Intro: I just finished taking my first attempt a couple of days ago. I haven't posted on this forum, but I used it extensively in my prep, and I wanted to write this as sort of a thank you to all the extremely brilliant members that helped me study!
Profile: Asian American 25/M. Currently working in Big Pharma and looking to transition to impact consulting, particularly pertaining to sustainability. I had only decided on going for an MBA right before I started studying for a GMAT, since I was struggling to get over the fact that my GPA from college was pretty sub-par. With a 3.1 in Chemical Engineering, (albeit from a top 20 university with a track record of grade deflation) I thought I would have been precluded from getting into a top program. With a lot of support from friends and family I decided to go for it and see if I could make up for my GPA with a great GMAT score!
Debrief:To summarize info first:
Books Used:
Kaplan GMAT
Manhattan Prep Sentence Correction
Manhattan Prep Number Properties
PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible
OG/
OG VR/
OG QR 2019
Internet Resources Used:Veritas Prep Exams 1-7
GMAT Prep Exams 1-6
GMATClub
Studied 4 hours per day on weekdays, and about 8 hours on weekends. Only really took 3 days off of studying for a friends wedding. My work life balance was pretty great, strictly working 40 hours/week.
Week One: I started the process with a diagnostic test from
Kaplan, going in completely dry. I think I received something around a 610, and I didn't really know what to make of it. I bought the Kaplan GMAT guide as I saw it in a book store that I happened across. I worked through it in about a week, and felt as if I learned a good amount. By that point I felt like I had a good grasp of Problem Solving, Critical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension. I felt weak in Data Sufficiency, and absolutely terrible at Sentence Correction. In hindsight, I don't believe any information I got from Kaplan was more beneficial than what I got from my other study resources, but by no means is it a bad resource. After that week, I called up one of my friends that is matriculating to an M7 school this fall. I asked him about resources he recommended, and he pointed me toward several, one of which was this forum!
Week Two-Week Three: By that point I bought the
OG and started to make my way through it. I had a 10 day vacation planned with my GF, but I still somehow managed to study for around 4 hours a day. (I tend to sleep only 6 hours, while the GF sleeps around 10
) I managed to complete almost all the sections aside from Sentence Correction in these weeks. After reflecting, I definitely regret exhausting so many
OG questions. By that point in my process, I hadn't looked through GMATClub to find that common knowledge was to save
OG questions for later in the process. I believe this 100% holds true for Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning: Once you finish one of these problems, you've probably went through 90% of the value of the problem. For me, I felt like I still got value from repeating questions from the other sections. After I came back from my vacation, I began to look at GMATClub more often and found the trio of
PowerScore CR Bible, Manhattan Prep SC, and Manhattan Prep Number Properties. I can't recommend those books enough. They definitely helped me establish strong fundamentals for each of the relevant sections.
Week Three-Week Five: I continued to work on the above mentioned books, spending about three days to complete each book. At this point I took the free Veritas Prep Practice test and got a 660 (Q45/V36). I skipped the IR section since I was getting fatigued by the end. My problem areas were still SC and DS. I then began to work through the
OG VR and
OG QR questions. I spent about a 2:1 time split on Verbal vs Quant. These weeks went by very quickly, as I was just plugging away at solving as many problems as possible. I wasn't maintaining a robust
error log at this point, just making note of the problems I was getting wrong, and eyeballing my accuracy.
Week Six-Week Eight: I was chugging along, completing a Veritas Exam every 3-4 days. In order I scored 660-690-740-730-710-730-790. Before I started a new test I reviewed and reattempted each of the problems I had missed. Looking back, the quality of the quant sections was very close to GMATprep questions as well as the real test. As I got further along, though, I noticed that the Verbal questions weren't quite up to par. In particular, I found a few CR and RC questions to be somewhat debatable. Overall, it was a great resource. During this time range I also took my first GMATPrep test. I scored a 760 (Q50/V46). I was pretty ecstatic, and set a target score of 770! While ambitious, I knew I needed every point I could get to offset my undergrad GPA.
Week Nine-Week Ten: At this point, I was taking a GMATPrep test every 4-5 days. In order, I scored 770-770-780-760-490-780 (I had stepped out after my first section and didn't realize the timer was running during the fifth test
) I signed up for the test about a month out. Confident that my fundamentals were solid, I began using GMATClub's filter for
OG questions. I only selected 700 level questions, and just went down in order, starting with questions with the highest number of kudos. I began using GMATClub's
error log by repeating missed questions every weekend, taking detailed notes if I had missed a question multiple times. During this time, i decided I wouldn't spend any more time studying RC, and I finished studying for CR by doing some of the harder LSAT CR questions. I still felt that sentence correction was causing me some issues, and I wasn't super confident that I could consistently score a Q51. By completing all the 700-level
OG questions, and really making an attempt at learning the theory and shortcuts that users like GMATNinja and Bunuel (among several others!), I felt like I was making really good progress.
