In April 2014 I took the GMAT with minimal studying so that I could begin an online MBA from a State School. As a software engineer I was hoping to eventually transition to engineering management. With a decent but unspectacular undergrad, I didnt think I stood a chance of gaining acceptable at a top 10 program. I ended up scoring a 650, a 48Q and 31V. I probably studied about 20-25 hours. I did a few practice tests and practice problems, and reviewed some math topics. It was a mediocre effort.
About a year later (May 2015) I decided that I was selling myself short, I had to at least try to get into one of these excellent MBA programs. It could transform my career and catalyze the change I so desperately wanted. (I don't really like writing code, I really want to work on corporate strategy or business/product plans). I decided I would re-dedicate myself to taking the GMAT and if I got a competitive score I would pursue some of my dream schools. I signed up for a mid august GMAT exam, giving me exactly 3 months to study. I set a goal of 700+ and decided that 120 hours of strategic studying should be enough to get me there.
Study Schedule/Material:For materials I bought the official GMAT Guide, Verbal Guide, Manhattan SC, Reading, Critical Reasoning and
Advanced Quant. I started with
the Official Guide to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I found that my SC was by far the weakest area. And while my math was strong, I had weaknesses in Geometry and Combinatrics/Probability. I was also making a lot of careless errors in math, at least 3 or 4 per practice tests. After about 1 week of diagnostics, I spent the next 3-4 weeks focusing on my weaknesses and establishing fundamental skills. The MGMT Sentence Correction Guide was really helpful for me. For math I simply used google or GMAT club forum explanations to strengthen my weak points, learning math has always come easy to me. I also would do several RC passages per week to try and improve my ability to comprehend such boring passages. After 5 weeks of studying I took my first GMATPrep practice test. I scored 720, I was thrilled. Clearly my fundamentals had improved. Upon close examination I had made many easily correctable mistakes in math. From their on out I focused on Gmatclub practice questions and I did about 1 practice test per week each weekend. I used up all the free one's I could find (Manhattan, Kaplan, Pearson, ect). 3 weeks before the test I took the 2nd GMAT Prep and scored a 760, I felt it was slightly inflated as I recognized several problems from the gmatclub forums. I felt confident though and focused on maintaining my skills and more gmatclub practice problems the last few weeks.
Persistence and Motivation:I studied nearly every day. I started showing up early to work around 6:30 AM and would try and squeeze in 90-120 mins of studying before work began. I would also try and do about 1 hour of studying every evening. I used a stop watch and logged every minute I spent studying. This is important to maintaining a steady study pace. On weekends I would at least have 1 power day where I would do 5-6 hours (4h on a test, 1-2h reviewing). Every day I woke up imagining how I would feel when I got a good score, this really kept me motivated and focussed throughout. In order to study enough on weekends I turned down opportunities to visit NYC, go to the beach, go out drinking, ect. I still had some fun, but I definitely made sacrifices. I also read several success stories on this forum. The key is to have confidence in your study plan and stick to it.
Test DayI had a 1030AM Monday test. I showed up around 9:30 and they let me start early which was fine with me. I slept well the night before and got up relatively early with a big breakfast. I brought a huge coffee thermos for my ride over and drank about half. I sipped on the cold stale coffee during breaks to sharpen my mind. I also brought a banana, and some grapes, and ate one at each break. I got these tips from the forums, I think its important to raise blood sugar with some healthy glucose during breaks. I felt good after AWA and IR, it had gone smoothly but I was still quite anxious. As I started the quant I became a bit worried when at question 11 I was still getting very easy questions. When I got a challenging 12th problem I was relieved. At the midway point I encountered a challenging problem and realized I had spent 2-3 minutes solving it the wrong way, I was 2 minutes behind pace so I took a guess rather than start over. My next 2 questions were extremly easy, so unfortunately I probably guessed wrong. I encountered 1 or 2 problems that I had to semi-guess on but everything went smooth, I finished a few minutes ahead of schedule. I wish I hadn't guessed on that middle problem but overall I felt good about my performance. Next was Verbal, my true challenge. I got myself super amped up in the bathroom, splashing cold water and doing a few jumping jacks. I actually shouted "Lets Crush it", what can I say I'm kind of a tool. My pacing on the verbal was on point throughout, I stayed just ahead of schedule the entire time. I definitely got some SC problems where I wasnt fully confident in my selection, but I felt very good about answers to the CR and Reading. I could tell from the difficulty/content of the questions I was getting that they were relatively advanced. As I finished, I was anxious to see my score so I flew through the questionaire. The score popped up "96% 730, 50Q 39V". I clapped once loudly and pumped my fist. It was over, I had reached my goal.
Takeaways: I think the MGMT books are best for content, and for practice problems the Official GMAT and Gmatclub forums are all you need. I think SC is the easiest verbal category to improve. RC is about learning how to read efficiently and anticipating the questions that are typically asked. For CR its important to be able to recognize the tips/traps but I think this category more has to do with your "innate intelligence" assuming english is your first language.
Focus on success, if you stay persistent and have a sound strategy you can not fail. Gmatclub forum played a huge role in my gmat success. Now its onto the applications!!!