Hi all,
I got a 760 on my GMAT! Q49 V44
Heres my studying history:
1 month before - took the GMAT prep test #1 with no prep and got a 720 (Q48 V41), didn't finish the last question in quant, and noticed that 11 out of the 12 verbal questions I missed were SC.
the following 3 weeks - bought
OG 11 (should have also bought
MGMAT SC... didn't read this and other forums enough back then)
Did not study much (but should have), went through about 50 SC questions from the
OG and some of the online notes from various sources.
1 week before the exam - took GMATprep 1 again and got a 750 (Q50 V42). Again, 10 out of 11 misses in verbal were from SC.
following 3 days - went through all the SCs in the
OG, using ursla's grid to help identify issues.
3 days before - went through 4 practice essays (2 of each type) and read the essay section of the
OG - I recommend getting another source and read some quality essays, the
OG only provides 1 example of a 6 for each essay type.
2 days before - went through the last 50 PS questions in blocks of 10 with a 20 min limit - DO NOT DO THIS, instead, do each question with a 2 minute limit. I got 49 out of the 50 questions right, within the time limits for every 10 questions, but ALWAYS struggled for time on the GMATprep practice tests.
Took the second GMAT prep test and got a 750 (Q48 V44) finished the verbal section with 3 minutes to spare, only missed 5 questions in the verbal section this time, though 4 were SC.
Did the last 20 DS problems (didn't have time to do more) and missed 3, again using the 20 min for 10 questions method. (VERY BAD - again, DO NOT DO THIS, instead do 2 min for EACH question)
1 day before - relaxed, watched a movie, went to bed at 11 (a full 13 hours before my exam time). BUT DID NOT FALL ASLEEP TIL 4:30 AM! I tried every the trick in the book - showering, lower room temperature, counting sheep, deep breathing, concentrate on relaxing every muscle in my body, etc...
I HIGHLY recommend having some alternative guaranteed way of making sure you get enough sleep (non-prescription drugs perhaps?), so you don't end up taking the test while running on 6 hours of sleep.
test day - woke up, prepped my stuff (snacks/breakfast/water/id)
Took the test, had to rush through a few questions in the quant section. Did not feel too good about the quant section. However, in the verbal section, I finished with TEN MINUTES TO SPARE. I was stunned... I mean I usually zip right through CR & RC, but this was pretty crazy... especially since I spent an average of 2-3 minutes per SC question.
Final score: 760 (Q49 V44) AWA- 5.5
Takeaways:
1. Make sure that when you practice, time yourself on a per question basis.
2. No matter how comfortable you are with quant, spend time studying Quant, at least go through all the questions in the
OG once (you'll be familiar with most question types then, and will be able to solve them faster). I didn't, and I kinda regret it.
3. When taking practice tests, figure out what you need work on, and focus on that. I'm really proud of myself for reducing my SC miss rate from ~66% to ~33% (10 questions to 5 questions).
4. Get the
MGMAT SC book. I didn't, and I regret it, would made my SC studying much smoother I bet... and perhaps with better results
Again, my one regret is not spending enough time studying for the Quant, I really should have at least gone through the latter half of the questions from the
OG or some other prep resource, and practiced time management. I strongly believe that anyone who can get a 48 in Q can also pretty easily get a 50-51 with some quant refreshers and timing practices.
Although I didn't improve my overall score much because of lack of Quant studying, I'm really proud of my improvements in verbal, going from a 41 to a 44, pretty much exclusively from SC.
Well that wraps it up
close
19 Jun 2008, 21:51
