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Test Date: 10/1/11
Location: Broadway in Oakland
Score: 750 (q49/v42)
My Background:
Graduated from UCLA a couple of years ago and have been working at a Big 4 doing public accountancy since then. I want to get a MBA mainly for a career change and get into consulting/strategy. My end goal is to get into a top 10 MBA school in the US and I think with my score I will have a decent shot at accomplishing that goal. I’ve always been a lurker on the forums and have used the gmat experience threads as a primary source of motivation and learning. I wanted to add my story to the collection so that hopefully there are tidbits here and there that will help some people.
My Studying Plan:
I studied for the test for about 4 months. The first three months were not very serious but I was consistent in my studies and put in 1-2 hours every day after work. The last month I kicked it up to about 3-4 hours every day. Luckily work slowed down and I was able to get home by 7 at the latest every night. I did not have a set strategy…I just went about going through all the books that I bought, doing practice problems, and doing CATs.
Review of the Studying Materials that I used:
OG12 – Obviously you need to get this if you are serious about your score. I did the SC section twice.
OG Verbal Review – SC and CR seem easier than the questions in OG12, RC seemed a little harder. I did not repeat any sections but I guess you could if you wanted to.
MGMAT – Went through all the math and verbal books. I felt like the math books were pretty good. I really needed to relearn a lot of basic math fundamentals and the MGMAT books really helped me with that. I don’t have much to say about the CR and RC books, they are okay. SC was decent, but I would not go as far to say that it is the “bible” of SC as some people do. Overall MGMAT is very thorough, which is both its strength and its weakness. I think sometimes it goes too much in detail in certain areas. (unnecessarily)
Grockit – Asked 5 of my friends to create accounts and got a 3 month membership for free. The grockit questions are very similar to OG12 questions. (sometimes to the point where they merely replace the subject matter but keep the same core question) I think the best thing about Grockit for me was that it helped me with my timing. It made me realize how fast you really have to go through the problems. I was getting maybe like 40% of the 32 pt questions right and like 75% of the 16 pt questions right overall. The math 32 pt questions are very hard, probably harder than anything you will see on the actual GMAT. I mainly did 16-32pt verbal questions.
Powerscore CR – I liked this better than MGMAT CR. I feel like the writers have a pretty good grasp about GMAT questions and it shows through all the insight in the book.
Aristotle SC – Also liked this better than MGMAT SC. Mainly for its simplicity. Lays out all the most important rules in a clear manner.
GPSC (done-and-dusted-730-q49-v40-97838.html) Somebody from the forums put together a list of all the SC questions from GMATPrep software. Total of 180ish questions. The first 100 are good practice. Due to time constraints did not do the 2nd half because they felt easier than the questions I would actually be getting. Very useful document, essentially like getting another OG12 for the SC part. You can google pretty much the reasoning for every question.
GMATClub math tests – I did like 20 of these tests. Averaged around a 29 under timed conditions. Overall I think these are very good practice and got me to the 48-50 range. Was hoping for the 50. Just seems like a nice number. I don’t know who wrote all these questions, but all of these questions felt very GMAT-like. By the time I had finished 20 tests, I felt very confident that I could tackle even the most difficult probability/combination questions. Got one on the actual test that was not as hard as what I had seen on the GMATClub tests. These tests are also tricky and remind you to test every kind of number. (fractions, negative numbers, 0, etc.)
My Practice CAT Scores:
MGMAT 1 (three months from test date) – 620 (messed up due to timing)
The rest of the scores were taken a month from my test date:
MGMAT 2: 700
MGMAT 3: 710
MGMAT 4: 730 (at this point I stopped with the MGMAT CATs because I noticed there were no more 700+ questions)
GMATPrep v2: 730
GMATPrep v2: 760 q50 v42
GMATPrep v1: 730 q49 v41
GMATPrep v1: 750 q48 v44(with practice AWA)
Some people take like 10+ CATs. I’m not sure if this is the best use of time. (each test takes like 2.5 hours) What the practice CATs are good for is that they tell you your level and allow you to get used to mental fatigue. Most of my learning came from going through the books and doing practice problems. I think one overarching theme from around the forum is that GMATPrep scores are the best predictors of your score. I think it is fair to say that there is a high probability of you scoring +/- 10 from your avg scores.
