Rnol
Hello,
I’m new in the forum and in the GMAT process.
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you due to your solidarity and the willingness to share your knowledge of this beast called GMAT
I've decided to fight this beast three weeks ago, and to be honest, I didn’t know anything about this process. Thanks to you I’ve learned a lot!
As of today this is my plan:
1) Already bought the
GMAT Official Guide 2020 three weeks ago on mba official website for USD 79,95: 3 e-books (
GMAT Official Guide + Quantitative Review + Verbal Review)
2) I've started with
the Official Guide and so far this is my advance:
- I have spent 36,5 hours of study over the last 3 weeks (yes, I have an excel sheet with the record)
- The first 260 Quantitative problems (problem solving) I divided into groups of 31 questions and I solved them with a timer in order to know if two minutes for each question was enough (so far it isn’t).
Then, every time I finished the 31 questions set I check the answers and spend quality time on figured out my mistakes. When I finished the last set (this is the 260 problems), I reviewed again every question and identify which one I think are the hardest. I’m confident that a spent quality time in checking my mistakes and how to approach each question. In this context, the GMAT Club help me a lot because almost all the time the solution of the forum are more intuitive than the solutions of
the Official Guide.
Until today this is my advanced. My next steps would be:
3) Do the same thing with every Item of
the Official Guide (Data Sufficiency, Integrated Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, etc…). Once I finished with
the Official Guide, I would like to start with the Quantitative Official Review and then with the Verbal Official Review.
4) After I finished all the 3 e-books, I’m planning to try my first Test (I don’t know which ones and also I do not know the order. However I’m planning to do 6-7 prep test and leave the GMAT Prep test at last. I know there is info in other forum)
For each one of these 6-7 test, I’m planning to do the real thing (do it in the same schedule as the real GMAT, in front on a computer, etc…) And of course, checking my mistakes after I finished each one [One question, after doing a prep test you can see which questions did you get wrong? Sorry for the questions but I’m new in this
]
5) After this, I’m planning to sign for the real test
I’m aiming to the 700. One thing that has crossed my mind is, in the event on the first and second try I do not reach this score, the Kaplan Institute in my country have a 30-hours course in person especially for GMAT. I think this will help me a lot, however it is kind of expensive (USD 1200) so I’m not sure, but the GMAT is so important that depending of the situation maybe I will be willing to spend this amount if money (and depending of my wife’s approval… kidding
).
My profile:
a) I’m 31 years old, and I work in corporate finance.
b) Although I’m married and I work, I do not have children so it is easier for me to manage my study schedule.
c) I come from a country where English is not the official language so I’m a little scare for the verbal part.
d) I think I have time because I’m planning applying for an MBA on 2021.
(One final question: Why GMAT score is just about Quantitative and Verbal section? I read on a forum that the AWA section can be used for B-Schools to compare the essay of the application, and maybe that have sense, but what about Integrated Reasoning?)
I know this post is tooooo long!, but I truly believe GMAT is a life-changing decision and because of my weaknesses your help will be vital.
Thank you all for everything and I swear I won’t be bother you again (maybe not as much
)
Ohk I'll be upfront with you. Don't waste time in making excel sheet of the hours you've spent studying. It truly is a waste of time given that you get online access to all the
OG material, on gmat.wiley.com. The metric option takes care of that for you.
Secondly, AWA is a cut off factor, if you have an AWA of 4.5 or 5, no one cares even if you get a 6. Something like that goes for IR, the rejection factor, if it comes to the Adcom that a tie between few candidates is creating an issue, they'll use IR as a rejecting factor. I've seen two 720 scorers dinged for the same reason.
Now regarding the practice.
Make sure that you learn every concept in
OG properly, Sentence correction can be an issue in which you could benefit from courses such as Jamboree, Empowergmat, manhattan, or
magoosh.
DONOT USE THE REVIEW
Wait don't get me wrong, what I'm trying to say is that it is official material that you'll need to attain momentum before test. So after you're done with
OG, take GMAT Prep test 1, remember, you have 6 tests ( empowergmat gives you all the tests codes for free for subscription, jamboree gives 2). Make sure before you give the test to pace yourself and not to pause anywhere in between the tests. As soon as you get the score, You'll receive a sectional score and the chart of all questions (I'd not suggest you to see soultion if your score is less than 600. If your score is above 600, buy the practice questions from the mba store(official site). It will help you prepare more. Then after 5-6 days give test 2, check your progress. If the score goes near 660- 680, time to gain the momentum, START THE REVIEW BOOKS, keep practising and finish it within a week or so. After it's over take test 5, don't be disappointed if you get a lower score than 700, the quant is essentially more daunting than test 1. Brush up your concepts in 2 days, give test 6, you'll probably reach a 700.
Now before giving test 3&4, give all the unofficial mocks, not to improve score but to improve speed. DO NOT CARE ABOUT UNOFFICIAL TEST SCORES.
If you're not confident revise the review phase again
Give test 3 and see where you stand.
If you're happy with the scores book a test date 7 days from then
Brush up for two days give test 4.
Now if you're ready to give the tests, just review all the questions of the test, see where you went wrong.
I suggested not to see solutions of tests initially because you might repeat those tests again if you're still not ready. And when questions repeat, your score inflates. So its better to be safe than sorry.
Sorry for a long answer.
If you really think that my post has helped you even partly, a gratitude in form of like/kudos is much appreciated
Rnol