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22 Aug 2020, 22:16
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Preface: I wrote this semi-quickly and have not fully done any grammar or spell checks
Hi Everyone!
I just took the GMAT (8/18) and wanted to share my study plan and resources, testing experience, and some advice in how to approach each subsection.
Before diving into any of this, a few details on my background: I'm a native English speaker, recently graduated from college, and I'm working in high finance. Additionally, I'm aiming for T5 b-schools.
Buckle in, its a long one!
Study Plan:
I became interested in taking the GMAT this past April after trying to find something to do with my spare time.
Taking advice from GMATClub, I took the official diagnostic (GMAC Test 1) pre-studying and scored a 680 (Q:44/V:39); however, I took this score with a grain of salt as I had taken the same test a couple years back to gauge my interest in the GMAT and remembered some of the questions.
ADVICE/PRO-TIP: This one may be obvious, but I highly recommend reviewing your diagnostic meticulously. Write down the kinds and categories of questions that you struggle with most and identify your weakness on the question, whether its conceptual, timing-based, or even correct questions that were simply educated guesses. Having this kind of mentality will help you develop your plan and significantly aid the quality your studying.
Knowing the caliber of schools I wanted to apply to, I set a minimum target of 760 (Q;49/V:45). Given my performance on the diagnostic and this goal, I consulted GMATClub’s study plan thread to put together the following:
Length: ~3 months | 1.5 months Quant concepts, .5 month Verbal concepts, 1 month application and testing
Study Days: Sunday - Friday
Absolute Must: Error Log
Resources (Bought and Used):
Resources (Bought, but not used):
ADVICE/ProTip: Sign up for GMATClubs question of the day ASAP. Make it a habit to answer and review those questions every day, even on your rest days.
Quant:
While I wasn’t unhappy with my diagnostic Quant score, some of the questions I answered correctly were educated guesses rather than founded concrete concepts (unfortunately, a BBA doesn’t help you much with Quant logic ? ). Additionally, a 1-point increase in the Quant is more valuable towards your overall score than the same increase in the verbal. Therefore, I decided to spend more time on the Quant.
I began by reading and taking notes on all the MGMAT Quant books. I can’t speak highly enough about the structure and breadth of info that these books contain. Despite the quality of the books (and I believe this to be true of many GMAT prep services), I found that some of the topics covered, such as, combinatorics, probability, advanced absolute values, and to some extent geometry/coordinate geometry are taught within the context of how historical GMATs have asked about these question types. The result is that MGMAT glances over elementary conceptual understanding in favor of “shortcuts” that are useful in answering vanilla questions, but that a test taker will be unable to modify successfully if the questions are slightly different. For the sections that I felt unsatisfactory, I supplemented my understanding by googling and reading papers made public by various universities.
ADVICE/PROTIP: Don’t be satisfied with shortcuts, always take the extra steps to understand concepts fully.
After studying the basic books, I made my way through the Advanced Quant book by MGMAT. If you plan on using this resource, I would focus mostly on the advanced testing strategies that it talks about rather than the questions (they are a little bit of overkill).
To round off my Quant, I did about 6-7 Quant only GMATClub CATs. To be very fair, had I not gone over time, I would not have scored very well on them, but at this point in time I was more focused on applying logic than having correct timing. While I will mention this more later on, after each CAT I would update my error log and spend more time reviewing each question that I missed than the time it took me to answer. This is a crucial habit that I guarantee pays off.
Verbal:
Out of the two sections, I definitely considered Verbal my weaker section, but with the most potential. Of the three subsections, I found that reading textbooks is most to least effective in the following order: SC, CR, RC.
As a preface, I have always religiously read the NYT and WSJ, which many people would suggest as resources.
I used MGMAT for SC and found it to be sufficient for learning the basics. Out of all the content, I would definitely focus on learning parallelism, pronoun usage, comparisons, and idioms since most of this stuff is fairly rigid on the GMAT (there are some exceptions with pronouns such as "it"). Apart from that I used GMATNinja's Youtube series for clarification and most importantly listened to NYT and WSJ news podcasts. A very underappreciated part of the SC is the importance of sound. These podcasts are spoken using very similar structure to what you would expect from business writing; therefore, hearing somebody speak it helps your brain process how a sentence should sound and why it should sound that way.
