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 2610:00 AM EDT
-11:00 AM EDT
The Target Test Prep course represents a quantum leap forward in GMAT preparation, a radical reinterpretation of the way that students should study. Try before you buy with a 5-day, full-access trial of the course for FREE!
Apr 2601:30 AM EDT
-02:30 AM EDT
Learn how Keshav, a Chartered Accountant, scored an impressive 705 on GMAT in just 30 days with GMATWhiz's expert guidance. In this video, he shares preparation tips and strategies that worked for him, including the mock, time management, and more.
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 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 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.
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.
Updated on: 15 Dec 2010, 06:10
Originally posted by herserendipity on 12 Dec 2010, 08:32.
Last edited by herserendipity on 15 Dec 2010, 06:10, edited 2 times in total.
Last edited by herserendipity on 15 Dec 2010, 06:10, edited 2 times in total.
Kudos
Bookmarks
Warning: LONG POST / Stream of Consciousness
After spending some time celebrating yesterday, I wanted to drop a post here. I was tempted to write the whole post in pink 'cause it's so pretty but whatevs. It's somewhat selfish on my part as I feel like writing this debrief is extremely cathartic. BUT, I also wanted to give some perspective, especially since I've utilized many of the resources on this board (random problems in verbal, GMAT Club exams, etc.). A few months back, I had written a post related to my first, unsuccessful attempt at this exam (640 Q42/V36). I was obviously bummed out but in retrospect, I don't think I was ready to take the exam! I was a math major in college, work in a quanty field, and I'm a native english speaker.
Here goes..
Materials Used
- OG 12, OG Math/Verbal reviews
- Manhattan GMAT books (full set)
- Kaplan 2009/2010 book (just the problem sets)
- 5 CAT Manhattan GMAT exams (never took the 6th)
- GMAT Club tests (fantastic resource; highly recommend)
- GMAT Club Forum questions (mostly lurked but greatly benefited from the explanations)
- GMAT Prep exams (I think I took them 4 or 5 times)
- Chineseburned's AWA guide (use a few days before your exam)
Background
I decided to take this exam earlier this year (June) since I'm reaching that ripe ol' age of where my friends are starting to apply to business school. To be frank, I'm still going back and forth on the idea. Digression aside, I figured that I would at least take this exam and have it handy, just in case. I've never been a strong standardized test taker (especially as I look to my previous history with SATs and SAT IIs) so naturally I was pretty worried. I decided that the best approach was to throw money at the problem. I signed up for the Manhattan GMAT 8-week course in June. My job is fairly demanding so I knew that I would not have the discipline of trying to follow a guided self study.
The MGMAT course was pretty good but I think I actually benefited more from the materials than the instructor. I know that some instructors are complete rockstars (and I thought I had signed up with one of said rockstars but alas, it was not meant to be as he moved right before we started). I was stuck with a really nice instructor who was sort of 'meh'. In any case, when I finished the program (middle/end of August), I did not feel ready to take the exam. However, with Labor Day right around the corner, I said 'what the hell' and signed up anyway. Not the greatest move on my part. None of the materials had really sunk in yet and I was still just squeaking by with shaky performances.
Before my first exam, I had taken 3 MGMT tests and 2 GMAT Prep tests. All taken under exam conditions. The results:
MGMAT CAT #1 (Diag): 640
MGMAT Cat #2: 700
CAT #3: 680
GMAT Prep #1: 680
GMAT Prep #2: 720
After reading some pretty inspiring stories here, I just prayed for some good luck and that i'd be one of those people who would magically vault into the 720+ category, even though my exams were in high 600s / low 700s. Deep down though, I knew it would never happen.
To say that my first exam was a disaster would be a serious understatement. I didn't sleep well the night before and I scheduled my exam for 8am since I am a morning person. I brought the trail mix and the drinks, and did some of the things recommended on this board (splashing cold water on the face, jumping jacks in the bathroom, etc.). But holy crappers, I underestimated the exam center anxiety and pressure. There's something extremely unnerving about the palm printing / ID / picture-taking process. That, and you're sitting in a room with 15 other people who are furiously typing/scribbling/crying. I blew through the AWAs but when I got to the quant section, I froze. I got so nervous that my hands were literally shaking and I couldn't work through the simplest problems. It sucked. When I got to the verbal section, I just gave up before i even started. I didnt' really care to think about the problems and I just went through the motions. After clicking through all those things in the end, I just shrugged and wondered if I ended up in the 500s. The result was a 640 (Q42/V36) and a 5.5 AWA score. The 640 was the same as my diagnostic exam where I didn't know anything. Meh.
