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Today (June 1st) I took the test and was super relieved to see 770 (Q51 V44 IR8 edit: AWA 6) pop out the other end! Marks the end of about three and a half months of preparation. I wanted to share my experience and recommend GMATClub Tests for anyone wanting to get that Q51.
Background
I'm a senior completing a 4-year Bachelor's/Master's program at a top 25 university. I'm taking this test in preparation for business school applications after 2-3 years at a MBB firm.
Books and Materials
Length of Study
I did a total of about 3.5 months of study of varying intensity. The first 5 weeks were pretty regular; I did questions every day. From there until the end, I lightened up pretty seriously. I did a practice test every so often and did a GMATClub Test Quantitative CAT once a week. In these last two weeks, I didn't do a single bit of preparation. This made me really nervous this morning as I walked in.
Practice Tests
I did the 6 MGMAT tests and 1 GMAC software test. My scores were: 600 -> 660 -> 680 -> 710 -> 710 -> 760 -> 770. It was a bit surprising to see this considering how little prep I was doing at the end.
Test Day
Again, I was incredibly nervous on the way down. I ate too much for breakfast, got major motion sickness on the train down (threw up in a trash can as soon as I got off), then had huge digestive issues during the test. Definitely not cool. I also hadn't seen a single GMAT question in two weeks. I didn't practice IR a single bit and I flipped out when I saw the essay question (forgot that existed...oops).
So I did the essay and IR part, which was fine I guess, and promptly went to the restroom. I destroyed the toilet and somehow got a huge boost of confidence from that. I started the math section right after, and here's where the post title comes in.
You know how you can kind of sense the difficulty of the questions?
For some reason, in the middle of the quant section, the questions were getting super, super easy. Like '10% of 10% = ?' type of easy. As each question passed, I started thinking "Dang I missed so many in the first 10...Shoot...I guess I'll have to retake this in August". I started planning my summer around the second test, was debating whether or not to cancel, etc. Literally none of the questions I'd been seeing were as hard as I thought they were supposed to be. And every time I clicked an answer, I always thought I was missing something.
Turns out that doing GMATClub Test CATs over and over will do that to you. Certainly not all questions are going to be insanely hard like the ones in that resource. For that, I thank GMATClub Tests. I'm a huge fan of "trial by fire", and given that I knew all the content (having ignored all the content in MGMAT, Magoosh, OG, etc.) I just needed some really damn hard questions to show me different ways they could show up.
But I finish despite thinking that I'd completely went off mark. Went towards the verbal section and proceeded as normal. The verbal section was in line with my practice, so I felt a little better about that part.
770 shows up, I yell a bit and nearly get pulled out of the testing center.
Tips and Tricks
GMATClub Tests. Seriously. I cannot recommend that enough. Looking back, I seriously would have just skipped OG, the full set of MGMAT books save for 1 book and Magoosh. Throw all that out, save a couple hundred bucks, read the GMATClub Math Book and just practice GMATClub Tests all day.
Jeeze.
Background
I'm a senior completing a 4-year Bachelor's/Master's program at a top 25 university. I'm taking this test in preparation for business school applications after 2-3 years at a MBB firm.
Books and Materials
- Official Guide - Took the diagnostic test and didn't miss a question, so I didn't pay attention to this as closely as I probably should have
- Magoosh - The super hard questions are nice, and the explanations were great, but I didn't get anything from the video content
- Full set of MGMAT books - I flipped through the content, but I honestly didn't pay attention to them and just used them for the tests.
- GMATClub Tests - This one is different. Highly, highly recommend. My math score EXPLODED after I bought this. More on this in a bit.
Length of Study
I did a total of about 3.5 months of study of varying intensity. The first 5 weeks were pretty regular; I did questions every day. From there until the end, I lightened up pretty seriously. I did a practice test every so often and did a GMATClub Test Quantitative CAT once a week. In these last two weeks, I didn't do a single bit of preparation. This made me really nervous this morning as I walked in.
Practice Tests
I did the 6 MGMAT tests and 1 GMAC software test. My scores were: 600 -> 660 -> 680 -> 710 -> 710 -> 760 -> 770. It was a bit surprising to see this considering how little prep I was doing at the end.
Test Day
Again, I was incredibly nervous on the way down. I ate too much for breakfast, got major motion sickness on the train down (threw up in a trash can as soon as I got off), then had huge digestive issues during the test. Definitely not cool. I also hadn't seen a single GMAT question in two weeks. I didn't practice IR a single bit and I flipped out when I saw the essay question (forgot that existed...oops).
So I did the essay and IR part, which was fine I guess, and promptly went to the restroom. I destroyed the toilet and somehow got a huge boost of confidence from that. I started the math section right after, and here's where the post title comes in.
You know how you can kind of sense the difficulty of the questions?
For some reason, in the middle of the quant section, the questions were getting super, super easy. Like '10% of 10% = ?' type of easy. As each question passed, I started thinking "Dang I missed so many in the first 10...Shoot...I guess I'll have to retake this in August". I started planning my summer around the second test, was debating whether or not to cancel, etc. Literally none of the questions I'd been seeing were as hard as I thought they were supposed to be. And every time I clicked an answer, I always thought I was missing something.
Turns out that doing GMATClub Test CATs over and over will do that to you. Certainly not all questions are going to be insanely hard like the ones in that resource. For that, I thank GMATClub Tests. I'm a huge fan of "trial by fire", and given that I knew all the content (having ignored all the content in MGMAT, Magoosh, OG, etc.) I just needed some really damn hard questions to show me different ways they could show up.
But I finish despite thinking that I'd completely went off mark. Went towards the verbal section and proceeded as normal. The verbal section was in line with my practice, so I felt a little better about that part.
770 shows up, I yell a bit and nearly get pulled out of the testing center.
Tips and Tricks
GMATClub Tests. Seriously. I cannot recommend that enough. Looking back, I seriously would have just skipped OG, the full set of MGMAT books save for 1 book and Magoosh. Throw all that out, save a couple hundred bucks, read the GMATClub Math Book and just practice GMATClub Tests all day.
Jeeze.
01 Jun 2015, 21:23
Kudos
Bookmarks
I do not actually have many pointers to add here, but I want to reply because your story is hilarious. I appreciated your honesty, particularly regarding your mid-test "confidence boost." It sounds like you are a highly intelligent person who self-learns very effectively. I definitely think that some of the moves were a little risky (e.g. not studying for the 2 weeks prior to the test), but I'm happy that you were able to pull it off and that I was able to read this hilarious anecdote. One valuable thing that others can definitely take away from your story is the fact that you were still able to pull out an amazing score, even though things were not going exactly according to plan. You threw up in a trash can immediately prior to your test, you completely forget the AWA existed and were thus mentally jarred, and you thought that you were bombing the quant. But you did not give up or let it overly distract you from your mission, and as a result you pulled through and nailed it. It reminds me of that Mike Tyson quote, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." At some point during your test, the GMAT is going to punch you in the mouth. It's important to not lose your composure and continue pressing forward at that point, because you very possibly are doing well and will get a great score if you remain mentally composed.
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
02 Jun 2015, 21:40
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi and congrats for this great score. However, I couldn't find much direction about the material that really helped you "conceptually". You have mentioned a lot about "practice questions" (such as Magoosh and GMATClub Tests), but not much about the text material. I am slightly confused because it looks like you did not use much text material at all, since you mention that you "didn't get anything from the video content" in Magoosh and also, barely "flipped" MGMAT books.
Can you provide some pointers to this.
Can you provide some pointers to this.