The strategies that worked for me:
Math – After relearning the basics, it was just a matter of timing and practice. The GMATClub math tests really worked for me. For me, the thing I had to realize was that I did not have to answer every question correctly. Sometimes when you see a hard question, it really is better to guess and move on. Kinda like the saying: lose the battle, but win the war. It is better to get 1 hard question wrong than to miss a problem you should have gotten right, but ran out of time. One obstacle I had to overcome was this mindset that oh, this problem is too hard I can’t do it in under 2 minutes. You cannot think this way. You must think, I can do this problem. If you have given up on the problem you will definitely not get it. But if you go into a difficult problem with determination and confidence, you might be surprised at what you actually get right. Once again, really recommend the GMATClub math tests, got me to the point where I was expecting a score of 48-50.
SC – I know the strategy is usually the 3-2 split. The thing for me is that while this worked for the 600 level questions, the questions for 700+ did not always have a easily noticeable 3-2 split or maybe, after doing the 3-2 split, I still could not figure out the answer. My strategy for the more difficult SC questions is to read the prompt carefully and then scan over every answer using my ear. Usually from this process I can narrow it down to 2 answers, and from there choose the correct answer. Overall I think for SC you just need to have a good understanding of the main areas: ie parallelism, logical modifiers, proper comparisons, verb tense, pronouns, meaning, etc. I am not sure if this holds true for non-native GMAT-ers.
CR – My strategy was very complicated: carefully read the prompt, and then carefully read the answers, and then choose the correct answer. (haha) For CR I think practice definitely helps a lot. You get a sense of what types of answers are distracters and are just completely out of scope. Usually for any CR problem you can take out 2, maybe even 3 questions just because they don’t even relate to the argument in question. After that, for me I just really had to think about the question and what it was asking for. Once again when you get to 700+ questions, I don’t know how useful strategies are. (still, I recommend Powerscore CR) Oh yea, never took any notes. I don’t know how this works. By the time you are done taking notes you will have already wasted so much time.
RC – Also like CR, did not take any notes. Read once, at a moderate pace, for understanding. Most 700+ questions are purpose-like questions which require you to have a broad understanding of the passage anyways. Sometimes what worked for me was to trick myself into thinking I actually found the content interesting. That I actually enjoyed reading about women’s rights. (I’m kidding I love women. But seriously why are there so many passages on that topic)
Timing – this was the biggest thing for me during practice tests. Improper time management may cost you like 30 points. I’ve never taken a test (practice or real) where timing was not an issue. Some people are able to finish a section with minutes left to spare. I have no idea how to do this. Every time I take a test I am down to the last second.
AWA – Can’t say for sure if my strategy is good as I haven’t gotten my score back yet, but while I’m not the best writer or anything, I’ve written plenty of essays in school. I read up on some AWA strategies to get an idea of what to expect. Practiced AWA once on my last GMATPrep and that was it really. If you are concerned about mental fatigue from writing the essays…for me it was negligible. So I don’t know if you really have to do too many practice AWAs in your practice CATs.
My test day experience:
Just took it yesterday so it is still fairly fresh in my mind. The test administrators at the Oakland testing center were very friendly and helped me calm down. Going into the test, I had positive vibes. Everything that day just felt…like it was in place. Funny note: I had computer station #7 and locker #5. (750 lol) The whole time I was taking the test, my heart was beating fairly quickly – I was definitely a little nervous. Specifically the last 3-5 questions of verbal, almost felt like heart was going to jump out haha. Had to breathe in and calm myself down because I was not absorbing the questions. By the time I was done with the test, I really felt like it could go both ways. I knew my math was somewhere between 48-50 but verbal…verbal was tough. My practice verbal scores had ranged from 40-44. Anyhow I definitely knew I wasn’t going to cancel my scores, so I had it reported. After pressing the button the computer started processing data and I couldn’t look so I covered my eyes with my hands. The computer was really fast, after 5 seconds my score popped up. And then I did one of these: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/entr ... 1313963401
(Also because I had to raise my hand to get out of the test center.) Then I called my gf and mom and told them my scores. Was a very happy day. The good life is the life where you work hard and accomplish what you set out to do. That’s the good life.
Some quick notes about what seems to be the new changes to GMAT:
- I know GMAC recently announced some changes to SC. (less idioms, more meaning questions) I too kind of panicked at first but having just taken the test, all I can say is I didn't really notice anything different. As mentioned various times throughout this forum, the GMATPreps are the most accurate portrayals of what the actual exam will be like. I actually even remember seeing two sentence correction problems on the actual test that I had seen earlier in either a GMATPrep or OG.
- I got one very long RC passage. Longer than anything I had ever encountered before. (from gmatprep and MGMAT CATs) It was very long and very boring. It may have been experimental.