Week Eleven-Week Twelve: At this point I was starting to feel a bit of burnout. It seemed like I was experiencing diminishing returns. Every problem I missed made me more frustrated then it would've prior to this point. Also, I started to feel a bit of anxiety as the test date was coming up. My GF kept reassuring me that I was scoring really well on the GMATPrep tests, but I kept convincing myself that those questions are so much easier than the 700-level questions that I was studying with. I was under the impression that if I wanted my target score, I would have to go through a gauntlet of hard questions. It turns out, though, that the GMATprep questions were extremely representative of the real test, in my opinion. I never even came across a problem on the real test that was comparable in difficulty to the harder questions I regularly saw. I was scoring either Q50/Q51 on all my practice tests, so I shifted my time to a 4:1 split between SC and Quant.
Week Thirteen (Test Week): I was a mess at this point! I really had to tell myself that it would be ok if I didn't score well, that I had time to retake the test if I don't get what I'm targeting. In my head 750 was the score that I would be super conflicted as to whether I would accept or cancel. I feel as though I shifted from a positive level of anxiety to a negative level (and back and forth) after every few hours. I hadn't really studied IR still at this point, hoping that my time studying the other sections would translate over. About three days before my test I read up on Chineseburned AWA guide. I wrote a few essays using the format, getting positive feedback from my GF. The night before the test I studied very lightly, pretty much only writing a couple of AWA essays. The day of I told myself I wouldn't study at all (my test was at 330 PM), but I made the mistake of reviewing some problems that I had gotten wrong. I panicked when I couldn't immediately solve the problem and anxiety came over me. So yea, definitely don't recommend doing that! There is no way you're going to learn and remember something new that soon before the test!
Test Time!: I got to the test center about 45 minutes before my exam, and they got me into the testing room within five minutes. Prior to the test, I ate a breakfast burrito and some sushi. I definitely went the comfort food route rather than some of the super healthy choices that some other users chose to do. I downed a medium caffeinated yerba mate tea, and brought a gatorade, two red bulls, and two bananas with me to the test. I chose to do Verbal-Quant-IR-AWA. For the first five questions my mind was getting a bit foggy. I was afraid that I wasn't super confident in the first few questions I answered (Still waiting on my ESR to confirm!) and I came to peace with taking the test again, lol. After that I go to a RC passage that helped me get into a groove. After that I wasn't too sure how I was doing overall. I had plenty of extra time, but I typically completed my practice tests at the same rate. Eventually in the 19-28 section of the test, I saw three Method of Reasoning/Parallel Reasoning CR questions. I knew that those questions were typically more rare and would come up if you were doing well on the test. That was a HUGE relief to me, and from there on I felt pretty confident. I finished verbal section with about 10 minutes to spare. During the break I pounded a red bull and ate a banana. My body and brain were feeling good. Quant went by exactly like I was taking a GMATprep test. I felt very confident I scored a Q51, so I was a little bit surprised when I didn't, but I'm not complaining! Pounded another red bull. IR and AWA were pretty uneventful. I managed to remember and loosely follow the AWA template, and I think I wrote something like 650 words, so here's hoping for a 6!
After my essay, I was super surprised when the score showed up with one click. I saw the 760 and I put my hands on my forehead in disbelief! I felt a huge relief that I knew I wouldn't have to take the test again. I was escorted out, and I realized I don't even remember my splits between Q/V. I told the Pearson representative and she laughed and gave me a printout of my results. I called my GF and my mom and thanked them for being so supportive, and I couldn't stop raving to my GF how helpful this forum was. At this point I'm super happy with my score, and will go into applications with a confidence level that I haven't felt before. There is 10% of me considering retaking the exam, knowing that I have scored Q51/V46 multiple times, and that my anxiety level would probably be way less on a future attempt, but I feel like I want to focus everything into applications at this point.
Words of Advice: -Save
OG CR/RC questions for when you feel like you have a strong fundamental base. You will waste these questions once you answer them!
-Explore Shortcuts for Quant problems. While you may be able to complete a tough algebra problem in three minutes, I guarantee you a faster way exists. Every post for a 700-level question has multiple solutions for you to explore and see what you are comfortable with!
-Be proactive as you're reading SC problems. Try to identify issues with the given sentence as you're reading it. After I completed my first reading, I almost always was able to eliminate three answer choices due to glaring grammatical issues. From there, it was very often the case the the remaining two questions had a difference in the meaning of the sentence. Focus on what the sentence is trying to convey, and it should give you a clue to the correct answer out of the remaining two.
-I don't believe I had a single question that came down to choosing between the correct idiom and the incorrect one. There were always other errors that came up.
-Be vary wary of completely non-
OG verbal questions. I definitely encountered some that just weren't great quality. Make sure you're completing questions from a reputable source.
-Don't stress about IR. If you truly understand the fundamentals for Quant and Verbal, those skills will translate over to IR. Familiarize yourself with the types of questions so you aren't daunted on test day, but don't focus too much of you valuable time completing every IR question out there.
-Again, the GMATprep software is super representative of the type of questions I saw going into the test. So long as you keep a good mindset, your true score will be very close to what you were scoring on those exams.
-I didn't buy the GMATClub CATs, but I did try 3 Quant tests during the Holiday promotion. The quality of the tests were great. Basically just beefed up versions of the GMATprep questions that will test the same fundamentals that you need on the actual test.
Chineseburned AWA guide. That is all.Thank you all for helping on the way! I would love to help out any members that have any questions, I'm definitely not an expert but I feel as though I learned a ton about how to study thanks to this forum. I would love to help out others that are going through the same process!
close
Updated on: 17 Jun 2019, 10:48
