Six months and three official GMAT tests later, I'm relieved to say I'm finally done.
April 2015: 730 (Q48 V41)
May 2015: 740 (Q47 V45)
July 2015: 760 (Q49 V44)
I'm writing this post for those of you who are relying on effort (not just brains) because I truly believe anyone is capable of their dream score with an unlimited amount of inner resources. I've decided not to approach this debrief as a step-by-step because there are already great posts out there , so instead, I'll share three overarching principles that I believe contributed to more than 90% of my success.
Principle #1: AN ORGANIZED APPROACHSteady, Continuous PracticeYou'll spend the first few weeks feeling out your schedule. How many hours can you put in? How can you spread those hours throughout the week? What time of day is most optimal for brain usage? For me, that came down to 10-15 hours a week spread out over Saturday and Sunday.
This is where I made my first mistake. I can't stress how important it is to
spread out your study sessions throughout the week. I found that my best practice test results came after 6 consecutive days of 1 hour of practice - and the worst test results came after 1 day of 6 hours of practice.
Don't make the same mistake I did and spend four hours one Sunday afternoon on difficult probability problems. I forgot nearly everything the next week and had to relearn it all the following Saturday. The real learning (as in: went into my brain, then stayed there) happened when I spent 1 hour doing 10 quant problems that covered 10 different concepts on Monday, then 1 hour on Tuesday covering 10 more concepts - and as it so happens, some of those concepts overlapped, so I got the practice I needed. "It's a marathon, not a sprint." (
https://www.gmathacks.com/goals/its-a-ma ... print.html)
Learn ContentDon’t be dismayed (or get too cocky) by any practice questions you complete in this phase. This is all pre-work - something to get out of the way before the real test-taking begins. Take organized notes in one central notebook. Below are the best and worst resources I found for learning content:
THE BEST1)
Manhattan GMAT Word Problems - $25
2)
Manhattan GMAT Number Properties - $25
3)
Manhattan GMAT Geometry - $25
4)
PowerScore CR Bible - $25
THE best resource to get inside the minds of those who write GMAT's CR questions. I was already scoring in the 95th percentile in Verbal before I began studying, but to achieve the 99th percentile that pushed my overall score over the edge, I used this book to approach the CR section "strategically" rather than simply following my instinct.
THE WORST1)
Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant - $25
The problems in here are so difficult that it's not a good ROI for the learning stage.
2)
Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction - $25
I'm a native speaker, but I found the Idiom List in this book to be the only somewhat useful chapter. A lot of things that sound correct simply aren't according to GMAT standards, so you're not learning idioms; you're learning GMAT idioms. However, this took an extraordinary amount of effort with limited returns.
3)
Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning - $25
A waste of time. Use PowerScore.
How To PracticeThis is where the real magic happens: practice questions and practice CATs.
I can't stress this more: It is incredibly important that you invest time and money in finding and obtaining the highest quality practice questions possible.
Note: This is not the same as "doing as many practice questions as possible.” High quality questions can be either
real GMAT problems written by GMAC AND/OR non-GMAC practice problems with excellent explanations.THE BEST1)
Official Guide 13 - $30
Indispensable. Official GMAT questions that skew on the side of sub-700 level, but are still extremely valuable for discovering "patterns" that you won't be able to find in non-official questions.
2)
GMATPrep Tests - Free w/ test registration
Indispensable. These most accurately predict your official GMAT score.
3)
GMATPrep Exam Pack 1 - $75
Two additional CATs - very highly recommended.
3)
GMATPrep Question Pack 1 - $50
Includes a higher proportion of 700-level questions that
the Official Guide doesn't have. The only downside: low-quality explanations.
4)
Jeff Sackmann Extreme Challenge Set - $25
Breaks Quant questions down to their basics and provides excellent explanations.
5)
GMATClub CAT - $75 for 6 months
Great if you are aiming for Q48+ as they also provide excellent explanations and analytics.
THE WORST1)
Manhattan GMAT CATs - Free w/ purchase of any $25 Strategy Guide
Too far from official GMAT.
2)
Any free resources that don't have adequate explanations - Free
It’s a waste of time to practice on questions that have no explanations. I've found that the highest-quality explanations came from paid resources.
I aimed to eliminate as many surprises and wasted seconds as possible on actual test day. I highly suggest you read this article: "How to Do Practice Problems" (
https://www.gmathacks.com/study-tips/how ... blems.html) TLDR: Do it once, read the explanation, then
do it again. The key is doing it again; otherwise, you'll get it wrong on the real test. Trust me. Second, begin practicing in the exact same way you'll complete the test on the first day you begin studying. Read Stacey Koprince's article on how to set up your GMAT scratch paper and do this every time you practice. I also had a system for Data Sufficiency (thanks to
Manhattan GMAT) - "AD" vs. "BCE." My
error log showed that I frequently ignored given information (e.g. x and y are consecutive odd integers) so I began circling "givens” and boxing "final questions” for every practice problem. Within a month, you should have a practice system in place so that you can do it all in your sleep.
Principle #2: PERSEVERANCEAdjust Your MindsetAs a “poet" with a humanities background, I knew I needed a high quant score to be competitive. So, I aimed for Overall 760 (99th percentile) + Q50 (at least 80th percentile - although my actual score ended up being 78th percentile).