Second Time
I took a week off before going back to the books and changing up my game plan. I did a post-exam assessment with one of the MGMAT instructors (definitely do this if you signed up for the course). Who knew that the exams spit out all sorts of helpful statistics? I pinpointed some weak areas (Critical Reasoning, Data sufficiency) and talked through the areas where I could excel (Reading Comp, some problem solving, etc.). As a side note, I was overly frustrated by the verbal as I am a native speaker. I found that I was rushing through the CR problems without really processing the logic. I always killed the RC sections. On SC, I managed to get just as many 700+ level questions right as I got 500-600 level questions wrong.
Armed with this review, I went back with a different mentality. On math, I was just going to do as many problems as I possibly could so I'd have seen *everything* by the time I took the exam again. On verbal, I'd slow down and take the time to read through every single word. I always finished verbal with about 15 minutes to spare.
The GMAT club tests were VERY VERY helpful. I highly recommend them. Plus, getting the 6 verbal exams and all those Knewton sections were also key. I worked through these slowly and didn't kill myself trying to finish problem sets as I did when I was taking the Manhattan GMAT course. I also went back to the basics and reviewed the Number Properties, Word Translations, Geometry, Sentence Correction, and Critical Reasoning guides. Apparently, I missed some very pertinent information the first time around. Feeling 100% more confident than I did the first time around, I scheduled my exam for Oct. 31 (halloween in the U.S.). I had great plans to get all dolled up after so I tried not to give the exam any more thought.
Before my second attempt, I took some more practice exams:
MGMAT CAT #4: 720
GMAT Prep #1: 740
GMAT Prep #2: 750
These were pretty good indicators. I sat for the exam again, only to find myself in a similar mindset/situation as the first. I thought that I had changed my routine enough to affect the outcome of the exam (i.e. night before, I got a massage, didn't think much of the exam, brought a snickers bar instead of trail mix to the exam center, etc.) Again, the evil test center pressure kicked in. By the time I got to the quant section, I was freaking out from the nerves. My first problem was an easy algebraic inequality problem and I think it took me about 3 minutes to get. I definitely came across a problem that I saw in one of the OG guides as well, which I'm sure I got wrong. The quant portion felt hard but not undoable. After quant, I took a deep breath, took my break, and jumped in verbal. I put the quant questions behind me and focused on verbal. I really felt it had gone well (clearly, my gut instincts are terrible). Clicking through the screens, you could imagine my disappointment when I saw Q42/V35 - 640. WTF? Again?! The only highlight of this experience was that I received a 6.0 AWA score. Unbelievable. I was frustrated, depressed, and ended up canceling all my activities for the rest of that day. I had spent so much time and effort, not to mention money on this stupid exam.
Third Attempt (ARGH)
When I decided to take the exam for the third and final time, I took a completely different approach from the first two times. I was nearing the R2 deadline and I didn't even know if I wanted to apply this year or not. I shifted gears and decided that I was going to try and control the verbal section and rock out on that. It's evident that the verbal raw scores weigh much more heavily on the overall score than quant. I re-evaluated my approaches to the questions and tried to see if there was any other way I could eliminate answers. I also got a tutor from Manhattan GMAT. I was very picky about my choice (I wanted the GMAT demi-god, Ron Purewal, but he was booked). I ended up getting someone who was absolutely fantastic on the quant stuff and gave me some tips on shortcuts and the like. Additionally, he gave me some good advice for SC. I scheduled my exam for 12/11/2010. The date was mediocre at best, especially in light of year end. I didn't study too much during the 6 weeks I had between my 2nd and 3rd attempt. I had spent only 3 or 4 hours with my tutor and just kept reading through the MGMAT verbal books and doing problems. I also took off some time for a vacation to the Caribbean and Thanksgiving. When I returned, I had a mini freak out as I literally did nothing for a week and a half. My tutor had given me a collection of "speedbags" for quant. Basically, the idea is to do 60 easy problems in 60 minutes so that you train your 'muscle memory' so to speak. Certain computations should become automatic. The week before my exam, I took CAT #5 of MGMAT (690) and one GMAT Prep exam (760 with some overlap). I had my company holiday party on Thursday night and was pretty euphoric/lethargic on Friday. I changed up a few things with regards to the exam: moved the time to 12pm and moved the test location to a new place. I went to the gym in the morning, did not have coffee, and only brought a bottle of water and some chocolates to the exam. The exam center was smaller than the previous place but definitely cozier. I went through the AWAs (I'm not sure I made even a 5.5 this time, but hopefully the schools take your highest score...) and before I moved to quant, I took a deep breath and used the time to scribble down some notes (timing scale, little quant takeaway notes that I marked during my study process, etc.). The quant portion was surprisingly easy this time around. I was actually very surprised and naturally, I thought that it must be because I was doing poorly. My timing wasn't great though as I got stuck on a 2 or 3 problems. I think I guessed on 2 or 3 as well and managed to right-size myself in terms of timing towards the end. I started the last question with about 3.5 minutes so I spent a lot of time checking and of course, second guessing myself. On the flipside, I found the verbal to be pretty difficult. None of the SCs made sense and the CRs were sort of weird. I chuckled to myself in some instances as there are certain bizarre themes/subjects that come up again and again with the GMAT makers. I was a bit worried when I got to the end but it was do or die. BTW, if you made it this far through the recap, I commend you.
