Two weeks prep for GMAT - we shall see!*UPDATE 760 (Q50,V42)

Question

Hello!

I am currently consulting and decided to take the GMAT while I still have decent control over my schedule.
I graduated undergrad in 2008, and I don't think I will go to B-school until I will have 4 or 5 years of work experience.

Anyways, I took one practice CAT GMAT when I was in undergrad, did well, and decided I would pursue it when the timing made more sense.

I took the first GMAT supplied practice test the Monday before last and got a 720 (I don't remember the Q and V scores, I didn't know at that point the importance of those scores), so I booked for Tuesday, November 23rd (tomorrow!) and am getting pretty excited! In order to prepare, I did a fairly practice test heavy regimen, and I will let you know how it goes.

My first step was buying the 800score prep course because it looked decent and had 5 practice CAT tests with which I could practice. None of the concepts in math are new to me, and the verbal is decent for me, so I decided to just take practice tests for 90% of my studying to get used to the type of tricks I should expect. The rest of my studying was learning geometry rules (triangles in semi circles) that I had forgotten, idioms, and the preferred AWA formatting.

My practice CAT scores so far, in chronological order:
720 (first GMATPrep test, Q?, V?)
740 (Q49, V43, 800score Test #1)
770 (Q50, V44, 800score Test #2)
750 (Q50, V41, 800score Test #3)
730 (Q48, V41, 800score Test #4)
750 (Q50, V43, 800score Test #5)
660 (Q45, V38, Kaplan Free Test - haha I did great on the math and fine on the verbal as per usual, which confirmed to me that KAPLAN under calculates as it says in the reviews in the forums here)
750 (Q50, V42, second GMATPrep test)

Anyways, I am taking one more practice Monday before the exam (one of the free ones, knewton, veritas, etc), and I will let you know how that goes, and then how my actual exam goes!
I will be ecstatic with a 760 or above, but I will be happy with a 740 or 750 also. I still won't retake if it's 700+, I just won't be buying a round for my friends. I don't even want to consider that all of the tests, including the actual GMATPrep tests, excluding the KAPLAN, are that inaccurate, and I will get a 690-. I really want a killer GMAT to demonstrate I am intellectually strong enough, especially when seen in conjunction with my recommendations, even though I didn't do so hot in undergrad (~2.5, but I was an engineer at a USNEWS top 30 national university, so we'll see when I eventually apply).

Anyways, wish me luck!

tl;dr - 720 first GMATPrep test ~2 weeks ago, 750 second GMATPrep test earlier today, actual test in 2 days, I've been studying for 2 weeks, we'll see!

linkiswickeddank · Answer

I just took the Knewton free CAT Test - Q 50 V 40 = 740 overall.

That is pretty good I feel. I only missed one on Quant, #36 of 37, so that was fine. It definitely was easier than the 800score Quant, where I typically missed 2-4, but still got 50.

The Verbal was harder than 800score, but very enjoyable nonetheless. I don't know if it's like this for everybody, but a lot of the passages were very technical and science-y. While I typically like that, as it plays to my chemical engineering background, these were still very challenging.

Relaxing tonight (haha probably doing some sentence corrections, who am I kidding!), and test tomorrow!

I will let you know how it goes

firasath · Answer

good luck!

linkiswickeddank · Answer

I am pretty happy!

760 - Q50, V42
99% - 93%, 95%

I actually thought the math went really well, to the point where I thought maybe I didn't miss any, but as I had yet to score a 51 on any of my prep tests, I wasn't bummed at all about that.

The verbal was hard, but I worked my way through them and didn't guess as much as I usually had during my practice tests (especially on that Knewton one!).

My test day ritual - my test was a 12:30pm, so I showed up at 12:00pm (I couldn't get in any earlier than 30 minutes before) after already eating breakfast and lunch, espresso with breakfast, 1/2 cup of coffee over the course of lunch and the walk to the testing center. 
I took ~5 minutes after the AWA and just stretched my legs.

I took ~7 minutes after Quant to stretch my legs, drink ~1/3 of an AMP, and eat a banana.

One note - one of my question answers had a typo in it, which was unexpected. I had never seen a question that would be wrong due to a typo in sentence correction during my studies, but luckily there were more things wrong with that sentence than just the typo. Still, I wondered if they knew.

Anyways, yay, I won't have to take the GMAT again (assuming I go to B school in the next 5 years).

I will post again when I get my AWA score back as I used chineseburned's post to help me get a cohesive structure going for each of them.

rg1 · Answer

This is awesome score. You look like a GMAT genius here:).

linkiswickeddank · Answer

Thank you for the kind words, but I doubt I am any smarter than the rest of the people here. In my mind, it comes down mostly to testing ability and not getting psyched out.

That said, I have always been very very good at taking tests, but I still think that this was a decent strategy for +40 in two weeks. It definitely worked for me to just hammer my mind with test after test after test (I did the essays before each practice also, this helped prepare me for the full strain on test day). That, and the advice from others on here for test day caffeine, break food, and what to expect at the test center helped quite a bit.

Practice Practice Practice - works in sports, works in tests!

rg1 · Answer

You're modest too:). I agree with you on this strategy: practice, practice and more practice. 
Good luck for your applications whenever you decide to apply.

mads · Answer

Congratulations... That is an excellant score. What is your verbal strategy?

Dreamy · Answer

Great score. Thanks for the debrief.

linkiswickeddank · Answer

Thank you very much for the kind words.

For verbal, I tried to absorb as much data as I could using any means necessary.
For example, I have a Droid 2, so I downloaded GMAT Vocabulary flash cards and ran through those as much as possible. I don't necessarily think this taught me new words, per sé, but it kept my mind thinking in the verbal realm. 
I also downloaded the demo versions of three idiom apps for my phone. I probably used these apps ~8 hours in the past two weeks, any time I had 30 seconds (waiting for an elevator, waiting in an elevator, bio break, when I felt like sitting on the couch for a minute, etc.). This kept my mind constantly thinking about idioms and vocabulary.

Also, in every practice test I did, if I missed a question, I thoroughly reviewed the answer, and then went and meticulously read whatever the instruction material on that aspect of the GMAT the course I bought (800Score online, idk if they do in person). I did this for each problem I did wrong. If I missed two questions with the same root, I read that section twice. This happened twice during a single practice test, so I wasn't double reading everything every test I took, but every once in a while. Basically self flagellation, in reading form!

I wish I had found GMAT Club sooner than I did, especially for the Verbal, but it is what it is, and I'm definitely not disappointed.

Mostly, and this is what I most credit my gain with is just practicing the tests and getting ready to perform on the day of the test. If I had studied for 3 months at the same saturation level, I would've been burnt out on test day, for sure. This is the method that works best for me, but I think there are a couple of pieces of prep work in here that would help a lot people!

Also, don't waste the first GMATPrep test like I did! Also, I worry about accuracy or false sense of accomplishment for repeating GMATPrep tests. Yes, it's true that people rarely see repeat questions, but there is still the sense that they have done this before, and if a repeat question comes up, that accuracy is totally shot. You need to simulate test conditions as much as possible, including being as nervous as possible that the next question will be different from anything you have ever encountered.

Good luck!

linkiswickeddank · Answer

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