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24 Nov 2022, 06:01
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Hey guys! I am going to share my GMAT experience and some tips with you, some of which might be of help. So, I graduated from university and was looking for a job and thought that this is a good time period to prep for GMAT. My first advice to everyone would be to start as early as possible. The earlier you start, the better you will perform as your brain will be sharper. If you are in your early years of career, just give it a go as it will become tougher with every passing month. I prepared for about 1.5 months on my own, and ended up getting a 730 (Q48 V42). I don't think you absolutely need to buy these paid company courses to get a 700+ score. I will try to focus more on some general tips and then in the end I will briefly touch upon the preparation materials I used (since most of them were standard prep materials):
Self Awareness
The most important thing everyone needs to understand is that there is no standard answer or a perfect preparation way anyone can follow to achieve success at GMAT. It is a very nuanced test and everyone should follow a tailored made plan to get the desired results. You can take help in developing that plan but in the end you are in the best position to assess your strengths and weaknesses. You need to get down in the nitty gritty to understand each and everything about your test taking style and the mistakes you are making. You need to keep asking 'why' again and again to understand the root cause. Don't expect to achieve your desired score just because you read all the prescribed books. It does not work like that. Keep detailed notes of your practice questions, and write down the reasons of your mistakes. Even if it's a carelessness error, write that down. You should have a clear and holistic picture of what is going on with your preparation. If you are doing bad in CR, what is the reason? Which type of questions are making you anxious? Which questions are sabotaging your timing? Once you are aware of you weak areas, only then you can start targeted practice. Practicing questions without reflection and feedback is utterly useless in my opinion. Every question I missed in the OG Quant, I wrote the reason on my register. This made me aware of my weak areas, and allowed me to do efficient targeted practice.
Study Plan
I suppose a lot of people already know and implement this so I won't write much on it. One issue with standardized tests like GMAT is that there is just too much content available for preparation. There are multiple books, tens of companies' courses, and a ton of youtube videos/webinars. It can be a blessing, but it can also be overwhelming. It was definitely overwhelming for me as I wanted to cover everything (which is definitely not a smart strategy). Keeping these things in mind, you should definitely spend a good amount of time in creating a detailed study plan. You should thoroughly research the available material and decide what do you want to cover on priority, then decide the timelines. I even included the webinars or long videos I have to watch, in my study schedule. There is a lot of great content available but you have finite time so choose wisely and stick to it. Another thing I would like to mention is that you should never spend a day without practice. Everyday, you should practice at least 10 questions, both verbal and quant. Even on the days you are just studying the concepts from some books, or watching webinars, don't forget to practice. Because GMAT is all about accuracy and speed, and your brain will keep performing as long as you keep it active. I think the reason I didn't cross Q48 in the actual GMAT (while getting Q49 & Q50 in official mocks) was that I did not practice a single quant question in the last week, which was a mistake. So, keep practicing.
Understanding the algorithm
Understanding the GMAT algorithm is an important part to achieve a good score, in my opinion. There are some good videos available on youtube that you should watch to understand the importance of all four quarters. Missing a higher percentage of questions in the first quarter affects the score way differently than missing the same percentage in the last quarter. My strategy was to spend a little higher time in the first two quarters so that I will get a great accuracy in those quarters, to get to the higher level questions, and then if the time is low I can solve every other question. Don't guess two consecutive questions. There is also a great comprehensive post on gmat club where someone did some detailed case studies to crack the algorithm with hard data. Everyone should enhance their knowledge in this domain, since it can definitely affect your score positively. Also, whatever strategy you plan to go with, implement that in your mock tests to check the results. Analyze the results of you mock tests in detail to get insights. Analyzing your preparation data is the key. Don't just analyze the final score. Analyze what strategies worked and what didn't. Analyze the amount of time spent per question, then relate that to the quarter. Then modify your strategies for the next mock test. If we talk about mock tests, I gave only 3 official mock tests. I bought all 6 but couldn't give all of them due to time. I got 730, 760, and 770 on these three tests.
There are already too many good detailed posts on the preparation material so I am not gonna repeat all of them. I was comfortable with the quant, so I just did practice from OG 2020 and OG Special Quant. I spent some extra time on topics which were my weak areas such as geometry and probability. In the very end, I skimmed through some of the Manhattan guides, and found the Number Properties guide very useful.
In the verbal section, I did not have much problems with CR and RC. Sentence Correction was the once that was sabotaging my score a lot. And it got worse if a large number of SC questions appeared in the start. What really really helped me master SC were the amazing lectures of Charles GMATNinja. I listened to each and every video of his on SC, and it proved to be a gold mine to me. He explained the concepts in such a structured, mechanical and logical way that I started to get a very good accuracy on SC questions. His oft-repeated sentence of 'this is verbal reasoning, not a grammar test' really changed my attitude, and allowed me to get a good verbal score. Charles' answers on GMAT club were also extremely helpful to me since his logic was always consistent. He is the best person to learn SC from. Apart from this, I did study the Manhattan SC guide which is also a great resource.
I am not totally happy with my quantitative score since I wanted a Q49 at least but anyways. I would have loved if I had touched 750+ but I think 730 is also good enough. One reason I wanted to touch 750 was that I wanted to get into GMAT tutoring, since I love standardized tests and I love teaching, but 730 seems low to become a tutor
I really want to thank bb and everyone else for creating this wonderful platform. GMAT club was of a great help to me, both in terms of motivation and actual preparation. Everyone here was so helpful and supportive. Special thanks to Charles GMATNinja, for helping me get a 96th percentile verbal score. I really plan to remain active here, and to guide people as much as I can. You are free to ask as many questions as you like. Also, I would love to help out, if anyone needs any GMAT-related guidance at all, it can be about some specific topic or it can be generalized queries. I would also be open to video consultation if someone wants a detailed discussion. I feel like I owe my score to this platform so I will do my best to help other aspirants.
