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katie2
Joined: 29 Jun 2018
Last visit: 04 Nov 2021
Posts: 12
Location: United States (CA)
Schools: Wharton '24 (II) Sloan '24 (II)
GMAT 1: 710 Q47 V40
GMAT 2: 740 Q49 V41
GPA: 3.95
Hi everyone,
Just hot off of giving my GMAT for the second time and I hopped straight onto this forum to post my experience. I have read countless and countless of success stories on here and only dreamt of one day posting my own. If this can help just ONE person who's looking for some sort of guidance like little me a day ago, then it would be worth it. So here it goes!
Books & Materials
MGMAT Guides
OG 12
Gmatclub tests <- What. A. Game. Changer. They really pull out all the tricks of the trade.
Practice Scores
Veritas: 650 (Q43, V37) Jan 20th
Manhattan Prep: 620 (Q39, V35) Feb 3rd <- man, this kicked my @$$
Princeton Review: 700 (Q48, V39) Feb 10th <- gaining a bit of confidence of breaking that "700 ceiling"
Kaplan: 710 (Q48, V39) Mar 2nd <- Ma look, I made it!
800 Score: 720 (Q47, V42) Mar 3rd <- way easier, not a reliable source
GMAT Attempt 1: 710 (Q47, V40) Mar 6th
GMAT Prep 1: 710 (Q50, V36) Jul 25th
GMAT Prep 2: 680 (Q49, V33) Jul 30th <- scared the heckk out of me 2 days before my official exam, but my program glitched and I ended up with a ~5 minute shorter verbal section
GMAT Final: 740 (Q49, V41) Aug 2nd
Honestly, my prep exam two days before D day really screwed with my head. I had doubts of whether (without "or not"
) I could even score higher than my first attempt, a 710. But afterwards I kept telling myself that I actually work better under pressure and my score was skewed because of the system malfunction (it counted down the time without giving me the next question - talk about testing my STRESS LEVELS). I'd say a more accurate score would be around the 730 range.
Strategies
Honestly, I know there's so much good comprehensive tips out there that say a lot of the same things (believe me, I've probably read through every one of them) so I'm going to try and keep my tips unique from the cliche.
Quants
- I don't know how I prepped before discovering GMAT Club, but if time travel were to exist, I would get a huge "GET INTO THIS CLUB" tattoo on my forehead. You know, Looper and Memento style. So good job for completing advice number 1.
- GMAT Math Ebook! Bunuel wow what a man. You are from heaven.
- Always think algebra first. Try to match the question equation to the answers, vice versa.
- 0, 1, negative, fractions do funky things. Don't forget them.
- It's quantitative REASONING (read; not math) for a REASON. Make sure you understand the question first - "% increase" is NOT the same as "% greater than."
- Write out the given information first. If it says A and B are positive integers, I would write that out and circle and underline it just so I remember to check back on this condition once I get an answer.
Verbal
CR
- PRE-THINK. WOW was this the biggest and most enlightening technique for me. You don't have to pre-think the answer, but you should definitely pre-think what the answer should tell you.
- Word precision. "Kayne West might run for president" is NOT the same as "Kayne West will run for president."
- Find clues in the question stem: "What would best support the argument that baseball is the best sport in the world?" Ah, good hint. "Baseball is the best sport in the world" is the main argument.
SC
- Be concise.
- You already know. Study the rules, but also practice with sentence meaning.
RC
- Before you even finish reading the passage, I want you to say in your head after the first sentence that this topic is your life long PASSION. A 5 paragraph essay on the biological components of this complex biochemical medicine of this obscure disease that only affects a small population of North Dakota? YES, PLEASE. This stuff is what I LIVE for.
- ^ I know it sounds silly, but honestly. This attitude and approach made me so much more willing to answer questions and engage so much deeper with the passage.
Test Day
Ah, while it's fresh in my memory. I even jotted down my thoughts right as I was walking out of the building to keep them treasured. I want to remember how I felt.
Let's talk about where my headset was the night before the exam. Like what everyone and everything says, I spent the entire day before just relaxing my the pool side and not touching/looking/THINKING about any material. After FaceTiming my boyfriend for a couple of hours, I went to sleep around midnight for a 2:30pm exam the next day. Fast forward to 10am on D day morning, I was well rested and ready to go. Ate a balance breakfast, and still had 3 hours to kill before heading to my exam. I don't know why, but for me it helps TREMENDOUSLY if I presented my notes like I was giving a lecture to students about to take the exam: "Alright, class! For the quant section, ALWAYS remember to check the numbers 0, 1, fractions, and negatives! They do funky stuff, kids!" Isn't there a saying about remembering material better if you teach it?
