My experience from 560 to 740

Question

Official Test: Quant: 50, Verbal: 41, AWA: 6, IR: 7, Total: 740

Sorry for the length - suggestions and advice at the end!

Background 
  I’m 22 years old and graduated from a relatively prestigious university this past May with a degree in economics. I just started working for an industry specific consulting firm this September. 
 I had a few months off with not too much to do before work, so I decided to study and take the GMAT.  
 At heart, I’m a math person. I used to rarely read, if at all, and have done horrible on English tests and papers that I’ve written in school. This trend did not hold to be true on the GMAT.  
 I got prescribed Adderall pretty much specifically for the GMAT. I may have mild ADHD, but regardless, the drug really helped when I took it a few times in college, and so I got prescribed. It definitely helped some, specifically in getting focused at 4:45 AM to study, yet the drug does NOT automatically increase your score. Motivation is by far the most important factor.

Aspirations:  
  I really want to do general strategy consulting.  
 As for schools, I’m not too picky, except that I obviously want to go to a school that gives me the best possible chance of achieving said above, hence, top 5 or 10 school. I have 3 grandparents and an uncle who have degrees from Stanford, so who knows (probability I get into Stanford = .1%; my relatives haven’t donated much $). 
 Target Score – 730

Resources Used 
- Official Guide 12 (OG)
- Official Guide Verbal Review Edition (OGV)
- Official Guide Quant Review Edition (OGQ)
- Manhattan Whole Set…
- 10 New Actual LSAT preptests
- GMAT Prep
- GMAT Prep Question Pack
- GMAT Club website
- Manhattan Forum (for SC)
- Stacy Koprince Articles – specifically, Stacy’s are great articles. You should go through and bookmark them.

CAT scores:
Score: 560 - Manhattan CAT #1 – 7/3 – Q:41 (54%), V:27 (43%)
Total: 670 - MCAT #2 – 8/13 – Q:44 (63%), V:37 (81%) 
Total: 700 - MCAT #3 – 8/31 – Q:46 (71%), V:40 (90%) 
Total: 720, IR: 8 - GMAT Prep #1 9/15 (was familiar with a few quant q’s) 
Total: 670 - MCAT #4 – 9/28 – Q:46 (71%), V:35 (74%) 
Total: 700 - MCAT #5 – 10/5 – Q:47 (73%), V:38 (84%) 
Total: 750, IR: 8 - GMAT Prep – 10/12 (was familiar with one quant Q) 
Total: 740, AWA: 6, IR: 7, - Official Test – 10/19 - Quant: 50, Verbal: 41,

Studying Process 
I started studying in early June, and first read through all of the Manhattan books prior to working through the OG or doing a practice test. Do NOT do this. It’s nearly impossible for the material to resonate unless you’re actively doing lots of practice problems employing what you learned. If you’re going to read through all the books, make sure you also do problems of that problem type, either here on the GMAT forums, or by looking in the back of the Manhattan books for the problem section breakdown.
 
After studying for a bit, I was really struggling with stupid mistakes, time management, etc. The ‘process’ type things that you need to have 100% in check to score well. I thought that I knew the material fairely well, but was struggling enormously in the management section. The last month or so, I really focused on my ‘process,’ and cutting out all of the stupid mistakes/non-content errors ( I touch specifically on my ‘process’ used later). I made a huge mistake of focusing on learning the content early, but ignoring stupid mistakes and ways to master my technique of solving problems. I remember myself putting more stress on wrong problems that I missed because of lack of knowledge, compared with problems that I missed because of poor management. Do NOT do this – the whole entire time you study, focus on mastering the whole entire test.

My Test Day Experience 
I’m the type of person who likes doing problems right up to the test, so rather than going out to dinner and relaxing the night before, I did some practice problems and studied. Eventually, I got a few quant problems wrong that I shouldn’t have, got frustrated, and then stopped studying. I wasn’t going to get all wound up the night before the test. 
I calmly and quickly went to sleep around 11PM, with the test at 4PM the next day, and then woke to my roommates loudly coming back from the bars with a few girls at 2 AM. I was furious. I had to go downstairs, yell at them, and try to get back to sleep. My blood was pumping, mostly out of anger from pure disrespect. The last time I remember checking my phone was 4:05 AM.

