770 (Q50 V45) self-study, first time writer

Question

Materials used: 
- Official Guide for GMAT Review
- GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd ed.
- Manhattan GMAT (Foundations of GMAT Math, Quantitative Strategy Guide Set, Advanced Quant, Sentence Correction)

Practice Test Scores 
1. 2015/01/11 MGMAT 630 (Q39 V37)
2. 2015/02/01 MGMAT 640 (Q40 V37)
3. 2015/02/28 MGMAT 660 (Q40 V40)
4. 2015/03/02 Veritas 700 (Q48 V38)
5. 2015/03/07 GMAC 740 (Q48 V44)
6. 2015/03/15 MGMAT 640 (Q40 V37)
7. 2015/03/16 MGMAT 700 (Q45 V40)
8. 2015/03/21 Kaplan 710 (Q50 V41)
9. 2015/03/22 GMAC 740 (Q50 V41)
10. 2015/03/26 GMAC 750 (Q48 V44)

2015/03/28 GMAT 770 (Q50 V45 IR 7 AWA 5)

A little about me: 
I'm a Canadian lawyer currently working (full-time) in intellectual property policy. I decided to take the GMAT to a) prove to a management consulting firm I had failed an interview at last year that I can overcome my weaknesses in quant and b) failing this, transition into business via an MBA from a top American b-school. While I have written the LSAT and pulled a decent score without much studying, my last math class of any kind was a stats course in undergrad more than 7 years ago. Going in, I knew my major weakness would be quant so that's what I focused my study plan on.

Study Plan: 
I wrote my first practice exam in January but since I knew that I could barely count to 10 (kidding), I read though MGMAT's Foundations of GMAT Math prior to that. If you're weak in math like I was/am, I highly recommend this step. I kind of just casually skimmed through it while doing the problems (most important) to refresh some very basic quant skills. It took me about a week and a half to finish. If I had taken a practice exam without doing this, I think I would have just wasted my time/a test.

Next, I spent a week or two finishing each of the Manhattan Quant Strategy guides. I finished the last of those guides in mid-February so I only wrote one practice exam in between my diagnostic and when I really started hitting those practice exams hard. I thought this was a good strategy because I wanted to learn everything before testing myself.

I wrote a lot of practice exams the month before my GMAT. Some of the scores were promising, some not so much. If there is anything to take away from my experience, it's this:  scores from practice tests by test prep companies don't matter . You'll read about how the Manhattan math is way harder (true) but the verbal is easier (I disagree, I think it's just different) but honestly, just use those exams to learn how to pace yourself and keep up stamina. Those scores are not indicative of what you'll get on the GMAT at all for a variety of reasons. The math is much more challenging and because it's more challenging, you'll lose confidence and in turn, this will affect your verbal score. The questions are also just so different. Every GMAT question I encountered was easily solvable within 2 minutes (although I probably didn't hit the hardest questions in quant) while I wouldn't say the same for the test prep companies tests.

During the last month, I mostly focused on sentence correction. Although I am a native English speaker and had no issues with critical reasoning and reading comprehension, sentence correction was still a challenge for me. In addition to the Manhattan GMAT guide, I will also recommend the Veritas youtube videos ( first one here ). I watched the whole series while folding laundry and it really gave me a good grasp on how to approach the problems.

Error Log: 
I read a lot about the importance of an error log and although I started one, I didn't keep it up. What I found far more effective (and satisfying) is checking the answer of every question that I solve immediately after I do them. This served two purposes. First, I could immediately see where my mistakes were whereas if I waited until I finished 200 problems and then checked the answers, I would have probably forgotten what the question was asking, what my approach was, where I went wrong, etc. Second, it (mostly) prevented me from making the same mistake over and over again. Once I found out where I went wrong, the next time that concept came up, I knew how to approach it, thereby reinforcing the correct approach.

I'm also just a very impatient person and wanted to know immediately whether I got something right or wrong.

If you find checking the answer after every question too cumbersome and/or time-consuming, try doing it every 5 or 10 problems.

Test Day: 
I didn't want to take a day off work so I booked a Saturday appointment. Unfortunately, the only time slot they had was 8am and I am the opposite of a morning person. I really didn't want to write the test all sleepy so to minimize the risks of this, I got up at 6am every day the week before to train myself to be awake at an earlier hour. I know this sounds kind of silly but you want to be as mentally alert as possible and that's not going to happen if you're writing an exam at a time when you're normally fast asleep. I didn't eat much, just a granola bar. I typically don't eat breakfast though - if you do, you should on the day of your test too.

I took a break at every opportunity to have some water, put in eye drops (the test centre is really dry because of the heating system), and go to the washroom. I actually exceeded my 8 minutes before the verbal section - don't let that happen to you!

For the most part, the test is very very similar to the GMAC practice exams. I thought the essay prompt was a little more challenging but if you follow  Chineseburned's template , you'll do just fine. Integrated reasoning is absolutely identical in type of questions. I found the quant section actually a little easier than the questions I got in during GMAC practice exams. It kind of freaked me out because I thought I was doing really poorly and that's why I kept getting these super easy questions. Again, I probably never saw the most difficult questions but no question ever reached the level of even the 600-level Manhattan questions in complexity.

The verbal was also very similar although I got some reading comprehension questions where the answers were very similar and either 3 of them seemed right or all of them seemed wrong.

My advice for quant: 
Watch your timing. The worst thing that can happen to you is getting stuck on a question for 5 minutes, probably getting that wrong (the amount of time I spent on wrong questions ALWAYS exceeded the amount of time I spent on correct questions) and then, because you're out of time, you're guessing on the last 3 questions and probably getting those wrong too. Once you've spent 2 minutes on a question (unless it's like the 2nd last question and you have 8 minutes left), try to eliminate some of the answers, pick one of the remaining ones, and move on.

