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06 Apr 2015, 09:46
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After a grueling few months of GMAT prep, I wanted to share my experience as a thank you to this message board for helping me out a TON during the process. I’ve never posted before, but better late than never!
Background: I’m a current US college student (top 20 university), advised to take the GMAT during school when there’s more time to study (and you’re still used to taking tests!). Native English speaker. Taking a job at a top 10 management consulting firm after graduation.
Practice Tests:
Aug 2014: GMAT Prep Test 1 - 680 (don’t remember breakdown, this was purely diagnostic)
2/28/15: Kaplan Free Test - 720 (again, don’t remember breakdown)
3/14/15: GMAT Prep Test 1 - 740 (Q48, V44)
3/18/15: Veritas Prep Free Test - 760 (Q50, V45)
3/23/15: MGMAT Free Test - 740 (Q46, V45)
3/30/15: GMAT Prep Test 2 - 760 (Q50, V42)
As you can see, I really ramped up my studying in March (panicked a little when I realized the test was coming up in just a month). So I suppose my tips are most helpful to people who are already scoring pretty well, but want to take advantage of the last few weeks before their exam to maximize their score as much as possible.
Study Materials:
- Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th edition (just for practice questions)
- self-study → I used free trials at Magoosh and e-GMAT, some free Kaplan and e-GMAT strategy seminars, and the GMAT Prep free software
Study Plan:
I didn’t have a well-laid out study plan until the very last month before my exam. My best advice is just to focus on your weaknesses and block out time to work on that. Taking a lot of practice exams and doing a lot of practice questions really helped me.
I planned my study schedule around taking practice tests. I tried to take one every 5 days for the 3 weeks before my exam. The day before I would run through a sample of questions (roughly 10 questions per category - PS, DS, RC, SC, CR) and review them. The day of the exam I would go about it as if it were the real GMAT (take the exam at the same time, eat the same snacks, no water during the test). The day after a practice test, I would review all the questions (right or wrong!) and write down major takeaways (ex. “don’t forget that 1 is not a prime number”). I didn’t use an error log, though I know many people find it helpful.
I don’t have a favorite practice exam. I thought all of them were pretty accurate, and keep in mind I only took advantage of the free exams offered online.
There are lots of free resources for studying GMAT online (this forum included). If you are the type of person that is self-disciplined and has experience self-studying for standardized tests, my experience shows that self-studying (without a GMAT study guide) does not put you at a disadvantage.
Test Day:
My test day experience was a little weird. The morning was fine. I did about 15 practice questions covering every category to get warmed up (very easy ones!). I did 30 min light exercise. I was very nervous so I didn’t eat much before my exam.
I arrived at the test center 30 min early (as the GMAT website suggests). However, as soon as I was done checking in (about a 5 min process), the proctor wanted me to start testing immediately. That flustered me, since I had no idea we could even start before the appointment time. I ended up taking a few more minutes, but I went into the exam not as prepared as I had hoped to be (ex. I forgot to pin my hair back and had to deal with bangs falling in my face the entire exam).
I suggest you write a list of everything you want to do right before the exam. Whether that’s stretches, reviewing notes, going to the bathroom, listening to music, etc. In the panic right before the exam, it’s easy to forget the little things that will make your exam experience more comfortable.
Otherwise the exam itself was fine. I used about 20 min for the essay, 25 min for IR, 70 min for Quant, and 60 min for Verbal. These timings match what I was doing on the practice exams. I started off using the big over-ear headphones to block out noise, but halfway through each section, it would start to hurt my head and I’d just take them off. The exam room isn’t very noisy anyways. I had no trouble using the provided notepads. There’s actually quite a lot of room so feel free to scrawl.