Day of, I got a haircut – look good feel good – and reviewed a little bit, mainly focusing on my process (more later). I showed up to the test 30 minutes early, and to my surprise, started right then. I was expecting to start at the scheduled time, but if there are spots open, you can go whenever. Contrasting to what other GMAT takers have told me, the proctor made me turn my pockets inside out. I had Adderall that I planned on taking during breaks, and was debating if I should just put it in my pockets, or inside my pants. I went with the inside my pants and I was lucky I did – yes, I know the whole thing was stupid, but it worked out.

For food, drink, and drug, I had some nuts and 10mg Adderall before the test, an apple, 20mg of Adderall during the first break, and half a Gatorade, then some bar-type things and another 10mg of Adderall before Verbal. I also splashed some water, did some pushups, and stretched in between breaks. For me, the breaks were sufficient length – long enough to do everything you need, but short enough where you can’t didily dadle. Keep in mind, that the “8 minute” break is actually 6 minutes, because you have to palm print/scan every time you come back.

As someone who did not practice with the official pen & pad, I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the quality of the pens and the limited space of the pad. Twice during the test, I had to raise my hand, lose concentration and waste ~30 seconds to get new pens. I would constantly have to change the angle that I was writing at, just to make the marker work. It was really frustrating. You are given two markers – make sure NOT to leave the extra marker uncapped. It dries out extremely quickly. In addition, the overall length of the pad is extremely minimal. While studying, I made sure to keep very tidy scratch paper and left a good amount of space in between my work and problems, all in order to minimize mistakes. On the test, the last 4-5 problems I had to CRAM in between other problems that already did – multiple times flipping the pad to weird angles, boxing off small little corners, etc - just to fit in room to do the next problem. Yes, I could have raised my hand and gotten a new one, but I had already drawn out my ABCDE grid for the verbal section during the introduction, and I did not want to have to worry about that during my break.

In addition to the 8 minute break, you have a minute mini-break between each section. I was completely unaware of this, and I consequentially instantly hit the start IR button after my AWA, as I thought the IR timer was ticking. I was previously under the impression that IR starts immediately after AWA, this is not true. Utilize that 1 minute break.

The integrated reasoning section was very similar to the questions on the GMAT Prep. I think I did worse on thish section than I was hoping because I never really had the speed, intensity, and focus that’s necessary to excel on the IR section while taking the test. I went into the test dull and it hurt me. Also, keep in mind, the Manhattan IR problems are crazy hard when compared with the real GMAT IR problems.

As for the actual test material, it was very similar to the GMAT Prep problems; however, I was shocked by a few quant phrases that I had never seen during all of my preparation. Twice during the Quant section, the question specified that the variable was a “real number.” As a graduate who has taken math classes recently, I was fairly confident that a “real number” is really any number, integer or non, and after some thought, that’s what I went with on the test. My interpretation was correct, but I would have been extremely upset if I got two questions wrong purely because of a new phrase that I’ve never seen. Additionally, I had a probability DS question that asked about independence between two variables. Again, that was the first time I’ve seen something on that subject throughout my 4 month studying marathon, and again, I’m fairly confident I got that test question correct, but only because I took a semester on statistics a few years back.

There was one specific reading comprehension passage that I thought was impossible – definitely one of the hardest, if not the hardest, that I’ve ever read. Out of 4 questions, I guessed on 3. I just kept myself thinking that it’s a CAT and built like that for a reason.

Specific Problem Type Breakdown 
 Quant 
- Practice, review, practice, review, etc. I read through all the Manhattan books, which I do suggest, but the gains I made was in doing tons of practice problems, and looking them up /reviewing them on GMAT Club. Reading and understanding how others solve the problems gives you that much greater of an understanding.

