Dear gmatclub community,
Thank you so much for being there, every time:
- I needed some information,
- I couldn't understand some of the
OG explanations, and
- I just couldn't handle the (admittedly) easy stuff of this otherwise very challenging exam.
Very special thanks go out to
bb who mentored me various times and
Bunuel, whose shortcuts, explanations and question sets have helped me improve my quant score. This thread is further dedicated to
GMATPill and Zeke, who were detrimental to my success! I relied on them after my 1st attempt (which was based on the Manhattan series).
For comparison reasons, some information about me: Eastern European business major in his late 20's; 7-8 years out of school working in own energy project management startup.
Having sat for the GMAT 4 times in total, my story obviously is a long one. I really don't want to bother you with all the details. You can find all my struggles via my posts here, but in a nutshell, while I always have been a strong student (top 10%), it took my long before I could understand and master the GMAT. It all started back in 2012 with
this thread that got included in the gmatclub newsletter. I wanted a 740+ score. My avatar even says 780. Well, I'm still very happy with my score.
And you know why? Because this community makes us dream of the very best scores, which makes us forget that the average score of this exam is
540. I am sure I might score higher as on my 2nd attempt I actually had a V44 (
Debrief) which could have brought me a 760 this time. Additionally, my last GMATPrep CAT without repetitions was a 770 (Q51, V44), but who cares. GMAT is just one part of the puzzle.
In order to cut the chase I will try to enlist the few important things I have learned while studying for the exam. Though from my own experience, I know that reading about what others have experienced doesn't help you until you feel it yourself, I hope that this experience might still be valuable. So...
1. Do NOT waste your time by reading too many success reviews, strategy threads, etc.This might sound counterintuitive, but you HAVE to understand that the GMAT is about SOLVING PROBLEMS. So your time is best invested in solving GMAT problems - the more, the better!
2. Target your weaknessesNext, UNDERSTAND that after your initial preparation phase, in which you revise and strengthen the basics (yes, this one takes weeks or months and includes learning the entire
MGMAT series or as in my case, luckily, watching all the interesting and entertaining
GMATPill videos of Zeke Lee), THEN you have to target just your weaknesses. I knew I had to focus on overlapping sets/venn diagrams, coordinate geometry, etc. and just used the search function of the gmatclub. I would recommend you do the same ->
SEARCH -> Mark "700-Difficulty" and your weakness and
GO! There can be no excuses!3. SCORE correlates with EFFORTSI still think that all those success stories, in which someone studies for 2 weeks and gets a 780 are BULLSHIT. If this would be a CR argument, in order to assess its validity it would be most interesting to find out... answer
(A) Whether there has been any preselection of the candidates who got a 780 within 2 weeks. Because I can assure you, they have put the exact same efforts and number of hours, just somewhere in the past. This doesn't make you more stupid, you just have to GO THE EXTRA MILE!
4. REMEMBER EFFORTS ALWAYS PAY BACKSo just do your part of the deal...
5. Analyze and deal with psychologyThe last day before my exam (good moment, I know) I thought a bit about what watered my attempts and it was 2 things:
- Quite often (especially on Quant) I got a bit tired, but almost always around questions 12-14 and then 26-28. I don't know why, but it was almost always at \(\frac{1}{3}\) and \(\frac{2}{3}\) of the exam that I lacked focus. This analysis allowed me to focus even more on those questions. I believe it helped.
- The GMAT is looking for weaknesses - weaknesses in terms of theory and weaknesses in terms of your psychology. You desperately need to be confident in all sections in order to not let it beat you. That's why I paid attention to AWA and IR, because bad performance in AWA or IR almost always resulted in worse Q and V scores.
6. Learn to LET GO... questionsRelated to the above points, you have to promise to learn to LET GO on the questions that target your weaknesses or are just absurdly awkward. I had such a DS question about the volume of a bottle as Q #35 on the exam. Thought about it 30-45 secs, hit (E), and moved on. Don't overthink, but master the exam! Don't allow it to master you!
7. QUESTION all those suggestions (very frequent here) to go to the toilet, have a splash of water, eat, etc.Lastly, please, question everything that you read. Of course, all those suggestions might help, but they constitute a probability of <1%. Let's be realistic, those things are clearly overestimated. It's not that they don't work, it's that YOU HAVE TO PUT IN THE EFFORT, GET BETTER, AND THEN THINK ABOUT THEM! There are no shortcuts, right?
That's all from me! I hope I didn't rob you of too much of your valuable time! Enjoy life, solve problems and you'll get the score! It's all going to be OK! By the way, I am a firm believer that GMAT online courses are far superior to all available books on the topic, so that's what I would do if I had to start over.
Feel free to comment, ask or drop me a PM! I value this community so much, everyone will get an as detailed as possible answer!
Maan, I still can't believe I just wrote this success story! I MADE IT! AND SO WILL YOU!
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Updated on: 10 Sep 2015, 21:48
