Hi gmatclub, I took the GMAT two days ago and would like to share my test plan, debrief, and any insights that I can offer. This is geared towards people aiming for 750+ and need to lose that last bit of belly fat.
GMAT 1: 690 45Q/38V
MGMAT, 10 Weeks Out
GMAT 2: 690 42Q/41V
MGMAT, 6 Weeks Out
GMAT 3: 700 44Q/41V
MGMAT, 4 Weeks Out
GMAT 4: 770 50Q/45V GMAT PREP, 2 Weeks Out
GMAT 5: 720 47Q/41V
MGMAT, 2 Weeks Out
GMAT 6: 740 46Q/45V
MGMAT, 1 Week Out
GMAT 7: 750 49Q/44V GMAT PREP, 2 Days Out
GMAT: 780, 51Q/48VDebrief: A BriefI registered for my GMAT twelve weeks ahead of time, the same time I signed up for a nine week in-person Manhattan course ending 05/06. This gave me three weeks before the exam to study on my own. In hindsight, I think three weeks post-course was the perfect time frame: hard deadlines apply pressure, but course learnings are still fresh in your head. Here is my study plan.
Context & Study Plan: I am pretty good with mental math, am a native english speaker, and took SATs and APs growing up (so I've had a good deal of MCQ practice and experience). I think my starting point is on par with that of many gmatclub kids and hope my experience is relatable and repeatable. If you can relate, this is for you. If not, hopefully there's still some useful info in here.
12 Weeks Out: Start studying. The five books I'd consider required reading are: Official GMAT Guide + Manhattan Number Properties, Geometry, Data sufficiency, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction. Cover data sufficiency strategy first and begin internalizing. I'd recommend starting on this very early - it is the trickier of the two math question types, and you really need to demonstrate mastery of the question type (the logic, the answer choices, your problem solving template should all be second nature eventually). Started putting in about 6 hrs/week.
10 Weeks Out: Diagnostic test. It's critical to get one of these in early enough so that you identify your weaknesses. Equally importantly, taking the GMAT is a skill (literally taking the test - I'm not talking about problem solving ability), and the more practice you can get, the better. That leads me to another, potentially controversial, point: take many, many practice tests. The limiting factor should be the availability of good practice tests, not your time or effort.
6 Weeks Out: Be familiar with all the question types by now and practice all of them. I advocate against studying exclusively one question type for too long - establish a wide base and build up from there. By now you should be starting to have a good sense for test pacing. You're now at basic familiarity with the test: you're friendly acquaintances.
4 Weeks Out: This is when you start to ramp up your studying. You've given yourself some time to get comfortable, and suddenly you realize you're in familiar territory. Mastery is within reach! Take it to the next level - it's worth four weeks out of your life. Keep studying, keep taking practice tests.
2 Weeks Out: Full throttle. Work the hardest problems you can find, and use every resource you have to identify and understand every mistake you make. Important: There will be questions that you are on the fence about, but end up getting correct. Go back to these. Do not ignore and forget about them just because you got the answer correct!
1 Week Out: Take the final GMAT Prep test if you haven't already. This is your best idea of where you stand. Invoking what I mentioned about laying a wide foundation and then building on top of it, here is where you set the capstone. I personally saved the last quarter of each section of the entire official GMAT guide for this week. I timed and did each two page spread as if it were test conditions, and immediately afterwards went through
each option of each question regardless of my answer. Understand why every answer is right or wrong. The GMAT guide does a good job providing answer descriptions, so use this to your advantage. If you're having trouble, Google the problem - chances are, you'll find a forum thread about that very question.
PS I spent 4+ hrs/day studying during my last week. During my final weekend, I would say I put in around 10hrs/day.
Test DayI had slept just six hours the night before because my heart was pounding, but I was wide awake an uncontrollably fidgety by morning. Stress makes me need to take a poopie, so I ate no solid food the day before or the day of.
IR: Breezed through and finished with four minutes left. I was shocked, since I had never finished a
MGMAT IR section and I was always scrambling to finish the GMATPrep exams.
Q: Nothing especially interesting here except that my last question was an incredibly difficult one. It was a weakness of mine: pos/neg even/odd prime – essentially number properties. I spent four minutes on it, and in the closing seconds of the test, with my heart beating out of my chest (I knew I had potentially multiple points on my raw at stake here), settled on C (between C and E). I finally solved the problem during my break and was relieved that I had chosen correctly.
V: I was aiming for a full score (or as damn close as I could get), so I committed a cardinal sin: I spent nearly five minutes on question one. At the same time, I knew I could afford this, as I was finishing 5-10m during most practice tests. This is where your practice test experience comes into play. The author of mbadataguru, who scored very well, advocates skipping the first two questions entirely and giving yourself more time with the rest of the test. I would only do this if time is traditionally an issue for you here.
Reflection: Q: Janky problem solving and high level thinking is amazing for the GMAT. The quant section does not have to be a math exam – with enough practice, it can be a pattern recognition exam. Combine that with an awareness of pacing and a shifty thinking and we have a winning solution even for someone who is not great at math. I want to emphasize this. From what I saw around me in class, there were many students got mired in the pen and paper and ended up taking too long on questions or getting no-where. Getting too high level in your thinking, the opposite "problem", hardly ever happens. Err on the side of the latter. There is a great section in the Advanced Math
MGMAT book that covers "top down" vs. "bottom up" thinking re: the math section.
The number properties guide from Manhattan was godsend. Read it cover to cover and do all the practice problems. If you’re not great at math, you probably won’t know these properties/rules, and these questions are very much know-it-or-you-don’t types.
The geometry book is also helpful. Common angles and areas, rules, etc. These are things that, like number properties, are either a huge waste of time to derive during test day or require some concrete knowledge.
V:
Critical reasoning is very learnable. Once you learn the framework and appropriate model to apply to each passage and question type, the logic required is not intensive.
The sentence correction guide is the bible. Your ear may get you 90% of the way there, but you need to know for sure when to use this or that idiom - you need to know exactly when to use the command subjunctive and when it is inappropriate, etc. general frameworks won’t always work here. You need to know for sure to get the score you want.
Finally, for takers aiming for truly high scores, it feels to me like people focus on studying for quant while accepting verbal scores in the low to mid 40s, and this hurts them. These people are putting too much weight into percentiles and not enough weight into what goes into your 800 score. It is a fallacy to accept a 44V or 45V simply because it is a 99th%ile while dedicating all effort to pursuing the 51 in quant. The difference between a 45 and a 51 may only be a few questions, but those extra 6 points go so far in bumping your 800 scale sore. The verbal section is more learnable than people think, so for those aiming for an elite score, I advocate nailing down a framework for critical reasoning and really learning the GMAT’s sentence preferences to a T. Read those "advanced" chapters at the back of the
MGMAT books. Even if you have a strong verbal score already, you can do better! Aim for a perfect 51.
I hope a few people find some useful takeaways here. I’m happy to answer questions and discuss ideas.
Tl;dr: Read up on number properties. Read up on sentence correction. Develop a framework for critical reasoning. Memorize common angles, shapes, and formulas. Don’t underestimate verbal’s contribution to your /800 (spend more time studying for verbal). FINISH THE TEST! Good luck!