ADVICE/PROTIP: Learn the rules of SC, but most importantly work on extracting meaning and identifying the sound of a proper business sentence.
CR was definitely my strongest subsection of the three. I studied the entirety of the the PowerScore Bible and definitely found it sufficient for answering any of the CR questions. Unfortunately, I really couldn't find anything outside of answering CR questions to supplement learning.
I didn't study anything for RC.
Once I had finished reading the textbooks I took 3 Verbal CATS from GMATClub. Unlike my Quant scores, those of my Verbal varied more widely - I was scoring between 40-45. While I think this tends to be common in Verbal, it definitely made me feel more uncomfortable with my performance.
Sidenote: Throughout my Verbal study period, I was taking Quant GMATClub CATs every 3-4 days just to keep my skills sharp.
Lastly, I was spending a significant amount of time leveraging my Error Log and reviewing missed questions. Of all the resources I used, I learned the most from reviewing my and other people's responses. Additionally, I would look over the wrong answers and try to "justify" why someone would think that was the correct answer and then try to avoid the same logical mistakes.
ADVICE/PROTIP: Spend time studying why a particular wrong answer is wrong, do your best to figure out why it's the wrong answer in that context, and generalize the mistake (i.e. "this is answer is wrong b/c it improperly uses causality"). This is not to say a similar answer using causality will be wrong in another question, but now you know how to identify it and what to look for.
Applying, Timing and Testing:
Only once I had finished reviewing both sections and felt comfortable on how to approach each kind of question, I began to work on timing. I mostly did this using GMATClub CATS, not official questions yet.
I struggled most on Quant when it came to timing. I had a terrible habit on data sufficiency questions in which I would take extra time solving the problem instead of identifying whether it was even possible to solve. This habit was formed during my initial studying when I was trying to learn as much as I could, rather than just answer the question when I knew it was possible.
It wasn't until I had nailed my timing that I began to use the Official GMAT Questions. My thought process behind this was that I wanted to maximize the utility I got from official qs since they are the best study resources available.
ADVICE/PROTIP: While many people choose to use the official questions throughout the process, I highly recommend waiting to use official questions until the end in order to get the most out of them.
For the last 3 weeks of my studying, I dedicated my time to doing "full-length sections" with the official questions (36 V Qs and 31 Q Qs) under real testing environments . Additionally every 3 days, I would take an official practice test (2-6) and simulate a realistic testing environment. This included using a wet erase notebook, timing all the breaks, only eating/drinking during breaks, and taking the exam at the same time I would be taking my real exam.
ADVICE/PROTIP: The biggest advice I could give anybody, is to simulate the test environment whenever you are answering questions. This makes you comfortable with using the notebook, timing your bathroom breaks, figuring out your diet, and preparing for any unexpected circumstances.
The following are my scores, I always did V->Q:
I want to conclude this section by just giving general advice about habits that helped me reach those scores:
Exam Day:
I was fortunate enough to take the exam in a testing center. I know that some people prefer the online experience, but personally the change of atmosphere helps me get my game face on.. or so I thought.
In general, I am NOT a good standardized exam taker and never have been.
Overall I found the testing center to be pretty accommodating: they did a good job with COVID, were responsive to my questions, and were timely on breaks. Only downside was you were required to wear your mask during the exam and it was actually fairly distracting to me.
In terms of my test, 760 (Q:50/V:42), I took it in the order V->Q, the same as my practice tests. I found the Verbal to be relatively harder than the Quant, and I also felt I under-performed. I think I was a bit cold coming in and didn't fully warm-up until halfway through.
In terms of sustenance, I took two full water bottles as drinks and a banana, honey and a mocha Clif Bar as food. Many people will recommend that you take food that's high in carbs and I completely agree - this diet definitely kept me sharp.
ADVICE/PROTIP: This is pretty simple advice, but at least one week before your test get into a good sleep and eat schedule. Depending on the time you take the exam (mine was at noon), I recommend eating the same meal in order to avoid any surprises. Additionally, don't add anything to your diet; for example don't drink coffee the day of your exam if you've never drank coffee before.
