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It’s customary for people who do well on the GMAT to post an enthralling passage about their GMAT success. They outline good tips, briefly detail certain caveats, and highlight the importance of specific ‘must do’ things and methods. As I received a lacklustre score, I cannot really comment on how to ace the GMAT! Instead, I’m going to outline some of the things I did badly and through that process readers may recognise familiar mistakes and adjust their prep accordingly.
I sat the GMAT this week and received a score below that of my expectations. I scored a 640 Q43 V35 on a MGMAT CAT two days before the test so I was hoping for slightly better on test day. I put a lot of effort into my preparation, although it wasn’t the right type of preparation. I expended energy inefficiently, procrastinated too much, and focused on the wrong study methods. Reading this forum was helpful, but I didn’t get involved enough in the community to reap any significant benefits. It seems you only get out of it what you put into it. It’s easy to read through several debriefs and resonate extremely well with some of the ideas in them. However it is also very easy to do absolutely nothing about implementing what you’ve learned into your study plan. My score is nowhere near what I want, but I have no doubt that I can attain 700 the next time. If anything, my abysmal first-time result was a swift kick in the arse that reminded me how to study well and apply myself to a new test type.
I now know that timing is probably the most important aspect of preparation aside from learning the basics in Q and V. In the verbal section of the real exam, I found myself with 6m 49s left and 9 questions to go. I basically ended up guessing the last quarter of the verbal section, which included a seemingly long and difficult RC passage (a sign that I may have been doing quite well at that stage), two ‘bold sentence’ questions, and some other very doable looking SC questions. I felt very good about the first half of the verbal section but that feeling soon turned sour! Once you fall behind a certain amount of time in this exam, an immediate rectification is 100% necessary to score well. If you can’t do this, you’re dunzo! Those countless hours of study cannot convert your effort and hard work into results when you have no time left to answer questions.
What I did do
MGMAT math foundations guide – Highly recommended as a refresher if you’re rusty.
MGMAT 8 guide series – Highly recommended. Going through these books was very slow indeed but it’s easy to see the value of their content. After each chapter I did the problem sets and took mediocre notes. I reviewed each book twice throughout my prep and did the problem sets a second time also.
OG 12th Edition – It’s essential to get this to use with the MGMAT guides. I did every quant question twice and every verbal question once.
Printed and read a lot of study notes from the GMC - The AWA guide by Chineseburned, the CR guide by Whiplash , and a few others.
MGMAT quizzes for SC and CR – These question bank quizzes were good but I left it too late to do the other 6 quizzes.
Bought a two minute sand egg timer! - Unorthadox? Yes. Novel? Yes. Completely useless? Probably. Funnily enough, I used the egg timer when practicing OG quant questions to help develop a pseudo-intuitive subconscious atomic internal clock. I bet you didn’t think egg timers could do that. In all seriousness though, I used this for 4 weeks when practicing for quant and felt it helped me a lot. In the GMAT, I completed the quant section in the allotted time. On the other hand, I didn’t use the timer for any verbal practice and completely ran out of time. I’m obviously not saying the reason for the difference is the timer, but there’s a good chance that any timer related training would have helped.
Things I didn’t do, but almost definitely should have
I didn’t write enough - I read the SC guide properly just once. I also didn’t take the best notes. I’ve never been able to learn something very well without doing a lot of writing. I also should have read the SC guide another 3 or 4 times. To prove how truly ineffective simply reading verbal guides is:
8/31 - First practice MGMAT CAT - not timed (590 - Q42 V30)
At this point I had gone through all the quant guides and did all of the questions. I had not done any verbal work at this point. I was just testing to gauge my Q.
9/20 - Second MGMAT CAT - not timed (540 – Q35 V30)
I studied the verbal guides exclusively for two weeks and the result was shocking. I had completed every guide’s problem section and associated OG questions. I nearly died when I saw the result. I expected my Q to drop as I had not studied it since 8/30 but the V30 served as a harsh wake up call.
