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beefphoforthewin
Joined: 25 Sep 2014
Last visit: 06 Dec 2017
Posts: 53
Given Kudos: 4
Location: United States
Schools: Booth '19 (A) Kellogg '19 (I) Tuck '19 (I)
GMAT 1: 750 Q50 V40
GPA: 3.4
01 Aug 2015, 20:27
Kudos
Bookmarks
This post is by no mean an advertisement to any of the material listed. It's not my attempt to boast about my score (there were 2% of people who scored better than me, sounds small but once you multiply to the test taker population, it's quite a lot.) I just hoped for people to save time navigating through all the GMAT materials available out there. There were simply too MANY!
To give a bit of context, I'm an Asian-nationality applicant. If you are a native, my story might not be of use to you. I studied for a total of 2 months, 1 - 2 hours each day, very consistently (I got the study habit from when I was studying for the CFA I.) To say upfront, I'm very impatient and have very short span of attention, I cannot do 4 - 8 hours study straight as some of the people I knew did. I'm sure there are people who were lazier and didn't study at all while scoring 760+, I'm not one of these geniuses.
Quant:
Quant was a breeze to me (thank to my Asian background). People often mention "Poets and Quant," not sure how strong I am as a quant person but I'm definitely not a poet person. I know how to hold convo with natives but my grammar sucks. You can probably tell by now while reading this piece. I took 1/3 of the time study quant using Kaplan, Manhattan then GMAT Club Hardquant (GMATClub Toolkit) in the exact order. Kaplan was too easy so you guys could probably skip it. Manhattan is very detailed and entails ~99% of what was tested on the GMAT test I took. GMAT Club Hardquant just helped me do quant exercises anywhere. I love taking my dogs to dog park and once in a while, I will do 1 - 5 problems there while the pups go play. I consistently score 50+ for Quant on practice and real exam.
Verbal:
First time I took the test, I only studied verbal from Kaplan. I was always afraid of grammar (Sentence Correction.) I think Sentence Correction is the death of all international applicants so I didn't study all that much, half of the questions I know what was going on, half I just guessed. I always enjoyed Critical Reasoning, there is always something about it, at least it wasn't as dry as SC or RC.
After one month of study, I took the first test and scored 710, wasn't what I expected so I decided to go for round 2. I know I didn't need to study much more Quant so I focused on Verbal this time. Here is the real message I tried to convey to you guys, also the reason why I was able to pick up from 710 - 750.
SC: realize SC is not about Grammar! It was never about the freaking grammar... you need to know some basic but once you've mastered the basic, it requires the same set of skill as CR - logic. Shout out to E-gmat, if you are international applicant and struggle with SC, E-gmat is pretty solid. No, I don't have any association with E-gmat and shout out to them won't get me any referral bonus. I just did cause I thought it was the right thing to do. Although these guys have pretty heavy accent (sorry guys..., it's true), the content is BRILLIANT! E-gmat and OG are all I need to solve 90% of the 500 - 700 questions, I got 60%+ right for 700+ question (which I think was all I need)
CR: Powerscore Bible for CR. I enjoyed doing CR and Powerscore Bible (PB) helps bring me to 70% + on 700+ CR questions. OG should cover the majority of what you need on CR but the PB will help you cover the exotic ones (trust me they do show up on the exam)
RC: read what you hate and pretend to like it. My weakness was History, Humanity & Geography. RC was one of the hardest part of the exam, long and make me sleepy. It can break your focus level in minutes, topic was often dry...
Test day advice:
Pace yourself, the exam is scheduled everyday. I literally booked my exam Sunday on same weekdays (one to two days before). To me momentum is key, only take it if you feel like you are ready and don't wait too late. Right timing can get you just about anything in life.
Test stamina is important. I'm glad I finished both sections fairly early and took very long break in between. Take as long a break as you are allowed to.
Drink water. Go to the bathroom. Take care of all your basic needs. Don't blame on them when you scored below your target.
I didn't bring food so I can't speak to that. I always have weak stomach on any test days and don't want to eat anything.
Sleep well. I probably could score 760+ if I had slept more. Needless to say, I didn't. I have very bad sleeping habit. Sleeping = not working or not playing so I try to minimize it.
Don't bother getting tutors, very expensive, buy a bigger TV instead or do something else. They probably are not that much smarter than you and were using the same material when they took the test. This is an opinion so don't bash me if you loved your tutor...
After a month, I took it again and score 750. So there you have it. Even though I said 2 months, this whole process spreads out from late Dec to early June. There were a lot of intense vacations, concerts, etc. in between. I believe the key is to balance out working toward your goal and leasuring. I'm now going through the application process and will write another one of this if this helps you guys once I got into my target school.
Summary of material for people who are too lazy to read the whole post
OG (most important)
Manhattan Quant, Advanced Quant
GMAT Club Toolkit
E-gmat SC
Powerscore CR Bible
Kaplan (a good book to begin, not so good to stuck to)
To give a bit of context, I'm an Asian-nationality applicant. If you are a native, my story might not be of use to you. I studied for a total of 2 months, 1 - 2 hours each day, very consistently (I got the study habit from when I was studying for the CFA I.) To say upfront, I'm very impatient and have very short span of attention, I cannot do 4 - 8 hours study straight as some of the people I knew did. I'm sure there are people who were lazier and didn't study at all while scoring 760+, I'm not one of these geniuses.