Normally my RC strat is to read the entire passage at a moderate pace for understanding. I think if you get a very long RC, this strategy may not work due to the time constraint. By the time you have finished reading, around 4-5 minutes probably would have gone by. And in 3-4 questions at a minute or so each and you just spent ~10 minutes for 3-4 problems. Instead I skimmed the passage and tried to get key ideas. I don't know, it was tough. I got 4 questions and thought I may have gotten all of them wrong lol.
Some Last Tips:
- #1 tip right here: whatever problem you are doing, whatever the source, always, always, study for understanding. The problems you get right, make sure you understand why the others are wrong. Conceptual understanding is of the absolute importance here. When you get a problem wrong, that should excite you, because it will give you an opportunity to improve your understanding in whatever area. Think about it this way, yes you feel bad for getting that problem wrong, but you won’t be seeing that question on the actual GMAT. You might, however, see a similar question testing a similar concepts. (there are only so many concepts on the GMAT)
- 2 months is enough studying time. 2 months of consistent, focused studying…maybe 2-3 hours a day. I studied for 4 months but I kind of dragged it out. 2 months is enough if you are focused, and I think it is better to be focused for 2 months than semi-focused for 4.
- Oh another quick note, I got an 8 minute break. 8 minutes goes by FAST. In my first break I went to eat my snickers bar and go to the bathroom. When I came back I had 8 seconds left on my break. Luckily, after the break you get a 1 minute instruction screen.
Last Note:
The GMAT is conquerable. While it is a measure of intelligence, practice and studying will definitely solidify your potential. The way I see it is after 2 months of studying, you have pretty much gotten to a point where, 90% of the time, you will score within a certain 30, 40 point range, say like 720-750. What practice will do is make sure you stay within this range...and hopefully at the higher end. At the end of the day I think luck will count for like 20 points at the most. The GMAT is an adaptive based test, so making careless mistakes and right guesses will only get you so far. Take comfort in that.
Other than that, try to enjoy the process. Studying for the GMAT was definitely a lot more enjoyable than studying for my CPA. Treat tough math problems like a challenge or puzzle, something for you to figure out. (same with verbal)
And if you ever need some inspiration, just want this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bklNWWoJyzE
Okay, I don’t think you will feel like that after the test, but its similar. But the key point here is that hard work does pay off. Much more often that it does not. Just go for it. Good luck!
Location: Broadway in Oakland
Score: 750 (q49/v42)
My Background:
Graduated from UCLA a couple of years ago and have been working at a Big 4 doing public accountancy since then. I want to get a MBA mainly for a career change and get into consulting/strategy. My end goal is to get into a top 10 MBA school in the US and I think with my score I will have a decent shot at accomplishing that goal. I’ve always been a lurker on the forums and have used the gmat experience threads as a primary source of motivation and learning. I wanted to add my story to the collection so that hopefully there are tidbits here and there that will help some people.
My Studying Plan:
I studied for the test for about 4 months. The first three months were not very serious but I was consistent in my studies and put in 1-2 hours every day after work. The last month I kicked it up to about 3-4 hours every day. Luckily work slowed down and I was able to get home by 7 at the latest every night. I did not have a set strategy…I just went about going through all the books that I bought, doing practice problems, and doing CATs.
Review of the Studying Materials that I used:
OG12 – Obviously you need to get this if you are serious about your score. I did the SC section twice.
OG Verbal Review – SC and CR seem easier than the questions in OG12, RC seemed a little harder. I did not repeat any sections but I guess you could if you wanted to.
MGMAT – Went through all the math and verbal books. I felt like the math books were pretty good. I really needed to relearn a lot of basic math fundamentals and the MGMAT books really helped me with that. I don’t have much to say about the CR and RC books, they are okay. SC was decent, but I would not go as far to say that it is the “bible” of SC as some people do. Overall MGMAT is very thorough, which is both its strength and its weakness. I think sometimes it goes too much in detail in certain areas. (unnecessarily)
Grockit – Asked 5 of my friends to create accounts and got a 3 month membership for free. The grockit questions are very similar to OG12 questions. (sometimes to the point where they merely replace the subject matter but keep the same core question) I think the best thing about Grockit for me was that it helped me with my timing. It made me realize how fast you really have to go through the problems. I was getting maybe like 40% of the 32 pt questions right and like 75% of the 16 pt questions right overall. The math 32 pt questions are very hard, probably harder than anything you will see on the actual GMAT. I mainly did 16-32pt verbal questions.
Powerscore CR – I liked this better than MGMAT CR. I feel like the writers have a pretty good grasp about GMAT questions and it shows through all the insight in the book.
Aristotle SC – Also liked this better than MGMAT SC. Mainly for its simplicity. Lays out all the most important rules in a clear manner.