I didn’t use the SC GMAT Pill properly – Apologies to Zeke for the terrible verbal score but I can safely say that I didn’t use this tool properly. In my last few days of preparation I watched the videos again and realised how much they could have helped me. I can’t wait to utilise this tool in its entirety during my next GMAT preparation. I may also be purchasing the data sufficiency pill. Deciding on an approach to solve questions is something I want to work on and the video tutorials are great.
I didn’t maintain an Error log – I found the idea of maintaining an excel based error log overly time consuming and unnecessary. This is coming from the guy who just got 610, so you should probably just suck it up and do one. For those of us who cringe at the thought of this, it may be an idea to buy new OG’s and a few highlighters. As you go through questions, from day one, mark each question with red, orange, or yellow depending on how difficult you perceive it to be. Do this for 5 or so weeks and you will have a colour coded map of questions with associated difficulty levels prominently displayed. This effectively acts as a filter before you move on to the excel based error log! The reds are your problem areas so they should get the error log attention from that point until GMAT day. Keeping an error log from day 1 is quite daunting so this may help alleviate the anxiety before starting one.
I didn’t take enough timed CATS - Timing was my Achilles heal and especially during the verbal section. Saying to yourself, ‘I’ll just do the real thing slightly quicker’ will not help at all. If you’re not comfortably completing each of the sections in the allotted 75 minutes, your strategy definitely needs improvement so don’t fool yourself! I took four MGMAT cats and one GMAT Prep Cat. Only three total CATS were timed.
I didn’t attack my weak areas – I avoided Data Sufficiency like the plague. This subject was tricky for me. I skipped the rephrasing chapter in some of the MGMAT quant guides. This was a mistake. I was in denial about my abilities in this area. I’m convinced that only people who are gifted mathematically can solve more difficult DS questions in their head without proper question rephrasing. The next time around I will be attacking my DS weakness relentlessly. I watched and absolutely loved the Khan Academy DS videos. I found them a short time before the GMAT and proceeded to watch twenty of them in a row in one sitting. His approach is excellent and it really helps you understand how to approach various DS questions. If it weren’t for these videos, I’m sure my quant would have been lower in the real thing.
I didn’t allocate enough study time to the AWA section - I didn’t look at any AWA strategies until the night before the exam. Luckily, I found the Chineseburned template and read it a few times. The verdict is still out on the AWA so I’ll update this post with the result in due course. This preparation was laughable.
I didn’t engross myself in GMAT fiction or frequently read prior to the GMAT -Part of what slowed me down was my RC. I’m a native speaker and should not have had any problems in this area. I can get 90% of RC passages correct but the time taken to do so is unacceptable! I didn’t read many books, financial or medical publications during my prep. I should have done 5-15 RC questions a day in the month prior to the GMAT.
I didn’t engage in frequent physical activity - I’m an active person but the pressure of exams usually makes me anxious about doing anything else but study. I stopped playing sports and exercising which was a big mistake. Find a balance of study, social and physical activity. Improve your cardio at least. You want as much Oxygen as possible getting to the auld noggin during every step of the GMAT exam.
I didn’t keep my study material clean and legible - I should have kept my OG 12th edition cleaner. The second time I attempted the quant questions I noticed answers were marked, formulas were written beside questions, and pages were messy. It was annoying! Use a pencil and erase it if you must doodle/scribble on your books.
I didn’t do proper due diligence and I got cocky - I was all over the MBA aspect of my applications well before I should have been. I was convinced the GMAT was a mere formality in the application process. I have always done well at school/college/work and came to the conclusion that 700-720 sounded about right! Yeah, 700 minimum I reckoned. Little did I realise that the GMAT is a completely different animal altogether. Some aspects of the GMAT almost require you to think in a new way. This takes effort, patience and time.
I didn’t post enough - I learned how to play poker quite proficiently over the years through heavy participation in various poker forums. I am not sure why I thought I could skip this vital aspect of learning and development for the GMAT. Especially when the GMAT Club offers instant access to an expert, responsive, and passionate community. It is a method that personally works well for me so there is no excuse for my bad participation.