Quant:
Quant was a breeze to me (thank to my Asian background). People often mention "Poets and Quant," not sure how strong I am as a quant person but I'm definitely not a poet person. I know how to hold convo with natives but my grammar sucks. You can probably tell by now while reading this piece. I took 1/3 of the time study quant using Kaplan, Manhattan then GMAT Club Hardquant (GMATClub Toolkit) in the exact order. Kaplan was too easy so you guys could probably skip it. Manhattan is very detailed and entails ~99% of what was tested on the GMAT test I took. GMAT Club Hardquant just helped me do quant exercises anywhere. I love taking my dogs to dog park and once in a while, I will do 1 - 5 problems there while the pups go play. I consistently score 50+ for Quant on practice and real exam.
Verbal:
First time I took the test, I only studied verbal from Kaplan. I was always afraid of grammar (Sentence Correction.) I think Sentence Correction is the death of all international applicants so I didn't study all that much, half of the questions I know what was going on, half I just guessed. I always enjoyed Critical Reasoning, there is always something about it, at least it wasn't as dry as SC or RC.
After one month of study, I took the first test and scored 710, wasn't what I expected so I decided to go for round 2. I know I didn't need to study much more Quant so I focused on Verbal this time. Here is the real message I tried to convey to you guys, also the reason why I was able to pick up from 710 - 750.
SC: realize SC is not about Grammar! It was never about the freaking grammar... you need to know some basic but once you've mastered the basic, it requires the same set of skill as CR - logic. Shout out to E-gmat, if you are international applicant and struggle with SC, E-gmat is pretty solid. No, I don't have any association with E-gmat and shout out to them won't get me any referral bonus. I just did cause I thought it was the right thing to do. Although these guys have pretty heavy accent (sorry guys..., it's true), the content is BRILLIANT! E-gmat and OG are all I need to solve 90% of the 500 - 700 questions, I got 60%+ right for 700+ question (which I think was all I need)
CR: Powerscore Bible for CR. I enjoyed doing CR and Powerscore Bible (PB) helps bring me to 70% + on 700+ CR questions. OG should cover the majority of what you need on CR but the PB will help you cover the exotic ones (trust me they do show up on the exam)
RC: read what you hate and pretend to like it. My weakness was History, Humanity & Geography. RC was one of the hardest part of the exam, long and make me sleepy. It can break your focus level in minutes, topic was often dry...
Test day advice:
Pace yourself, the exam is scheduled everyday. I literally booked my exam Sunday on same weekdays (one to two days before). To me momentum is key, only take it if you feel like you are ready and don't wait too late. Right timing can get you just about anything in life.
Test stamina is important. I'm glad I finished both sections fairly early and took very long break in between. Take as long a break as you are allowed to.
Drink water. Go to the bathroom. Take care of all your basic needs. Don't blame on them when you scored below your target.
I didn't bring food so I can't speak to that. I always have weak stomach on any test days and don't want to eat anything.
Sleep well. I probably could score 760+ if I had slept more. Needless to say, I didn't. I have very bad sleeping habit. Sleeping = not working or not playing so I try to minimize it.
Don't bother getting tutors, very expensive, buy a bigger TV instead or do something else. They probably are not that much smarter than you and were using the same material when they took the test. This is an opinion so don't bash me if you loved your tutor...
After a month, I took it again and score 750. So there you have it. Even though I said 2 months, this whole process spreads out from late Dec to early June. There were a lot of intense vacations, concerts, etc. in between. I believe the key is to balance out working toward your goal and leasuring. I'm now going through the application process and will write another one of this if this helps you guys once I got into my target school.
Summary of material for people who are too lazy to read the whole post
OG (most important)
Manhattan Quant, Advanced Quant
GMAT Club Toolkit
E-gmat SC
Powerscore CR Bible
Kaplan (a good book to begin, not so good to stuck to)
02 Aug 2015, 11:37
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations on the score!!! Did you see a difference between SC from GMAT Prep and that of the exam? If so, which official GMAT material (Exam Pack 1, Question Pack 1, OG 2016, etc.) is the closest to what you saw for SC on the exam? Of course, please don't share actual questions! 
beefphoforthewin
Joined: 25 Sep 2014
Last visit: 06 Dec 2017
Posts: 53
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 4
Location: United States
Schools: Booth '19 (A) Kellogg '19 (I) Tuck '19 (I)
GMAT 1: 750 Q50 V40
GPA: 3.4
02 Aug 2015, 19:41
Kudos
Bookmarks
TooLong150: Thanks man. I do not possess question pack 1. OG and Verbal Workout were the closest to real questions for me. I got the Exam pack 1 to train my test stamina so shout out to that as well. I took one practice test each day after work right before the test.
I know this advice has been repeated a lot on other posts, but take your time through OG, UNDERSTAND what was wrong with each answer choice. Once you got 90% of OG right you should score 730 + in term of SC.
If you can get your hand on older OG, go for it. Some questions overlapped but some don't.
I know this advice has been repeated a lot on other posts, but take your time through OG, UNDERSTAND what was wrong with each answer choice. Once you got 90% of OG right you should score 730 + in term of SC.
If you can get your hand on older OG, go for it. Some questions overlapped but some don't.
