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intheend14
GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41
Posts: 125
25 Dec 2014, 18:55
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Everyone,
Firstly, thanks to everyone at GMAT Club, especially bb, Bunuel and the rest of the experts. GMATClub has a great wealth of information and resources that helped me get through my GMAT journey. I certainly utilized many aspects of this in achieving my score. I'm so glad to be done with the pesky GMAT and I want to share my experience. Please feel free to PM with any queries as I know I've done to get some extra bits of info. I'll try to keep this as informationally dense and free of fluff as possible. Short version is below, followed by an in-depth review.
Short Version
Materials Used
Various GMAT question of the day sites (GMATClub, Beat the GMAT, etc)
GMAT Club (really good Quantitative and Verbal books compiled by the experts here)
Official Guide, 13th Edition
Official Guide to the Verbal, 2nd Edition
Official Guide to the Quant, 2nd Edition
MGMAT Guides 6-9 (Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Correction and Integrated Reasoning & Essay)
What I recommend (short version)
-Use the MGMAT guides for the verbal
-Make sure to have a solid plan to tackle each of the three types of verbal questions (and each specific type of question for the three types)
-Use the OGs to practice questions
-Practice every week with a set schedule
-Definitely take one day off every week
-Take 3-6 practice tests
-Sleep 8 hours in the week(s) prior to the test date
-Eat the same things on test day as you have during practice tests (I suggest trail mix and a gatorade)
What didn't help me
-Error log (lots of people swear by this, but it didn't help me); I just took note of general topics that I struggled with
-Studying without breaks (I did get burned out about 3 weeks before my test); take breaks!
Long Version
Practice CATs
1. GMAT Pill Practice Test 1: 670 (Q43. V39)
I woke up with a headache and felt quite sluggish and lethargic throughout the test. I was up late the night before
.
2. GMAT Pill Practice Test 2: 730 (Q49. V41)--slight overlap
I was quite happy that I had finally broke the 700 barrier. I was feeling pretty good, no headache and pretty alert throughout the test.
3. GMATPrep Practice Test 1: 740 (Q50, V40)
Woot! 700+ on an actual GMAT simulation really boosted my confidence.
4. GMATPrep Practice Test 2: 760 (Q51, V41)
Again, score 700+ on a practice test and I was feeling great. I knew I couldn't stay up the night before, but I did need to relax.
5. Kaplan Cat 1: 710 (Q50, V36)
I was quite nervous in switching away from GMAT. I didn't feel great about the test, as a whole, and underperformed in the Verbal part. However, from what I have read, Kaplan scores are usually lower.
6. GMATPrep Practice Test 1 Retake: 770 (Q51, V42)--significant overlap with both previous GMATPrep Tests
At this point, I was burned out and it was 1 week before my test. It didn't help that I got very few new questions, but at least I know what it was going to take for a stellar score.
7. Official GMAT: 740 (Q49, V41), IR 7 and AWA 6
Whoo! I'm done... finally.
Verbal Prep
I knew this was my weak point and found that the MGMAT and OG books were most recommended. On my first read through the MGMAT books, I was careful to read and take pretty detailed notes. All the MGMAT books contain great strategies to tackle each of the three verbal sections and ways to use time more efficiently. If you have any weaknesses in verbal, first read through the MGMAT or any guide books you prefer. Then and only then (with some solid strategies that you're going to use) should you tackle some questions. This is where the OG and OG Verbal (and other questions, such as those from GMAT Club) comes in handy. Go through the questions and make sure to understand you're getting correct answers for the right reasons and why you're missing the other questions.
CR: It really helps to understand how to handle each type of critical reasoning question. Have a solid plan ready and be able to implement it.
RC: Use some sort of passage mapping technique to effectively summarize the reading passages. Know how to weed out incorrect answers (especially on the main topic questions). OG comes in really handy for this.
SC: As with CR, make sure to understand how to identify the splits in each sentence and understand what kind of error is in each sentence (parallelism, modifiers, etc). It helps to be familiar with a good number of idioms.
Quant Prep
Math was always easier for me, but practice always helps. For the higher level questions, there's no real good guide. You can try going through the small sections in any book, but the Math book that GMAT Club has published is solid: gmat-math-book-87417.html. I highly recommend that everyone reads all the chapters and work on the list of problems for each topic. Personally, absolute values, inequalities and probability and combinations were my weak points. After going through all of these, I went through all the OG math questions and some of the OG Quant questions. Be sure to identify your weak points and strengthen them. Remember that you're probably only going to get a few questions on any given topic.
IR Prep
Bah, its hard to really prep for the IR. Also, I always seemed to be pressed for time in this section. To be honest, the best way to prepare is to do practice tests and be very careful about reading the questions and instructions diligently.