I didn’t use my own previous study experience to tailor my GMAT study approach - I thought that the more time I had off to prepare, the better. A lot of people will disagree I’m sure, but I found that too much time to study can prove to be a hindrance. I recently completed a difficult financial designation and flew through each of the exams. After work each weeknight I committed two hours to study; it was good study that was focused, planned, and efficient. I set aside 4-5 hours on weekend days also. I set a plan each week and comfortably met my study targets. Feeling these small but frequent study accomplishments are important to me. You need to feel like you are making progress because with each hour of study, you actually are. For my GMAT preparation, I had the entire summer off. Apart from the fact that I was in another country and looking for a job, there was still too much time. The abhorrent lack of urgency associated with such a prolonged period of time off did not help me whatsoever. I honestly believe I would have performed better if I had worked full time during my preparation. I seem to perform best under certain types of pressure. It is important to do a self audit of sorts to identify what lifestyle factors you can manipulate to evoke the best possible personal study behaviour. This could mean creating false deadlines for your self. For instance, make yourself complete one quant guide per week and attempt all of the questions while taking good notes. If you dig deep enough, you should be able to understand what makes you tick study-wise. I also find the simple act of telling people that you are studying or working towards something can give you more motivation to apply yourself. The more people you tell the better. Simply being held ‘accountable’ to study by family and friends will help motivate you.
I didn’t diversify my study - Mix the study up. I completed the 5 quant guides, and the additional foundations guide, in approximately 40-50 days. I started exclusively with maths and didn’t look at a single solitary verbal question. I should have mixed my study up. You need a balance for sure. The very essence of the GMAT requires you to develop an almost symbiotic relationship between Q and V in your mind. I don’t believe your study approach should be any different. For instance, I studied the geometry guide in mid July and didn’t see a rhombus again until I reviewed that guide again in late September! It’s very difficult to balance and monitor your progression in Q and V when you study only one of them at a time for weeks at a time. Basically, studying two topics is less monotonous and more interesting. Furthermore, it introduces you to the difficulties of simultaneously assimilating both Q and V information from the very beginning of your prep. In the future, I will alternate between the two sections every second day. Mon-Q, Tues-V, Wed-Q, and so on.
Sorry this is so long but I made a lot of mistakes! I’d appreciate any feedback and Kudos are very welcome!
Cheers
Rux10
I sat the GMAT this week and received a score below that of my expectations. I scored a 640 Q43 V35 on a MGMAT CAT two days before the test so I was hoping for slightly better on test day. I put a lot of effort into my preparation, although it wasn’t the right type of preparation. I expended energy inefficiently, procrastinated too much, and focused on the wrong study methods. Reading this forum was helpful, but I didn’t get involved enough in the community to reap any significant benefits. It seems you only get out of it what you put into it. It’s easy to read through several debriefs and resonate extremely well with some of the ideas in them. However it is also very easy to do absolutely nothing about implementing what you’ve learned into your study plan. My score is nowhere near what I want, but I have no doubt that I can attain 700 the next time. If anything, my abysmal first-time result was a swift kick in the arse that reminded me how to study well and apply myself to a new test type.
I now know that timing is probably the most important aspect of preparation aside from learning the basics in Q and V. In the verbal section of the real exam, I found myself with 6m 49s left and 9 questions to go. I basically ended up guessing the last quarter of the verbal section, which included a seemingly long and difficult RC passage (a sign that I may have been doing quite well at that stage), two ‘bold sentence’ questions, and some other very doable looking SC questions. I felt very good about the first half of the verbal section but that feeling soon turned sour! Once you fall behind a certain amount of time in this exam, an immediate rectification is 100% necessary to score well. If you can’t do this, you’re dunzo! Those countless hours of study cannot convert your effort and hard work into results when you have no time left to answer questions.
What I did do
MGMAT math foundations guide – Highly recommended as a refresher if you’re rusty.
MGMAT 8 guide series – Highly recommended. Going through these books was very slow indeed but it’s easy to see the value of their content. After each chapter I did the problem sets and took mediocre notes. I reviewed each book twice throughout my prep and did the problem sets a second time also.
OG 12th Edition – It’s essential to get this to use with the MGMAT guides. I did every quant question twice and every verbal question once.
