I have just had my first attempt on GMAT and scored 700 (V35,Q49,IR7,AWA6). So, I want to share my story in case it will help any non-natives English Speakers out there. By the way, sorry for some confusing English here.
Background: Female Asian- 22 years old. Fresh graduate with major in Finance. I studied in Thai during my school time but in English during my university time (4 years). I plan to apply for MBA in the next 2-3 years but don’t want to bother with GMAT when I start working, so I just take it during my break before starting my work soon.
Preparing. Length of Study: 2 months
MaterialsCourse:
Manhattan GMAT Group Course (11 people in class. 5 weeks long with 12 hours/week)
The course provides basic strategy for each sections especially Verbal part, which cover 80% of the course. We use OG13 and Manhatton SC books as main material for the class. We finish about half of the OG13 questions as homework and in-class practices. In my opinion, this is a good basic course for anyone who really have no idea how to start studying for GMAT. I think this course will probably make you score between 500-600 without more practices.
Books + Reviews:OG 13: As everyone says, this is A must-have book! The only books that contains a number of official questions. I finish all the questions here and try to understand the pattern and the concept as mush as possible
Manhatton SCBook: Another popular book. I bought this because my course required me to do so, but I would say it is really a good book. It contains every basic concept that you really need to know to tackle SC. However, learning never stops there. You still need to study more concept from practicing Official questions
Power Score CR: I got a copy from my friend. I read this after I found out my weakness in CR. It contains pretty good resources. Though I studied most of the patterns from Manhatton course, I still find this book useful. I would recommend this book to anyone who struggle with CR especially the one who just start GMAT. You will understand the key question types and most common pattern from this book. One con is that it contains only few questions, but don’t worry. You have the thick
OG book to finish anyway.
Manhatton Foundation of GMAT Math: I also got a copy of this book from my friend. I use this after I got low score in Quant in
MGMAT. I find it pretty too easy for me and should not have spend much time on it. If you are really weak at math, then this book is for you. If you are at the moderate level, I think this is too easy.
GMAT Club Math Book: A good book that contains all concept you need to know for GMAT Quant. I love that it provides example from easy to hard questions for each topics with good explanations. I spend 2 days on this book and find it really helpful. It covers every concept that will help you tackle all Quant problems. Some of them are so advance that I skip, but if you really aim for Q50-51 then those concepts are must! (I got Q49)
OG Verbal Review 2015: Another supplement guide from official GMAT! A must-have book if you have already finished all the questions in the big thick book
OG. I find the SC questions here a bit harder than those in
OG. I finished all the question in this book.
OG Quant Review 2015 Same as verbal but this one is official supplement for Quant. I also finish all the questions here. It is useful if you run out of questions from
OG
Gmat Question Pack: I just bought this during my last week of preparation as I am too lazy to find good question sets after I finish my supplement books. I finish all the SC and CR, but I find the questions here a bit easier than questions in the book. I have not done any questions in RC, PS or DS yet as I want to focus on my weakness (SC+CR). I actually want to work on RC too but I don’t know how to get all the questions from the same passage in sequence. This is probably the only con I find for this questions set. I think it is again a good set of questions to have as it is from the official GMAC, the best pool of questions you can study from Also, practicing in GMAT prep allows you to be familiar with the interface, which is exactly the same on the real test.
Gmat Exam Pack: As I have already finished the free two tests and I want another good indicator of my score, I bought this together with the question pack. I also recommend it for anyone who want the best indicator for your real score.
Other question sets + guide:Carcass SC Question Collections:Carcass CR Question Collections:Like VS As Compilation:tough one, but good to learn.
AWA Template by chineseburned: I got AWA 6 because of this template and I believe a lot of people out there did the same with me
Others:
GMATclub.com: Of course! The great community with nice explanation on each questions. Thanks everyone for the awesome discussions
Cram.com: A great tool to improve my score. Free online FLASHCARD app compatible with phone and computer!
Error Log: Another important tools that really help me correctly focus on my weakness. Thanks for the cool template with Official Answer from GMAT Club.
-
Error log template-
Error log with OG13 OA -
Error log with OG Quant and Verbal OA
Evernote: Great app to jot down any new concept, tips and tricks I don’t know especially on SC.
STUDY PLAN: Answer to NEWBIES Most Frequently Asked Questions (that I can think of)I know many GMAT newbies have many questions in mind when they first started. I used to be once, so I will try to answer all the questions that I can think of.
A. How should I make a study plan for GMAT? Well, I guess this is the most popular question. It actually depends on how much time do you have and what level were you. For me, I was not working and I had around 1.5-2 months to prepare. Now I will explain what I did when I started.
