Hi guys, I have just received my official GMAT report from the test I took 3 days ago IN THE TEST CENTER in Frankfurt. I scored 730 (Q49, V41, IR 8, 5.0 AWA) and I'd love to share my experience with you? Preparation Review Step 1: overall schedule: I took the decision to prepare for GMAT end of February and started out straight away. I did not have a week-by-week plan, but from day one I did track my progress, my mistakes and scheduled the areas/books I need to master for each next week. My aim was to have passed GMAT by mid-June to allocate enough time for preparing my R1 applications. Step 2: baseline, aim and books: I took the first GMATprep test before starting any preparation and got my baseline of 630. I am neither a native speaker nor a math genius but I felt straight away the exam is very doable for me. As I am pursuing some of M7 business schools I decided that I should score around 730 points (seemed to be their mean/average) to have a solid score allowing me to focus on further key parts of my application. I had to improve both my Quant and verbal. In my study plan I concluded that I should master the basic content (OGs) within the first 6-8 weeks and allocate the rest of time for advanced concepts. I found the overviews of best resources for preparation on GMATclub invaluable for seeking the best sources for me. It saved me a great deal of time! I ordered some books, downloaded apps and printed out flash cards and started my GMAT journey? Resources I used: OGs Magoosh App was my studying guide number 1. I cannot thank the authors enough for their work. I used to write down the least obvious information and tricks in my notepad, which I was occasionally reviewing. This notepad turned into my tailored GMAT guide:) Critical Reasoning Bible by Powerscore - to improve my CR performance, which seemed to be my weakest part. Advanced Quant by Manhattan Prep - to boost my Quant score. I absolutely loved the advice on guessing & cutting corners - this has proven immensely important during the test! MGMAT guides. I read all the guides in the last 2-3 weeks before the test when I already mastered most of the content. I enjoyed the materials as they were a proper mix of theory review & practice for the final part of my GMAT journey. GMATNinja webinars on Youtube - I loved the advanced ones! It also felt nice to see a live person during these quarantine times, so go ahead and watch the webinars if you feel lonely Step 3: studying As mentioned, I worked full time, which was also a very stressful period at work. Nevertheless, I knew that I am not a kind of person, who can stay highly motivated for a long period of time - call me a sprinter - this is why I planned to give the first try end of May already. As a result, I committed to myself to study every day as well as on most of the weekends. What helped me to survive : Switching between alternate ways of studying: lectures by Magoosh while doing household routine like ironing, jotting down key tricks and using colorful stickers (sorry, girly stuff), exercising with OGs, reading advice by VeritasPrep & the Economist GMAT on overall strategies etc. When I was too tired of GMAT I read business books & listened to admission webinars in order to still make use of my free time. I also found it vital to exercise & spend time outdoors regularly in order not to depress my body physically. All these alternations helped me to stay motivated and I kept my good mood throughout the whole preparation time. Step 4: work with mistakes & performance analysis I had issues with pacing so I took the prep test every weekend and thoroughly analyzed my performance every time. I always tried to extract some behavioral patterns of mine, typical mistakes, overall progress, tested various recommended strategies to verify whether they worked for me (because guess what, not every recommendation works for everyone). I used GMAT official prep tests and found them a very accurate in their prediction of my final score. I loved Veritas (just 17USD for so many tests!!) & Kaplan tests for how detailed the analysis of my performance (timing, topics, etc.) they provided was - GMAT official prep is rather plain in this regard. While working with OGs I marked the questions answered incorrectly with sticky notes and came back to review them during the last days of preparation. Same applied for prep test mistakes, which I entered in the mistakes log book. I absolutely excluded the option to take an online GMAT for the reasons you guys all know. I was happy to find out that the testing centers open in Germany from May 15, and found a free slot at 8am on May, 22 I actually studied a lot during the last week because I felt it kept me fit! I read the sentence correction book of MGMAT 3 days before the exam because I though I better store this amount of information in my short memory ? Again, anything I write was only tailored to me by me because I know my strengths and how my brain works. I encourage you to also consider your own character and behavioral patterns when you strategize for GMAT. Test review I followed the advice to wake up early in the week before the test to prepare my brain for working out GMAT at 8. In fact, it only made me more tired? I am a very emotional person and falling asleep fell hard several nights in a row before the exam. As I felt still sleepy the morning of the exam I took the decision to switch the initially planned order of sections (Q, V, IR, AWA) and start with AWA to give my brain a chance to wake up while writing . This plan worked perfectly Test conditions: I had to wear a mask for all 3,5 hours of exam. It was hot in the room and breathing was indeed not that easy. I eventually pulled my mask down a little to keep the nose open. I was grateful to administrators for they did not prevent this and even opened the windows to let in some fresh air from time to time. Test takers had to take distance from each other even during the pause. Only every second computer was taken - this was a positive side as it was very calm during the exam! Moreover, administrators put a second erasable notepad on the chair nearby and instructed us to simply switch the notepads once full without calling for an administrator. Seems like it saved a couple of seconds! What worked worked well on Quant: By the time I was done with my studies I still had some issues with timing, which I knew may be even more dangerous during the test as I tend to be overcautious when on the spot. So as a compromise with myself I clearly decided, which questions I skip in Quant without even trying: this was a DS inequalities category. This simple inner pre-negotiation was really helpful as I did not struggle with "should I may be give it a try" during the test. After first 8-9 questions (which were all answered correctly as I saw later in the enhanced report) the questions got way more complicated and something caused me to panic. I normally know clearly how to solve a task in Quant - I might be too slow but it was almost never happening that I felt not well equipped to crack a question. I was losing confidence question after question and felt my mind getting more and more blurred I removed the headset to get rid of the weird vacuum, I closed my eyes, I breathed slowly for 20 or so seconds - this technique is well described in MGMAT Guide 0. This saved me! I opened my eyes and attacked the questions. My enhanced score showed just 56% success rate in this second part when I lost control, while in the 3rd and the 4th part I climbed back to 90% success rate! What worked well on Verbal: The popular advice to write down RC summaries worked perfectly for me. Yes, this does cost a great deal of time but you easily win it back by being able to answer the paragraph-related questions really fast. I answered all but 1 RC questions correctly even though the texts where far from easy. Cramping on SC in the last days also worked well for me - I literally remembered most of idioms on the test day. As a result, I scored 41 in Verbal while all prep test did not show anything better than 39. One mistake of mine was not skipping some ambiguious CR questions - I am almost sure I answered them wrong even after taking probably 4 mins on a couple of them. I could have made a better use of this time towards the end of the test. I had to have agreed with my self on some skipping in Verbal in advance, similar to what I did for Quant? Summary: with the test centers opening, prepare for enhanced safety measures and some strange rules. There are certainly positive sides because of lower density of test takers, so anyway enjoy your unique position and experience. As for the preparation itself, my only recommendation would be not to try to fit into someone's shoes. Try as many strategies as you can and decide what fits your brain, your character, your state of mind better! If you are a fast learner - learn fast, if you are a diligent marathon runner - do the 1 year perfect preparation! Watch the reactions of you brain very closely and be mindful of your individual patterns. There is nothing more enjoyable than doing YOUR things in YOUR way and seeing it leading you to a good result. Thanks GMAT club for being a bible in this GMAT journey for me!!