I was willing to do whatever it took to get my goal score, so I adjusted my outlook for six months. Scanning GMATClub forums for a few minutes a day helped kick my mind into GMAT mode. In the last two weeks before test day, I cut out alcohol and nights out so my mind would always be ready to practice. This might sound like overkill, but this HBR article (
https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life) says it best: "it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time." Just as exercising is as much about mental strength as it is about physical strength, GMAT is as much about your attitude as it is about the material you learn.
I also set up my Evernote so that every time I opened up my notebook, I saw my goal score – 760 – in HUGE block font. I visualized walking out of the test center with my 760 nearly every day for 3 months. So many people told me I was crazy to retake a 730 and 740 – but because I visualized, I knew I wasn’t.
Should You Retake?I was crushed the first two times I took the test not by my actual scores, but by the fact that I knew my dream score was just within reach by 30 points. The overwhelming opinion on the internet is if you have a 700+, you're foolish to retake. However, if you're in the same boat as I was, I completely support your persistence and encourage you to go for it. Every bit helps if your GPA is less-than-optimal or you're from an overrepresented minority. (I can't speak for the testers who bombed and perhaps didn't have a solid grasp on the material.)
- AnalyzeImmediately after the test, write down what went well and what didn't. For example, some of my notes say: "Good food options for energy - Gatorade, water, banana; pack same next time. Panicked during quant because I kept looking at the clock; practice only looking at the clock every 4 questions." These will come in handy when you devise your second (or third) plan of attack.
- Reschedule a test date 4-5 weeks outI waited the minimum amount of time (31 days) to retake since I was confident enough about the material. Any longer than 6 weeks and you could seriously burn out.
- Take a breakI took about a week and a half off after my first two tests. This was a recharge period - I completely disconnected my mind so that I could get back in the game, full force. Don't worry about forgetting anything; it'll come back.
- DON'T relearn the materialMy biggest retake error came between Tests 1 and 2, when I attempted to re-learn a new way to do every quant question. I also stopped analyzing errors and only focused on doing as many new problems as possible. My brain pretty much melted. After only scoring Q48-50 on every practice test for months, I sunk to Q44, even Q41 just a week before Test 2 – and I was so oblivious, I blamed it on being tired! My official score decreased from Q48 to Q47.
- DO analyze your errorsSuccess came between Tests 2 and 3, when I decided to focus solely on test-taking strategy and solidifying concepts I already knew. I didn't do crazy difficult combinatorics problems like last time; instead, I did a few high-quality practice questions a day, and spent more time dissecting the answer than solving it. I also kept a detailed
error log to determine what one principle to remember during my actual test. Instead of trying to improve in several topics, I focused only on reducing my careless mistakes. It worked - my official score went from Q47 to Q49.
Principle #3: TESTING STRATEGYIf you’re trying to squeeze your way from a 730 to a 760, it might come down to something unexpected. What surprised me about the GMAT is that it's not a test of knowledge; in my experience, it's about 40% content, 60% strategy.
I think a big part of what bumped me up to the 99th percentile was knowing how to guess. (
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-prep-sof ... 46146.html) My best scores resulted when I invested in the first 30-34 questions (completely guessing on 1-2 if I needed to catch up with the clock), then left 3 minutes for the last 3 questions in each section.
Confession: I selected “C” and moved on for the last 3 questions in Quant and the last 2 questions in Verbal, and I still got a 760. On the other hand, I did my worst when I was too afraid to leave any question up to chance - this was partly my ego coming into play ("why can't I crack this?"). It took me six months to learn that guessing would maximize my score.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Steady, continuous practice
+ high-quality questions
+ mindset
= GMAT success.
A FINAL NOTE
The GMAT is an incredibly personal experience. Your nightmare score might be another tester's dream score, and vice versa. Go with your gut, even when people say things like "why are you retaking?" or "you're studying the wrong way." You should even take what I've said here with a grain of salt! Find what works for YOU.
Let me repeat what I said earlier: I truly believe anyone is capable of their dream score with an unlimited amount of inner resources. Best of luck to everyone.
Please feel free to ask me about specific types of questions and I’ll do my best to share how I tackled them.
***
Practice test results
Economist GMAT 640
GMATPrep CAT 1 730 (Q48 V42)
Manhattan GMAT 640
GMATPrep CAT 2 730 (Q48 V42)
GMATPrep CAT 1 (retake) 770 (Q49 V47)
GMATPrep CAT 2 (retake) 750 (Q48 V42)
GMATPrep CAT 3 760 (Q49 V44)
GMATPrep CAT 4 770 (Q50 V45)
Official April 2015: 730 (Q48 V41)GMATClub CAT Q49
GMATPrep CAT 3 (retake) 780 (Q50 V47)
GMATClub CAT Q44
GMATClub CAT Q41
Official May 2015: 740 (Q47 V45)GMATClub CAT Q44
GMATClub CAT Q51 (after 2-week break)
GMATClub CAT Q50
GMATClub CAT Q50
Official July 2015: 760 (Q49 V44) 
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Updated on: 01 Oct 2018, 17:38
