Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
Apr 2711:00 AM EDT
-12:00 PM EDT
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors
Apr 2912:30 AM EDT
-01:30 AM EDT
Learn how Kamakshi achieved a GMAT 675 with an impressive 96th %ile in Data Insights. Discover the unique methods and exam strategies that helped her excel in DI along with other sections for a balanced and high score.
Apr 3001:30 AM EDT
-02:30 AM EDT
At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
May 0111:00 AM PDT
-12:00 PM PDT
Free- full-length test + 15 concept videos + 150+ short videos + study plan!
May 0306:30 AM PDT
-08:30 AM PDT
Verbal trouble on GMAT? Fix it NOW! Join Sunita Singhvi for a focused webinar on actionable strategies to boost your Verbal score and take your performance to the next level.
panzerommel
Current Student
Joined: 11 Dec 2021
Last visit: 08 Dec 2022
Posts: 11
Given Kudos: 3
Location: Indonesia
Schools: Said '23 (A) Imperial (A)
GMAT 1: 720 Q50 V37 (Online)
GPA: 3.92
17 Dec 2021, 11:31
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hello everyone!
I took my first GMAT online exam after 9 days of full-time continuous grinding (i.e. studying and practicing) and I’m elated to score 720 (Q50 Q37) and IR8. My intention to post my experience is to encourage others who are in the same position as me (those who are having relatively short period of time to prepare GMAT in order to catchup with application deadline) that it is indeed possible to score 700+ in slightly more than a week.
Background
- engineering graduate from UK (1st class)
- ~5 yrs of working exp as corporate strategy in Asia
- working full-time, but workload is significantly decreasing towards the end of the year
- non-native english speaker
- planning to apply to MBA program in UK
- had no idea what GMAT is on day 0
Study and Practice Materials
- OG
- Free GMAT practice 1 & 2 (difficulty level reflects actual exam’s)
- Free Manhattan CAT (quant section is more difficult than actual exam’s)
- gmatclub practice question banks (thanks gmatclub!)
- GMAT Ninja videos on youtube (Charles is super helpful in explaining the foundations of SC and CR)
Strategy
I spent on avg 12 - 14 hours per day (~110 hrs in total) to study
Day 1: I started by reading the OG to understand the overview of the exam structure + the different question categories in quant and verbal. Afterwards, I tried practicing the questions on OG to familiarise myself. At the end of the day, I took a mini diagnostic exam to identify my current position. The score was 620 (Q was ~90th percentile but my V was ~50th percentile). I figured that my V was horrible and I found that the V qns were different than TOEFL qns (I took TOEFL test a few months back. Therefore, I began shifting my focus to improve my V.
Day 2: Going forward, I allocated 2-3 hrs per day to practice quant qns, starting from the OG qns then to gmatclub qns. I used the rest of my time to practice SC and CR qns (because I hate reading long passages in RC) from OG. At the end of the day, I realised that my accuracy in answering both SC and CR questions was not improving... something needed to be done differently.
Day 3: I stumbled upon a GMAT Ninja video explaining about SC on youtube and I ended watching all of Charles’ SC videos. Those videos were super helpful in providing the fundamentals of SC (parallelism, agreements, idioms etc) and the structured approach in tackling the problems (POE, etc). I reinforced the learning by doing SC qns on gmatclub (starting from 600-700 to 700+) and I noticed an improvement in answering SC qns correctly.
Day 4: I started practicing CR and RC, but I felt like I was just intellegently guessing the right answer without having the structured approach to tackle those qns... I ended the day by taking the free Manhattan CAT and my score improved to 670 (Q46/47 V32)
Day 5: I focused on CR for a significant portion of the day. I started watching Charles’ videos on CR and learnt a lot about how to tackle the qns systematically. Again, I reinforced the learning by doing a lot of CR practice questions on gmatclub.
Day 6: I finally changed my focus to RC... my least fav category. I found a video on youtube (I forgot whose video) that suggests to take note of the passage as you read it. I tried it, and it helped me a lot. I found that by writing it again (more like scribbling actually), I have better understanding of the passage (this might be my personal preference, which might differ from others) and hence I started improving my RC accuracy.
Day 7 - 9: I practiced both quant and verbal questions (time allocated is 1:3 respectively) on gmatclub, focusing on 700+ questions. I also started to time my answer, aiming to do each qns in less than 2 mins. I did OG practice exam 1 on day 7 and OG practice exam 2 on day 9, and I scored 710 (Q49 V36 IR 7) and 740 (Q50 V39 IR 6) respectively. However, since I noticed that I had previously solved a few Q and V qns in exam 2 on OG or gmatclub, the score was definitely inflated. I also did not practice IR except for the 2 OG practice exams because schools only care about total score. I ended up sleeping early on day 9 since I scheduled the exam in the morning on the following day.
Exam day: I woke up 2 hrs before the exam started. I connected to the examity network 15 mins before the exam began, followed the proctor’s instruction and conducted the test. Oh, and I used physical whiteboard instead of digital whiteboard.
In the end, I managed to score higher than my initial target of 700. I wouldn’t recommend to use this approach unless it’s really necessary because to be honest, this approach is physically and mentally draining. I hope everyone is going to achieve the target score and I’m signing out from GMAT. Good luck!