Stupid Mistakes 
The main problem I had in quant was making stupid mistakes. After doing so many problems, I had a pretty good grasp of the material tested, but my process was poor. The types of stupid mistakes I made were:

i.Misreading the problem – I often ignored qualifiers.
    a. i.e. “A positive variable x has…”, I would read this and ignore the “positive”, which would lead to a wrong answer.  
 ii. Solving Errors
    a. Would divide by a variable in equation, multiply by variable in inequality, ignore possibility of 0, fractions in inequalities, etc. 
    b. Arithmetic errors: I realized that I often quickly thought that 9*7 = 72, or 9*6=63, etc.  
 iii. Selecting the wrong answer choice (extremely rare – but immensely frustrating)

To address these errors, I made sure I kept my work paper very clean and organized, and I created a strict ‘process’ for each problem type (DS, PS, CR, SC, RC). For each problem type, I would write out the process on a notecard, and review it each day prior to solving any practice problems. I noticed that when I deviated from ‘the process’, I often fell back to making mistakes on problems that I should get correct. For quant, my process was:

a. Read the problem very slowly, identify all constraints (integer, even/odd, etc.)
    b. Pause, and understand what the problems asking
    c. DS Only – I used Manhattan’s recommendation of AD/BCE pyramid thing, which worked well. I wrote down the question directly next to the AD/BCE (when possible), drew a big question mark next to it and tried to rephrase the question. 
   d. Relate the problem to that problem’s specific notecard (For each problem type, inequality, algebra, overlapping sets, etc. I made a notecard with tips/hints common mistakes/things to focus on. I reviewed these notecards often). 
    e. Quickly reread the problem and make sure my understanding’s correct
    f. Solve – repeat steps for DS 1. and 2. (and also remind yourself of constraints!)

This process helped tremendously in eradicating the stupid mistakes. I strongly recommend that you create a process that works for you and be consistent in applying it. Step d was a must for me to make sure that I remember to think about small tricky things in problems, such as fractions in inequalities, etc.
In c, writing down the question directly next to the AD/BCE was a good strategy for me to always refer back to the question prior to answering the problem. 
In essence, if you review why you got problems wrong, and analyze how you can eradicate those errors, you’ll improve tremendously.

Reading Comprehension 
Prior to studying for the GMAT, I rarely read at all, whether for class or for pleasure. I scored horribly on SAT reading, and my vocabulary was atrocious. Even though RC was my worst section, I still improved drastically over the 4 months. Here’s how:
 i. I read as much as possible – The Economist, WSJ, Game of Thrones books 4&5, another non-fiction book, and 
 ii. At least once per day, I read an article from the Smithsonian, Scientific American, McKinsey Quarterly or MIT Tech and I broke down the passage similar to how I would in RC. What does each paragraph mean, what is each paragraph doing as a whole, identifying the point, etc. ( as suggested in Manhattan)
 iii. Vocab – I put all of the vocab words in Manhattan book on flashcards and studied them. I’d advise doing this early in your studying process, as you’ll see these same words used a bunch in the articles from above. This makes it much easier to understand the words in context. 
 iv. Went through 1 RC passage a day, first in OG, then in LSAT book, and finally, on GMAT Prep

My process for RC was similar to the many processes you can find online. I believe that the LSAT book RC passages really helped improve my comprehension skills of long and complex passages. I'd highly suggest this for anyone who has some extra time to do RC passages. Ultimately, what helped the most was focus on ACTIVE reading. So often, I read, yet my mind goes dull or wanders, and I don’t actively comprehend and understand what I am reading.

Critical Reasoning 
Not much to say for CR. Reading the Economist helps a lot for CR, as they often break down and create arguments. The biggest advise I can give, is to pause before going to the answer choices and explicitly identifying what is the conclusion and what is the question (as recommended in Manhattan, and similar to Quant – slow down!). I also used the LSAT book for a good amount of CR problems. I thought this helped improve my CR ability, but not as much as doing the RC LSAT problems. The majority of the CR problems in the LSAT book are extremely similar to the GMAT problems but slightly more difficult.

