Hello All,
I have been visiting GC forums since February and I think it is a great resource to understand what other students are doing. I took my first GMAT a couple of days ago and I would like to share my experience with you so that you can learn from my mistakes during preparation.
Materials used: Kaplan Premier + 5 online CATS (2012-13 edition)
Manhattan SC + CR ( Ed 4) + 6 online CATS
OG 12
I used older editions where ever I could as I knew that the questions wouldn't have changed much and I got the books for really low amounts from Amazon/ebay. I must have spent less than £25 on books.
Practice TestsMy scores hovered around 680-690 after finishing my Kaplan Premier book. I realized that my % accuracy was lowest for SC and I went through the ManH SC book. It covered all the topics I did and I made sure that I read the solution of all my practise problems from
OG. Although my Quant was around 49s, I wanted to improve and I went through GMAT Club Mathbook. I think this is more than what one needs for GMAT and I used only this book for my Quant needs. Great tips in the book bb/bunel. Thanks.
After finishing my SC course, my scores still hovered around 690. I realized that time management was poor as I would spend too much time to get questions right. I was also using brute force too much without trying to look for patterns. If you are good at Quant, remember that the question will never ask you to solve huge equations, there is a pattern lying in there somewhere. You just have to look for it.
Just before the official test, I took my GMATPreps and I got 750 and I looked at all the questions which were wrong and tried to understand what I missed. Once you have finished your main studying, it is essential that you maintain a book or file with your mistakes. Try to understand what you failed to spot in the problem.
Test DayMy test was in London and the test centre was very good and I had no issues at all. It was warm enough to feel comfortable and the chairs/desks were okay. I took some food for both the break and I was able to eat a bit and relax during the breaks. I think this really helps as it gives you a break to calm down and get ready for the next session.
AWA was a typical topic with multiple flaws and I was able to point out the flaws but I had a mind block while concluding my essay. So it kind of ended abruptly. I am yet to get my AWA score and I am crossing my fingers.
Quant was slightly tougher than GMATPrep but I was able to manage my time well and I had a few minutes to spare in the end.So, I took the last couple of questions slowly. My main take away from the Quant tests I did in Kaplan and
MGMAT was that time management is more important than getting every question right.
Verbal was similar to GMATPrep and I think the questions were much more clear and less ambiguous than some of the questions found in non-official materials. I made sure I didn't spend too much time on confusing questions and I had to take an educated guess once I reached 3 min mark for a question.
ResultI was pleased to see
770 Q50 V44 and IR 8. Lets see what my AWA comes out to.
My main Dos and Dont's for each sectionAWA:
- I made sure that I practised every CAT with AWA. This made sure that I had enough Practise with writing the essays and helped me get more used to writing the essays. This also helps with your test day experience.
- Follow a template and stick to it.
- Read a couple of official answers to AWA to understand what they are looking for.
- Plan for the first 5 minutes before you start writing.
IR:
- Don't forget that there is a calculator!
- The questions look much more complicated than they are. Try to calm down and write down the given conditions if you are struggling to remember everything.
- Practise doing graph questions quickly. They can help you save time for other question types.
Quant: (This totally depends on how comfortable you are with maths. I am assuming you have a decent starting level)
- Use GMATClub Math book and this is all you will ever need.
- Solving long equations is never the answer. GMAT always gives questions that have a pattern behind them. I will probably make a separate post on this topic as this helped me a lot to improve my quant timing.
- DS can be tricky in the later phases of the test. Make sure you have tested both the cases before you select an answer.
- prime factorisation is very important. A lot of questions in Quant is based on this. Make sure you practise converting numbers into prime factors.
Verbal:
- I started with 34 as my verbal score and ended with 44 on my official test. The difference was purely my improvement on SC and to a lesser extent on CR.
- For SC, choose a book/course and follow it. Make sure you only stick to OG or GMAT Prep questions while practising in the beginning. Some of the questions out there are too confusing to attempt in the beginning.
- Once you complete the book and have confidently started to improve your accuracy, You should start practising on spotting patterns that lead you to the answer. Key to this is to practice OG questions again and analyze you you spotted the mistake. If you do this often, you will start improving your timing on SC.
- For CR, never make assumptions from your own side. ONLY use data from the question.
- For RC, if you are from technical background, it might come to you naturally. If not, practice reading some articles which are unfamiliar to you and try to see if you can grasp the main idea.
This is it for now. I will now move on to the more difficult task of writing essays and making applications. Remember that GMAT is just a step and not a goal. If you need any help with GMAT strategy or any other topic, let me know. Thanks for all the information on this forum guys!
-LazyNinja