Starting my GMAT journey...i'm scared!

Question

Hello,

I decided to start this thread to help me get some perspective from my own preparation to the GMAT and share my experience.

So here's a little bit about me:
Age: 20
Citizenship: French
College: University of Connecticut (Bachelor in Political Science and Economics)
Honors Economics Scholars Program
GPA: 2.6/4 (working towards a 3.0 by the time I apply)

MGMAT CAT 1: 670 (with AWA)
GMAT goal: 720+
Applying to: Grande Ecole programs MSc in Management in France
HEC, ESSEC, ESCP, Skema, Bordeaux EM

Obviously my grades aren't stellar but I think my unusual path (I moved to the US by myself at age 16) could give me an edge and I'm usually a pretty good test taker so hopefully that will still hold for the GMAT!

To be completely honest, I am completely freaking out about taking the GMAT! I have been researching material and prep courses for about 2 months now. I set a tentative date for my exam for July 25th, I am a full-time student in college and I have to travel to France quite often so I'm giving myself plenty of time to prep since I know there will be days when I just won't have time to study (especially finals week) in the beginning but from May on all my focus will be on the GMAT.

I have purchased this material after careful investigation:
- MGMAT Verbal foundations
- MGMAT Quant foundations
- Kaplan Premier
- MGMAT Strategy guides
- MGMAT Companion guide
- OG 12th ed
- OG Verbal
- OG quant

and I plan on getting PR 1012 and Kaplan 800 for additional practice once I get a solid foundation.

I'm starting this weekend with MGMAT Quant foundations. Wish me luck!

rajeevrks27 · Answer

wish u all the best...use either PR or mgmat....rather mgmat would be ok..............for additional practice, exhaust og 10 , og 11 or may be 1000 series...PR for additional practice is not worth ....

vbetanabhatla · Answer

Just a general observation....

For someone like you who has a starting MGMAT CAT score of 670, you might not need all the material you listed out. Like a lot of people in the forum say, quality matters more than quantity. I am assuming you are good at quant (non-native with 670 score). Why then would you want to waste time on Quant Foundations? For that matter 670 is a damn good starting score you should skip Verbal foundations as well. Also, you can skip Kaplan. The MGMAT strategy guides are awesome (except the RC and CR guides).

Long story short, I think all the books you need are as follows...

Quant: MGMAT guides 1 through 5 (Awesome)

Verbal: MGMAT SC guide (Essential), PowerScore CR Bible(Awesome), and no books for RC (its dumb to have a strategy for RC). Just start reading Economist and WSJ ( :oops:

see who is preaching, I need to start doing this for my second attemp)

Practice: OG12 and get hold of some GMATClub tests (rated very highly but haven't used them yet)

Please, please, please do not waste too much time on easy questions (OG Quant and OG Verbal reviews)

Good luck....
Vijay

see who is preaching, I need to start doing this for my second attemp) Practice: OG12 and get hold of some GMATClub tests (rated very highly but haven't used them yet) Please, please, please do not waste too much time on easy questions (OG Quant and OG Verbal reviews) Good luck.... Vijay

vbetanabhatla · Answer

Also you get +1 kudos for planing and discussing the plan before blindly jumping into prep. (unlike me :oops:

who wasted valuable prep time on some useless material)

juliawp · Answer

Thank you for your advice, I looked over the foundations and you're right, it's definitely unnecessary in my case!

I'll post a little later about my experience as I go through the MGMAT strategy guides

Yekrut · Answer

Do you have the breakdown of your score? But you will most likely get the most value from the MGMAT guides. I'm also french and went to a french high school (BAC S) and there are lots of things in the Quant guides that are essentially tricks that I never learned in the french system. Although I could do the problems, they would take me 2-3 times as long as it should, simply because I didn't know these "tricks". I've just finished the number properties guide and it was very helpful. I'm working through the word translation guides and it's very useful as well. Although I don't know your verbal score, I'm assuming you can achieve your goal by improving your verbal. The area you can probably improve significantly by applying rigorous strategy is the SC section. Focusing on this alone may be able to drive you score up!

Either way wishing you the best of luck.

Either way wishing you the best of luck.

juliawp · Answer

May I ask what your profile is? and/or what you'd like to do with your GMAT?

My score breakdown was (Q 48, V 33) and I didn't do it under exact exam conditions so I know these scores are a little bit inflated. My english is nearly that of a native, so I think it took me some time to really understand the type of verbal questions on the GMAT. I think I just need to learn those "tricks" you were talking about.

I have a tendency to underestimate myself, hence the extra preparation time and the amount of books I've purchased. I also want to get in the top business school programs in France so I want to have a REALLY good GMAT score. Anything less than 720 and I'll be very disappointed.

Yekrut · Answer

I'm 22 and currently finishing my Master's in Biochemistry from McGill University. I'm looking to get into the top 3 consulting firms (MBB) and then eventually into a top business school (preferably INSEAD). So that's my "profile". I'm guessing we have similar objectives.

Your quant is much stronger than mine, and I'm hoping to work up to your score. By going through the books you'll most likely find some tips and tricks that can push you up in the 50 point range. I've also heard that doing the 25 quant tests on this site are very useful for candidates who score above 45.

Once I can score 48-50 consistently, I'll be focusing on the verbal. My mother is american and I've always gone to a bilingual school, so my english is fairly strong, but my grammar has always been terrible (both french and english). Currently my verbal is about the same level as yours (score wise). I'm going to go through GMAT Ultimate Grammar guide while doing my math review. I hope this will help reinforce all my concepts and maybe reveal some gaps in my knowledge. Once I've gone through that I've heard great things about the MGMAT SC guide. I'll be looking to develop strong strategies to really kill the SC section.

I think if you go through the MGMAT Quant guides and the 25 Quant tests on this site you'll be able to improve your quant to the 49-50 level. The area that shows most promise for improvement though is the verbal section. If you can focus on that and increase your score to 42-43 you are bound to reach your goal.

Wishing you the best!

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Starting my GMAT journey...i'm scared!

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