Last visit was: 18 Nov 2025, 21:34

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GMAT Experience in the Test Center during COVID-19

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11 Dec 2020, 11:49

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thatolga93

Very honestly: I'd skip (guess) this one. It takes a lot of mental power to even understand the question (weaken the force of the evidence - omg) and looks like a perfect question to waste 4-5 minute, which can be better spent otherwise, in my opinion.

Sorry to barge in 😂 but very interesting point. A question I have immediately - did you see anything as hard as this question on your test?

I did not skip any questions on my Gmat but I don’t think I have seen one this hard.

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thatolga93

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11 Dec 2020, 11:57

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thatolga93

There were definitely some tricky CRs but nothing in the form of this, in my view, untraditional question stem. In some mocks I did (I guess Veritas, do not remember about the official tests anymore), they give you the analysis of the time you spend on each question. I saw that I wasted A LOT of time on some 1-2 irritating CRs in each test and found out: if I do not understand a question right away, I'll fail to answer. Dwelling on it barely brings anything - I am not a hen, and it's not an egg😃 So, I started skipping those from the first sight, and this led to me getting more time for SC & RC. This was one of the crucial strategies to climb from my plateau of V38-9.

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13 Dec 2020, 07:55

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Congrats on the awesome score !! And a huge congratulations for getting into HBS AND Stanford!!

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