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 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 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 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 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.
23 Dec 2014, 07:52
Kudos
Bookmarks
With this post I would like to discredit some popular believes concerning GMATPrep and official questions. This is my experience:
I took the real GMAT test few days ago. I now report all the preparation tests i did before the real thing:
-Kaplan CAT 660 (Q 46, V 34)
-Manhattan CAT 1 620 (Q 42, V 33)
-Manhattan CAT 2 690 (Q 49, V 35)
-Manhattan CAT 3 660 (Q 45, V 35)
-GMATPrep 1 690 (Q 49, V 35)
-GMATPrep 2 650 (Q 44, V 35)
I'll be honest with you. What i needed was a score just above 600 for the admission to Rotterdam School of Management. I NEVER aimed at scoring above 650! I just prepare my self with all the recommended stuff to be 100% sure i would go above 600, that is it. Nonetheless I am absolutely disappointed, later i explain why.
Books and preparation material:
-Manhattan Guides for the basic theory. I strongly believe that, as i am gonna explain later, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR PREPARATION. with NO DOUBT.
-OFFICIAL GUIDE 14
-OFFICIAL GUIDE 12 (has some different questions from latest edition)
-OFFICIAL GUIDE 11 ( i did only quantitative questions different from OG 12)
-QUANT REVIEW
-VERBAL REVIEW
-Manhattan Booklet with marker (useful to get used to the laminated booklet)
It took little more than 2 months. As you may see i did TONS of original questions. Of course my biggest problem was the verbal part (i usually scored 35 in my CATs but it was fine all around...) as i am not a native speaker. But the whole point i want to make with this post concerns the QUANT part. I now explain:
The official questions (OGs and review) are straight and clear, some might look cumbersome but after a while you'll get used to gmat language. The concepts are REALLY repetitive. Passages, strategies, and tricks to solve problems in many occasions were identical. Concepts and arguments are always the same. But believe me, doing a lot of these questions is a WASTE OF TIME! why that? very simple... because the real thing is ANOTHER STORY! at least it was for me.
As you may see from my score list above my least score was a 620 (Manhattan), but i ultimately ended up with a 690 in the GMATPrep software (i was extremely pleased since some say it is the most reliable indicator). And my REAL THING? 610 (Q 42, V 31)!!! I honestly expected at least a 650 but that was my real score!
I though about it for a while and i concluded the following things:
- Doing tons of OG makes you believe that the exam will have similar questions but in fact it DOES NOT. Most of the questions that showed up on the real deal were EXTREMELY different from the OG. Topics, of course, are the same. But each question had its own concept to grasp, its own story to understand i would say. The language was much difficult to paraphrase but i could understand most of the questions clearly after reading them carefully (wasting precious time of course). No well known strategy or trick (from OG) showed up on my test.
- GMAT Prep is OVERRATED. Its questions are easier and its language is way clearer than that of the real thing. DO NOT give for granted that you will perform in a similar way. Use them to practice your timing. Nothing else. Most of the other guys that took the exam with me had scores above 650 on GMATPrep and ended up with a score below 580 on the test day! Assume there is NO indicator of how you will perform on the test day. Because this is what happens. You may score within a range of 100 points from your GMATPrep score. Do not consider that a divine message of future performance.
-The beginning of the test is not as easy as the beginning of GMATPrep or other CAT tests. I am absolutely confident about it. I was not stressed on the test day, i am a cold minded and relaxed person. I never failed any school/university exam because of strees, never! I had more that 9 hours of sleep and as i started the exam i was serene and determined. So i am 100% sure that those first questions, at least in my case, were not as easy as those you may encounter in other CATs. Heavy calculations filled with ambiguous language is what i encountered for the first 6-7 questions.
The test center (Milan):
-A BIG disappointment. It was crowded like London subway. OLD computer monitors with very dark brightness that could hardly let you spot the difference between a dot (.) and a comma (,). Do not trust mba videos where fancy computers and quiet test rooms are shown. Your test center can be very different!
For YOUR Success
After all i needed a score 600+ so i was satisfied anyway. But my experience leads me to believe that focusing on MANHATTAN THEORY is the best way to achieve 650+. Official Questions and GMATPrep are OUTDATED and EASY. You may buy OG 14 and do all the questions in it but STOP! No reviews or hard questions should be part of your preparation. Keep in mind that you can expect anything on the test day, really ANYTHING. So a strong theory based preparation may guarantee your success in any circumstance.
In percents of you study time you should spend: 60% on THEORY (Manhattan)
20% on OG Questions
20% on prep tests
These personal conclusions may be unpopular. But this is what my experience taught me.
