Hello to everyone!
I have passed GMAT this Saturday and got
710. I am still so excited about the result and the whole experience that I decided to share my story. I will provide some things I found quite useful, so I hope this report will help some of you to do best on the exam.
My quite long journey to the GMAT started this January. I spent a few days studying the format, the sections and their lengh. Then I bought Barrons book. Why Barrons? Well, at that time I haven't visited any forums, I didn't even know about the existence of
OG and Kaplan (yes, yes
). So I went to a local bookshop and bought a book they had for the GMAT. As simple as it is. I began reading the book, falling asleep at times
the theory was especially boring... It took me a week or so to understand that i want to attend some GMAT courses. Just to make sure I have made the most I could to have strong results. I choose verbal courses only, cause I have strong technical background (my major is information security
). The courses lasted for 2 weeks, and i can say they were very useful. Maybe because English is not my native. So during these 2 weeks I got used to question types (what does inference, assumption, conclusion, etc. mean) and felt more confident about my verbal. Actually when I started practicing Math, I found out that my verbal was better than math.
After the course I was feeling a bit relaxed. In addition I started having problems at work (crisis, shhhhh
). And my preparation then became spontaneous. I practiced, then I didn't open a book for a week, then practiced again.... This was until the moment when I realised that I need a solid strategy if I want to pass. I made a plan. With days, weeks, and all that stuff. I ordered books:
OG 12, Kaplan Premiere, Kaplan 800, Princeton Cracking the GMAT. Here is my advice: do not buy too many books. I had 5 and I think this was too much. Actually I haven't even finished some of them. Although the tasks and the difificulty really varies form book to book, they are quite big and to go through all of them thoroughly you will need lots of time. Really lots of.
Back to my story..... with the plan it was much better. You get a feeling that everyday you make little moves to your goal and your confidence goes up. I found this very important too. I never used
GMAT timer by the way, although everyone here seems to find it helpful. Some day I found this forum.... and then I started spending hours here. In the Math section. Though I am quite good at math, some tasks just took me to much time. So I practiced, practiced, forgot the methods, then practiced again... Beautiful time.
Working in the day, then searching forum in the evening. However I did not sleep less then 7 hours. I think it's better to sleep and do as much as you can the next morning with you brain fresh. There are many stories here about people who practice all night long and sleep for 2 hours.... Don't know how they manage this, maybe I am not that kind of person.
So on the July, 1st I registered for the exam. In the last month I did full-length tests and reviewed concepts. That is what all the books suggest. However, I did some tests without AWA section just to get sense of what score I might get. I understand now that doing ALL the test (including AWA) is necessary. Because if you lose a lot of energy on the essays you will have less of it for math and moreover your brain will not be as fresh as before the AWA. My view is that you should treat AWA like a good starter but don't be too concerned about it. If you get tired after the 1st hour, you will do worse in Math. And math is much more important.
On the day of the exam I was a bit nervous, but the beginning was good. The topics were rather easy, so I just used my template and inserted a couple of ideas. I aw still waiting for the results. The math was quite difficult. Definitely more difficult than in
OG. And... several times I read that GMAT doesn't test the formulas of sphere's volume and surface area. Don't trust it. I got the task which tested it
And i had only one probability problem, which was rather easy. Verbal was quite challenging too. SC was my strongest area, but on the real exam this part was more difficult than I had expected. RC, on the other hand, was easier. By the end of exam, I got very tired and felt exhausted. When I saw the result, my hands started shaking, I took my printed unofficial score and left the classrom
Here is my story. In the end, I'd like to say that GMAT was the most difficult exam I ever had in my life. However, the whole preparation process and the exam itself is definitely an unforgettable experience. I learned a lot from it and my is working much faster now
Good luck to all of you!!!