GPSC (done-and-dusted-730-q49-v40-97838.html) Somebody from the forums put together a list of all the SC questions from GMATPrep software. Total of 180ish questions. The first 100 are good practice. Due to time constraints did not do the 2nd half because they felt easier than the questions I would actually be getting. Very useful document, essentially like getting another OG12 for the SC part. You can google pretty much the reasoning for every question.
GMATClub math tests – I did like 20 of these tests. Averaged around a 29 under timed conditions. Overall I think these are very good practice and got me to the 48-50 range. Was hoping for the 50. Just seems like a nice number. I don’t know who wrote all these questions, but all of these questions felt very GMAT-like. By the time I had finished 20 tests, I felt very confident that I could tackle even the most difficult probability/combination questions. Got one on the actual test that was not as hard as what I had seen on the GMATClub tests. These tests are also tricky and remind you to test every kind of number. (fractions, negative numbers, 0, etc.)
My Practice CAT Scores:
MGMAT 1 (three months from test date) – 620 (messed up due to timing)
The rest of the scores were taken a month from my test date:
MGMAT 2: 700
MGMAT 3: 710
MGMAT 4: 730 (at this point I stopped with the MGMAT CATs because I noticed there were no more 700+ questions)
GMATPrep v2: 730
GMATPrep v2: 760 q50 v42
GMATPrep v1: 730 q49 v41
GMATPrep v1: 750 q48 v44(with practice AWA)
Some people take like 10+ CATs. I’m not sure if this is the best use of time. (each test takes like 2.5 hours) What the practice CATs are good for is that they tell you your level and allow you to get used to mental fatigue. Most of my learning came from going through the books and doing practice problems. I think one overarching theme from around the forum is that GMATPrep scores are the best predictors of your score. I think it is fair to say that there is a high probability of you scoring +/- 10 from your avg scores.
The strategies that worked for me:
Math – After relearning the basics, it was just a matter of timing and practice. The GMATClub math tests really worked for me. For me, the thing I had to realize was that I did not have to answer every question correctly. Sometimes when you see a hard question, it really is better to guess and move on. Kinda like the saying: lose the battle, but win the war. It is better to get 1 hard question wrong than to miss a problem you should have gotten right, but ran out of time. One obstacle I had to overcome was this mindset that oh, this problem is too hard I can’t do it in under 2 minutes. You cannot think this way. You must think, I can do this problem. If you have given up on the problem you will definitely not get it. But if you go into a difficult problem with determination and confidence, you might be surprised at what you actually get right. Once again, really recommend the GMATClub math tests, got me to the point where I was expecting a score of 48-50.
SC – I know the strategy is usually the 3-2 split. The thing for me is that while this worked for the 600 level questions, the questions for 700+ did not always have a easily noticeable 3-2 split or maybe, after doing the 3-2 split, I still could not figure out the answer. My strategy for the more difficult SC questions is to read the prompt carefully and then scan over every answer using my ear. Usually from this process I can narrow it down to 2 answers, and from there choose the correct answer. Overall I think for SC you just need to have a good understanding of the main areas: ie parallelism, logical modifiers, proper comparisons, verb tense, pronouns, meaning, etc. I am not sure if this holds true for non-native GMAT-ers.
CR – My strategy was very complicated: carefully read the prompt, and then carefully read the answers, and then choose the correct answer. (haha) For CR I think practice definitely helps a lot. You get a sense of what types of answers are distracters and are just completely out of scope. Usually for any CR problem you can take out 2, maybe even 3 questions just because they don’t even relate to the argument in question. After that, for me I just really had to think about the question and what it was asking for. Once again when you get to 700+ questions, I don’t know how useful strategies are. (still, I recommend Powerscore CR) Oh yea, never took any notes. I don’t know how this works. By the time you are done taking notes you will have already wasted so much time.
RC – Also like CR, did not take any notes. Read once, at a moderate pace, for understanding. Most 700+ questions are purpose-like questions which require you to have a broad understanding of the passage anyways. Sometimes what worked for me was to trick myself into thinking I actually found the content interesting. That I actually enjoyed reading about women’s rights. (I’m kidding I love women. But seriously why are there so many passages on that topic)
Timing – this was the biggest thing for me during practice tests. Improper time management may cost you like 30 points. I’ve never taken a test (practice or real) where timing was not an issue. Some people are able to finish a section with minutes left to spare. I have no idea how to do this. Every time I take a test I am down to the last second.
