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21 May 2017, 05:25
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Hello everyone,
I just wanted to take a moment to share my GMAT debrief as I have never seen anything quite like my experience within the forum. Hopefully this may be relevant to someone else in the future. First I would like to thank everyone at GMAT club for all their insight and tips regarding the exam. Although I never posted before today (and I did not plan to as you may realize by my ridiculous name), I have searched this website numerous times for general information, question explanations, and test day tips. Anyways, here's what I did to get my score.
OG Quantitative Review 2017
OG Verbal Review 2017
Manhattan Guide Sentence Correction
GMATPrep
Veritas Question Bank
April 14th, 2017 - Began studying again
May 20th, 2017 - GMAT exam
This past month I reignited the fire in me to finish the GMAT while my college study habits were still fresh in my mind. Additionally, I had an upcoming trip planned for the week of May 24th - Memorial Day and firm wide training the subsequent week. So I knew I had to take my exam on the weekend of May 20th. This definitely stressed me out since I knew I did not have as many free hours in the day to take on a rigorous self study course (such as Magoosh) within a 5 week timeframe.
With this in mind I order the Veritas exam pack for $19 and took another practice exam to see whether anything changed from September till now. I ended up scoring a 640 which was fine in my head. Moving forward I realized I needed to up my study game so I started a program where I would wake up in the morning at 5AM and catch the bus at 5:30 to get into the office at 6:30. This would allow me 2 hours in the morning to study before work. On my hour bus ride back from work I would listen to videos (Veritas SC guide, GMAT Tuesdays Magoosh) or practice within the Veritas Question Bank. Finally at night I would study for one more hour before going to bed. As such, I generally averaged around 3 hours of work on the weekdays and 10-14 hours on weekends. Though this may not matter, but each day I set a goal for myself I finish at least 100 OG questions a day on weekdays.
After a week of hard studying I took another Veritas Prep exam and found myself scoring 650. With 4 weeks to go I reasoned a 10 point increase would at least get me to a 690 by the exam date. I thus continued my studying for another week. Following the end of the second week I challenged myself to another practice exam and scored the same 650 from the previous week.
After that exam I was disheartened and felt that my work the last 2 weeks were minimal at best. I could usually score at least a Q47 on most of these exams but I could never break the V33 threshold. It took me so long, but I finally admitted to myself the strategy of reading sentence correction problems and listening to choose my answers was not the greatest strategy. Throughout my K-12 years I never really paid attention in English class or did I read much (and my writing may be atrocious in this post). I realized something needed to change.
As such, the next 2 weeks of my score prep was mostly dominated by listening to Veritas Prep and learning about decision points, finishing the entire Manhattan Guide for SC, and cranking out OG SC problems. I still continued to do Quan, RC, and CR problems, but the bulk of my time was spent learning SC strategies and the grammar I neglected my whole life.
After 2 more weeks of 3 hour weekdays and 8 hour weekends I was ready to take my first GMATPrep exam. Due some circumstances during the day I was supposed to take the exam I was held up so I wasn't able to take the whole exam (I skipped AWA and IR) but managed to score a 710 (Q48, V38). I was very satisfied with my score and gleefully checked all the answers of GMAT club. However, I still thought this could be a fluke or the result of me skipping 1/3 of the exam. I decided to would take the next GMATPrep test in 2 days. For the next test I was focused and began my exam the time I knew the real exam would start (3:00 PM). Before starting I pumped myself up with some tunes and went for a run. I ended up scoring 730 on this exam (IR 7, Q49, V40).
For the first time in 4 weeks I let myself relax. I had one week to go to improve and both of my tests from the makers of the GMAT have me scoring above 700. I was excited and was eager to take the exam right there and then. However, the last week of my studies were the hardest.
After finishing those two exams I was super happy and satisfied, but I let thinking about it get too far into my head. I started googling the correlation between the GMATPrep scores and the actual GMAT and many people on these forums would indicate their scores would decrease by as much as 100+ points. I kept reading more and more of these articles and forced myself to study and cram more when I probably did not have to. I ended up not sleeping well and confusing myself with more and more information. By Thursday (2 days before exam day) I forced myself I quit. I realized I was stressing myself out and it would only hinder my performance. I returned to my pre-studying life to try to relax myself a few days before the exam.