Self Awareness
The most important thing everyone needs to understand is that there is no standard answer or a perfect preparation way anyone can follow to achieve success at GMAT. It is a very nuanced test and everyone should follow a tailored made plan to get the desired results. You can take help in developing that plan but in the end you are in the best position to assess your strengths and weaknesses. You need to get down in the nitty gritty to understand each and everything about your test taking style and the mistakes you are making. You need to keep asking 'why' again and again to understand the root cause. Don't expect to achieve your desired score just because you read all the prescribed books. It does not work like that. Keep detailed notes of your practice questions, and write down the reasons of your mistakes. Even if it's a carelessness error, write that down. You should have a clear and holistic picture of what is going on with your preparation. If you are doing bad in CR, what is the reason? Which type of questions are making you anxious? Which questions are sabotaging your timing? Once you are aware of you weak areas, only then you can start targeted practice. Practicing questions without reflection and feedback is utterly useless in my opinion. Every question I missed in the OG Quant, I wrote the reason on my register. This made me aware of my weak areas, and allowed me to do efficient targeted practice.
Study Plan
I suppose a lot of people already know and implement this so I won't write much on it. One issue with standardized tests like GMAT is that there is just too much content available for preparation. There are multiple books, tens of companies' courses, and a ton of youtube videos/webinars. It can be a blessing, but it can also be overwhelming. It was definitely overwhelming for me as I wanted to cover everything (which is definitely not a smart strategy). Keeping these things in mind, you should definitely spend a good amount of time in creating a detailed study plan. You should thoroughly research the available material and decide what do you want to cover on priority, then decide the timelines. I even included the webinars or long videos I have to watch, in my study schedule. There is a lot of great content available but you have finite time so choose wisely and stick to it. Another thing I would like to mention is that you should never spend a day without practice. Everyday, you should practice at least 10 questions, both verbal and quant. Even on the days you are just studying the concepts from some books, or watching webinars, don't forget to practice. Because GMAT is all about accuracy and speed, and your brain will keep performing as long as you keep it active. I think the reason I didn't cross Q48 in the actual GMAT (while getting Q49 & Q50 in official mocks) was that I did not practice a single quant question in the last week, which was a mistake. So, keep practicing.
Understanding the algorithm
Understanding the GMAT algorithm is an important part to achieve a good score, in my opinion. There are some good videos available on youtube that you should watch to understand the importance of all four quarters. Missing a higher percentage of questions in the first quarter affects the score way differently than missing the same percentage in the last quarter. My strategy was to spend a little higher time in the first two quarters so that I will get a great accuracy in those quarters, to get to the higher level questions, and then if the time is low I can solve every other question. Don't guess two consecutive questions. There is also a great comprehensive post on gmat club where someone did some detailed case studies to crack the algorithm with hard data. Everyone should enhance their knowledge in this domain, since it can definitely affect your score positively. Also, whatever strategy you plan to go with, implement that in your mock tests to check the results. Analyze the results of you mock tests in detail to get insights. Analyzing your preparation data is the key. Don't just analyze the final score. Analyze what strategies worked and what didn't. Analyze the amount of time spent per question, then relate that to the quarter. Then modify your strategies for the next mock test. If we talk about mock tests, I gave only 3 official mock tests. I bought all 6 but couldn't give all of them due to time. I got 730, 760, and 770 on these three tests.
There are already too many good detailed posts on the preparation material so I am not gonna repeat all of them. I was comfortable with the quant, so I just did practice from OG 2020 and OG Special Quant. I spent some extra time on topics which were my weak areas such as geometry and probability. In the very end, I skimmed through some of the Manhattan guides, and found the Number Properties guide very useful.
In the verbal section, I did not have much problems with CR and RC. Sentence Correction was the once that was sabotaging my score a lot. And it got worse if a large number of SC questions appeared in the start. What really really helped me master SC were the amazing lectures of Charles GMATNinja. I listened to each and every video of his on SC, and it proved to be a gold mine to me. He explained the concepts in such a structured, mechanical and logical way that I started to get a very good accuracy on SC questions. His oft-repeated sentence of 'this is verbal reasoning, not a grammar test' really changed my attitude, and allowed me to get a good verbal score. Charles' answers on GMAT club were also extremely helpful to me since his logic was always consistent. He is the best person to learn SC from. Apart from this, I did study the Manhattan SC guide which is also a great resource.
I am not totally happy with my quantitative score since I wanted a Q49 at least but anyways. I would have loved if I had touched 750+ but I think 730 is also good enough. One reason I wanted to touch 750 was that I wanted to get into GMAT tutoring, since I love standardized tests and I love teaching, but 730 seems low to become a tutor
I really want to thank bb and everyone else for creating this wonderful platform. GMAT club was of a great help to me, both in terms of motivation and actual preparation. Everyone here was so helpful and supportive. Special thanks to Charles GMATNinja, for helping me get a 96th percentile verbal score. I really plan to remain active here, and to guide people as much as I can. You are free to ask as many questions as you like. Also, I would love to help out, if anyone needs any GMAT-related guidance at all, it can be about some specific topic or it can be generalized queries. I would also be open to video consultation if someone wants a detailed discussion. I feel like I owe my score to this platform so I will do my best to help other aspirants.
28 Nov 2022, 16:46
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Bookmarks
Congratulations on the amazing score, UzairSohail! And thank you so much for the kind words -- I'm honored that we could help a bit.
Good luck with your applications! For MBA or for tutoring.
And congratulations again!
Good luck with your applications! For MBA or for tutoring.
And congratulations again!
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