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APY89
Joined: 03 Jun 2014
Last visit: 15 May 2016
Posts: 54
Given Kudos: 4
Location: United States
Concentration: Entrepreneurship, General Management
Schools: Tepper '17 (M$) McDonough '17 (A)
GMAT 1: 640 Q42 V36
GMAT 2: 710 Q48 V40
GPA: 3.38
WE:Operations (Consulting)
Products:
14 Oct 2014, 15:49
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I'll start by saying I can't really give a detailed recap of how I studied, but I hope my story will still inspire you. I took the GMAT 3 times over about 10 months. 640 on my first try, 590 on my second, and 710 (48Q, 40V) on the last. The biggest takeaway I can give here is not to stress too much. I studied A LOT for my second attempt and ended up with a 590 because I was too stressed about doing well.
Attempt 1:
Took the Manhattan Prep class and studied on my own for about 4 weeks. My 640 was in line with my highest practice test. Pretty even breakdown of 42Q, 36V.
Attempt 2:
I spent 3 months using the Magoosh program and thought I was doing very well until......disaster. I got into the exam and knew I was completely flunking the quant. That stressed me out and landed me a 590....my second lowest score next to my diagnostic test. I was scoring 680s consistently on my practice tests, so I knew I was capable of doing well on the exam. This was honestly a HUGE blow to my confidence and I wasn't sure I would retake the exam. However after a day of thinking, I decided to give it one more shot. (Read more here: disaster-strikes-590-on-my-second-attempt-181239.html)
Attempt 3:
This is the interesting part of my story. I realized the previous times I took the GMAT, I had stressed WAY too much about the exam. I had severe anxiety going into the test and this affected my score. For this attempt (roughly one month after my 590), I decided to basically not sweat it. I studied for a grand total of close to 15 hours over the entire month....not much. I actually stopped studying entirely about 2 weeks before the test. I went into the test not really expecting much. While taking the test, I actually didn't expect more than about a 650 or 660 because I had seen so few probability and geometry problems which I had been told are often indicative of a harder level of problem. When the 710 popped up, I was speechless. This was the highest score I had ever received on a practice test or otherwise by 30 points.
One thing to mention is that I studied for probably close to 250 hours in total. I don't want to give the impression that less is more....it's not. But I do want to emphasize how important being in the right state of mind can be going into this thing. I must have read a hundred articles saying the same thing before I took my second GMAT, but unfortunately it didn't really take until I learned the hard way. Study as much as you can stomach and then give it a rest.
Of course different people test in different ways, so I will say that my approach might not be the best for you. I'm the type of person that stresses over every little detail, so the break from thinking about the GMAT was exactly what I needed to succeed. Might not work for you, but I figured it would be worth sharing.
One more thing- Thursdays with Ron are something I wish I had taken advantage of earlier. I only listened to about 4 of them and I can't say the topics that I studied came up on my GMAT, but I will say that everything you've heard about how great they are is true. The guy knows his stuff. Check it out.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Attempt 1:
Took the Manhattan Prep class and studied on my own for about 4 weeks. My 640 was in line with my highest practice test. Pretty even breakdown of 42Q, 36V.
Attempt 2:
I spent 3 months using the Magoosh program and thought I was doing very well until......disaster. I got into the exam and knew I was completely flunking the quant. That stressed me out and landed me a 590....my second lowest score next to my diagnostic test. I was scoring 680s consistently on my practice tests, so I knew I was capable of doing well on the exam. This was honestly a HUGE blow to my confidence and I wasn't sure I would retake the exam. However after a day of thinking, I decided to give it one more shot. (Read more here: disaster-strikes-590-on-my-second-attempt-181239.html)
Attempt 3:
This is the interesting part of my story. I realized the previous times I took the GMAT, I had stressed WAY too much about the exam. I had severe anxiety going into the test and this affected my score. For this attempt (roughly one month after my 590), I decided to basically not sweat it. I studied for a grand total of close to 15 hours over the entire month....not much. I actually stopped studying entirely about 2 weeks before the test. I went into the test not really expecting much. While taking the test, I actually didn't expect more than about a 650 or 660 because I had seen so few probability and geometry problems which I had been told are often indicative of a harder level of problem. When the 710 popped up, I was speechless. This was the highest score I had ever received on a practice test or otherwise by 30 points.
One thing to mention is that I studied for probably close to 250 hours in total. I don't want to give the impression that less is more....it's not. But I do want to emphasize how important being in the right state of mind can be going into this thing. I must have read a hundred articles saying the same thing before I took my second GMAT, but unfortunately it didn't really take until I learned the hard way. Study as much as you can stomach and then give it a rest.
Of course different people test in different ways, so I will say that my approach might not be the best for you. I'm the type of person that stresses over every little detail, so the break from thinking about the GMAT was exactly what I needed to succeed. Might not work for you, but I figured it would be worth sharing.
One more thing- Thursdays with Ron are something I wish I had taken advantage of earlier. I only listened to about 4 of them and I can't say the topics that I studied came up on my GMAT, but I will say that everything you've heard about how great they are is true. The guy knows his stuff. Check it out.
Hope this helps and good luck!
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