And many thanks to GMATCLUB!
I took my first GMAT online exam after 9 days of full-time continuous grinding (i.e. studying and practicing) and I’m elated to score 720 (Q50 Q37) and IR8. My intention to post my experience is to encourage others who are in the same position as me (those who are having relatively short period of time to prepare GMAT in order to catchup with application deadline) that it is indeed possible to score 700+ in slightly more than a week.
Background
- engineering graduate from UK (1st class)
- ~5 yrs of working exp as corporate strategy in Asia
- working full-time, but workload is significantly decreasing towards the end of the year
- non-native english speaker
- planning to apply to MBA program in UK
- had no idea what GMAT is on day 0
Study and Practice Materials
- OG
- Free GMAT practice 1 & 2 (difficulty level reflects actual exam’s)
- Free Manhattan CAT (quant section is more difficult than actual exam’s)
- gmatclub practice question banks (thanks gmatclub!)
- GMAT Ninja videos on youtube (Charles is super helpful in explaining the foundations of SC and CR)
Strategy
I spent on avg 12 - 14 hours per day (~110 hrs in total) to study
Day 1: I started by reading the OG to understand the overview of the exam structure + the different question categories in quant and verbal. Afterwards, I tried practicing the questions on OG to familiarise myself. At the end of the day, I took a mini diagnostic exam to identify my current position. The score was 620 (Q was ~90th percentile but my V was ~50th percentile). I figured that my V was horrible and I found that the V qns were different than TOEFL qns (I took TOEFL test a few months back. Therefore, I began shifting my focus to improve my V.
Day 2: Going forward, I allocated 2-3 hrs per day to practice quant qns, starting from the OG qns then to gmatclub qns. I used the rest of my time to practice SC and CR qns (because I hate reading long passages in RC) from OG. At the end of the day, I realised that my accuracy in answering both SC and CR questions was not improving... something needed to be done differently.
Day 3: I stumbled upon a GMAT Ninja video explaining about SC on youtube and I ended watching all of Charles’ SC videos. Those videos were super helpful in providing the fundamentals of SC (parallelism, agreements, idioms etc) and the structured approach in tackling the problems (POE, etc). I reinforced the learning by doing SC qns on gmatclub (starting from 600-700 to 700+) and I noticed an improvement in answering SC qns correctly.
Day 4: I started practicing CR and RC, but I felt like I was just intellegently guessing the right answer without having the structured approach to tackle those qns... I ended the day by taking the free Manhattan CAT and my score improved to 670 (Q46/47 V32)
Day 5: I focused on CR for a significant portion of the day. I started watching Charles’ videos on CR and learnt a lot about how to tackle the qns systematically. Again, I reinforced the learning by doing a lot of CR practice questions on gmatclub.
Day 6: I finally changed my focus to RC... my least fav category. I found a video on youtube (I forgot whose video) that suggests to take note of the passage as you read it. I tried it, and it helped me a lot. I found that by writing it again (more like scribbling actually), I have better understanding of the passage (this might be my personal preference, which might differ from others) and hence I started improving my RC accuracy.
Day 7 - 9: I practiced both quant and verbal questions (time allocated is 1:3 respectively) on gmatclub, focusing on 700+ questions. I also started to time my answer, aiming to do each qns in less than 2 mins. I did OG practice exam 1 on day 7 and OG practice exam 2 on day 9, and I scored 710 (Q49 V36 IR 7) and 740 (Q50 V39 IR 6) respectively. However, since I noticed that I had previously solved a few Q and V qns in exam 2 on OG or gmatclub, the score was definitely inflated. I also did not practice IR except for the 2 OG practice exams because schools only care about total score. I ended up sleeping early on day 9 since I scheduled the exam in the morning on the following day.
Exam day: I woke up 2 hrs before the exam started. I connected to the examity network 15 mins before the exam began, followed the proctor’s instruction and conducted the test. Oh, and I used physical whiteboard instead of digital whiteboard.
In the end, I managed to score higher than my initial target of 700. I wouldn’t recommend to use this approach unless it’s really necessary because to be honest, this approach is physically and mentally draining. I hope everyone is going to achieve the target score and I’m signing out from GMAT. Good luck!
And many thanks to GMATCLUB!
17 Dec 2021, 14:34
Kudos
Bookmarks
WOW! Insane! Amazing job!
I take it based on the timeline, you are applying very soon?
Are you planning to be done with MBA in 24 days?
I take it based on the timeline, you are applying very soon?
Are you planning to be done with MBA in 24 days?
17 Dec 2021, 21:09
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations on the great score, and thank you for the shout-outs! That's one heck of an achievement in nine days, but it also sounds like a pretty tough nine days...
clockwork gmat .gif [ 360.28 KiB | Viewed 2482 times ]
Congratulations again! And I'm sorry that you had to suffer through so many hours of staring at my goofy face.
Quote:
Wait, what?! You watched ALL of those freaking SC videos in one day? So, like this?
Attachment:
clockwork gmat .gif [ 360.28 KiB | Viewed 2482 times ]
Congratulations again! And I'm sorry that you had to suffer through so many hours of staring at my goofy face.