Sentence Correction 
The only book I used for sentence correction was the Manhattan SC guide, or as many call it, the SC Bible. The book is excellent, and I highly recommend it. That said, similar to my experience with other problem types, by far the biggest improvements and the most I learned was from solving and analyzing problems. 
I again had a process to solve SC problems that I strictly followed. My process evolved the more I learned, and eventually, I think that it was perfectly fit to minimize errors on SC. The SC process was very long, and changed by length of underline, if I noticed an error at the start of underline, type of error, splits, etc. Essentially, you want every situation that you face to be second nature, and the only way to do this is to create and stick to a consistent process.

AWA 
I didn’t start studying for AWA until 2 weeks prior to the test. I followed the structure on GMAT Club here, and wrote an essay a day for the two weeks. My weakness in vocabulary was the hardest part for me to overcome, but I just wrote a set intro and a list of good vocab words to use (e.g., “exogenous factors” I used in every essay).

IR 
I didn’t start studying for IR until a few weeks before the test, and I was really struggling at first on this section. You should try to do every problem from the OG and review them. Manhattan’s IR problems are so much harder than the real ones, it’s absurd. Not too much advise here, other than to learn from your mistakes.

Tools I Used

Note cards 
I’ve never been a notecard fan in my life, and I have rarely used them for tests. That being said, note cards were extremely valuable. I used them for quant problems and SC, and wrote down any problem that taught me something new, quant shortcuts, tips and tricks, general advice for problem types, specific advice for quant problems (step d in my quant process), and idioms. Without the notecards, I constantly found myself forgetting certain rules or strategies to solve problems. I reviewed the notecards pretty much every day on my drive to and from work (about ~45 minutes in total/day).

Problem Review & Log 
While doing practice problems, whether I got it correct or incorrect, I reviewed it. As many people suggest here, I tried to identifying multiple ways to solve each problem, and I solved the problem again using the other method. Probably the most helpful thing in reviewing problems is to stop and try to understand it fully without looking at any explanations, and then going online to GMAT Club and reviewing how other people solved it. You can learn a LOT by reviewing how other people solved the problem – shortcuts, deeper understanding, etc. In doing so, you’ll learn many more things than in the Manhattan books.

In the beginning of my studying journey, I kept a gigantic 3 ring binder for my error log. Eventually, I strayed away from doing this, as it required tons of time and was difficult to review. Two weeks before my official exam, I started an Excel spreadsheet problem log for quant (every problem I did) and an error log /review log for verbal. Doing this made reviewing these problems much, much easier. I hyperlinked each input in the excel doc to the problem on the forum on GMAT Club, and would review a few times a week. I highly advise doing something similar in Excel, and using it to identify trends, review problems, etc. My error log is uploaded/attached, but I’ll note a few key highlights:
- Identify the mistake you made, why you made it, and how you’re going to fix it 
- Use it to identify trends! Weak problem areas, % of problems that you get correct on problems with time over 2:30, etc. These trends can help you the efficiency of your studying process.