Click. Click. Click. YAY! Q50 / V38 - 720. FINALLY DONE! I breathed a sigh of relief and collected my print out. I skipped all the way home. To be done with this exam FINALLY is an indescribable feeling. I've been working at this for 6 months and finally, I felt like I prevailed.
Update: 5.5 AWA
Some departing thoughts:
- After nailing down the basics, do many problems. And keep doing problems. Work on speed and accuracy. Pinpoint your weak areas. I suck at probability and never really managed to get it, so I made sure that I was crisp on number properties, word translations, powers/roots, etc.
- On SC, don't necessarily look for the right answer. Look for wrong ones and eliminate.
- on CR, read the questions carefully. Read every single word and then process. I skimmed through a lot in the beginning of my journey and thus, I never really understood the actual problem. Finding the conclusion is always helpful. I also liked the 'why' question to look for the premise. For example, if you find what you think is the conclusion, ask yourself why that conclusion. The premise should be the answer to that question.
- On data sufficiency, read the question carefully and write down pertinent information. I don't know how many times I neglected the fact that 'x' was an integer/not an integer, or that xy > 0 does not in fact include 0.
- Exam center stress is real. Hopefully. people are better equipped to deal with it than I was. I seriously feel like I could have only done this exam twice had anxiety not gotten in the way. If it is really bad, I suggest taking something like a beta blocker for it.
That's all I got. Happy to answer any additional questions, if you are still alive after reading this post. I also have some thoughts on the GMAT and why i think it's a complete ponzi scheme/hack job. For the time being, I'll keep those thoughts to myself.
After spending some time celebrating yesterday, I wanted to drop a post here. I was tempted to write the whole post in pink 'cause it's so pretty but whatevs. It's somewhat selfish on my part as I feel like writing this debrief is extremely cathartic. BUT, I also wanted to give some perspective, especially since I've utilized many of the resources on this board (random problems in verbal, GMAT Club exams, etc.). A few months back, I had written a post related to my first, unsuccessful attempt at this exam (640 Q42/V36). I was obviously bummed out but in retrospect, I don't think I was ready to take the exam! I was a math major in college, work in a quanty field, and I'm a native english speaker.
Here goes..
Materials Used
- OG 12, OG Math/Verbal reviews
- Manhattan GMAT books (full set)
- Kaplan 2009/2010 book (just the problem sets)
- 5 CAT Manhattan GMAT exams (never took the 6th)
- GMAT Club tests (fantastic resource; highly recommend)
- GMAT Club Forum questions (mostly lurked but greatly benefited from the explanations)
- GMAT Prep exams (I think I took them 4 or 5 times)
- Chineseburned's AWA guide (use a few days before your exam)
Background
I decided to take this exam earlier this year (June) since I'm reaching that ripe ol' age of where my friends are starting to apply to business school. To be frank, I'm still going back and forth on the idea. Digression aside, I figured that I would at least take this exam and have it handy, just in case. I've never been a strong standardized test taker (especially as I look to my previous history with SATs and SAT IIs) so naturally I was pretty worried. I decided that the best approach was to throw money at the problem. I signed up for the Manhattan GMAT 8-week course in June. My job is fairly demanding so I knew that I would not have the discipline of trying to follow a guided self study.