AWA Prep
All I did was to memorize ChineseBurned's guide to the AWA: how-to-get-6-0-awa-my-guide-64327.html. GMAC's website has a list of all 141 official topics for the AWA (these don't change), but its a massive waste of time to write out a practice essay for each of these. If you really need to, read through some samples: awa-compilations-109-analysis-of-argument-essays-86274.html. Bottom line is this: every essay prompt is flawed and you should be able to identify 2-4 things in any essay to write about. These 2-4 things will comprise your body paragraphs. Follow the template in the link above for the first and last paragraphs. Remember that length is usually positively correlated with score (even MGMAT says this!).
Test Day
I did not sleep well at all the night before. I had been regularly sleeping 8 hours the weeks prior to my test date. However, I could only sleep in 2 3-hour bursts with a 3 hour break where I tried reading until I could get back to sleep. Oh well, on with the day. I woke up and showered and ate the same breakfast I'd tried during my previous practice tests: cereal with a banana. I was nervous in the 2 weeks leading up to the test and very nervous on test day.
Well, I drove to the test center (you should try a practice run, driving to the test location a week before the test). By this time, I had already started sweating and was quite nervous. I got to the test center and eventually got checked in. I tried being friendly and cordial to the other testers and the proctors--it helped! So, the test is beginning now. Before the AWA officially began, I wrote out the entire template from ChineseBurned on my notepad. This helped calm me down and I got through the essay. I was able to write 4 body paragraphs and thought I did a decent job. Next, I started the IR section. I got through the questions without much worry and was ahead of my 2.5mins/question for most of the IR. I was ahead of schedule and ready for my break! At this point, I was feeling pretty confident and the AWA & IR proved a good prep for the rest of the test.
I had some trail mix and some gatorade during the break. Make sure to moderate how much you eat (need to use the facilities during the test will mean you lose precious time and your concentration). Now, the Quant section begins. As I progressed through it, some questions bogged me down but I was, in general, ahead of time. However, as I progressed, I noticed some really easy questions and by the end, I figured I'd done so poorly that I'd blown it and gotten a poor Q score. Oh well--in a way, this thinking helped me since I calmed down and figured I wasn't going to do well anyway. What do I have to lose? I felt this way throughout the Verbal part. I was pretty confident of my answers, but with such poor performance, I couldn't possibly score above 700 right? Then, all of a sudden, I was done and still had a few minutes left. I clicked submit, accepted my fate and looked at my score. What?? 740? Wow, I was so thrilled to be done. I did a few small celebrations at my desk and held up my hand to go. My journey was finally over and I'd get my AWA score soon. I could celebrate at home and finally take a break. My 3 month journey of studying was over and I could get on with my life.
I hope this helps your journey. Please contact me/PM me if you have any questions. Done and dusted!
Firstly, thanks to everyone at GMAT Club, especially bb, Bunuel and the rest of the experts. GMATClub has a great wealth of information and resources that helped me get through my GMAT journey. I certainly utilized many aspects of this in achieving my score. I'm so glad to be done with the pesky GMAT and I want to share my experience. Please feel free to PM with any queries as I know I've done to get some extra bits of info. I'll try to keep this as informationally dense and free of fluff as possible. Short version is below, followed by an in-depth review.
Short Version
Materials Used
Various GMAT question of the day sites (GMATClub, Beat the GMAT, etc)
GMAT Club (really good Quantitative and Verbal books compiled by the experts here)
Official Guide, 13th Edition
Official Guide to the Verbal, 2nd Edition
Official Guide to the Quant, 2nd Edition
MGMAT Guides 6-9 (Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Correction and Integrated Reasoning & Essay)
What I recommend (short version)
-Use the MGMAT guides for the verbal
-Make sure to have a solid plan to tackle each of the three types of verbal questions (and each specific type of question for the three types)
-Use the OGs to practice questions
-Practice every week with a set schedule
-Definitely take one day off every week
-Take 3-6 practice tests
-Sleep 8 hours in the week(s) prior to the test date
-Eat the same things on test day as you have during practice tests (I suggest trail mix and a gatorade)
What didn't help me
-Error log (lots of people swear by this, but it didn't help me); I just took note of general topics that I struggled with
-Studying without breaks (I did get burned out about 3 weeks before my test); take breaks!
Long Version
Practice CATs
1. GMAT Pill Practice Test 1: 670 (Q43. V39)
I woke up with a headache and felt quite sluggish and lethargic throughout the test. I was up late the night before
.2. GMAT Pill Practice Test 2: 730 (Q49. V41)--slight overlap
I was quite happy that I had finally broke the 700 barrier. I was feeling pretty good, no headache and pretty alert throughout the test.
3. GMATPrep Practice Test 1: 740 (Q50, V40)
Woot! 700+ on an actual GMAT simulation really boosted my confidence.
4. GMATPrep Practice Test 2: 760 (Q51, V41)
Again, score 700+ on a practice test and I was feeling great. I knew I couldn't stay up the night before, but I did need to relax.
5. Kaplan Cat 1: 710 (Q50, V36)
I was quite nervous in switching away from GMAT. I didn't feel great about the test, as a whole, and underperformed in the Verbal part. However, from what I have read, Kaplan scores are usually lower.