AWA – Can’t say for sure if my strategy is good as I haven’t gotten my score back yet, but while I’m not the best writer or anything, I’ve written plenty of essays in school. I read up on some AWA strategies to get an idea of what to expect. Practiced AWA once on my last GMATPrep and that was it really. If you are concerned about mental fatigue from writing the essays…for me it was negligible. So I don’t know if you really have to do too many practice AWAs in your practice CATs.
My test day experience:
Just took it yesterday so it is still fairly fresh in my mind. The test administrators at the Oakland testing center were very friendly and helped me calm down. Going into the test, I had positive vibes. Everything that day just felt…like it was in place. Funny note: I had computer station #7 and locker #5. (750 lol) The whole time I was taking the test, my heart was beating fairly quickly – I was definitely a little nervous. Specifically the last 3-5 questions of verbal, almost felt like heart was going to jump out haha. Had to breathe in and calm myself down because I was not absorbing the questions. By the time I was done with the test, I really felt like it could go both ways. I knew my math was somewhere between 48-50 but verbal…verbal was tough. My practice verbal scores had ranged from 40-44. Anyhow I definitely knew I wasn’t going to cancel my scores, so I had it reported. After pressing the button the computer started processing data and I couldn’t look so I covered my eyes with my hands. The computer was really fast, after 5 seconds my score popped up. And then I did one of these: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/entr ... 1313963401
(Also because I had to raise my hand to get out of the test center.) Then I called my gf and mom and told them my scores. Was a very happy day. The good life is the life where you work hard and accomplish what you set out to do. That’s the good life.
Some quick notes about what seems to be the new changes to GMAT:
- I know GMAC recently announced some changes to SC. (less idioms, more meaning questions) I too kind of panicked at first but having just taken the test, all I can say is I didn't really notice anything different. As mentioned various times throughout this forum, the GMATPreps are the most accurate portrayals of what the actual exam will be like. I actually even remember seeing two sentence correction problems on the actual test that I had seen earlier in either a GMATPrep or OG.
- I got one very long RC passage. Longer than anything I had ever encountered before. (from gmatprep and MGMAT CATs) It was very long and very boring. It may have been experimental.
Normally my RC strat is to read the entire passage at a moderate pace for understanding. I think if you get a very long RC, this strategy may not work due to the time constraint. By the time you have finished reading, around 4-5 minutes probably would have gone by. And in 3-4 questions at a minute or so each and you just spent ~10 minutes for 3-4 problems. Instead I skimmed the passage and tried to get key ideas. I don't know, it was tough. I got 4 questions and thought I may have gotten all of them wrong lol.
Some Last Tips:
- #1 tip right here: whatever problem you are doing, whatever the source, always, always, study for understanding. The problems you get right, make sure you understand why the others are wrong. Conceptual understanding is of the absolute importance here. When you get a problem wrong, that should excite you, because it will give you an opportunity to improve your understanding in whatever area. Think about it this way, yes you feel bad for getting that problem wrong, but you won’t be seeing that question on the actual GMAT. You might, however, see a similar question testing a similar concepts. (there are only so many concepts on the GMAT)
- 2 months is enough studying time. 2 months of consistent, focused studying…maybe 2-3 hours a day. I studied for 4 months but I kind of dragged it out. 2 months is enough if you are focused, and I think it is better to be focused for 2 months than semi-focused for 4.
- Oh another quick note, I got an 8 minute break. 8 minutes goes by FAST. In my first break I went to eat my snickers bar and go to the bathroom. When I came back I had 8 seconds left on my break. Luckily, after the break you get a 1 minute instruction screen.
Last Note:
The GMAT is conquerable. While it is a measure of intelligence, practice and studying will definitely solidify your potential. The way I see it is after 2 months of studying, you have pretty much gotten to a point where, 90% of the time, you will score within a certain 30, 40 point range, say like 720-750. What practice will do is make sure you stay within this range...and hopefully at the higher end. At the end of the day I think luck will count for like 20 points at the most. The GMAT is an adaptive based test, so making careless mistakes and right guesses will only get you so far. Take comfort in that.
Other than that, try to enjoy the process. Studying for the GMAT was definitely a lot more enjoyable than studying for my CPA. Treat tough math problems like a challenge or puzzle, something for you to figure out. (same with verbal)
And if you ever need some inspiration, just want this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bklNWWoJyzE
Okay, I don’t think you will feel like that after the test, but its similar. But the key point here is that hard work does pay off. Much more often that it does not. Just go for it. Good luck!
01 Oct 2011, 18:48
Kudos
Bookmarks
a kudos to your score mate! good luck for your apps!
How was RC? I've recently read that they are getting lengthier and tougher.. What's your take on this?
How was RC? I've recently read that they are getting lengthier and tougher.. What's your take on this?