The MGMAT course was pretty good but I think I actually benefited more from the materials than the instructor. I know that some instructors are complete rockstars (and I thought I had signed up with one of said rockstars but alas, it was not meant to be as he moved right before we started). I was stuck with a really nice instructor who was sort of 'meh'. In any case, when I finished the program (middle/end of August), I did not feel ready to take the exam. However, with Labor Day right around the corner, I said 'what the hell' and signed up anyway. Not the greatest move on my part. None of the materials had really sunk in yet and I was still just squeaking by with shaky performances.
Before my first exam, I had taken 3 MGMT tests and 2 GMAT Prep tests. All taken under exam conditions. The results:
MGMAT CAT #1 (Diag): 640
MGMAT Cat #2: 700
CAT #3: 680
GMAT Prep #1: 680
GMAT Prep #2: 720
After reading some pretty inspiring stories here, I just prayed for some good luck and that i'd be one of those people who would magically vault into the 720+ category, even though my exams were in high 600s / low 700s. Deep down though, I knew it would never happen.
To say that my first exam was a disaster would be a serious understatement. I didn't sleep well the night before and I scheduled my exam for 8am since I am a morning person. I brought the trail mix and the drinks, and did some of the things recommended on this board (splashing cold water on the face, jumping jacks in the bathroom, etc.). But holy crappers, I underestimated the exam center anxiety and pressure. There's something extremely unnerving about the palm printing / ID / picture-taking process. That, and you're sitting in a room with 15 other people who are furiously typing/scribbling/crying. I blew through the AWAs but when I got to the quant section, I froze. I got so nervous that my hands were literally shaking and I couldn't work through the simplest problems. It sucked. When I got to the verbal section, I just gave up before i even started. I didnt' really care to think about the problems and I just went through the motions. After clicking through all those things in the end, I just shrugged and wondered if I ended up in the 500s. The result was a 640 (Q42/V36) and a 5.5 AWA score. The 640 was the same as my diagnostic exam where I didn't know anything. Meh.
Second Time
I took a week off before going back to the books and changing up my game plan. I did a post-exam assessment with one of the MGMAT instructors (definitely do this if you signed up for the course). Who knew that the exams spit out all sorts of helpful statistics? I pinpointed some weak areas (Critical Reasoning, Data sufficiency) and talked through the areas where I could excel (Reading Comp, some problem solving, etc.). As a side note, I was overly frustrated by the verbal as I am a native speaker. I found that I was rushing through the CR problems without really processing the logic. I always killed the RC sections. On SC, I managed to get just as many 700+ level questions right as I got 500-600 level questions wrong.
Armed with this review, I went back with a different mentality. On math, I was just going to do as many problems as I possibly could so I'd have seen *everything* by the time I took the exam again. On verbal, I'd slow down and take the time to read through every single word. I always finished verbal with about 15 minutes to spare.
The GMAT club tests were VERY VERY helpful. I highly recommend them. Plus, getting the 6 verbal exams and all those Knewton sections were also key. I worked through these slowly and didn't kill myself trying to finish problem sets as I did when I was taking the Manhattan GMAT course. I also went back to the basics and reviewed the Number Properties, Word Translations, Geometry, Sentence Correction, and Critical Reasoning guides. Apparently, I missed some very pertinent information the first time around. Feeling 100% more confident than I did the first time around, I scheduled my exam for Oct. 31 (halloween in the U.S.). I had great plans to get all dolled up after so I tried not to give the exam any more thought.
Before my second attempt, I took some more practice exams:
MGMAT CAT #4: 720
GMAT Prep #1: 740
GMAT Prep #2: 750
These were pretty good indicators. I sat for the exam again, only to find myself in a similar mindset/situation as the first. I thought that I had changed my routine enough to affect the outcome of the exam (i.e. night before, I got a massage, didn't think much of the exam, brought a snickers bar instead of trail mix to the exam center, etc.) Again, the evil test center pressure kicked in. By the time I got to the quant section, I was freaking out from the nerves. My first problem was an easy algebraic inequality problem and I think it took me about 3 minutes to get. I definitely came across a problem that I saw in one of the OG guides as well, which I'm sure I got wrong. The quant portion felt hard but not undoable. After quant, I took a deep breath, took my break, and jumped in verbal. I put the quant questions behind me and focused on verbal. I really felt it had gone well (clearly, my gut instincts are terrible). Clicking through the screens, you could imagine my disappointment when I saw Q42/V35 - 640. WTF? Again?! The only highlight of this experience was that I received a 6.0 AWA score. Unbelievable. I was frustrated, depressed, and ended up canceling all my activities for the rest of that day. I had spent so much time and effort, not to mention money on this stupid exam.