I found all of the materials I used helpful except for the advanced Manhattan stuff. It was just too complex for what the GMAT will likely ask. I think if you're looking to become a GMAT instructor, then maybe you would need that level but if you're looking for 700+, it might freak you out unnecessarily. Oh, and buy the  erasable notepad , I find it much easier to do calculations with pen and paper than on the notepad thing so I'm glad I practiced.

My advice for verbal: 
Always read all of the answer choices. This doesn't just apply to sentence correction. My strategy for verbal is elimination 99.9% of the time. It often comes down to two choices, which I then read very carefully again and I figure out that one of them has a flaw so I pick the other. I think a lot of the correct answers, for reading comprehension especially, is not the "best" answer but the least wrong answer. Like, if the question is "what does this passage most strongly suggest", don't go looking for an answer that summarizes the point of the paragraph. The answer is almost always some random tangent that is technically true because it was stated in the passage but has very little relevance to the overall point of the passage. On the other hand, as you're reading the passage, always ask yourself "where is the author going with this? what I do expect him or her to say next?" because whether or not this is a question that comes up, it helps you gain the context to understand the information.

My other advice for verbal is to practice reading quickly but carefully. I think one of the reasons I did so well in verbal is because I can read very, very quickly after years of eschewing social interaction for Slate articles. But I did have to practice reading carefully. Missing one key word in a question could screw you. Particularly for quant but also true for verbal (where there are generally more words). Read the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Economist. Read things that you're interested in and especially read things you're really not interested in. If you come across a reading comprehension passage that you're intimidated by (e.g. some crazy scientific topic where every eighth word is a chemical compound), pretend to be super interested in the topic and read it like your sexy next-door neighbour is going to quiz you on it later.

In conclusion:
I truly believe that if you put in the time and effort, the GMAT will be the easiest part of your MBA application. Don't get discouraged, don't give up, and don't let the clock run out.

In conclusion: 
I truly believe that if you put in the time and effort, the GMAT will be the easiest part of your MBA application. Don't get discouraged, don't give up, and don't let the clock run out.

Ergenekon · Answer

Congratulations. Great debrief. What can you say about SC section?

lipsi18 · Answer

Congratulations on your fabulous score. Please guide me with below doubts:
1. I'm a non native and my verbal score is not improving from 20. How I can take it to 40 from 20?

2. How do you bifercate you timing in verbal?

Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

deerhunter · Answer

Sentence Correction was the only part in verbal to give me trouble because there's nothing like that on the LSAT. I only really did two things to prep for it: (1) watched the Veritas videos I linked up there and (2) read through the Manhattan GMAT strategy guide. And of course, I did some questions from the Official Guide.

For the easier questions, try to figure out what's wrong with the sentence given in the prompt before reading the answers. Then, look for the answer that changes the original underlined portion the least while still fixing the problem. I think what is sometimes tempting is to choose an answer that looks completely different from the original (and this is sometimes the correct answer in more difficult questions) but generally, I think that the correct answer for 600-level questions is one that fixes the error and changes nothing else.

For long sentences, I write out the stem with each of the answers that I consider a contender (usually only one or two after I've read through them). I also eliminate modifiers that are not affected by the underlined portion. This can be time consuming so only do this if you've mastered the other verbal sections.

In the end, I think what I said generally for verbal holds true for sentence correction: elimination works really well and always remember that you're not looking for the most beautiful sounding answer, you're just looking for the answer with no errors.

deerhunter · Answer

1. Without knowing more about exactly what the challenges you're encountering are, I would recommend reading more English articles. Practice reading with a critical eye and reading quickly. I have read again and again that sentence correction is the section that non-native speakers can make the most gains in so maybe focus on that part first.

2. Two things probably helped my timing: (1) reading quickly and (2) generally not taking notes. I wouldn't recommend this strategy if note taking has been working for you though. For me, once I read something - even a long reading comprehension passage - I generally understand and remember without having any notes and I think this saves a lot of time but if notes are something that has been working so far, don't give up on that.

coolredwine · Answer

Just stumbled across this post and liked it. Congrats on your score!

Since you're a lawyer, could you please tell me as to how you paced yourself while studying? I am assuming that you had very long working hours and no doubt that would have probably slowed down some of your preparation speed.

deerhunter · Answer

Well, I work for the government so my hours are actually quite reasonable - I very, very rarely stay past 7pm. However, it's still a full-time job which means my time was limited to some extent. I studied during every lunch break, bus ride, while I was performing household chores, and before I went to bed. I scrutinized every sentence I read or wrote at work, trying to apply sentence correction rules that I had learned. I usually eat dinner with my SO while watching Netflix but during GMAT prep time, I ate by myself while reading a strategy book or often, gmatclub posts. I thought about questions over and over again even when I didn’t have materials in front of me (in the shower, waiting in line at Starbucks). It got to the point where I was dreaming about math questions in a very lucid manner almost every night. For the record, I am not recommending that anyone force this kind of obsessive studying on him/herself. For me, GMAT studying was not painful. I quite enjoyed it and it almost became a hobby. Math can be fun! Despite being much weaker on the quant side than the verbal, I liked doing math problems a lot more than anything else. That’s why I obsessed over it – not because I thought I needed to in order to get a good score. I do think that taking an interest in the GMAT (how the test is formulated, what it is trying to assess, what kind of answer patterns produce the best result) is important. Eventually, you begin to see through the layer of possibly intimidating questions into the GMAT question writer’s mind. It’s like that scene in the Matrix when Neo finally sees everything in lines of code and he’s finally able to fight the Agents effectively. Remember that the GMAT is just a test, created by someone just like you or me. If you can imagine creating it, you can reify destroying it.

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