770 (Q50, V46)

Hi all,

I took the GMAT yesterday and was excited to score a 770 (Q50, V46)! I'm typically the type to just lurk without posting, but I found a lot of great advice on this forum before taking my GMAT and wanted to pay it forward.

Basic Background

I just graduated from undergrad and decided to take the GMAT now while I have some free time before starting work (and because I think I might forget how to study after a few months working). I haven't decided if I want to pursue an MBA, but since the score lasts for 5 years, I thought it was worth taking the GMAT.

Practice Scores

Kaplan 1: 740
Kaplan 2: 730
Kaplan 3: 740
Kaplan 4: 740
Kaplan 5: 740
MGMAT 1: 750
MGMAT 2: 770
MGMAT 3: 770
GMATPrep 1: 770
GMATPrep 2: 770

GMAT: 770

Practice Materials Used

I pretty much exclusively used the Kaplan GMAT prep book, which I found to be quite good. After I ran out of Kaplan CATs, I bought the MGMAT 6-pack of CATs. I also started to peruse all of the Bunuel Quant packets (posted somewhere on this forum) towards the end of my studying, which I found to be a really great Quant resource.

How I Studied

I took the paper Kaplan diagnostic (found at the front of the book) to get a sense of my baseline and found it to be around 720 (if I had to do everything over, I would have taken an actual diagnostic CAT, but I didn't really understand at that point how much the CAT changes things). Quant was the area I knew I could most improve if I studied diligently, so I began working through the Kaplan Quant section over the next couple of weeks. I did all of the practice questions at the end of each section, and although I didn't keep a thorough error log like some people, I noted any specific concepts I knew I was weak in, as well as some general rules that I began to realize were crucial (e.g. never assume numbers are integers, always test "2" when prime numbers are involved, etc.).

After I worked through the study materials, I decided it was time to take the first Kaplan CAT (this was about 3 weeks before my test). Personally, I recommend completing most of your studying before taking practice CATs; otherwise, you're more prone to thinking "I only scored poorly because I haven't studied that section yet" which is generally not a good growth mindset. I found some of my problem areas -- pretty much all Quant-related -- and reviewed the relevant sections. From that point on, I took a new CAT every 2 or 3 days, reviewed all of my mistakes, and did additional practice problems in the intervening days.

In the week before my GMAT, I took a CAT every single day. I think this strategy really made a difference for me. Before this point, I had stagnated a bit, scoring around 740 in nearly all of my tests. Once I started taking a CAT each day, I started improving and getting into the 770 level. When you take so many practice tests, you start to see similar problems over and over again and your brain gets noticeably better at pattern-matching. Additionally, your body gets used to the time pressure and test fatigue and adapts to it. By the time I took my actual GMAT, I was so used to it that it felt no different than sitting in Barnes & Noble and taking one of my practice CATs.

One important note about practice CATs, and I can't stress this enough: take the entire exam under the standard GMAT time constraints. Taking just the Quant or Verbal section will help you practice the concepts, but it won't be a realistic measure of your ability, since it won't mimic the actual test. Some people (like me) do better on the Quant and Verbal sections after doing the AWA and IR sections, since it warms their brain up; others do worse, since their brain begins to fatigue. Either way, you want to understand exactly how the full test affects you so you can learn and adapt.

Test Day

There's not much for me to say here -- as noted above, if you take enough practice CATs, the real one feels almost the same.

One question I had before going into the real test was which practice tests are most reflective of the actual exam. I've seen different answers all across this forum, but from my experience:

- GMATPrep: these tests are by far the most reflective of the real test. I would say the actual GMAT Quant is a tad more difficult, but not by much, and the Verbal is spot on. Save your two free GMATPrep tests until the very end of your practicing. I think they give the most realistic prediction of your actual score.

- Kaplan: both Quant and Verbal are slightly harder than the actual test. I don't think the scores on these tests are well calibrated either (they seem to over-penalize for missing a "low" difficulty question, much more so than the actual GMAT would), but they are great practice.

- MGMAT: Quant is much harder than the actual test. Verbal can be either harder and easier depending on your draw of questions -- I find that the Verbal questions are not written super well, since many of the answer choices could be correct and you're often left with trying to find the one that is "most" correct from MGMAT's perspective. If you can get a good Quant score on these tests under the time constraints, you should be good to go for the real GMAT.

Takeaways

1. Kaplan GMAT prep book is good and I would highly recommend it
2. Take as many practice CATs, under realistic conditions, as possible before test day
3. Save your GMATPrep free CATs until the very end of your studying
4. As you do CATs and solve practice questions, create a list of Quant rules and Sentence Correction rules that you see pop up frequently; review this list often
5. Don't stress out too much on test day!

Good luck to all, and feel free to ask me any questions!