Subsection Approaches:
In this last section, I just want to briefly talk about a few tips on the subsections. This is not mean to be all inclusive, but just some nuggets that I found useful and helped me maximize each section.
Quant:
Problem Solving
Data Sufficiency
Verbal:
Sentence Correction
Critical Reasoning
Reading Comprehension
Thanks for giving this a read! Good luck to everyone taking this exam!
Hi Everyone!
I just took the GMAT (8/18) and wanted to share my study plan and resources, testing experience, and some advice in how to approach each subsection.
Before diving into any of this, a few details on my background: I'm a native English speaker, recently graduated from college, and I'm working in high finance. Additionally, I'm aiming for T5 b-schools.
Buckle in, its a long one!
Study Plan:
I became interested in taking the GMAT this past April after trying to find something to do with my spare time.
Taking advice from GMATClub, I took the official diagnostic (GMAC Test 1) pre-studying and scored a 680 (Q:44/V:39); however, I took this score with a grain of salt as I had taken the same test a couple years back to gauge my interest in the GMAT and remembered some of the questions.
ADVICE/PRO-TIP: This one may be obvious, but I highly recommend reviewing your diagnostic meticulously. Write down the kinds and categories of questions that you struggle with most and identify your weakness on the question, whether its conceptual, timing-based, or even correct questions that were simply educated guesses. Having this kind of mentality will help you develop your plan and significantly aid the quality your studying.
Knowing the caliber of schools I wanted to apply to, I set a minimum target of 760 (Q;49/V:45). Given my performance on the diagnostic and this goal, I consulted GMATClub’s study plan thread to put together the following:
Length: ~3 months | 1.5 months Quant concepts, .5 month Verbal concepts, 1 month application and testing
Study Days: Sunday - Friday
Absolute Must: Error Log
Resources (Bought and Used):
- MGMAT 6th Edition (all)
MGMAT Advanced Quant
CR Bible
Official Guide and Tests (3-6)
GMATClub discussions and Question of the Day
GMATClub CATs (partial)
Practice wet erase notebook
Resources (Bought, but not used):
- Official Verbal and Quant Guide (Didn’t have enough time)
Official Additional Question Set 2 (Didn’t have enough time)
ADVICE/ProTip: Sign up for GMATClubs question of the day ASAP. Make it a habit to answer and review those questions every day, even on your rest days.
Quant:
While I wasn’t unhappy with my diagnostic Quant score, some of the questions I answered correctly were educated guesses rather than founded concrete concepts (unfortunately, a BBA doesn’t help you much with Quant logic ? ). Additionally, a 1-point increase in the Quant is more valuable towards your overall score than the same increase in the verbal. Therefore, I decided to spend more time on the Quant.
I began by reading and taking notes on all the MGMAT Quant books. I can’t speak highly enough about the structure and breadth of info that these books contain. Despite the quality of the books (and I believe this to be true of many GMAT prep services), I found that some of the topics covered, such as, combinatorics, probability, advanced absolute values, and to some extent geometry/coordinate geometry are taught within the context of how historical GMATs have asked about these question types. The result is that MGMAT glances over elementary conceptual understanding in favor of “shortcuts” that are useful in answering vanilla questions, but that a test taker will be unable to modify successfully if the questions are slightly different. For the sections that I felt unsatisfactory, I supplemented my understanding by googling and reading papers made public by various universities.
ADVICE/PROTIP: Don’t be satisfied with shortcuts, always take the extra steps to understand concepts fully.
After studying the basic books, I made my way through the Advanced Quant book by MGMAT. If you plan on using this resource, I would focus mostly on the advanced testing strategies that it talks about rather than the questions (they are a little bit of overkill).
To round off my Quant, I did about 6-7 Quant only GMATClub CATs. To be very fair, had I not gone over time, I would not have scored very well on them, but at this point in time I was more focused on applying logic than having correct timing. While I will mention this more later on, after each CAT I would update my error log and spend more time reviewing each question that I missed than the time it took me to answer. This is a crucial habit that I guarantee pays off.
Verbal:
Out of the two sections, I definitely considered Verbal my weaker section, but with the most potential. Of the three subsections, I found that reading textbooks is most to least effective in the following order: SC, CR, RC.
As a preface, I have always religiously read the NYT and WSJ, which many people would suggest as resources.
I used MGMAT for SC and found it to be sufficient for learning the basics. Out of all the content, I would definitely focus on learning parallelism, pronoun usage, comparisons, and idioms since most of this stuff is fairly rigid on the GMAT (there are some exceptions with pronouns such as "it"). Apart from that I used GMATNinja's Youtube series for clarification and most importantly listened to NYT and WSJ news podcasts. A very underappreciated part of the SC is the importance of sound. These podcasts are spoken using very similar structure to what you would expect from business writing; therefore, hearing somebody speak it helps your brain process how a sentence should sound and why it should sound that way.
ADVICE/PROTIP: Learn the rules of SC, but most importantly work on extracting meaning and identifying the sound of a proper business sentence.
CR was definitely my strongest subsection of the three. I studied the entirety of the the PowerScore Bible and definitely found it sufficient for answering any of the CR questions. Unfortunately, I really couldn't find anything outside of answering CR questions to supplement learning.
I didn't study anything for RC.
Once I had finished reading the textbooks I took 3 Verbal CATS from GMATClub. Unlike my Quant scores, those of my Verbal varied more widely - I was scoring between 40-45. While I think this tends to be common in Verbal, it definitely made me feel more uncomfortable with my performance.
Sidenote: Throughout my Verbal study period, I was taking Quant GMATClub CATs every 3-4 days just to keep my skills sharp.
Lastly, I was spending a significant amount of time leveraging my Error Log and reviewing missed questions. Of all the resources I used, I learned the most from reviewing my and other people's responses. Additionally, I would look over the wrong answers and try to "justify" why someone would think that was the correct answer and then try to avoid the same logical mistakes.
ADVICE/PROTIP: Spend time studying why a particular wrong answer is wrong, do your best to figure out why it's the wrong answer in that context, and generalize the mistake (i.e. "this is answer is wrong b/c it improperly uses causality"). This is not to say a similar answer using causality will be wrong in another question, but now you know how to identify it and what to look for.
Applying, Timing and Testing:
Only once I had finished reviewing both sections and felt comfortable on how to approach each kind of question, I began to work on timing. I mostly did this using GMATClub CATS, not official questions yet.
I struggled most on Quant when it came to timing. I had a terrible habit on data sufficiency questions in which I would take extra time solving the problem instead of identifying whether it was even possible to solve. This habit was formed during my initial studying when I was trying to learn as much as I could, rather than just answer the question when I knew it was possible.
It wasn't until I had nailed my timing that I began to use the Official GMAT Questions. My thought process behind this was that I wanted to maximize the utility I got from official qs since they are the best study resources available.
ADVICE/PROTIP: While many people choose to use the official questions throughout the process, I highly recommend waiting to use official questions until the end in order to get the most out of them.
For the last 3 weeks of my studying, I dedicated my time to doing "full-length sections" with the official questions (36 V Qs and 31 Q Qs) under real testing environments . Additionally every 3 days, I would take an official practice test (2-6) and simulate a realistic testing environment. This included using a wet erase notebook, timing all the breaks, only eating/drinking during breaks, and taking the exam at the same time I would be taking my real exam.
ADVICE/PROTIP: The biggest advice I could give anybody, is to simulate the test environment whenever you are answering questions. This makes you comfortable with using the notebook, timing your bathroom breaks, figuring out your diet, and preparing for any unexpected circumstances.
The following are my scores, I always did V->Q:
- Official Test 2 - 740 (Q:48/V:44) - Found the Quant more difficult than the Verbal
Official Test 3 - 750 (Q:50/V:40) - Found the Verbal more difficult than the Quant
Official Test 4 - 750 (Q:50/V:42) - Found the Verbal more difficult than the Quant
Official Test 5 - 760 (Q:49/V:44) - Found the Quant more difficult than the Verbal
Official Test 6 - 770 (Q:49/V:48) -Found both to be equally difficult
I want to conclude this section by just giving general advice about habits that helped me reach those scores:
- Don't underestimate the power of guessing - the time you save can be a game changer
Exercise or at least stay active - helps with stress management and cardiovascular health
Eat well - seriously a good consistent diet will help avoid any unforeseen circumstances and keeps you sharp
Work on your breathing - I do the Wim Hof breathing exercises as a form of meditation. It helps combat any mental fogginess and helped me stay on target
Exam Day:
I was fortunate enough to take the exam in a testing center. I know that some people prefer the online experience, but personally the change of atmosphere helps me get my game face on.. or so I thought.
