Journey to 680 (Q44 V40)

Hi all,

Many of you have followed my GMAT journey these last 3 months. Well, I came back today from the testing centre with a 680 (Q44, V40). My feelings are mixed as I had targeted 700 all along but I also feel a sense of relief as the score is at least decent enough to put me in the ballpark for the vast majority of schools.

By way of introduction - I'm Australian, 24 years old, and have 2 years experience working for a US global investment management firm. Prior to my current role, I had interned at a bulge bracket investment bank and did a year at a fortune 500 company in corporate strategy. My goal is to enroll in a Master of Finance program next year at a good school in Europe (Bocconi, Cass, St Gallen etc) but in case I miss out on those, the plan is to keep working in my current role, accumulate more leadership experience, and apply for MBA programs in the US or UK a few years down the track. My firm is an active recruiter of LBS, Wharton, Columbia grads and do send associates to those schools annually so let's hope the corporate and alumni connections can help me out a bit as well.

I'm a bit worried about the Q44 as it places me in the 67 percentile (OG11 has Q44 as 73 percentile?) but upon reading LBS's requirement that the minimum is Q40 I think the Q44 shouldn't be too much of a problem (hopefully). After all, I can supplement quant requirements with the CFA (on level 2).

Some of you will ask why not retake the GMAT and try hit 700? Well.. I personally believe (and I could be wrong) that taking the test once and scoring 680 is no different to taking it 4 times for 680, 670, 690, 700 for example. Not to mention the drain on money and time. Also, the admissions committees will hopefully see that the other areas of my application are strong.

Now let's talk about the GMAT and how I prepared for the test:

I started looking at GMAT in late June and had scheduled a test for early September. As the test date came around I knew more time was needed and rescheduled for a month later. To be fair, I was dedicating 10 hours on average each week and 20 hours for the last 4 weeks (except the final week as I was time poor due to work commitments and probably feeling burnt out). Let me just say that I'm not naturally gifted in maths and struggled to get above 50 percentile initially although verbal was always an area of strength for me.

My approach was simply to identify the weak areas and tackling them individually as opposed to purchasing a comprehensive prep program. For example, CR and RC made sense to me intuitively and I didn't even get through all of OG12 for those sections. In contrast, I did plenty of DS questions and looked specifically into MGMAT geometry and inequality because I knew close to nothing about those topics.

I will not delve too much into strategies as many more folks around the forum are far better qualified to give advice. I will however highlight some of the things I think are critically important.

- Take the GMAT Prep 1 early during your prep (perhaps after 4 weeks of studying) and assess your strength and weaknesses. The GMAT Prep tests are golden and will give excellent predictions.

- If you are sitting on a Q40 (although not the case for most people it seems), it is possible to lift your score to say a 45 with sufficient studying over a 2 months period. I can guarantee you however that as you climb up towards 50 it gets real tough, particularly if you are expected to solve them under 2 mins. Sometimes I look at a question I get wrong in the Q45 to Q50 range and think ARRRHHHH it makes perfect sense but under the time strain of the evil clock I would never have thought of a way to solve it under 2 mins. I think your maths skills are developed since childhood and frankly those who studied engineering or dare I say MATHEMATICS will inherently have an advantage. I'm not saying it is not achievable but be honest with yourself and spend more time studying. Look into the GMAT Club tests and other tough quant resources. I didn't bother with these but believe more determination on my part will have resulted in a better quant score. However, the trade off between time and reward just didn't stack up for me (and that I simply got lazy towards the end).

- It's OK not to be a specialist in all areas, for example I never bothered learning the difficult combinatorics and probability stuff. Yes I did see one on the real test but an intermediate level of knowledge (in this case knowing the combination formula and able to translate the problem) was enough.

- Practice under timed situations as much as you can. Given enough time, I can probably get 95% correct on the OG but it's no use to spend 5 mins on a question designed to be solved in 2. Know your limits and don't be scared to take educated guesses as you practice. If you do take a guess, make sure you come back to it and learn it properly. Practice guessing will make you much better prepared for the real thing as you will inevitably need to guess a couple (and probably more than a couple) come test day.

