750 (Q48, V45 , IR8) on first attempt - my thanks and tips

Question

Hi everyone!

I took yesterday the GMAT exam for the first time and got a good result: Q48, V45, IR8 for an overall score of 750.

Since I have consulted this forum quite often during my mock exam sessions to get explanations to the questions I did wrong, I think it would be correct to give back to this community.
In the next post I will share my preparations steps to the exam, hoping it will be helpful for some of you guys.

loris · Answer

I started my preparation at the beginning of April.
Since I am working full time I could study only during weekends (let's say 3 out of 4 a month) and I have dedicated to the preparation of the exam a total amount of around 60 hours.
As a study support I bought the 2019 GMAT official bundle (3 books package).

I started studying on the Official guide. For each section I read first the theory part and then I did the exercises part. I used to do sessions of around 2 hours, the first hour dedicated to try to answer 30 questions, the second hour to read the explanations of the answers for the questions I did wrong but also for the correct ones. I followed the structrure of the books, so first the 2 Quantitative sections, then the three Verbal ones.

Then I switched to the Quantitative and Verbal review books. I adopted the same study method, but this time I alternated the quantitative and verbal sections, adopting the following pattern (with the introduction of the IR section questions online from the Official guide): PS - RC - DS - CR - IR - SC
After finishing the exercises on those two books, I switched back to the official guide and tried to write 4-5 different AWA essays.

Finally, after registering to the exam session, I got access to the two official practice exams and to the additional 90 practice questions.
I started doing the Practice Exam 1, adopting the #1 order. I got an overall score of 730 (Q49, V40, IR8). However, I quickly realized that it was not the best sequence for me, since I left as the last section, when I was more tired, the Verbal part, the one I am better at.
Then, I did the practice questions, in three different practice sections: first the 30 Q questions, then 30 V questions, in the third the remaining 15 V questions plus the 15 IR ones.
In the end last weekend I did the 2nd practice exam, adopting this time order #2, the same I then used yesterday. I got a much better result, as expected: 770 (Q49, V47, IR8).

If you have any questions about my preparation method or you want to know something more feel free to ask me!

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Congrats for your super score. All the best for your application package.

Bismarck · Answer

loris

Congrats for score!!

Best of luck for applications.

bb · Answer

Great job! Wow - you only used the Official Guides? That’s it?

Did you take a diagnostic test? What was your score if you did?

Thanks so much for the debrief!

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Sammysat · Answer

Congratulations loris, it's a great achievement. I hope to be like you soon. If there is any other tips or what you noticed during your preparations, please share. It will help a lot of us. Cheers

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loris · Answer

Thank you and thanks to everybody for the congratulations.

Yes, that was the only study material I used, in combination with the practice questions and exams I got when I registered to the exam.
Maybe I was too naive in my approach, but, given the limited amount of time I could dedicate to the preparation (around 6-7 hours per week), I don't think having more study material would have made a big difference.

The only diagnostic tests I did were the two official mock exams, with scores of 730 and 770, as explained in my previous post.
A negative side effect of this right now is that, since until three weeks ago I had no idea what could be my potential score, it was hard for me to undestand which tier of business schools I should look at, make my research on and so on...
I was a little bit conservative in my potential choices and preferences, while now I could aim to higher tier business schools and I need to start the research process again before starting with application processes.

loris · Answer

Thanks!

Since some of you asked me also on PM some tips on Verbal part, I am sharing my experience here in this post, so it will be visibile to more people.

As you could read, my approach to the exam was pretty straightforward. I did practice questions and I tried to learn more and improve myself through the explanations of the answers in the books, for both the correct and the wrong ones.
An important element for me was that right from the start I tried to simulate exam conditions in terms of number of questions and time (usually 30 questions in 1 hour) in my study sessions to reach as fast as possible the solving speed and pace necessary in the real exam.

Going more specifically into the three parts of the Verbal section, unfortunately, to be honest with you, I cannot give you many advice for the RC and CR parts; they came pretty natural to me and I haven't done anything extra besides practising questions.
On the other hand, being a non-native speaker, the SC part was the hardest of the three. There, something that helped me a lot, especially to save time, was to recognize similar "patterns" in questions and thus save a lot of time. I explain myself better with the following example.
There are always sentences, such as the one in this example ("With no natural predators and expanses of green suburban neighborhoods that allow no hunting, wildlife officials estimate the New Jersey deer population to have grown to exceed 175,000"), made of a subordinate clause adding extra information on the subject of the main clause and a principal clause.
In 95% of cases the determining factor is the accordance of the two subjects. In this kind of questions I just go quickly through the subjects of the five options to find the right accordance, not interested, at least at the beginning, in the other elements/differences.
Recognizing this kind of patterns allowed me to save a lot of time, I have finished the Verbal part in the two practice tests and in the real exam with around 5 minutes of spare time left.

bb · Answer

V45 for a non native speaker who did not even use prep books, that’s an amazing score. Unfortunately for most of us, a lot more tools and help is needed... I started with a 540 diag test and then 3 months of work with books working on strategies and timing.

PS. I rarely hear of people having time left in Verbal. You have a really strong base!

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PS. I rarely hear of people having time left in Verbal. You have a really strong base!

Posted from my mobile device

gmat1393 · Answer

Congratulations  loris

750 is an amazing score!

All the best for your applications.

Businessconquerer · Answer

YOU must have an genius level IQ. Remarkable score, you could inspire a lot of people here.

That is a V45? Dayum man you must be excellent at verbal.

loris · Answer

I am definitely not a genius.
I am probably naturally gifted in verbal aspects and I have found during my study sessions the right strategy to fully exploit my skills.
I think that there are general strategies to perform well in the exam, but in my opinion it is more important to find the right approach according to your strengths.

Businessconquerer · Answer

Tell us some. May be we could get some benefit

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Wow, 750 with just the OG is pretty impressive. As I’m sure you’ve seen, most folks can’t achieve a score even close to 750 by just using the OG. Good luck with things moving forward.

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