In general, I am NOT a good standardized exam taker and never have been.
Overall I found the testing center to be pretty accommodating: they did a good job with COVID, were responsive to my questions, and were timely on breaks. Only downside was you were required to wear your mask during the exam and it was actually fairly distracting to me.
In terms of my test, 760 (Q:50/V:42), I took it in the order V->Q, the same as my practice tests. I found the Verbal to be relatively harder than the Quant, and I also felt I under-performed. I think I was a bit cold coming in and didn't fully warm-up until halfway through.
In terms of sustenance, I took two full water bottles as drinks and a banana, honey and a mocha Clif Bar as food. Many people will recommend that you take food that's high in carbs and I completely agree - this diet definitely kept me sharp.
ADVICE/PROTIP: This is pretty simple advice, but at least one week before your test get into a good sleep and eat schedule. Depending on the time you take the exam (mine was at noon), I recommend eating the same meal in order to avoid any surprises. Additionally, don't add anything to your diet; for example don't drink coffee the day of your exam if you've never drank coffee before.
Subsection Approaches:
In this last section, I just want to briefly talk about a few tips on the subsections. This is not mean to be all inclusive, but just some nuggets that I found useful and helped me maximize each section.
Quant:
Problem Solving
- PS tests your ability to quickly solve problems, but also your ability to transcribe words to numbers. As such, many people tend to rush into the problem and before even finishing reading are already doing calculation. Some people are good enough to do this and anybody can do it if the question is vanilla. However, my biggest advice is to read the entire question stem first, come up with a plan of attack, then put pen to paper. This structure definitely improved my speed and accuracy.
Data Sufficiency
- Unlike PS, in DS you're not actually trying to solve anything, just if you can solve something. As such, DS tends to test more of the abstract and conceptual details associated with math logic. My biggest advice is to not fully solve or test cases if its unnecessary and also to study math as an art - instead of just seeing numbers, understand the logic and the theory.
Verbal:
Sentence Correction
- Like I mentioned earlier, a very important tool in your arsenal for tackling SC, especially if you want to do well on the more ambiguous (read: ridiculous and hypocritical) questions, is to sound out the sentence. Many time awkwardness and understanding can be better understood if the voice in your head can identify how and why a sentence is supposed to sound the way it does.
Critical Reasoning
- CR is arguably my best section of them all. Other than understanding the question types, the best advice I can give to tackle the harder questions is to own the argument. If the argument was especially difficult, I pretended as if I were the one who gave the argument. This change in mentality real helped me identify why I gave certain premises, what assumption I must have assumed, and helped me justify why I came to a certain conclusion (even if it is logically flawed). By understanding the argument from this direction, I could easily identify areas of weakness, unstated assumptions, the logical flow of reasoning, and facts that may help bolster my conclusion.
Reading Comprehension
- Honestly I didn't really study for RC, so I'm definitely not qualified to give advice. However, all I can say is that you should definitely focus on reading the passage quickly and retaining only general ideas. For specific points on the passage, its easy to refer back to the passage at anytime.
Thanks for giving this a read! Good luck to everyone taking this exam!
23 Aug 2020, 07:31
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Excellent debrief, filled with some very good points.
You have a background in BBA and yet scored a Q50. This shows again that the GMAT quant section heavily tests logical quantitative reasoning.
People should not underestimate the value of good sleep, diet, exercise and familiarity. These are elements that need a long period of time to cultivate. They have big influences on performance that are often underestimated.
You have a background in BBA and yet scored a Q50. This shows again that the GMAT quant section heavily tests logical quantitative reasoning.
People should not underestimate the value of good sleep, diet, exercise and familiarity. These are elements that need a long period of time to cultivate. They have big influences on performance that are often underestimated.
