I have some time this morning to recount my year long experience with the GMAT. I won't go into all the details since it will surly be too long of a post.
I think the 4 main things you need to master are:
1. Knowledge of the skills needed in the test.
This can be done in many ways. If you can motivate yourself to stick to a decent study schedule, then book study will suffice. There are many books out there, but the
OG is absolutely essential to your success, even if you plan on taking a prep course. I like Cracking the GMAT by PR and Kaplan 800 for harder skills. I was very busy with work, so I took a GMAT prep course (Veritas) to help me stay motivate and structured with my studies. You should the entire time keep a log of your errors and understand why you got problems wrong. You may see a trend in your errors. When you do, concentrate on beefing up your undersanding and skills in those areas. For me, my weak areas were DS and perm/comb so I read extra material on the subjects and performed many problems in those areas to gain confidence.
2. Knowledge of the test itself and the rigors of a 4 hour time constraint environment.
This is usually perfomed by doing many practice tests. Practice tests are good because they not only gauge your ability to handle the math and verbal skills, but it also gauges your ability to handle the length of the test. It is a must to condition your body for 4 hours of time constraint testing. That is, when you take a practice test, DO THE AWA. You don't want to get tired towards the end of the test and to start making stupid errors. Your mind must be sharp throughout the test. Also, it is a good idea to understand and be comfortable with the format of the test so when you arrive on test day there are no surprises. And along those same lines, if you typically take your practice test in the afternoon after work, then I suggest taking the real thing in the afternoon. Many may disagree with this, but I figure if you have been training your body to take this grueling test in the afternoon, then your body will be more apt to take the real thing at that time.
3. Positive mental control (everyone has there own way)
This is what I failed to address until a month ago. When taking the real test, it is normal to be nervous and anxious, but you must control these feelings and stay positive. These feelings often make medium difficulty problems look very difficult. Most us will have to guess on a couple questions and that is OK, just don't let it rattle you on the rest of the section. Also, do not think about the math portion of the test during the verbal, in fact, do not think about any of questions before the one that you are on. I had a huge problem with this in my previous 3 tests. I would guess or spend too much time on a problem and it would totally rattle me. Then I would think about it later in the verbal section which probably made that section harder than it should. This time, I did some yoga before the test and before each section I did some breathing exercises and positive visualizations. As you can see it helped me. Between my test on Sept 26 (scored a 610) and yesterday's test (scored a 710) the only aspect I really worked on was my positive mental attitude about the test. I did brush up a little on my perm/comb skills, but 95% of my effort was channeled to improving my mental attitude. Everyone has there own way to deal with this. I would highly suggest finding it if you don't already know it.
4. A good nights rest and a good diet the few days before the test.
A must! Stay away from heavy foods the day before. I ate lots of seafood and fruit the day before. The morning before the test, I ate some talapia and a half an orange. Not too heavy, but enough food to keep me energized. During the breaks of the test are a good time to re-energize yourself. I ate a couple peanut M and Ms for a quick protein and sugar boost. Also, don't drink too much water, drink just enough to quench the pallate and a little more to quench your body. The very first test I took, I had to pee so bad in the middle of the verbal portion and it no doubt hurt my perfromance.
As I have said before, this was my fourth time taking the test. Here is the link to my reaction after my third test
https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=20462
My practice tests:
4 Kaplan: 580-640
PP1 760 after
OG, 730 before
PP2 750 after
OG, 710 before
800score : 640,690, 690.
4 PR: 680-730
GMATPrep 1: 730
GMATPrep 2: 740
Real GMAT: 710
Now info on the real test:
AWA: Very straight forward. I actually got an issue topic that was the same on my last GMAT. I more or less remembered what I wrote so it was easy. The arguement essay I just used a template.
Quant: Not too bad. Slightly tougher than
OG questions. If you spent enough time solving problems from the math forum here, you should have no problem. I had one combination and one probability question. Everything else was very straight forward.
Verbal: The RCs were very readable and very reasonable, as with the CRs. I got 2 bold face questions and one complete the sentence. The SC were of
OG difficulty.
My advice to prepare for this test:
Master the 4 aspects mentioned above. There are many ways to do this. It is up to the person to figure out what is best based on your skill level and the amount of time you have to study. Mental attitude is key. My advice for practice test taking is to take the PP test before you hit any of the
OG questions, since the PP is just a test bank of
OG material. This will be a good judge of how well you grasp the GMAT. Take the GMATPrep tests after the
OG. There are some questions in the test that are in the
OG, but most are more difficult. This will also be a good gauge of your abilities. The Kaplan tests are much too difficult for your score to be taken seriously. However, still take those tests to increase your conditioning for a 4 hour test. DO NOT take Kaplan right before your test, the score will hurt your confidence. I suggest taking Kaplan practice tests in the beginning of your studies. PR is OK, use the same strategy as Kaplan.
That's all for now, let me know if anyone has any questions.
Also, thanks to all on the GMAT Club for your help and support. You know who you are. I couldn't have done it without you.
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31 Oct 2005, 18:23
