indian English speaker would make. I guess you get what you pay for; in this case, you get something for free.
The math books are a lot better.
ETS Paper Tests:
Math section is a cake walk for the most part. The verbal sections are pretty good.
Official Guides and GMATPrep CATs:
By far the best prep material out there. Do not use anything but
OG for verbal.
MGMAT CATs are good for practice if you've run out of official questions. Powerscore CR book is awesome. I read about two chapters of this book and I believe that significantly improved my ability to answer CR questions.
Practice Test Results:
VeritasPrep Free Test: 650 (do not remember the Q/V breakdown)
GMATPrep1: 740 (Q: 48 V: 44)
GMATPrep2: 750 (Q: 48 V: 45)
ETS #52: 790 (Q: 49 V: 50)
ETS #48: 730 (Q: 48 V: 43)
ETS #42: 740 (Q: 49 V: 43)
MGMAT CAT1: 700 (Q: 46 V: 40)
MGMAT CAT2: 690 (Q: 47 V: 37)
MGMAT CAT3: 710 (Q: 44 V: 42)
MGMAT CAT4: 710 (Q: 46 V: 41)
MGMAT CAT5: 690 (Q: 45 V: 39)
GMATPrep3 (three days before exam): 780 (Q: 50 V: 48) - only questions #21 and #37 wrong in verbal
GMATPrep4 (two days before exam): 770 (Q: 50 V: 46) - only questions #1 and #38 wrong in verbal (mistakes earlier in the test will cost you)
GmatClub Score Estimate: 670 (Q: 48, V: 34)
Actual GMAT: 750 (Q: 50, V: 41)
In closing, I am grateful for Allah's blessings, for the score that I got, and for my mom and wife praying for my success. However, I will retake the test because I know I was not as prepared as I could have been and because I know that I did not perform as well as I could have. I know that anything can happen on test day and a 750 can become a 690 but I'd prefer to give it another try.
I was hoping for the 99th percentile but in the end I was one short of the big time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyDHWnShkbo 
close
01 Sep 2015, 20:06