Printed and read a lot of study notes from the GMC - The AWA guide by Chineseburned, the CR guide by Whiplash , and a few others.
MGMAT quizzes for SC and CR – These question bank quizzes were good but I left it too late to do the other 6 quizzes.
Bought a two minute sand egg timer! - Unorthadox? Yes. Novel? Yes. Completely useless? Probably. Funnily enough, I used the egg timer when practicing OG quant questions to help develop a pseudo-intuitive subconscious atomic internal clock. I bet you didn’t think egg timers could do that. In all seriousness though, I used this for 4 weeks when practicing for quant and felt it helped me a lot. In the GMAT, I completed the quant section in the allotted time. On the other hand, I didn’t use the timer for any verbal practice and completely ran out of time. I’m obviously not saying the reason for the difference is the timer, but there’s a good chance that any timer related training would have helped.
Things I didn’t do, but almost definitely should have
I didn’t write enough - I read the SC guide properly just once. I also didn’t take the best notes. I’ve never been able to learn something very well without doing a lot of writing. I also should have read the SC guide another 3 or 4 times. To prove how truly ineffective simply reading verbal guides is:
8/31 - First practice MGMAT CAT - not timed (590 - Q42 V30)
At this point I had gone through all the quant guides and did all of the questions. I had not done any verbal work at this point. I was just testing to gauge my Q.
9/20 - Second MGMAT CAT - not timed (540 – Q35 V30)
I studied the verbal guides exclusively for two weeks and the result was shocking. I had completed every guide’s problem section and associated OG questions. I nearly died when I saw the result. I expected my Q to drop as I had not studied it since 8/30 but the V30 served as a harsh wake up call.
I didn’t use the SC GMAT Pill properly – Apologies to Zeke for the terrible verbal score but I can safely say that I didn’t use this tool properly. In my last few days of preparation I watched the videos again and realised how much they could have helped me. I can’t wait to utilise this tool in its entirety during my next GMAT preparation. I may also be purchasing the data sufficiency pill. Deciding on an approach to solve questions is something I want to work on and the video tutorials are great.
I didn’t maintain an Error log – I found the idea of maintaining an excel based error log overly time consuming and unnecessary. This is coming from the guy who just got 610, so you should probably just suck it up and do one. For those of us who cringe at the thought of this, it may be an idea to buy new OG’s and a few highlighters. As you go through questions, from day one, mark each question with red, orange, or yellow depending on how difficult you perceive it to be. Do this for 5 or so weeks and you will have a colour coded map of questions with associated difficulty levels prominently displayed. This effectively acts as a filter before you move on to the excel based error log! The reds are your problem areas so they should get the error log attention from that point until GMAT day. Keeping an error log from day 1 is quite daunting so this may help alleviate the anxiety before starting one.
I didn’t take enough timed CATS - Timing was my Achilles heal and especially during the verbal section. Saying to yourself, ‘I’ll just do the real thing slightly quicker’ will not help at all. If you’re not comfortably completing each of the sections in the allotted 75 minutes, your strategy definitely needs improvement so don’t fool yourself! I took four MGMAT cats and one GMAT Prep Cat. Only three total CATS were timed.
I didn’t attack my weak areas – I avoided Data Sufficiency like the plague. This subject was tricky for me. I skipped the rephrasing chapter in some of the MGMAT quant guides. This was a mistake. I was in denial about my abilities in this area. I’m convinced that only people who are gifted mathematically can solve more difficult DS questions in their head without proper question rephrasing. The next time around I will be attacking my DS weakness relentlessly. I watched and absolutely loved the Khan Academy DS videos. I found them a short time before the GMAT and proceeded to watch twenty of them in a row in one sitting. His approach is excellent and it really helps you understand how to approach various DS questions. If it weren’t for these videos, I’m sure my quant would have been lower in the real thing.
I didn’t allocate enough study time to the AWA section - I didn’t look at any AWA strategies until the night before the exam. Luckily, I found the Chineseburned template and read it a few times. The verdict is still out on the AWA so I’ll update this post with the result in due course. This preparation was laughable.