OK, enough with my rambling…

Suggestions – TL;DR

1.  Excel Error Log  - Make an error log in excel (problem log is even better) and review it, often.
2.  Flash Card Everything  - Make flash cards when you learn new things, and review those often. Write down strategies/techniques that will help you prevent errors. I had a stack of notecards, titled, “fractions”, “overlapping sets”, “inequalities”, “general SC process”, “general DS”, etc. I wrote down things to remember, and tips/tricks. These helped tremendously. 
3.  Macro & Micro review  - Analyze your work! Review, from a broad perspective and a micro perspective. 
   a. Macro perspective – at least one day every few weeks, have a few drinks, smoke, or whatever you do, and sit back and reflect. Ask, how can I improve my studying process, from the time I study, to my overarching mentality? In general, why am I getting problems wrongs? What can I do to improve? Have a pen and paper (I’m never too far from my handy moleskin) to write down any ideas that you think of! If you don’t write them down, you’ll forget. It’s amazing the ideas/improvements I made while a little buzzed. 
   b. Micro level – Touched on this before, but every problem you must review. How can I do better, faster, quicker, more accurate. Why did I get the problem wrong, and more importantly, how can I prevent this from going further.  
4.  Process for each problem is Key  - Running off the last point, make a ‘process’ to attack each individual problem type that works for you, and know the ‘process’ like the back of your hand. 
5.  Be a perfectionist ! You have to force yourself to perfect every little part of the test. Any preventable error must be prevented.
6.  Be explicit ! I can’t stress this enough. Write down the steps of how you’re going to improve. Explicitly identify things (e.g., CR conclusion, step d in ‘process, etc.) both in your head while doing problems and on note cards when studying/reviewing.
7.  Solve Similar Problems Together  Solve similar problems together, and analyze the similarities/differences between them. Huge improvements in quant and sentence correction via this method. 
8.  Life/Study Balance  - Have a life and study, together. I devoted pretty much my whole life for a few months to studying for the GMAT – I wasn’t working, and I rarely went out with friends. I highly suggest that you do not do this. The marginal gains of studying 20 hours a week to 30 hours a week is very small, and not even close to worth it. Rather than studying 30+ hours a week, spend an extra few weeks, and study 20 hours a day. Do not be afraid to miss a few days (I spent only ~1 hour visiting the damn Grand Canyon, because I had to stop in a library and study for 4-5 hours later that day. This was 2 months before my test). How many points did that day of studying increase my score by? 0.
9.  The Internet!  - Take advantage of the amazing free resources on GMAT Club and Manhattan (for SC). Browse the forums, follow the almighty Bunuel, download and do the 100 best SC, etc. 
    a. That being said, when doing Quant problems on GMATClub keep an eye out for GMAT Prep problems. Ignore these, as you want to save those tests to be as close a score predictor as possible. 
    b. Additionally, many of the problems on GMAT Club that are 700+ are extremely difficult, and you won’t need to answer correctly unless you’re aiming for 51+ on the test. Don’t get caught up over the super hard problems.   
10.  Energy pre-test  - Get pumped up and excited before you take the test. Do not go in dull or mundane – I’m fairly confident this hurt my IR. 
11.  Pen & pad  - For practice problems, I suggest that you either buy the official pad & pen, or force yourself to be very neat and compact on your scratch paper. I’d aim for ~4-5 problems per standard 8x11in. paper. You do not want to run out of space, such as I did on the test.

I’ve mentioned some of the things that have worked for me here, but ultimately, everyone’s different. As long as you review, analyze, and perfect every part of your studying and life in general, and ask, what can I do to increase my odds of getting questions correct? With that mentality, along with the ‘nothing’s going to stop me from getting my target score’ attitude, you will be successful.

Good luck!

srivelivala · Answer

Congrats!! Great debrief.

Do you have the note cards that you prepared. If so can you please put them up for download.

I liked the process that you used to solve the problems and I was hoping that if I could get your note cards then I could customize it further to suit my needs.

