I have been a lurker here ever since I decided to give the GMAT mid-September
Preparation materials used (in no particular order):
For general stuff and exams:
OG11 and OG12
MGMAT practice tests
GMAT Prep.
Cracking the GMAT 2008 by Princeton Review
1012 GMAT Practice Questions.
The retired GMAT exams from GMAC
For Verbal:
MGMAT Sentence Correction 4th edition (I bought this at the last moment, had been using the 2007 edition which is less detailed)
MGMAT Critical Reasoning\Reading Comprehension 2007
MGMAT SC Question Bank
The various forums here related to verbal including the brutal 100 list (which was actually about 70 questions).
For Math:
MGMAT Equations,Inequalities and VICs
MGMAT Number Properties.
MGMAT Word Translations
For AWA:
Writing skills for the GRE/GMAT
ChineseBurned's AWA guide
and some sample essays I found on Scribd (Can be found in an earlier post of mine)
General Strategy:
In the beginning I would spend 3 - 4 hours total during the week and 2 - 4 hours during the weekend.
This picked up to the point where I was spending 3 hours DAILY on weekdays and 16 hours during the weekend.
I spent about 6 weeks with Cracking the GMAT 2008. After this time I was able to answer all kinds of questions in the hard buckets. Also that book has a nice section pertaining to a template for the AWA. Cracking the GMAT is a good starting book. This will get you rolling in the right direction and point out potential weaknesses. However it does give a false sense of security. I tried a sample test from
MGMAT and scored a dismal 560 Q36 V31.
Most of the early SC and DS sections were wrong.
Keep in mind though, the
MGMAT questions are tougher than actual GMAT questions. I also observed that the
MGMAT's difficulty level changes sharply while the actual GMAT/GMAT Prep questions level out after the first half.
I pinpointed my weaknesses and used the
MGMAT books described above. I then hit the 1012 Princeton book for its questions.
I also maintained an
error log (an idea I got from these forums) so I was able to review my weaknesses.
I gave some of the retired exams for specific question types.
I would study throughout the week, take off Wednesday and Saturday and give a full-length CAT Exam each Sunday. I would then focus on the mistakes using the
MGMAT Books/1000 Qs and the 1012 book from Princeton.
I swear by POE and the 3:2 split technique. I had some weakness in idioms which the list in the
MGMAT SC book really helped. I made some silly mistakes in the math portion. I would suggest reading those questions carefully.
I used a mixture of the Writing Skills Book, ChineseBurned's guide and the sample essays to practice writing.
The writing skills book had some great techniques to start off. I followed ChineseBurned's guide to eventually form my essays. The Scribd samples were great for comparison and getting some examples to use. EVERYWHERE I saw a heavy use of transitional words such as furthermore and clearly and examples. I practiced with these a ton!
I was more comfortable in writing the essays on paper and when I got the hang of it I started on the CAT exams. The first 2 CAT exams I did without AWA, but the remaining exams I did with AWA.
Summary of CAT practice exams:
11/08/09 GMATPrep Exam 1 710 Q49 V38
11/15/09
MGMAT Exam 2 690 Q45 V39
11/22/09
MGMAT Exam 3 640 Q42 V35 - With AWA
11/29/09
MGMAT EXAM 4 650 Q44 V35 - with AWA
12/01/09
MGMAT Exam 5 630 Q42 V34 - with AWA
12/09/09
MGMAT Exam 6 740 Q47 V45 - with AWA
12/10/09 GMATPrep Exam 2 730 Q49 V41 - with AWA
The
MGMAT scores were all over the place. They are good for practice but I would not rely on them for being accurate predictors of the actual score. My actual score was the exact score I got in the final GMATPrep exam I gave 2 days before the actual exam.
I would also not suggest waiting to get a certain score in the practice tests before registering. You will keep delaying the exam thinking that you still have time! Set a specific deadline and register according to that deadline.
Exam experience:
The last practice exam I gave was 2 days prior to the actual exam. I had prepared a one page document containing some idioms I kept forgetting and a couple of maths formulas.
I registered for the 1:15 PM test on Saturday. I went through the PVS and photography (I smiled
). The test began shortly after. Both the AWA essays had topics I was familiar with. Took a break, had a few puffs of a cigarette, had a few swigs of Vitamin Water and scarfed down a snickers. Repeated this for the next break as well. Keep in mind, when the popup asks you if you want a break, don't click on it as it will start the timer. Raise your hand and click it when the proctor comes in. You also have to be signed back in and the proctor has to sign in on your terminal. Subtract about 2 minutes for that and you have actually 6 minutes. The first break I came back with 40 seconds to spare and the proctor signed back in without a hitch. The second break I went to the rest-room and on coming back, I noticed I had gone over 20 seconds, and the proctor had some trouble signing back in. In total I lost 1 minute!
I had never given practice exams using ear-buds (I find them uncomfortable). I had usually given practice tests in a library or at home after asking everyone to BE QUIET! The test center was far from quiet. One person was constantly clearing her throat, there was a sporadic vibrating somewhere (still a mystery), another person got into a discussion with the proctor which lasted for 10 minutes. I tired of the ear buds early on and put on the provided headset, which was not as effective as the ear buds. I would have tried getting used to them had I known the center would not be as quiet!
I lost concentration on a couple of RC questions towards the end, but overall was a good experience.
Well now I am moving on to applications and such. I do apologize for not putting in links for any of the material mentioned and the flagrant grammatical errors!
I will be putting up my profile over the weekend and asking for an eval! So help me out guys!
Updated: Received the AWA score this morning (12/16/09) Just 6 days after the exam!
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Updated on: 17 Dec 2009, 18:48
