That'll do, Pig. That'll do.

Question

The long and the short of it 
I have a mediocre undergrad GPA (3.0), so I knew that a decent GMAT score was going to be necessary, if I wanted to get into one of the incredible schools that I have been targeting. So, I studied a bunch for two months and wound up with a 740 Q49 V42 this morning. That's good enough for me, I think.

My background 
I have an undergrad in engineering, a master's in biotechnology, and six years of very technical experience in tech and biotech. Anyone reading my resume would call me a quant, but the reality is that I'm just a very pragmatic poet. I spend most of my free time reading and writing. Honestly, I read 50-100,000 words of fiction and non-fiction/week outside of work. And at work I spend a lot of time reading primary biological research (because it's my job, not because I have a strange way of slacking off).

My study plan 
So, my plan was to study almost every day for about 2 months. I came reasonably close to this. I probably only studied 6 days/week, but I definitely managed to put in more than 100 hours, maybe closer to 150 or 200 hours. I'm not sure; I'll do the math later.

I didn't really spend a lot of time on this forum until a few weeks into my studying so, I was a bit clueless about how to spend my time and what to spend my time on. I eventually got up to speed, and managed to get in several hours of fairly productive studying per day.

In terms of balance, I knew that I was a poet (in quant's clothes, if you prefer, but still a poet), so I spent the vast majority of my time on quant. By my estimation I spent at least twice as much time on quant as I did on verbal. Oh, and I spent next to no time on AWA, so we'll see how those scores come out.

My materials 
OG-This is mandatory
OG Supplements-Totally worthwhile
MGMAT-Oh. My. God. These should be included in the price of the exam. Honestly. If you sit for this exam and you don't work through these books, then I don't know what you're thinking. Of course, if you're like I was for the first several weeks of my prep, and you don't know what they are, then you can be excused. But if you're reading this, you know. This is the most valuable use of your time. If you don't have time for these, then I doubt that you have time for b-school.
Kaplan-The normal book is a decent intro. Do it in a few days, though. Don't waste forever on it.
Kaplan 800-It's not really as advanced as they want it to sound, but it's worth your time, but not at the expense of time spent on MGMAT books.
Petersen's-Crap
McGraw-Hill-Worse than crap

I also watched a few of Grockit's webcasts. I highly recommend them. I don't know that I actually learned anything from them that I didn't learn elsewhere, but they're well done, and they kept me engaged.

My practice scores 
GMAT Prep #1 750 Q49 V42
Kaplan 720 Q42 V47
GMAT Prep #2 710 Q42 V44
GMAT Prep #3 (Reused) 740 Q49 V41

My test day experience 
The whole experience was almost exactly how I pictured things. Really I was not surprised about anything. The mix of questions, their difficulty level, the test center: it all matched my expectations. And my expectations were based largely on the information in this forum. So, if you read all of the major posts on this site, I can't really tell you anything new.

Summary judgment 
As you can see from my scores, I definitely plateaued after a while. I felt it. There's no doubt about it. Once I got pretty good at these problems, I really struggled to keep myself engaged, and while I kept putting in the hours, my heart wasn't in it. That's on me. I'm not proud of it, but I'm just a working stiff like anyone else. I have a wife, a demanding job, and some very delicate but grand dreams. My personality will only allow me to distort the importance of this test in my career so much. At my day job, I'm tying to cure cancer (or at least the build the tools to allow others to do so). That's what is important to me, and GMAT can only monopolize my attentions so much. GMAT prep has been an adventure, but I can't say that I'm sad to see this time pass.

I'm happy with my score. It's above average basically everywhere, and that's what I needed to keep this dream alive. I think that it accurately reflects the performance I gave on test day. Would I have been happier if I scored higher? Sure. Who wouldn't? But in the end, I think that Farmer Hoggett has it right. That'll do, Pig.

jordanhendrix · Answer

Congrats, Good luck on apps dude!

whiplash2411 · Answer

Haha when I read that title, I was smiling to myself. I can totally relate to your position

Good luck with your applications and congrats on your excellent score!! https://gmatclub.com/static/posted_from.png Posted from GMAT ToolKit

kissthegmat · Answer

Nice title

I thought this post may be from another GMAT frustrated guy like me

but then I opened this and saw an incredible score and I was like woww

Congratz man! Good luck with your apps. Which schools you are going to apply?

willneverquit · Answer

Awesome! Great score and wonderful debrief. Good luck with your apps.

Dreamy · Answer

Thank you for your debrief. Good luck for you apps.

greatman1234 · Answer

hahha what a title....

Excellent score

York101 · Answer

just reading the title I knew you have aced the exam! 
740 surely will do! all the best for your apps.

jsmith54 · Answer

I thought that I'd update this post with a couple of other details.

AWA 
So, as I mentioned in my original post, I didn't really study for this. I read the OG12 for about half an hour and figured that I'd just wing it. My rationale was that they told me what they wanted so all I had to do was give it to them. In my opinion, they really do give you the blueprint for a high scoring essay. You just have to quickly make all of the points that they're expecting.

Oh, and I scored a 6.0, so I'm happy with that. I'm not sure that I have a lot of lessons for the forum, based on my minimal preparation, but I can say a few things. As I said above, I'm a poet: I read and write like crazy. Moreover I've been practicing timed prose writing (and timed speech writing) for years. If that statement doesn't describe you, then you might want to practice. Writing quickly and effectively isn't a magic power, just a skill learned through practice.

Given the lack of weight placed on the AWA by schools, then you might not need to care. But if you're ESL, then this might be a great place to demonstrate a moderately difficult language skill. Just like most things in b-school applications, getting good at AWA is just a matter of effort and time. In my case, I put in that time far ahead of the exam, but I think that you could still make a lot of progress in a few weeks or months, if you wanted to put in the work.

GMAT Club Tests 
I didn't mention them above, but I used them. I'm not going to post my scores. They (my scores) sucked. They (again, my scores) were embarrassing. Really. I think that these tests could be very useful; they just weren't for me.

I spent several weeks working on my math skills before I felt comfortable with the vast majority of questions. I think that I took the GMAT Club tests too early in that process. They kicked my ass and I slunk away licking my wounds. Ideally, I would have given myself enough time to get my math fundamentals down a bit better and then start in on the (very challenging) GMAT Club tests. I think that would have been a more productive and enjoyable approach.

That's it. Now I should get back to writing essays, visiting schools, and...oh, yeah, earning a living.

PadawanOfTheGMAT · Answer

Superb score. Did you do a diagnostic test before preparation? I'd like to know really where you come from. Your background indicates you had the skills to score high on the gmat.

gautrang · Answer

Very nice post, I love your pigs too.

Congratulation on your great score, I would love to try to emulate your "poet" side.

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That'll do, Pig. That'll do.

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