6. GMATPrep Practice Test 1 Retake: 770 (Q51, V42)--significant overlap with both previous GMATPrep Tests
At this point, I was burned out and it was 1 week before my test. It didn't help that I got very few new questions, but at least I know what it was going to take for a stellar score.
7. Official GMAT: 740 (Q49, V41), IR 7 and AWA 6
Whoo! I'm done... finally.
Verbal Prep
I knew this was my weak point and found that the MGMAT and OG books were most recommended. On my first read through the MGMAT books, I was careful to read and take pretty detailed notes. All the MGMAT books contain great strategies to tackle each of the three verbal sections and ways to use time more efficiently. If you have any weaknesses in verbal, first read through the MGMAT or any guide books you prefer. Then and only then (with some solid strategies that you're going to use) should you tackle some questions. This is where the OG and OG Verbal (and other questions, such as those from GMAT Club) comes in handy. Go through the questions and make sure to understand you're getting correct answers for the right reasons and why you're missing the other questions.
CR: It really helps to understand how to handle each type of critical reasoning question. Have a solid plan ready and be able to implement it.
RC: Use some sort of passage mapping technique to effectively summarize the reading passages. Know how to weed out incorrect answers (especially on the main topic questions). OG comes in really handy for this.
SC: As with CR, make sure to understand how to identify the splits in each sentence and understand what kind of error is in each sentence (parallelism, modifiers, etc). It helps to be familiar with a good number of idioms.
Quant Prep
Math was always easier for me, but practice always helps. For the higher level questions, there's no real good guide. You can try going through the small sections in any book, but the Math book that GMAT Club has published is solid: gmat-math-book-87417.html. I highly recommend that everyone reads all the chapters and work on the list of problems for each topic. Personally, absolute values, inequalities and probability and combinations were my weak points. After going through all of these, I went through all the OG math questions and some of the OG Quant questions. Be sure to identify your weak points and strengthen them. Remember that you're probably only going to get a few questions on any given topic.
IR Prep
Bah, its hard to really prep for the IR. Also, I always seemed to be pressed for time in this section. To be honest, the best way to prepare is to do practice tests and be very careful about reading the questions and instructions diligently.
AWA Prep
All I did was to memorize ChineseBurned's guide to the AWA: how-to-get-6-0-awa-my-guide-64327.html. GMAC's website has a list of all 141 official topics for the AWA (these don't change), but its a massive waste of time to write out a practice essay for each of these. If you really need to, read through some samples: awa-compilations-109-analysis-of-argument-essays-86274.html. Bottom line is this: every essay prompt is flawed and you should be able to identify 2-4 things in any essay to write about. These 2-4 things will comprise your body paragraphs. Follow the template in the link above for the first and last paragraphs. Remember that length is usually positively correlated with score (even MGMAT says this!).
Test Day
I did not sleep well at all the night before. I had been regularly sleeping 8 hours the weeks prior to my test date. However, I could only sleep in 2 3-hour bursts with a 3 hour break where I tried reading until I could get back to sleep. Oh well, on with the day. I woke up and showered and ate the same breakfast I'd tried during my previous practice tests: cereal with a banana. I was nervous in the 2 weeks leading up to the test and very nervous on test day.
Well, I drove to the test center (you should try a practice run, driving to the test location a week before the test). By this time, I had already started sweating and was quite nervous. I got to the test center and eventually got checked in. I tried being friendly and cordial to the other testers and the proctors--it helped! So, the test is beginning now. Before the AWA officially began, I wrote out the entire template from ChineseBurned on my notepad. This helped calm me down and I got through the essay. I was able to write 4 body paragraphs and thought I did a decent job. Next, I started the IR section. I got through the questions without much worry and was ahead of my 2.5mins/question for most of the IR. I was ahead of schedule and ready for my break! At this point, I was feeling pretty confident and the AWA & IR proved a good prep for the rest of the test.
I had some trail mix and some gatorade during the break. Make sure to moderate how much you eat (need to use the facilities during the test will mean you lose precious time and your concentration). Now, the Quant section begins. As I progressed through it, some questions bogged me down but I was, in general, ahead of time. However, as I progressed, I noticed some really easy questions and by the end, I figured I'd done so poorly that I'd blown it and gotten a poor Q score. Oh well--in a way, this thinking helped me since I calmed down and figured I wasn't going to do well anyway. What do I have to lose? I felt this way throughout the Verbal part. I was pretty confident of my answers, but with such poor performance, I couldn't possibly score above 700 right? Then, all of a sudden, I was done and still had a few minutes left. I clicked submit, accepted my fate and looked at my score. What?? 740? Wow, I was so thrilled to be done. I did a few small celebrations at my desk and held up my hand to go. My journey was finally over and I'd get my AWA score soon. I could celebrate at home and finally take a break. My 3 month journey of studying was over and I could get on with my life.
I hope this helps your journey. Please contact me/PM me if you have any questions. Done and dusted!
28 Dec 2014, 14:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
Great job and congratulations! Glad you were able to include GMAT PILL tests during your study sessions. Looks like the final results weren't too far off...definitely good to be on the higher side of your range.
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