Best luck and keep it up!
I took the real GMAT test few days ago. I now report all the preparation tests i did before the real thing:
-Kaplan CAT 660 (Q 46, V 34)
-Manhattan CAT 1 620 (Q 42, V 33)
-Manhattan CAT 2 690 (Q 49, V 35)
-Manhattan CAT 3 660 (Q 45, V 35)
-GMATPrep 1 690 (Q 49, V 35)
-GMATPrep 2 650 (Q 44, V 35)
I'll be honest with you. What i needed was a score just above 600 for the admission to Rotterdam School of Management. I NEVER aimed at scoring above 650! I just prepare my self with all the recommended stuff to be 100% sure i would go above 600, that is it. Nonetheless I am absolutely disappointed, later i explain why.
Books and preparation material:
-Manhattan Guides for the basic theory. I strongly believe that, as i am gonna explain later, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR PREPARATION. with NO DOUBT.
-OFFICIAL GUIDE 14
-OFFICIAL GUIDE 12 (has some different questions from latest edition)
-OFFICIAL GUIDE 11 ( i did only quantitative questions different from OG 12)
-QUANT REVIEW
-VERBAL REVIEW
-Manhattan Booklet with marker (useful to get used to the laminated booklet)
It took little more than 2 months. As you may see i did TONS of original questions. Of course my biggest problem was the verbal part (i usually scored 35 in my CATs but it was fine all around...) as i am not a native speaker. But the whole point i want to make with this post concerns the QUANT part. I now explain:
The official questions (OGs and review) are straight and clear, some might look cumbersome but after a while you'll get used to gmat language. The concepts are REALLY repetitive. Passages, strategies, and tricks to solve problems in many occasions were identical. Concepts and arguments are always the same. But believe me, doing a lot of these questions is a WASTE OF TIME! why that? very simple... because the real thing is ANOTHER STORY! at least it was for me.
As you may see from my score list above my least score was a 620 (Manhattan), but i ultimately ended up with a 690 in the GMATPrep software (i was extremely pleased since some say it is the most reliable indicator). And my REAL THING? 610 (Q 42, V 31)!!! I honestly expected at least a 650 but that was my real score!
I though about it for a while and i concluded the following things:
- Doing tons of OG makes you believe that the exam will have similar questions but in fact it DOES NOT. Most of the questions that showed up on the real deal were EXTREMELY different from the OG. Topics, of course, are the same. But each question had its own concept to grasp, its own story to understand i would say. The language was much difficult to paraphrase but i could understand most of the questions clearly after reading them carefully (wasting precious time of course). No well known strategy or trick (from OG) showed up on my test.
- GMAT Prep is OVERRATED. Its questions are easier and its language is way clearer than that of the real thing. DO NOT give for granted that you will perform in a similar way. Use them to practice your timing. Nothing else. Most of the other guys that took the exam with me had scores above 650 on GMATPrep and ended up with a score below 580 on the test day! Assume there is NO indicator of how you will perform on the test day. Because this is what happens. You may score within a range of 100 points from your GMATPrep score. Do not consider that a divine message of future performance.
-The beginning of the test is not as easy as the beginning of GMATPrep or other CAT tests. I am absolutely confident about it. I was not stressed on the test day, i am a cold minded and relaxed person. I never failed any school/university exam because of strees, never! I had more that 9 hours of sleep and as i started the exam i was serene and determined. So i am 100% sure that those first questions, at least in my case, were not as easy as those you may encounter in other CATs. Heavy calculations filled with ambiguous language is what i encountered for the first 6-7 questions.
The test center (Milan):
-A BIG disappointment. It was crowded like London subway. OLD computer monitors with very dark brightness that could hardly let you spot the difference between a dot (.) and a comma (,). Do not trust mba videos where fancy computers and quiet test rooms are shown. Your test center can be very different!
For YOUR Success
After all i needed a score 600+ so i was satisfied anyway. But my experience leads me to believe that focusing on MANHATTAN THEORY is the best way to achieve 650+. Official Questions and GMATPrep are OUTDATED and EASY. You may buy OG 14 and do all the questions in it but STOP! No reviews or hard questions should be part of your preparation. Keep in mind that you can expect anything on the test day, really ANYTHING. So a strong theory based preparation may guarantee your success in any circumstance.
In percents of you study time you should spend: 60% on THEORY (Manhattan)
20% on OG Questions
20% on prep tests
These personal conclusions may be unpopular. But this is what my experience taught me.
Best luck and keep it up!
Moderator:
