GMAT Debrief: 710 Q48 V40

Hello everyone.

My whole journey to a MBA has been non traditional so I think it's fitting that my GMAT prep was non traditional as well. I just received my first acceptance so I thought I would share my GMAT experience. What I did is specific to my case and won't work for everyone but if you can even take away one helpful piece of information then that's great.

Background: I have a background in software development. I have 2 related core philosophies I live by and those are MVP(Minimum Viable Product) and 80/20. I used these concepts to design my GMAT prep. I started January 20th, 2017. I didn't have a lot of prep time because I had quite a few other things going on during this time so I had to make sure everything I did had a lot of impact.

Target: The first step of my GMAT plan was to figure out the minimum score I needed and when I needed it. With my non traditional background and the group of schools I was looking to get in to I set my goal at a score of 700 by March 31st. Due to limited time, I completed ignored the IR and AWA sections in my preparation as they aren't factored into the total score.

Approach: Before I designed my approach, I took the free GMAT practice exam offered by The Economist GMAT Tutor completely blind without any prep I scored 580. I had my starting point. My approach was a little different. I used the approach of taking the test in iterations. I figured I had enough time to take the GMAT Exam 4 times if necessary before the deadline I set.

The first official test was simply to get a feel for how the real test was going to be and to see where my score lined up compared to the practice tests. The second official test was going to be my first real test and I had time for 2 subsequent tests if necessary. This approach worked great for me because I didn't waste time preparing for things that just weren't relevant and knowing I had more opportunities to take the test I felt limited pressure during the exam. No matter how well you simulate a real exam at home it's still just a simulation.

Study Material: I only utilized official GMAC study material. I purchased 1 additional pack of practice exams from GMAC and 1 pack of Questions in addition to their free exams you get with the purchase of the test. I also purchased the enhanced score report for my first exam.

Test 1 January 28th. I scheduled my first test as soon as possible to just get a feel for the real exam. That was my sole goal here. I wasn't aiming for 700, I was aiming to get the best score I could get and absorb as much information about the exam and the exam process as I could to aid in my prep. I studied for this test for about 10 hours. That consisted solely of practice questions and practice exams. Anytime I ran into a mathematical concept I didn't understand I searched online for information about it. I largely ignored the Verbal section.

I scored 640 Q43 V35 IR6 AWA4.

Most important part though was what I learned from this exam.

1) I showed up 45 minutes early. My anxiety built as I waited around.
2) AWA section. I hated this section and I let it drain me mentally.
3) The questions themselves were quite a bit different than the practice exams and questions provided by GMAC. This threw me off, even though they were testing the same concepts I felt the practice questions and exams questions were all very similar to each other and you can tell they're from the same bank. The questions in the test itself just felt like they were written by a different person. This might have just been a perception issue with being in a different environment.
4) My pacing was awful - I had ran out of time on the IR section, I finished early on both the Quantitative and Verbal section by a large margin. I finished the Quant section with 25 minutes left and the Verbal with 10 minutes left.
5) The break is critical - I didn't take any breaks and it was really hard to mentally switch gears between sections.

Test 2 February 18. I scheduled my second test for 3 weeks later. Again I was planning on completing up to 4 iterations of this exam. Between Test 1 and Test 2 I changed my focus from just figuring out what the exam was about to now coming up with a strategy for the exam. I created(mostly borrowed from blogs and forums) specific strategies for each type of question in the test. Then I tested and tweaked these strategies against the practice questions and exams from GMAC. I will address these in their own section. I also came up with a plan of attack for the exam process itself based off my first experience. In total I spent about another 10-15 hours between these exams.

1) Showed up 10 minutes early
2) Ignored AWA. Write a quick couple paragraphs and just accept my fate of scoring low here.
3) Paced myself better - I watched the clock and checked every 5 minutes to make sure I was on schedule. I used the full time in the IR, Quant and Verbal sections and finished each section with inbetween 30 seconds and 2 minutes left.
4) For Quant and Verbal I wrote down numbers 1 to 5 and then put an x next to an answer after I eliminated it and I didn't reevaluate the eliminated answer unless all my answers got eliminated.
5) Took every break up to the full maximum time allotted. I took a break, took a quick drink, went to the washroom on one of the breaks and just used this time to clear my mind.

Success - I scored 710 Q48 V40 IR8 AWA3

I reached my goal so exam 3 and 4 were unnecessary.

Question Strategies

Sentence Correction - I used the 3/2 split technique and just focused on that. I started at the answers, found out what was different about them, assessed which one was correct and eliminated the ones that weren't. Then I kept splitting them till I got to 1 answer.

Reading Comprehension - I spent 4 minutes reading the passage before I answered the first question. I typically read it once fast, the second time slower and kept re-reading it till I reached approx 4 minutes. Then I eliminated the answers.

Critical Reasoning - I scored fairly high here in my enhanced score report for the first exam so I didn't bother with any strategies for this question type.

Data Sufficiency - I evaluated in this order
Is the first statement alone enough?
Is the second statement alone enough?
If both 1 and 2 were not sufficient alone I would evaluate if the 2 statements together were enough.

Problem Solving - In addition to spending significantly longer on each question. I also checked the feasibility on my answer after I initially selected it. I ended up catching a few wrong answers this way.

These are all pretty standard but I found the rest of the techniques out there to be an inefficient use of my prep time.

Tips

These tips are based off my takeaways from this whole process.

1) Don't book the exam too late in the day - For test 2 I booked 4 pm test time and by the end of the test it was hard to stay focused, I was yawning a lot for the last hour.
2) Prioritize your study time - Focus on what will give you the most impact first. You will likely get a similar level of score improvement from spending 10-20 hours figuring out test and question strategies vs 100+ hours of detailed question prep. That doesn't mean you shouldn't spend that 100+ hours of prep but figure out if you actually need it first.
3) Make sure you peak for the exam. Take a break for a few days before the exam but stay sharp and do a couple questions of each type at the hardest level each day. This worked well for me in Test 2
4) Take All the Breaks! This was critical to my success in the second test. These sections test different parts of your brain and this will help you switch over and avoid getting the first few questions wrong
5) Pace yourself accordingly! This was also critical to my success in the second test. You absolutely 100% need some kind of pacing strategy.
6) Don't be afraid to take the test multiple times, cancelled scores are not seen. You are going to invest 50-100k on a MBA school what's another $250 for a test? You can get a large variance over a small period of time so don't wait 3 months to book another test!

Main takeaway

Good Test and Question strategies will ensure you hit the ceiling of what score is possible. The traditional exam prep of reading huge books with tons of details will raise your ceiling. If you want something 750+ you likely have to do both! but test your ceiling first, it takes less time! You'd be surprised how high it is.