The Verbal section was always something I felt like I stumbled my way through on all my practice tests. I would never have an idea of what my score would be until I actually saw it. Today was no different. I finished most of my questions were relative uncertainty if they were right. However, I miscounted my time on several RC questions and ended up having around 10 questions to finish in less than 15 minutes. I panicked and started reading questions as fast as I could and choosing any answer that I believed could be right. Once I clicked submit on the final question I could see myself failing to get that 700 score. I was sad that I put in so much effort the past 5 weeks and I may have to do it again. I answered all the optional questions at the end and angrily pressed each button until I would see my upsetting score. But like a miracle in the sky, my score report gave my final score! 740 (IR 6, Quant 51, Verbal 38).
I just wanted to take a moment to share my GMAT debrief as I have never seen anything quite like my experience within the forum. Hopefully this may be relevant to someone else in the future. First I would like to thank everyone at GMAT club for all their insight and tips regarding the exam. Although I never posted before today (and I did not plan to as you may realize by my ridiculous name), I have searched this website numerous times for general information, question explanations, and test day tips. Anyways, here's what I did to get my score.
Study Material
OG 2016 GuideOG Quantitative Review 2017
OG Verbal Review 2017
Manhattan Guide Sentence Correction
GMATPrep
Veritas Question Bank
Study Timeline
August - September 2016 - Studied for a month after finishing my CPA exam. Got burned out rather quickly and quit after scoring a 640 on the Veritas free exam.April 14th, 2017 - Began studying again
May 20th, 2017 - GMAT exam
Background
Just a little bit of background of myself. I just recently graduated from college in May 2016 and finished my CPA exam before starting work at a Big 4 accounting firm in September. Currently, I am living at home in order to save money, but unfortunately that adds about 2 hours to my commute everyday (via bus). At my firm we're generally required to be there between the hours of 8:30AM-5:30PM everyday where we are expected to work through lunch. So although this is not as hard as some professions such as IB, I still did not have that much time during the work week to study on a day to day basis. Also, for reference purposes I am a native English speaker.Studying
As stated earlier, I began my studying back last August after I finished the CPA exam. I goal was to have the GMAT in the back pocket should the likely scenario arise that I disliked auditing. However, I was never able to gain any traction and shortly quit after a month of lackluster studying and scoring a 640 on the single Veritas Prep free exam.This past month I reignited the fire in me to finish the GMAT while my college study habits were still fresh in my mind. Additionally, I had an upcoming trip planned for the week of May 24th - Memorial Day and firm wide training the subsequent week. So I knew I had to take my exam on the weekend of May 20th. This definitely stressed me out since I knew I did not have as many free hours in the day to take on a rigorous self study course (such as Magoosh) within a 5 week timeframe.
With this in mind I order the Veritas exam pack for $19 and took another practice exam to see whether anything changed from September till now. I ended up scoring a 640 which was fine in my head. Moving forward I realized I needed to up my study game so I started a program where I would wake up in the morning at 5AM and catch the bus at 5:30 to get into the office at 6:30. This would allow me 2 hours in the morning to study before work. On my hour bus ride back from work I would listen to videos (Veritas SC guide, GMAT Tuesdays Magoosh) or practice within the Veritas Question Bank. Finally at night I would study for one more hour before going to bed. As such, I generally averaged around 3 hours of work on the weekdays and 10-14 hours on weekends. Though this may not matter, but each day I set a goal for myself I finish at least 100 OG questions a day on weekdays.
After a week of hard studying I took another Veritas Prep exam and found myself scoring 650. With 4 weeks to go I reasoned a 10 point increase would at least get me to a 690 by the exam date. I thus continued my studying for another week. Following the end of the second week I challenged myself to another practice exam and scored the same 650 from the previous week.
After that exam I was disheartened and felt that my work the last 2 weeks were minimal at best. I could usually score at least a Q47 on most of these exams but I could never break the V33 threshold. It took me so long, but I finally admitted to myself the strategy of reading sentence correction problems and listening to choose my answers was not the greatest strategy. Throughout my K-12 years I never really paid attention in English class or did I read much (and my writing may be atrocious in this post). I realized something needed to change.
As such, the next 2 weeks of my score prep was mostly dominated by listening to Veritas Prep and learning about decision points, finishing the entire Manhattan Guide for SC, and cranking out OG SC problems. I still continued to do Quan, RC, and CR problems, but the bulk of my time was spent learning SC strategies and the grammar I neglected my whole life.