1. Start with diagnosis test to understand where I was. I tried the quant part and found out that I needed to review on core concepts, as I already forgot what I studied during my high school. For verbal part, I only do few questions and gave up. I think I really needed to understand each question types much clearer before tackled those crazy questions. So I looked for options.
2. Options for GMAT study.a. Read on your own i.Before I did the diagnosis test, I planned to read on my own. I changed my mind after that mainly because of my short period of study and my bad habit (I don’t have good discipline). I think I better take some course to start off!
ii.I would still recommend this option for someone who want to save cost, has time and has good discipline. You can make it on your own. A lot of my friends read on their own and get over 700+ score.
b. Take a coursei.Online course :I saw many good reviews for online course and it is much cheaper than F2F course. However, this still require my good discipline to watch the videos. So it does not match me.
ii.Group course: I choose this option as it force me to study. The class , homework and everything just seems to help me motivate myself when I made a decision. Well, it really did
iii.Private course: I don’t think I need a special private tutor for this as I only need the basic concepts to tackle the test. I think private tutor match someone who already took some course and want to improve score or someone who is really weak on GMAT.
3.My study plana.During the course-The course taught me basic strategy to do GMAT mainly cover Verbal part. My classes were on Sat-Sun. That allowed me to do homework and other practices on weekdays. Mostly, I tried to do all the homework and review the concept studied in classes.
-The homework was huge enough to eat up my whole weekdays for the first two weeks.
-I started my first practice test on my third week of class. I was shocked by the score (520/Q31/V31). I thought I was better at Quant, so I started to panic. I found out later that
MGMAT test is much harder in Quant! Later, I felt relieve (but that was 2 weeks after that first test).
-My second test comes along just the week after the first test. I got MGMAT2 (600/Q41/V32) Quant have improved because I can finish it in time and verbal stay the same. Since my target score was at 700 and my real test is coming in a week, I know that I would not be able to make it to 700 within a week for sure. Therefore, I decided to reschedule so that I have more time to prepare.
b. After the course-I planned to do at least 20 questions for each part every day to make it more like a real day that I cannot take a break that much during each part. I did not follow my plan every day as some day I had other things to do as well, but at least each day I will do some questions and review flash card every night.
-I find I have improved my mental in doing test. At first, I felt like I was super tired when doing more than 40 questions, but later I felt ok and improved along the way. I think practicing your strength of doing test is very important as GMAT is not testing you on your ability but also on pacing and strength as well.
-I tried to do practice test at least once a week to see my improvement and I did not forget to do
error log for every question I did and every practice test I have done.
-So I followed my plan like this for a month and its work
B.What should I do in my last week study plan? a. I did 2 practice tests during my last week and spend another 2 days to review it. I also have 1 day to just to the question sets on my weak part. There is a lot of last week study plan that you can follow. Most of the advice is that on the last day before the real test, you should not do the practice test and no studying today. I agree only partially that no practice test, but I suggest you to review the topic that you still miss or weak at to warm up before the real test on the next day.
C. How long should I study per day? a. This really depend on your style. To me, I study from 10 to 8 pm everyday with lunch and dinner break. I would suggest you to study at least 3-4 hours a day for someone who do not work as you will have the feeling of real tired when study for long time just like when you do the real gmat test. For the one who work and do not have time on week day. Please do studying for at least 3-4 hours on weekend to get the feel of GMAT real test.
That all I can think of right now. If you have any questions, I would love to answer
For questions like “what course should I take?” and “Which materials should I buy?”, you can find the answer in the review discussion in GMAT Club. I find it very useful
-
best-gmat-books-77703.html-
best-gmat-courses-169396.htmlMy Tips on each sectionsQuantPS- Be careful on silly mistake such as miscalculation and misread the question and answering the wrong one
DS- You’d better have to understand the thinking process and the answer choice very clearly before proceeding in this section
- Know the pattern: Most GMAT questions coming out in the same pattern. For example, if it used to be no answer because of both (1) and (2) give the same equation. It can happen with that reason again. So, make sure that you are familiar with the pattern in the
OG book.
VerbalAbility to understand English: As a non native, we may find it troublesome sometime that we do not understand clearly about the context. Practice make perfect. Try to list out the vocab and practice reading fast.