Arrived at the testing center 30 minutes earlier than my appointment, listened to Kayne West hype music, pumped myself up and danced in front of the bathroom mirror, security checked, and I was seated. Clicked through the introductions and selected the usual - Quant, Verbal, IR & AWA. Let's go.
The Quant section started off nothing out of the ordinary, though I do remember feeling like I had to rush the first few questions. I've read before that the first 10 questions are weighted more heavily, but it was equally important not to fall behind on time. In the beginning, I remember getting multiple questions in a row that were the same rates topic and at that "rate"
, feeling tripped up on all of them. I thought for sure that I had bombed the section, especially when the 2 questions I got after were VERY easy range questions. It's such a mind game - the harder the questions are, the more you feel like you're doing well OR the more you feel like you're screwing up.
My advice? Just don't focus on the algorithm behind the machine and focus on one question at a time. Even if you feel like it's an easy low ball to you, then you better hit a home run off of it. If you can't tell already, I'm a punny baseball fan.
Around the middle of the section, I got a complex question that had to do with weird symbols - in fact, it was one of those questions that had one symbol equal to this equation, then another symbol equal to another equation, and then put said different symbols into a massive equation. It was like symbol-ception! The only strategy I could employ for that one was the good ol' plug and chug, and narrowed it down to an answer I thought was the only possible right one. After that mind gymnastics, the section hit the pretty standard stuff and I felt good about the rest. I answered the last question and didn't have time to click submit before the timer ran out. I asked the proctor if it would count, and apparently the system saves your answers every few seconds, so there is a high probability that it did.
Went and took a lightening fast break, swallowed an RX bar, and got right back into the ring. Round 2.
Recently, and surprisingly, verbal has not been my strength in the practice exams, mainly because I felt like I was rushing the sections. I incorrectly thought the timing would be the same as quants, 2min/question; however, please keep in mind that it is actually 1.8min/question. I know this difference seems trivial, but it actually makes a huge difference in keeping mental markers for yourself, and that difference in time accumulates. The sentence correction questions were much easier than anything on the GMATClub forums or practice tests. Critical reasoning was the tricky part for me - I clearly remember thinking for several questions that all the answer choices were wrong. This mistake would cost me extra time when I had to reread the answer choices to finally deduce that one had a hidden answer to it. Reading comprehension was actually a breeze - I got longer passages and I knew I was performing pretty well when I got hit with an essay on tax deduction and interest loans. Taxes! Yay! I guess this stuff is important to know in the real world, but when your brain is fried from 2 hours of testing, this kind of concept kind of just flies over your head. At this point, I didn't feel very confident of my performance. There were certain questions that I felt 230984% that I caught all the tricks and answered correctly, and others that I had to do a double take and reread a sentence 230984 times. I know for sure I answered one question incorrectly in reading comprehension though when it was drawing an analogy of the structure of the essay, and realized my mistake right when I clicked submit. Murphy's law, am I right?
Went back to my locker to eat another nuts bar, then came back 4 minutes early to finish the war. My proctor even asked me, "Are you sure you don't want to take another 2 minutes?" I gave her a
face, followed with a "Just trying to get this over with."
Jumped back into IR, and quite frankly, I hadn't studied IR at all - only practice through the practice exams. IR was relatively straight forward, except there was one question on different types of codes composed of different letters with all these different rules...yeahh, let's just skip this question because I didn't have the mental bandwidth to thinking about it. Chose 3 random answers. Ended up getting 8, 92nd percentile, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around
The AWA - just memorize a template. It makes your life easier and by the end of the test, all you want to do is put your brain on autopilot and cruise until you hit your destination. Also, try to use long sentences with long words. Did that, and still had 6 minutes left to proof read and add a little more fluff. Wrapped that up with a pretty bow.
Timer ended - finally! Clicked next, next, next, and BOOM. Your score hits you like a train.
740. I did a double take. 'No way...' I thought to myself. I was 203948% sure that I had failed it! I even remember doing mental scheduling during my break of when to retake my exam. I couldn't contain my excitement, reaching up into the air and fist bumping the man above. Hooray!
At the end, so much of my success is credit to you all on this wonderful website. You have been such a reliable community for me to be a part of. I shared in your struggles, stresses, and successes. I owe this all to you - thank you! Mainly for enduring all my mom puns in this post!