- Apart from SC which is so very painful to learn but can certainly be mastered with enough practice, RC and CR are also what I would call "inherent" subjects ie those who studied management, journalism and English lit will have an inherent advantage because they read long passages and use CR and RC skills day in and day out. For example, I read the financial times daily, the economist sporadically, and draft long winded reports at work almost weekly. Therefore, CR and RC were always going to be my areas of strength. Yes I probably could have spent more time trying to get a 45 in verbal but I knew that a balanced score was more important and 90 percentile compared with 95 percentile in verbal just doesn't make too much of a difference in the eyes of the admission committee when everything else is taken into account. I think CR is easier to study for than RC as it tests logic and there are ways you can frame the questions and tackle them (knowing what is out of scope will help you sooooo much). RC is the toughest to improve on, I read some really nasty pieces on the real test and saw answers that differed by the tiniest of margins (I simply picked whatever sounded better). My feeling is that improving in RC at any level is tough ie getting from a V32 to 38 is just as hard as getting from 40 to 45. Again, just my subjective opinion so take it with a grain of salt.

- Finally but certainly not least, I think the GMAT like anything else is a beast that will give back as much as you put in. I really can't honestly say that I gave it all I had, not even close. But.... with enough determination, time, and resources, anything is possible. I'm sure if someone had put a gun to my head for 3 months demanding a 700, I would have definitely churned out that score and probably much higher... but the GMAT serves a purpose for different individuals and I think it's important that you consider the GMAT score in relative terms according to your personal situation. I don't wana start sounding like some admissions expert but it's no secret that if you are an Indian IT professional perhaps a higher GMAT score can really make the difference (and guess who my test buddy was today) whereas if you are a Colombian miss universe turned diplomat who then spent 4 years working on renewable energy projects for Chinese enterprises in Nigeria, a 600 could very well be sufficient. Set realistic goals, keep positive, and work hard. I know from the post it sounds like I didn't try my hardest but truth is without the 150 - 200 hours of studying, even 680 was out of my reach! There are those who come onto the boards with stories of prepping for 2 weeks and scoring 750 but geniuses are rare. Read Malcolm Blackwell and you will understand what I'm on about. These guys would have studied topics covered in the GMAT very comprehensively at some point in their lives. There is simply no substitute for hard work. In fact, for those of you who are determined to crack 700 I honestly admire your perseverance.

The prep material I used were all very good, maybe because I bought them to cover specific areas so any knowledge was good knowledge. You can easily search for people's reviews so I won't bother commenting on them. But in no particular order:

- Kaplan Premiere
- Kaplan Advanced
- OG11 (although only got through 10%)
- OG12
- MGMAT Geometry, number properties, SC, Inequality
- MGMAT tests (did all 6 quant but only 3 verbal sections)
- GMAT Prep tests (scored 650 Q40 V40 and 670 Q44 V38) didn't retake


You can also follow my detailed journey at the link below and see how I progressed over the last few months, the MGMAT test scores were also mentioned.
gmat-prep-hit-a-wall-98921.html


Some side benefits of studying the GMAT:
- developed a much better understanding of English Grammar (although probably not fully reflected in this post) as I had NEVER EVER sat through an English grammar class. Contrary to popular misconceptions, native speakers actually suck at grammar.
- feel more comfortable with numbers in general and got to learn some cool things like prime factorisation! be sure to bring that up with your next date...
- having the perfect excuse to not meet up with people you don't like (including your annoying friends who keep on telling you how awesome their lives are without the miserable sufferings brought upon by GMAT)

Finally, let me say thanks to Hussein and countless others who helped me along the way. GMAT Club is by far the best forum going around! I used it for strategy, problems, feedback etc but most importantly as a device for motivation and support. I think right now GMAT Club is allowing me to get a sense of closure.

I'm happy to answer any questions so please feel free to fire away..

Cheers