Thanks

CrackedKnuckles · Answer

Thanks! You're referring to the specific problem type notecards I had, in step d of my 'process'? If so, they're all on physical paper notecards so I cannot upload them, but I'm more than happy to type them up. That being said, they're pretty much a compilation of erros I made in those problems and how to avoid them, so you should 100% add/adjust them to your personal mistakes. Inequalities Cannot divide or multiply be variable/expression unless you know sign Watch out for 0's Confirm less then vs less than or equal to (and vice versa) Must test fractions, both positive and negative fractions, especially when two variables are multiplied together (think number line, fractions brings value closer to 0) Can add inequalities (same direction), subtract inequalities (opposite direction, keep top direction), and multiply iff all sides positive/same direction sign CAN multiply by \sqrt{x}, x^2, |x|, etc. After writing down the inequality, step away, and understand the equation Absolute Values, \sqrt{}, ^2 In an equation, you know that the opposite side is positive, or >0. So \sqrt{expression} = expression (this is positive) \sqrt{expression} = aboslute value around it! Double check all absolute value answers Can multiply/divide in an inequality! Understand problems conceptually (think # line. ^2 brings whole #'s further from 0 and brings fractions closer to 0. Opposite for \sqrt{}) Even/Odd Confirm even/odd, and not positive/negative (made this dumb mistake too many times) Be careful about 0's and non-integer possibilities "non-negative" means 0, 1, .2, 5/2, etc. Not necessarily greater than 0 Algebraic Equations Always solve until end, two equations, 3 unkowns, SOLVE IT Cannot divide by variable or variable expression unless you know it's =! 0 If reduced equation to 12c = 0, then c= 0 If reduced equation to 2c = 2c, then unable to solve (no new info from new equation) 3c(b-2) , then C = 0 OR b = 2 Watch out for 0's!! (e.g., x^2 + y^2 = 9a; x^2 + y^2 >8a?? not necessarily, could be 0,0,0 Watch out for tricky/hidden negative possibilities! (espcially in ^2) Understand the equation before you manipulate it, what does it mean? Is it weighted average, etc. Primes Do NOT plug in prime #'s and check (last resort), rather, think conceptually. All primes are odd (except 2), positive integers, etc. Primes have ONLY two positive factors Watch out for 2! 0 is not prime, 1 is not prime, and negative #'s aren't (bc > 2 factors) A # with only 3 factors means it's a prime squared Geography Identify relationships between shapes. Relationships! (e.g., square height = triangle height, etc.) Always write out expressions for <'s and sides In triangles, look to compare a smaller subset of a triangle to the larger triangle for similar triangles, as they already share an angle Two <'s of the same triangle have same <, then sides are =, vice versa Overlapping Sets Total = A+B+C - Two Only - 2*Three Only + None Total = A+B+C - Two or less + Three Only + none For percent problems, pick 100 as smart # Make 2x2 grids very large Be very careful that if you're calculating group of only 1, you subtract 2*double group only and 3*triple group only Combinations/Permutations Expliticly identify if there's replacement or not Go deep into problems, ask what are other ways of doing it, what restrictions may I be overlooking, think of all possibilites as not to miss anything Rate*Time = Distance Understand logically Look for ways to relate two things/people - same time, same distance, etc. Ratios Pick large smart #'s, so that total # is a multiple of the smaller fractions - do this in multiples of 10 to make it easy Factors While counting factors, remember to count double for squares, count triple for cubes, etc.(e.g., counting 3's in 30, 9 has two, 27 has three. Counted for in equation Factorial/# + factorial/#^2, etc... Remainder when a sum of a #'s digits is 9 is same as the # 9, holds for 3 %'s Be extremely methodical and double check setting up % equations. Confirm that equation/math matches language Keep an eye out for 12.5%, 37.5%, 83.33%, 16.66%, etc x is y% greater than z means y = x/z - 100, but x is y% of z is x = (y/100)*z And then some others with multiplication/divison tricks, testing for square roots, common 3-4-5 type triangles, etc. Essentially, after reading through each quant problem, I'd think back and try to remember all that problem types notecard in order to prevent making these dumb little errors. Let me know if this wasn't what you're referrring to.

srivelivala · Answer

Thanks, This was what I was looking for. I can now customize it further to suit my needs.

Skag55 · Answer

I think I can relate to 99% of the things you described. I haven't followed such a strict log as you have, resulting in 580 and some Q questions that left me wondering...

Thanks for the post though! Bookmarked!

anasdiab · Answer

CrackedKnuckles  Is it me or is there something wrong with this formula in your notecard for overkapping sets??
Total = A+B+C - Two or less + Three Only + none

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi anasdiab,

I assume that you're interested in the math behind a 3-circle Venn Diagram (it's worth noting that this is a remarkably rare subject on the Official GMAT and that you likely will not see a question on this subject).

In Overlapping sets questions, the math 'issue' is that certain 'members' have been counted more than once in the data (someone who is in 2 groups was included in the count for both groups, so you have to remove any of the duplicate counts). In a standard 2-group Venn Diagram question, that formula is....

Total = (Group 1) + (Group 2) - (Both) + (Neither)

In a 3-circle Venn Diagram though, you have more groups and a larger set of duplicate values that you have to subtract...

Total = (Group 1) + (Group 2) + (Group 3) - (Group 1&2) - (Group 1&3) - (Group 2&3) - 2(Group 1&2&3) + (None)

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Congratulations! Great debrief. Best of luck on your future endeavors!

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