Just hot off of giving my GMAT for the second time and I hopped straight onto this forum to post my experience. I have read countless and countless of success stories on here and only dreamt of one day posting my own. If this can help just ONE person who's looking for some sort of guidance like little me a day ago, then it would be worth it. So here it goes!
Books & Materials
MGMAT Guides
OG 12
Gmatclub tests <- What. A. Game. Changer. They really pull out all the tricks of the trade.
Practice Scores
Veritas: 650 (Q43, V37) Jan 20th
Manhattan Prep: 620 (Q39, V35) Feb 3rd <- man, this kicked my @$$
Princeton Review: 700 (Q48, V39) Feb 10th <- gaining a bit of confidence of breaking that "700 ceiling"
Kaplan: 710 (Q48, V39) Mar 2nd <- Ma look, I made it!
800 Score: 720 (Q47, V42) Mar 3rd <- way easier, not a reliable source
GMAT Attempt 1: 710 (Q47, V40) Mar 6th
GMAT Prep 1: 710 (Q50, V36) Jul 25th
GMAT Prep 2: 680 (Q49, V33) Jul 30th <- scared the heckk out of me 2 days before my official exam, but my program glitched and I ended up with a ~5 minute shorter verbal section
GMAT Final: 740 (Q49, V41) Aug 2nd
Honestly, my prep exam two days before D day really screwed with my head. I had doubts of whether (without "or not"
) I could even score higher than my first attempt, a 710. But afterwards I kept telling myself that I actually work better under pressure and my score was skewed because of the system malfunction (it counted down the time without giving me the next question - talk about testing my STRESS LEVELS). I'd say a more accurate score would be around the 730 range.Strategies
Honestly, I know there's so much good comprehensive tips out there that say a lot of the same things (believe me, I've probably read through every one of them) so I'm going to try and keep my tips unique from the cliche.
Quants
- I don't know how I prepped before discovering GMAT Club, but if time travel were to exist, I would get a huge "GET INTO THIS CLUB" tattoo on my forehead. You know, Looper and Memento style. So good job for completing advice number 1.
- GMAT Math Ebook! Bunuel wow what a man. You are from heaven.
- Always think algebra first. Try to match the question equation to the answers, vice versa.
- 0, 1, negative, fractions do funky things. Don't forget them.
- It's quantitative REASONING (read; not math) for a REASON. Make sure you understand the question first - "% increase" is NOT the same as "% greater than."
- Write out the given information first. If it says A and B are positive integers, I would write that out and circle and underline it just so I remember to check back on this condition once I get an answer.
Verbal
CR
- PRE-THINK. WOW was this the biggest and most enlightening technique for me. You don't have to pre-think the answer, but you should definitely pre-think what the answer should tell you.
- Word precision. "Kayne West might run for president" is NOT the same as "Kayne West will run for president."
- Find clues in the question stem: "What would best support the argument that baseball is the best sport in the world?" Ah, good hint. "Baseball is the best sport in the world" is the main argument.
SC
- Be concise.
- You already know. Study the rules, but also practice with sentence meaning.
RC
- Before you even finish reading the passage, I want you to say in your head after the first sentence that this topic is your life long PASSION. A 5 paragraph essay on the biological components of this complex biochemical medicine of this obscure disease that only affects a small population of North Dakota? YES, PLEASE. This stuff is what I LIVE for.
- ^ I know it sounds silly, but honestly. This attitude and approach made me so much more willing to answer questions and engage so much deeper with the passage.
Test Day
Ah, while it's fresh in my memory. I even jotted down my thoughts right as I was walking out of the building to keep them treasured. I want to remember how I felt.
Let's talk about where my headset was the night before the exam. Like what everyone and everything says, I spent the entire day before just relaxing my the pool side and not touching/looking/THINKING about any material. After FaceTiming my boyfriend for a couple of hours, I went to sleep around midnight for a 2:30pm exam the next day. Fast forward to 10am on D day morning, I was well rested and ready to go. Ate a balance breakfast, and still had 3 hours to kill before heading to my exam. I don't know why, but for me it helps TREMENDOUSLY if I presented my notes like I was giving a lecture to students about to take the exam: "Alright, class! For the quant section, ALWAYS remember to check the numbers 0, 1, fractions, and negatives! They do funky stuff, kids!" Isn't there a saying about remembering material better if you teach it?
Arrived at the testing center 30 minutes earlier than my appointment, listened to Kayne West hype music, pumped myself up and danced in front of the bathroom mirror, security checked, and I was seated. Clicked through the introductions and selected the usual - Quant, Verbal, IR & AWA. Let's go.
