First I need to say that one of the motivating factors, for studying for this test, has been reading these de-breifs. Thanks to everyone who wrote one before me! I am done now and happy to share my experience. If you are interested in my "HACKS" just scroll to the bottom of this post. For everyone else I am happy to share my study experience. I want to remind everyone, that hard work will take you where you want to go!
About me:A bit of background, I am America, a native english speaker and 26 years old. I have a undergrad engineering degree. Study time for GMAT - 4.5 months. I have never put much work into studying for standardized exams - I have always just done well enough to go where I want to go. For business school however, my sights are set at the top.
Material Used: Veritas prep in person class (Completed ALL books as homework)
Gmat Official guide GMAT official supplemental material verbal only
Tests taken:Kaplan 2012-02-12 0 0 650 Delete (first gmat i had ever seen - given @ the kaplan test center)
GMAT Simulator Set 1 2012-02-19 40 41 640 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 1 2012-02-20 40 39 630 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 1 2012-02-25 35 38 600 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 1 2012-02-26 38 34 590 Delete
GMAT Prep 2012-03-18 44 38 680 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 1 2012-04-01 38 37 610 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 2 2012-04-27 44 35 640 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 2 2012-04-28 42 35 630 Delete
GMAT Prep 2012-04-30 44 36 660 Delete
Official GMAT 2012-05-01 47 35 670 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 2 2012-05-18 43 33 650 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 2 2012-05-22 45 26 620 Delete
800 Score 2012-05-23 48 39 710 Delete
800 Score 2012-05-24 49 49 770 Delete
GMAT Simulator Set 2 2012-05-29 42 33 640 Delete
GMAT Prep 2012-05-30 45 34 640 Delete
GMAT Prep 2012-05-31 47 40 710 Delete
OFFICIAL 6/1/12 44 42 700
My story:At the end of December After traveling abroad for 2 weeks I got back to the US, jet lagged and woke up at 6am on a Tuesday. Having nothing better to do at that ungodly hour I decided to do a little research about business school. It was my luck that veritas prep was starting their spring gmat class that evening. I saw this as a "sign" and signed up. At 6pm that evening I was thrown into the world of gmat for the first time.
I can not say that I recommend taking a gmat class. My verbal score tanked while taking this class (40s to 30s). Also I consider myself average in general (I am a hard worker though!), I was not impressed with the quality of the students in the class. People left early, others didnt do the homework etc. This sounds terribly arrogant, but any class that anyone can pay to get into is not going to be very selective. Perhaps if they group students by existing ability, otherwise sitting around in class while others ask simple questions could be a waste of any limited studytime you have,... For some people a class like this makes sense - for me, if I were to do this again, probably not. If you do sign up, save your self a few hundred dollars - I used the coupons on veritasprepcoupon[dot]com and saved like 270 (I actually just got a $100 gift card in the mail yesterday that i thought would never arrive).
After the class ended I finished up all the veretas prep books and took an official gmat. I was horrified when my score came back as a 590. When I had taken a test "cold" without any prep at the beginning of my journey I had scored a 650. I was disgusted that I got such a low score, and stopped studying for a few weeks to take a break. In all honesty my timing was horrible and i blame that. Speed was not an emphasis of the course i took and i wound up guessing on the last 5 or so questions in verbal and math which knocked my score down heavily.
When i got back into the swing of things i was studying 3 hours a night 4 nights a week, right after work. I completed the whole
official guide, and reviewed any answer i had gotten wrong 2x. I found
the official guide much much better then any non-official material. I also began to use an "egg timer" application on my iphone to help me with the time spent per question. It was very hard for me to learn when to "give up" on certain math questions or SC questions as i always was able to get the right answer after 5 min had passed... I also started using a dry erease board and marker to take my notes (just like the one used int he exam) and I foudn this helped me get comfortable with writing on this strange surface. I also prevented myself from making any physical marks on the study material I was using. (this would emulate official conditions better) When I took the test the official test for the second time, i got a 670 (47 math 35? Verbal). I was supper pissed that i wasnt able to submit my answer for the last math question as the timer just ran out. This was a respectable score, but i still felt i could have done better. my timing on the exam (especially on the verbal) was horrible....
For my last attempt I concentrated on Verbal and timing. I started taking tests, and respecting the time taken as much as I could. As soon as i started doing this, my score really jumped. On the day of the test, i was ready.
Here are my "hacks"Study Hacks: - When dealing with verbal questions I eliminate questions by creating a column of 5 tick marks. I put an "X" for ones I know are wrong and a "~" for ones that could be right. This really helped my quickly keep track of what i eliminated. sounds simple but increased my score significantly in verbal.
- Use a timer application for every question you do. (I use "ihourglass" on my iphone)
- Use one of those dry erase boards & marker while studying. Writing with markers is weird, it is nice to study with them to get used to it.
- 800 score has an great timer application built into their exams. Using their timer i scored a 770 on practice exams. I should have started with these tests, i reccomend you do this.
Test Day Hacks: - To "milk" extra time on the essays, you get 4 min before the test starts when you are supposed to be reading the directions. One could theoretically use this time to mentally plan out their essays on their scrap paper. You then get another 1 min to read directions for each essays - this time too could potentially be used to plan an essay.
- When doing math/verbal move the computer monitor to where it is comfortable for you. also move the keyboard out of the way - gives more room for scrap paper.
- write out what time you should be on which questions - when you get back from your 8min break between sections - if you have a few min left - write out what question you should be @ for what time. I find this very helpful especially for the verbal.
- Make sure you test the markers before you go into the test room - I got a dry one once.
Thats it. Good luck to everyone taking the new exam - hard work will take you where you want to go