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11 Apr 2015, 22:55
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I'm an American working in Finance in Japan. I'd like to share the experience of taking the test in Japan, and what did/didn't work for me in studying along the way. My general advice is to keep things simple and grind away on iterative practice tests and lesson study to fill the gaps.
I took the GMAT only once, in March, and am not planning to re-take it. My score was 770, Q50 V47, AWA 6 and IR 8. This was equal to the highest practice score I received, but better than my usual practices.
The plan...
My study schedule was short but intense. I work a full time job and registered for the test just 3 weeks ahead of the date, I wanted to create the pressure to really focus on preparation, rather than spreading it out. The first material I accessed was Magoosh, the full online package, after finding the reviews positive and the lesson video format attractive.
The first practice test was a 630, Q45 V32. Verbal was surprising; I'm a native English speaker and past standardized tests have always put my verbal and quant marks very close together. From there I planned to grind away on Math for a week, Verbal for a week, and then take full tests in the last week. What I ended up doing was a little different though.
Every day after work I started doing question banks for a few hours before heading to bed. I just drilled Magoosh question banks during the week, and then on the weekends I would take one or two full practice tests and then watch lesson videos on the topics where I lost points. My total time spent was ~70hrs. I kept that test-review pattern for the full 3 weeks. I would end up needing a lot more practice tests! My total materials were eventually...
- Magoosh's online package ($99 I think)
- MGMAT pack-o-six exams ($75)
- Official GMAT books ($waste)
- GMATPrep tests ($free)
Magoosh fit the test-review pattern really well, since their software is modern and allows easy navigation between the question, related lessons, and any other useful references. All the other software I used had archaic interfaces that made reviewing explanations or learning from them a chore. I'd take an MGMAT practice test or GMATPrep one and then just write down the problematic topics so I could go study it in Magoosh. Magoosh was weaker in the practice test area. It has a common bank of questions for both practice and the tests, and it's possible to run out of specific topic/difficulty questions. Eventually you have to allow repeats or the question-selection algorithm starts doing funny things. Actually on my highest scoring practice (770 - 48/47) I noticed the quant section had done something funny where it alternated between Easy and Very Hard questions. I had run the supply of normal Hard questions dry.
I'll spare us both the practice-by-practice numbers, but I consistently hit between 700 and 730, with outliers at 670 and 770. MGMAT was hard and scored lower. Magoosh was volatile, host to both outliers, and GMATPrep gave me the same average score both times. I did nothing to practice IR beyond read a little about it and include it in about half of the practice tests. Similarly, I only practiced writing an AWA essay twice, and just read a bit about the format and what the graders search for, along with a couple example 6 essays.
Lessons learned and advice...
- Test & Review works and is simple. It saved me a ton of time trying to build and follow a more lesson-centric plan. I recommend it especially for anyone studying in a short timeframe.
- From diagnostic test to final, my math only improved a little bit (45 to 50). I probably over-spent time on math because it was more fun.
- My initial verbal was low, and iteration really fixed that! There's so much verbal material to study, so, especially for a native speaker, it's more a question of isolating which grammar rules you misunderstand. That's best done through iteration and memory. Lessons would have taken ages and I wouldn't have known when to pay attention.
- Summary of the above two points is that the common advice that one can improve math most rapidly is not always true. In my case verbal drove the score improvement, and math was more a question of how lucky I got on the question rolls.
- Official GMAT books weren't useful. Knowing they have all the AWA topics is attractive, but there are so many that it's pointless to review them. For AWA prep look up advice and sample 6 essays online. Plenty of free materials.
- Manage external factors, but again keep it simple. After a full work day your score is going to suffer. I would even do better on Sundays than Saturdays, so I took a day off work before the test to pick up the same effect. Noise matters for the verbal section, so a cafe with people and music isn't the best choice for a test.
Lastly... taking the test in Japan! Sometimes things in Japan are tricky.
There's only one test center in Tokyo, and it's kind of behind the Imperial Hotel. It's not hard to find, but isn't obvious either. The building's name is prominent, but not the fact that there's a test center inside. The really tricky part is that the test center is in a sort of office building, so there is a keycard access elevator lobby. There is probably some process to get a visitor pass, but with only 30 minutes to the test, I just followed someone else in. Building reception rarely speaks english well, and it easily could have become a time consuming endeavor. Once you're in the elevator banks it's easy to get up to the 18th floor and find the test center. Center is small and only has one receptionist. I showed up 30mins early but waited 15 minutes because the receptionist was busy. After that everything was smooth. If you have the time, try finding the building some day before the test, and inquiring as to how to get inside legitimately.