The Quant section started off nothing out of the ordinary, though I do remember feeling like I had to rush the first few questions. I've read before that the first 10 questions are weighted more heavily, but it was equally important not to fall behind on time. In the beginning, I remember getting multiple questions in a row that were the same rates topic and at that "rate"
, feeling tripped up on all of them. I thought for sure that I had bombed the section, especially when the 2 questions I got after were VERY easy range questions. It's such a mind game - the harder the questions are, the more you feel like you're doing well OR the more you feel like you're screwing up. My advice? Just don't focus on the algorithm behind the machine and focus on one question at a time. Even if you feel like it's an easy low ball to you, then you better hit a home run off of it. If you can't tell already, I'm a punny baseball fan.
Around the middle of the section, I got a complex question that had to do with weird symbols - in fact, it was one of those questions that had one symbol equal to this equation, then another symbol equal to another equation, and then put said different symbols into a massive equation. It was like symbol-ception! The only strategy I could employ for that one was the good ol' plug and chug, and narrowed it down to an answer I thought was the only possible right one. After that mind gymnastics, the section hit the pretty standard stuff and I felt good about the rest. I answered the last question and didn't have time to click submit before the timer ran out. I asked the proctor if it would count, and apparently the system saves your answers every few seconds, so there is a high probability that it did.
Went and took a lightening fast break, swallowed an RX bar, and got right back into the ring. Round 2.
Recently, and surprisingly, verbal has not been my strength in the practice exams, mainly because I felt like I was rushing the sections. I incorrectly thought the timing would be the same as quants, 2min/question; however, please keep in mind that it is actually 1.8min/question. I know this difference seems trivial, but it actually makes a huge difference in keeping mental markers for yourself, and that difference in time accumulates. The sentence correction questions were much easier than anything on the GMATClub forums or practice tests. Critical reasoning was the tricky part for me - I clearly remember thinking for several questions that all the answer choices were wrong. This mistake would cost me extra time when I had to reread the answer choices to finally deduce that one had a hidden answer to it. Reading comprehension was actually a breeze - I got longer passages and I knew I was performing pretty well when I got hit with an essay on tax deduction and interest loans. Taxes! Yay! I guess this stuff is important to know in the real world, but when your brain is fried from 2 hours of testing, this kind of concept kind of just flies over your head. At this point, I didn't feel very confident of my performance. There were certain questions that I felt 230984% that I caught all the tricks and answered correctly, and others that I had to do a double take and reread a sentence 230984 times. I know for sure I answered one question incorrectly in reading comprehension though when it was drawing an analogy of the structure of the essay, and realized my mistake right when I clicked submit. Murphy's law, am I right?
Went back to my locker to eat another nuts bar, then came back 4 minutes early to finish the war. My proctor even asked me, "Are you sure you don't want to take another 2 minutes?" I gave her a
face, followed with a "Just trying to get this over with." Jumped back into IR, and quite frankly, I hadn't studied IR at all - only practice through the practice exams. IR was relatively straight forward, except there was one question on different types of codes composed of different letters with all these different rules...yeahh, let's just skip this question because I didn't have the mental bandwidth to thinking about it. Chose 3 random answers. Ended up getting 8, 92nd percentile, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around
The AWA - just memorize a template. It makes your life easier and by the end of the test, all you want to do is put your brain on autopilot and cruise until you hit your destination. Also, try to use long sentences with long words. Did that, and still had 6 minutes left to proof read and add a little more fluff. Wrapped that up with a pretty bow.
Timer ended - finally! Clicked next, next, next, and BOOM. Your score hits you like a train.
740. I did a double take. 'No way...' I thought to myself. I was 203948% sure that I had failed it! I even remember doing mental scheduling during my break of when to retake my exam. I couldn't contain my excitement, reaching up into the air and fist bumping the man above. Hooray!
At the end, so much of my success is credit to you all on this wonderful website. You have been such a reliable community for me to be a part of. I shared in your struggles, stresses, and successes. I owe this all to you - thank you! Mainly for enduring all my mom puns in this post!
sandman13
Joined: 20 Apr 2018
Last visit: 26 Dec 2019
Posts: 132
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 156
Concentration: Technology, Nonprofit
Schools: ISB '21 (A)
WE:Analyst (Non-Profit and Government)
02 Aug 2018, 23:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations on the score Katie! 
I have not tried out GMAT Club verbal tests. Did you take those as well? If so, would you recommend them to others?
PS: Kudos for the formatting!
I have not tried out GMAT Club verbal tests. Did you take those as well? If so, would you recommend them to others?
PS: Kudos for the formatting!