Third Attempt (ARGH)
When I decided to take the exam for the third and final time, I took a completely different approach from the first two times. I was nearing the R2 deadline and I didn't even know if I wanted to apply this year or not. I shifted gears and decided that I was going to try and control the verbal section and rock out on that. It's evident that the verbal raw scores weigh much more heavily on the overall score than quant. I re-evaluated my approaches to the questions and tried to see if there was any other way I could eliminate answers. I also got a tutor from Manhattan GMAT. I was very picky about my choice (I wanted the GMAT demi-god, Ron Purewal, but he was booked). I ended up getting someone who was absolutely fantastic on the quant stuff and gave me some tips on shortcuts and the like. Additionally, he gave me some good advice for SC. I scheduled my exam for 12/11/2010. The date was mediocre at best, especially in light of year end. I didn't study too much during the 6 weeks I had between my 2nd and 3rd attempt. I had spent only 3 or 4 hours with my tutor and just kept reading through the MGMAT verbal books and doing problems. I also took off some time for a vacation to the Caribbean and Thanksgiving. When I returned, I had a mini freak out as I literally did nothing for a week and a half. My tutor had given me a collection of "speedbags" for quant. Basically, the idea is to do 60 easy problems in 60 minutes so that you train your 'muscle memory' so to speak. Certain computations should become automatic. The week before my exam, I took CAT #5 of MGMAT (690) and one GMAT Prep exam (760 with some overlap). I had my company holiday party on Thursday night and was pretty euphoric/lethargic on Friday. I changed up a few things with regards to the exam: moved the time to 12pm and moved the test location to a new place. I went to the gym in the morning, did not have coffee, and only brought a bottle of water and some chocolates to the exam. The exam center was smaller than the previous place but definitely cozier. I went through the AWAs (I'm not sure I made even a 5.5 this time, but hopefully the schools take your highest score...) and before I moved to quant, I took a deep breath and used the time to scribble down some notes (timing scale, little quant takeaway notes that I marked during my study process, etc.). The quant portion was surprisingly easy this time around. I was actually very surprised and naturally, I thought that it must be because I was doing poorly. My timing wasn't great though as I got stuck on a 2 or 3 problems. I think I guessed on 2 or 3 as well and managed to right-size myself in terms of timing towards the end. I started the last question with about 3.5 minutes so I spent a lot of time checking and of course, second guessing myself. On the flipside, I found the verbal to be pretty difficult. None of the SCs made sense and the CRs were sort of weird. I chuckled to myself in some instances as there are certain bizarre themes/subjects that come up again and again with the GMAT makers. I was a bit worried when I got to the end but it was do or die. BTW, if you made it this far through the recap, I commend you.
Click. Click. Click. YAY! Q50 / V38 - 720. FINALLY DONE! I breathed a sigh of relief and collected my print out. I skipped all the way home. To be done with this exam FINALLY is an indescribable feeling. I've been working at this for 6 months and finally, I felt like I prevailed.
Update: 5.5 AWA
Some departing thoughts:
- After nailing down the basics, do many problems. And keep doing problems. Work on speed and accuracy. Pinpoint your weak areas. I suck at probability and never really managed to get it, so I made sure that I was crisp on number properties, word translations, powers/roots, etc.
- On SC, don't necessarily look for the right answer. Look for wrong ones and eliminate.
- on CR, read the questions carefully. Read every single word and then process. I skimmed through a lot in the beginning of my journey and thus, I never really understood the actual problem. Finding the conclusion is always helpful. I also liked the 'why' question to look for the premise. For example, if you find what you think is the conclusion, ask yourself why that conclusion. The premise should be the answer to that question.
- On data sufficiency, read the question carefully and write down pertinent information. I don't know how many times I neglected the fact that 'x' was an integer/not an integer, or that xy > 0 does not in fact include 0.
- Exam center stress is real. Hopefully. people are better equipped to deal with it than I was. I seriously feel like I could have only done this exam twice had anxiety not gotten in the way. If it is really bad, I suggest taking something like a beta blocker for it.
That's all I got. Happy to answer any additional questions, if you are still alive after reading this post. I also have some thoughts on the GMAT and why i think it's a complete ponzi scheme/hack job. For the time being, I'll keep those thoughts to myself.
12 Dec 2010, 09:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
Great job man! I am quite similar to you: I am also retaking the exam and it is at the end of this month! Hope I end up like you!
Much respect for beating your worst enemy, yourself.
Much respect for beating your worst enemy, yourself.
I'm glad you made it!