CRo Pre-thinking is helpful
o Use Negation technique
article-what-and-how-to-negate-6-exercise-questions-138510.htmlo Try to think one step further
o Jot down helps The long paragraph can easily confuse me, so I love to jot down with my understanding and use arrow to help see the logic behind
RCo Vocab is needed: I always make flash club for vocab that I don’t know and memorize it before reading the new passage.
o Understand the pattern: When you work on many passage, you will start to notice the pattern of how to answer each question. The key is to find the paragraph that the question lie on. Mostly, the before and after the key sentence will show the answer.
o My brain got messy when I saw a passage in front of me. What should I do? I use the paper given in the test to help me cover the rest of the paragraph while I read it line by line to understand the passage.
o With this tips, I end up got 95% in RC in real test from 23% in my first attempt
SCo Jot down new concept
o Review & Redo
o Find good explanation
o Focus on meanings
My practice testI only try practice tests from GMATPREP and
MGMAT, so I can only compare these two tests. Most frequently asked question would be
1. How different MGMAT is from GMATPREP? In my opinion,
MGMAT quant is much much harder than the real GMAT, so I don’t like it as it lower my quant by so much . While some may say that verbal part in
MGMAT is easier, I think only the SC part is easier. It is easier to spot the error in the sentences and see which topics are being tested, so if you are good at concept,
MGMAT SC is pretty easier to tackle than GMAT Prep. (EASIER does not mean EASY) The RC and CR in
MGMAT, for me, I think it is weird. I think the passage is easier to understand, but the questions are much more tough. I think I understand the passage, but I always struggle when answering the questions. That’s sad…
For GMATPREP, Quant part is much easier than
MGMAT and I think that reflect my real ability on GMAT Quant, so I love this. LOL. According the many people I talked to, the verbal part is much tougher. For me, SC part is harder to detect error. While CR and RC is hard to read, but if you can read it and understand it. You will definitely be able to answer the questions. Overall, I got the same level for both test in my verbal score.
2. How those tests different from the real GMAT?
GMAT PREP VS REAL GMATThe interfaces are exactly the same, so being familiar with it is useful. I think the quant part is harder in the real GMAT. There are concepts that I have never faced in the GMAT prep in the real test, around 3-4 questions. However, I still got the same score. For verbal part, SC seems to be harder in real test for me. I use POE and come down to 2 choices, which I think both are correct. So, I have to guess CR seems to be easier than I thought. Good news for me as this section has always been my weakness. I never expected anything for RC as it really depends on luck for me to perform well in this section. Luckily, I feel that I am ok with it. To sum up, I think the real test is harder than the GMATPREP.
MGMAT VS REAL GMATThe quant part from
MGMAT is still harder than the real GMAT. I think the level of difficulty is GMATPREP < REAL GMAT <
MGMAT.
Verbal part has same comparison comment as GMATPREP.
Here are progress in my practice test
MGMAT1 (520/Q31/V31/IR2)
MGMAT2 (600/Q41/V32)
GMATPREP1 (670/Q49/V31/IR7)
MGMAT3 (630/Q42/V34)
GMATPREP2 (660/Q48/V34/IR8)
GMATPREP3 (710/Q49/V37/IR8)
REAL GMAT (700/Q49/V35/IR7)
My test experienceMy test time was scheduled at 1 pm. I woke up at 10 am and did some review on the AWA template. I was at the test center building around 12 pm, then had sandwich as my lunch. I checked in and was escorted in to the test room.
During the tutorial, I wrote down AWA template to make sure I am not too frustrated to forget it during the test time. Then I start my AWA section with normal routine. 5 minutes brainstorm. Another 20 minutes to write up and few minutes to check the whole passage. I felt good about my essay and the next part is IR. The first question was a little bit confusing. I spent about 3 minute on it, but the second question is a problem for me as I really have no clue how to solve it. I end up guessing and skip it. Overall for IR, I think I did not do that well. I guess a lot of questions, but it still gave me 7. So I am happy about this.
During the 8 minutes break, I went to the toilet, drank some water and came back at the seat. I spent a total of around 7 minutes on break. I felt a bit excited before I started the quant part the real thing was coming up! No more warm-up buddy! I told myself to calm down and cheered up myself, then I clicked next to proceed! The first few questions were just in the same style with GMAT Prep, but some questions show up and I was not sure how to solve it. During around 10th questions, my pen ran out of ink, but luckily another one still worked. I was too fast at around the mid-questions, so I spent more time on difficult questions on the concept that I was not good at. Unfortunately, I was left 1 minute for the last question which I had no idea how to solve, so I had to guess it.