I didn’t engross myself in GMAT fiction or frequently read prior to the GMAT -Part of what slowed me down was my RC. I’m a native speaker and should not have had any problems in this area. I can get 90% of RC passages correct but the time taken to do so is unacceptable! I didn’t read many books, financial or medical publications during my prep. I should have done 5-15 RC questions a day in the month prior to the GMAT.
I didn’t engage in frequent physical activity - I’m an active person but the pressure of exams usually makes me anxious about doing anything else but study. I stopped playing sports and exercising which was a big mistake. Find a balance of study, social and physical activity. Improve your cardio at least. You want as much Oxygen as possible getting to the auld noggin during every step of the GMAT exam.
I didn’t keep my study material clean and legible - I should have kept my OG 12th edition cleaner. The second time I attempted the quant questions I noticed answers were marked, formulas were written beside questions, and pages were messy. It was annoying! Use a pencil and erase it if you must doodle/scribble on your books.
I didn’t do proper due diligence and I got cocky - I was all over the MBA aspect of my applications well before I should have been. I was convinced the GMAT was a mere formality in the application process. I have always done well at school/college/work and came to the conclusion that 700-720 sounded about right! Yeah, 700 minimum I reckoned. Little did I realise that the GMAT is a completely different animal altogether. Some aspects of the GMAT almost require you to think in a new way. This takes effort, patience and time.
I didn’t post enough - I learned how to play poker quite proficiently over the years through heavy participation in various poker forums. I am not sure why I thought I could skip this vital aspect of learning and development for the GMAT. Especially when the GMAT Club offers instant access to an expert, responsive, and passionate community. It is a method that personally works well for me so there is no excuse for my bad participation.
I didn’t use my own previous study experience to tailor my GMAT study approach - I thought that the more time I had off to prepare, the better. A lot of people will disagree I’m sure, but I found that too much time to study can prove to be a hindrance. I recently completed a difficult financial designation and flew through each of the exams. After work each weeknight I committed two hours to study; it was good study that was focused, planned, and efficient. I set aside 4-5 hours on weekend days also. I set a plan each week and comfortably met my study targets. Feeling these small but frequent study accomplishments are important to me. You need to feel like you are making progress because with each hour of study, you actually are. For my GMAT preparation, I had the entire summer off. Apart from the fact that I was in another country and looking for a job, there was still too much time. The abhorrent lack of urgency associated with such a prolonged period of time off did not help me whatsoever. I honestly believe I would have performed better if I had worked full time during my preparation. I seem to perform best under certain types of pressure. It is important to do a self audit of sorts to identify what lifestyle factors you can manipulate to evoke the best possible personal study behaviour. This could mean creating false deadlines for your self. For instance, make yourself complete one quant guide per week and attempt all of the questions while taking good notes. If you dig deep enough, you should be able to understand what makes you tick study-wise. I also find the simple act of telling people that you are studying or working towards something can give you more motivation to apply yourself. The more people you tell the better. Simply being held ‘accountable’ to study by family and friends will help motivate you.
I didn’t diversify my study - Mix the study up. I completed the 5 quant guides, and the additional foundations guide, in approximately 40-50 days. I started exclusively with maths and didn’t look at a single solitary verbal question. I should have mixed my study up. You need a balance for sure. The very essence of the GMAT requires you to develop an almost symbiotic relationship between Q and V in your mind. I don’t believe your study approach should be any different. For instance, I studied the geometry guide in mid July and didn’t see a rhombus again until I reviewed that guide again in late September! It’s very difficult to balance and monitor your progression in Q and V when you study only one of them at a time for weeks at a time. Basically, studying two topics is less monotonous and more interesting. Furthermore, it introduces you to the difficulties of simultaneously assimilating both Q and V information from the very beginning of your prep. In the future, I will alternate between the two sections every second day. Mon-Q, Tues-V, Wed-Q, and so on.
Sorry this is so long but I made a lot of mistakes! I’d appreciate any feedback and Kudos are very welcome!
Cheers
Rux10
08 Oct 2010, 05:44
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thank you for this very detailed feedback.
