Hi All,
I have hung around these forums and used them for motivation over the last 6 months--Thank you! I would not have made it without you.
Yesterday, I scored a 750 (49Q/42V) after spending the last 6 months preparing for the GMAT. I am a normal white dude with no experience in mathematics other than that required in high school and college (base-level). Prior to preparing for the GMAT, I did not know what a participle was or how or how to use one. By using the right tools and continuously staying on this forum, I was able to conquer the GMAT! Here is how I did it:
Materials:
1. Old set of
Manhattan GMAT Prep Guides (4th edition) + Math/Verbal Foundations: Of the
MGMAT Guides, I used all of the quant guides and the sentence correction guide.
2.
Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible: It is the quickest, easiest way to improve your CR skills.
3.
Magoosh: I cannot stress the value of
Magoosh combined with
MGMAT guides. I felt like if I missed something in one, the other clearly explained what was missed. I listened to
Magoosh videos during my hour long commute and I used their question bank, which is amazing, excessively.
4. GMAT Club Sentence Correction Guide/Quant Guide: The SC guide was super helpful in gaining proficiency and understanding of verbal concepts. The quant guide helped me think through difficult quant concepts--I attribute this to pushing me from a 48-49.
5. GMAT Club - 100 700+ SC Correction Questions: This was the most valuable set of questions for trying to holistically understand SC.
6.
GMAT OG 12,
OG V2,
OG Q2
7. Youtube - OG12 Q explanation videos
Practice Exams:
MGMAT 1, Q only, untimed: 46
Veritas Math, Q only: 50
GMAT 1: 750 (49/44)
MGMAT 2: 740 (46/45)
MGMAT 3: 720 (48/42)
MGMAT 4: 640 (40/37) <--- I should not have taken this when I did
GMAT 2: 760 (49/44)
NOTE:
MGMAT Quant - It would take me about 85-90 minutes to finish each section, but I was able to finish GMAT Prep/Real GMAT w/1-3 minutes to spare.
Keys:
1. Understand the concepts for everything.
2. Once you have the concepts down, apply them to problems.
3. Apply concepts to tougher and tougher problems, while continuously going over the problems you get wrong.
Let me know any questions you have. Happy to answer!