Here comes the next break, I went to the toilet again and drank more water to feel fresh. I cheered up myself again and got back to the seat. I started writing out the answer grid to prepare for the verbal section, but seems like I spent too much time on that. When I looked up at the screen, I already took 9 minute break. I was a bit frustrated and quickly press the “next” button. Here come the verbal section
The first few questions was SC, the section that I have most confidence. However, on the real test, I felt like the questions seems very confusing and I have no confidence in answering SC questions at all. I was able to eliminate most questions down to 2 choices, but then the concept and grammar in my head just blended in making me think that those 2 choices are both wrong, so I end up need to guess on most SC questions. I spent quite some time on it trying to realize the grammar rules that helps but it doesn’t work. I started to fell stressful as I used to do the SC questions very fast on the prep test and I had much confidence on them, but this time it was completely different. The CR questions also showed up later. I felt it is actually easier than the prep test. I was confident in most of the questions and I felt surprised as this is my weak part, but that also cheered up me from the tough SC part. When the first passage showed up, I told myself to calm up as RC is my weakest part. I started to read it slowly and tried to understand all the passage thoroughly. It worked well. I felt confident in my answers and I felt good. I spent quite some time on the RC passage, but it is always my usual habit because if I read too fast, I will not have time to consume the content of the passage and I will not be able to understand it. Overall, to me, the SC was super tough, but CR was easier. RC was the same level as in the prep test. During the very end of the test, I started to spent less time on SC questions as I know that even I think further to any grammar rules it did not help at that time, so I eliminate to two choices and if I don’t know the right answer I just use my instinct to guess. The last passage was quite challenging in terms of time management. As the first few SC questions consume my time a lot, I have less time left at the end. I need to focus on the passage and did not look at the time that much as I would start to be frustrated and I would bomb the whole passage. Luckily, I can control myself well enough and did well on the passage. I have 5 minutes left and 7 questions on CR and SC to go. I told myself not to care whether I will get 700 or not, I just do my best is fine. I spent 30 sec on SC questions and did very quickly on the CR. I had to skip 2 CR questions to make sure I get to the last question. I was left 40 sec for this question. I marked the random answer first before thinking through the question in case that the time was ran out and I was not able to get the answer. The computer will remember the random choice I tick and keep it as my answer for the last question. Well, the last question was SC and again, I was not able to find the sole answer. I eliminated choices and left two then guess. Time ups!
By that time, I was super tired. The computer screen show up so many thing that I already forgot what it is about. I just press “next”. My brain just stop working, so I just proceed following the screen and finally the score just show up “700”. I was not expected that “next” to be the score page, but luckily it did not end up too low. That moment when I see the score all the mood that I have recently was gone. I felt fresh and super excited! I smiled and walked out the room. The woman at the check in counter printed the score to me and told me to following the instruction on the paper to get the official score in few weeks.
I go back home and planned to write all this thing to share my experience
Enhanced Score Report I actually bought the score report as I may take the retest GMAT. I was completely shocked when I see my score. In my math seciton, my performance was just the same as the prep test, but in the verbal section, I was shocked with my RC and SC score. I got 95% in RC and 49% in SC. Seems like they switch my score in these two section or some how as SC used to be my strongest par and RC was my weakest part... i would say that this completely show my that my hard work pay off for RC and also for CR (83%). I was able to improve my skills in these two sections, although I dont know what happen with my SC section. LOL I never leave it behind and I still practice SC everyday. I think this is because I read too much and the grammar concept just mix up in my head .. so next time I will need to confirm all the concept will not blend in in the real test. LOL I think this enhanced score report is useful for anyone that would like to see how you have improved in each section to identify the key area to focus on.
**Things I wish I knewIf you don’t want to read the whole topics, I think this part may be most useful for you
1. Error log is a mustBefore I know
error log, I finish almost all question in the think
OG big book. However, I never know which area I should focus on or to improve. My friend introduces me to the
error log which I found very very useful. It allows you to clearly see your weakness and know where to improve from.
2. Vocabulary is important! At least to some extent I have read that gmat is not a test for vocab. Its true, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to know more vocab at all. To me, as a non-native, I find some of the questions I got wrong is because I don’t understand the meaning clearly especially for CR and RC part. What I do is that I always do the flash card for new vocab and memorize all of it every day before I go to sleep. It is very helpful especially for RC which contains some academic vocab. Those vocabs that I have listed out really come up again in another passage with the same topic. So, I recommend you guys to do the same with me if you really feel you have same problem with me.
3. Use flashcardAs I mentioned above, I have do the flashcard for vocab. Also, I did that for math concept and SC concept as well. I will do the flashcard for everything I need to remember and review it every night. I don’t have to spend an hour to memorize it, but reviewing it every single day can really help memorizing.
4. Be motivated, Do not stress out and keep smiling I know when you try to do practice test for second time or third time and the score just does not come out as expected. You will start to feel stress and depressed, but try to think positively. May be you have not tried enough. May be you have missed something. May be you just need more practice. Everything will be better. Have a good attitude and continue your hard work! It will definitely pay off!
5. Find a GMAT buddyI am really lucky to have my friend to study GMAT together. Reading alone is quite lonely and boring. Having GMAT buddy will not only motivate you but both of you can also share tips and tricks that you found during your studies. So, I recommend you to find some. You can find from GMAT class or actually in GMAT club, you can also make friends here.
Hope this help. Feel free to ask any questions and good luck for your gmat.
close
Updated on: 04 Nov 2015, 21:51