After 2 more weeks of 3 hour weekdays and 8 hour weekends I was ready to take my first GMATPrep exam. Due some circumstances during the day I was supposed to take the exam I was held up so I wasn't able to take the whole exam (I skipped AWA and IR) but managed to score a 710 (Q48, V38). I was very satisfied with my score and gleefully checked all the answers of GMAT club. However, I still thought this could be a fluke or the result of me skipping 1/3 of the exam. I decided to would take the next GMATPrep test in 2 days. For the next test I was focused and began my exam the time I knew the real exam would start (3:00 PM). Before starting I pumped myself up with some tunes and went for a run. I ended up scoring 730 on this exam (IR 7, Q49, V40).
For the first time in 4 weeks I let myself relax. I had one week to go to improve and both of my tests from the makers of the GMAT have me scoring above 700. I was excited and was eager to take the exam right there and then. However, the last week of my studies were the hardest.
After finishing those two exams I was super happy and satisfied, but I let thinking about it get too far into my head. I started googling the correlation between the GMATPrep scores and the actual GMAT and many people on these forums would indicate their scores would decrease by as much as 100+ points. I kept reading more and more of these articles and forced myself to study and cram more when I probably did not have to. I ended up not sleeping well and confusing myself with more and more information. By Thursday (2 days before exam day) I forced myself I quit. I realized I was stressing myself out and it would only hinder my performance. I returned to my pre-studying life to try to relax myself a few days before the exam.
Exam Day
I slept moderately well the night before and got around 8 hours of sleep (though I did feel a little groggy). I went for a run in the morning and ate a large meal for lunch. Again, I had not studied since Thursday. I packed a bottle of water, a protein bar, and a banana for the exam. I arrived to the testing center about 45 minutes early (they let me take it early) and began my test. The first sections of the exam, the AWA and IR, I had neglected my entire study regiment, except for the one attempt in GMATPrep exam 2 and finished both sections to the best of my ability. I did not know how well or poorly I would do, but those sections did not matter too much to me. At the end of IR I got up and took my first break. After eating my protein bar and gulping down some water I went into the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I even went into the stairwell briefly and ran up and down 2 flights of stairs to get energized. I signed back in and began Quant. The beginning of the section I felt a little bit shaky and answered a few questions I wasn't positive on. After the first 10 I felt as though I got a lot of easy problems. I solved them quickly and without effort, but in the back of my mind I was angry and thought I likely got a bunch of the first 10 wrong. In my mind I knew this was too easy and I would have to make up my score my scoring at least a 40 on Verbal. At the end of the section I got up and took my second break. I again went to my locker and ate my banana and gulped down some water. I then headed to the bathroom again to pump myself up. This was the final stretch.The Verbal section was always something I felt like I stumbled my way through on all my practice tests. I would never have an idea of what my score would be until I actually saw it. Today was no different. I finished most of my questions were relative uncertainty if they were right. However, I miscounted my time on several RC questions and ended up having around 10 questions to finish in less than 15 minutes. I panicked and started reading questions as fast as I could and choosing any answer that I believed could be right. Once I clicked submit on the final question I could see myself failing to get that 700 score. I was sad that I put in so much effort the past 5 weeks and I may have to do it again. I answered all the optional questions at the end and angrily pressed each button until I would see my upsetting score. But like a miracle in the sky, my score report gave my final score! 740 (IR 6, Quant 51, Verbal 38).
TL;DR:
To me the greatest takeaway from my experience is that you are your own worst enemy. During my last week before my exam where I scored 710 and 730 on both my GMATprep tests I allowed myself to be psyched out by other people who were just unfortunate to see their scores drop in GMATPrep to the real thing. I assumed my result would be like theirs and I forced myself to study to a detrimental degree. Additionally, don't read too much into the difficulty of the problems within the testlet like I did. I believed I was on the verge of getting in the low 40's in Quant but managed to score 51. Just be confident in your ability and you will be able to shine. And it's not the hours that you need to put in to score well on the exam, its the quality of those hours. Don't get me wrong it was hard. Five weeks of sleeping 6 hours a day with 9 hour work days and a 2 hour commute. But it is entirely possible! On a separate note, I believe that the Quant within the exam is substantially easier than GMATPrep or any of the challenge questions here on the forum. While for Verbal - I never know what's going on there - I can't give a good gauge on difficulty level. I hope someone out there will find my ramblings somewhat helpful! Thank you all! Best of luck to everyone in the future!
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