Thanks for reading, let me know if you have questions
I took the GMAT only once, in March, and am not planning to re-take it. My score was 770, Q50 V47, AWA 6 and IR 8. This was equal to the highest practice score I received, but better than my usual practices.
The plan...
My study schedule was short but intense. I work a full time job and registered for the test just 3 weeks ahead of the date, I wanted to create the pressure to really focus on preparation, rather than spreading it out. The first material I accessed was Magoosh, the full online package, after finding the reviews positive and the lesson video format attractive.
The first practice test was a 630, Q45 V32. Verbal was surprising; I'm a native English speaker and past standardized tests have always put my verbal and quant marks very close together. From there I planned to grind away on Math for a week, Verbal for a week, and then take full tests in the last week. What I ended up doing was a little different though.
Every day after work I started doing question banks for a few hours before heading to bed. I just drilled Magoosh question banks during the week, and then on the weekends I would take one or two full practice tests and then watch lesson videos on the topics where I lost points. My total time spent was ~70hrs. I kept that test-review pattern for the full 3 weeks. I would end up needing a lot more practice tests! My total materials were eventually...
- Magoosh's online package ($99 I think)
- MGMAT pack-o-six exams ($75)
- Official GMAT books ($waste)
- GMATPrep tests ($free)
Magoosh fit the test-review pattern really well, since their software is modern and allows easy navigation between the question, related lessons, and any other useful references. All the other software I used had archaic interfaces that made reviewing explanations or learning from them a chore. I'd take an MGMAT practice test or GMATPrep one and then just write down the problematic topics so I could go study it in Magoosh. Magoosh was weaker in the practice test area. It has a common bank of questions for both practice and the tests, and it's possible to run out of specific topic/difficulty questions. Eventually you have to allow repeats or the question-selection algorithm starts doing funny things. Actually on my highest scoring practice (770 - 48/47) I noticed the quant section had done something funny where it alternated between Easy and Very Hard questions. I had run the supply of normal Hard questions dry.
I'll spare us both the practice-by-practice numbers, but I consistently hit between 700 and 730, with outliers at 670 and 770. MGMAT was hard and scored lower. Magoosh was volatile, host to both outliers, and GMATPrep gave me the same average score both times. I did nothing to practice IR beyond read a little about it and include it in about half of the practice tests. Similarly, I only practiced writing an AWA essay twice, and just read a bit about the format and what the graders search for, along with a couple example 6 essays.
Lessons learned and advice...
- Test & Review works and is simple. It saved me a ton of time trying to build and follow a more lesson-centric plan. I recommend it especially for anyone studying in a short timeframe.
- From diagnostic test to final, my math only improved a little bit (45 to 50). I probably over-spent time on math because it was more fun.
- My initial verbal was low, and iteration really fixed that! There's so much verbal material to study, so, especially for a native speaker, it's more a question of isolating which grammar rules you misunderstand. That's best done through iteration and memory. Lessons would have taken ages and I wouldn't have known when to pay attention.
- Summary of the above two points is that the common advice that one can improve math most rapidly is not always true. In my case verbal drove the score improvement, and math was more a question of how lucky I got on the question rolls.
- Official GMAT books weren't useful. Knowing they have all the AWA topics is attractive, but there are so many that it's pointless to review them. For AWA prep look up advice and sample 6 essays online. Plenty of free materials.
- Manage external factors, but again keep it simple. After a full work day your score is going to suffer. I would even do better on Sundays than Saturdays, so I took a day off work before the test to pick up the same effect. Noise matters for the verbal section, so a cafe with people and music isn't the best choice for a test.
Lastly... taking the test in Japan! Sometimes things in Japan are tricky.
There's only one test center in Tokyo, and it's kind of behind the Imperial Hotel. It's not hard to find, but isn't obvious either. The building's name is prominent, but not the fact that there's a test center inside. The really tricky part is that the test center is in a sort of office building, so there is a keycard access elevator lobby. There is probably some process to get a visitor pass, but with only 30 minutes to the test, I just followed someone else in. Building reception rarely speaks english well, and it easily could have become a time consuming endeavor. Once you're in the elevator banks it's easy to get up to the 18th floor and find the test center. Center is small and only has one receptionist. I showed up 30mins early but waited 15 minutes because the receptionist was busy. After that everything was smooth. If you have the time, try finding the building some day before the test, and inquiring as to how to get inside legitimately.
Thanks for reading, let me know if you have questions
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