Long Debrief - 710 (Q47 | V39) First Attempt

Hi All,

After taking the GMAT this Saturday and obtaining a surprising score, I am glad to say that my journey is over! Since I’m one of those gmatclub lurkers, I thought I should share my somewhat bizarre experience if any of it could possibly help someone out there.

Preparation

I’ll preface by saying that I've never been good at standardized tests so my entire experience was very "trial-by-error". For the most part, I relied on the official GMAT software and this site, though certainly referenced other sites as well (Manhattan, Kaplan, ect). I considered taking courses but decided to take a stab at it by myself first. My total amount of time spent studying was around 80 hours but I didn’t have a set schedule and studied in spurts, which worked better for me. After taking my first practice exam in May, I scored a 630 - probably quite average for a native English speaker with a heavily qualitative background. Three months before my exam, I buckled down to take every free practice CAT that I could get my hands on, and consistently scored in the 630-650 range. In between, I studied topics and individual problems to fill in knowledge gaps but by the last month, I was beginning to lose focus and hope for improvement. Based on my experience, I knew I had two main hurdles: timing and Quant.

Test Day

The week before, I told myself that my goal was not to study but to maintain a regular sleep schedule so that my brain would be clear the day of the exam. On Saturday, I got up at 8:15am per usual, ate some French toast and yoghurt, went outside for a quick 1-mile speed walk, came back and finished breakfast, showered and got ready, watched some youtube to keep myself relaxed, and left at 10:30am for the test center. I had visited a week before 1) to make sure that I wouldn’t get lost and 2) to gauge the room temperature so I could dress comfortably. I arrived an hour before my scheduled exam at 12pm to avoid any logistical issues or last minute surprises. I looked over a few formulas but refrained from using too much brain power. It took only five minutes to get registered and seated at my computer.

AWA

Prior to the actual GMAT, I had never taken an entire test with all 4 sections, or even IR/Q/V without at least a couple of pauses. I had only written one practice essay before I felt good about writing and needed all the time I could get to study Quant. Coincidentally, the prompt I got was very similar to the practice one I had answered which was helpful. However, I still used up all 30 minutes to write the four paragraphs just to be safe.

IR

I bombed this section due to my own lack of preparation because I frequently left it out in my Quant/Verbal runs. Not recommended. I was doing okay until the third question (one of those with 3 tabs) – I read it three times but my brain refused to process anything. I froze for 3 minutes, knowing it would also be relevant to the next two questions. My eyes darted to the clock. I had to make a choice. Guess, or waste more time. So I guessed randomly for questions 3, 4, and 5. My brain wasn’t in the zone for the rest of the section. I took a 7 minute break and stretched/walked around.

Quant

This was the make or break section. Quant was always my worst nightmare, especially Data Sufficiency where I would consistently miss 50-75% of questions during practice tests. I kept running out of time after trying to work through every detail and every step of each math problem, even ones I didn’t understand at all. This did NOT work for me since I am not naturally inclined at detailed calculations, and seem to do better when I look at the big picture logically. After another 3 minute question, I reverted to guesstimation out of sheer desperation to beat the clock. This may sound silly but I literally visualized the relationship between any two variables in my mind, imagining one number increasing while another decreased, and seeing how they changed together like in a video animation. That helped with making quick educated guesses on most DS questions (especially for geometry and ratios) without having to write anything down. For PS questions, I looked at the answers first, particularly at the last digit of each answer. I stuck with small, easily dividable and multipliable numbers when I absolutely had to plug in numbers. I had to let go of doing precise math and stick to estimates and short cuts which was not what I was used to at all (ex. multiplying by 3 instead of 3.14). I was surprised to find that that would land me close enough to one of the answer choices to where I could pick it and stop trying to get hung up on overanalyzing it. However, I was still only about 50% sure of what I was doing. If I saw a problem type I was really weak at and I knew I’d waste time on, I literally didn’t read it and hit a random answer. Next. The downside to this less than scientific approach was that I was literally guesstimating on half the Quant section. I thought to myself I would cancel my score and try a second time if I didn’t get at least 630. When it finally ended, I took a 4 minute break. I didn’t eat anything to avoid getting sleepy.

Verbal

I finally got fully in the zone when I started the Verbal section. The reading passages weren’t too technical so made for relatively easy reads. I read in detail first and jotted down bulleted notes as I went. Some were a bit tricky after I narrowed it down to two choices, but I picked one and moved on. Sentence Correction was always my “point-booster”, but it can be the toughest for non-native speakers. My best advice is this: You can reduce most SC sentences to around 10 words of “meat” and when you read in your head, only emphasize the words that are critical to the function and meaning of the sentence. Scope is important in Critical Reasoning – stick to exactly what the question is asking. Also, if there is an answer choice relating to mathematical terms like ratio or growth rate, that is far more likely to be the correct answer than one that does not, given what the GMAT is trying to test. Process of elimination and the “Which one of these is not like the other” game seemed to help me the most. I got a little behind on pacing towards the end and ended up guessing on a few, finishing with 15 seconds to spare.

I felt slightly better after Verbal but was just ready to get out of there by the end of the 4 hours. I hesitated at the score screen, afraid to look. When I finally did, my mouth dropped open. 710 - Q47 Quant? I stared at the screen for a while before raising my hand. The proctor sent me on my way and the lady at the front desk printed my score. I left the place with numbed legs. Just a week ago, I had scored only 640 on a practice test and five days later I jumped up 70 points! The only way I could make sense of what happened was that my estimation and visualization techniques worked for my brain, despite the months I spent telling myself that that was a terrible, unmethodical way to solve problems and should never be attempted. Ironically, it was the “no pause button” time pressure on the real test that forced me to look for shortcuts, guess when needed and think GMAT-style.

There are many brilliant GMAT experts on this site so I don’t know if I’m adding much here, but the most important thing I learned from my experience is to accept my own learning style even if it’s very different from the norm. (I gave myself such a hard time about this.) In hindsight, “trying it out by accident” on the real test is not something I’d recommend for anyone, but hopefully there’s a helpful message in my experience and others can try out some new methods in advance. It doesn’t matter how you solve it, whether by elimination, by algebra, by plug-in, by educated estimation, by visualization or by thinking in the test-maker’s shoes - do whatever clicks for you with the least amount of effort and don’t be afraid to get creative. This test is quite an interesting creature but I’m sure anyone can reach his or her highest potential with the right strategies and state of mind.

Thanks for reading and good luck with your GMAT journey!