During the breaks, I made sure to drink a lot of water (I get thirsty easily), go to the bathroom, and do some stretches/jumping jacks. I didn’t eat anything (still too nervous), but didn’t feel hungry. I will say that during my practice exams, I was always able to eat a snack during the breaks, so you just can’t account for nerves on the actual day. Don’t worry if you’re not hungry during breaks and don’t want a snack - adrenaline will probably keep you from feeling starved until after the exam is over.
Advice for Quant:
Know your basics. I had a cheat sheet of quant basics that I reviewed on the bus ride to the GMAT center. Use your practice tests to figure out your weaknesses (ex. I always had trouble with number properties) and then study those. There are lots of threads on this forum about essential quant, and GMAT Club even has their own free Quant study guide that is very comprehensive and helpful.
Do as many practice questions as you can. Ultimately, there are only so many variations of questions the GMAT can create, so the more you see the better off you will be. I probably did close to 500 Quant practice questions before my exam (over the course of 2 months).
Advice for Verbal:
Since CR, RC and SC can test very different things, try to figure out which of those 3 you need the most work in first. For example, I never studied RC because I always scored decently on those questions. Instead, I focused all my energy on SC and CR.
For SC, I found just doing practice questions helped me. You start to see how the GMAT likes to construct questions and what phrasing they prefer. Also focus on just a few main error types - there are 8 that I kept in mind: pronouns, modifiers, verb tense, s-v agreement, parallelism/comparison, idioms, quantity errors, and redundancy. This will cover nearly all of the SC errors on the GMAT. In fact, I’d say I mostly focused on modifiers, s-v agreement and parallelism. Those three alone were enough to eliminate most answer choices for me.
For CR, I found pre-thinking very helpful (and I think this is an e-GMAT or Kaplan approach). After reading the stem and prompt, jot down what the ideal answer should be. Even if it isn’t a real answer and is just as simple as “weaken conclusion that more businesses = more money” that will help you organize your thoughts before looking at the answer choices. Granted, I was able to do this because I have always had plenty of time in Verbal. If you typically take up the entire 75 min on Verbal, perhaps skip this (since writing stuff down will always slow you down).
I am also a fast reader, so that helped me a lot during Verbal. If you’re pretty slow, I’d spend some time practicing skimming RC passages and reading dense material quickly.
Overall:
It was a stressful experience that I can honestly say I never want to do again. Thankfully my score is good enough that I won’t have to retake the GMAT
It is a difficult test, but definitely conquerable. Stick to a study plan (literally plan it out day by day if you must) and stay focused. Good luck!
Background: I’m a current US college student (top 20 university), advised to take the GMAT during school when there’s more time to study (and you’re still used to taking tests!). Native English speaker. Taking a job at a top 10 management consulting firm after graduation.
Practice Tests:
Aug 2014: GMAT Prep Test 1 - 680 (don’t remember breakdown, this was purely diagnostic)
2/28/15: Kaplan Free Test - 720 (again, don’t remember breakdown)
3/14/15: GMAT Prep Test 1 - 740 (Q48, V44)
3/18/15: Veritas Prep Free Test - 760 (Q50, V45)
3/23/15: MGMAT Free Test - 740 (Q46, V45)
3/30/15: GMAT Prep Test 2 - 760 (Q50, V42)
As you can see, I really ramped up my studying in March (panicked a little when I realized the test was coming up in just a month). So I suppose my tips are most helpful to people who are already scoring pretty well, but want to take advantage of the last few weeks before their exam to maximize their score as much as possible.
Study Materials:
- Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th edition (just for practice questions)
- self-study → I used free trials at Magoosh and e-GMAT, some free Kaplan and e-GMAT strategy seminars, and the GMAT Prep free software
Study Plan:
I didn’t have a well-laid out study plan until the very last month before my exam. My best advice is just to focus on your weaknesses and block out time to work on that. Taking a lot of practice exams and doing a lot of practice questions really helped me.
I planned my study schedule around taking practice tests. I tried to take one every 5 days for the 3 weeks before my exam. The day before I would run through a sample of questions (roughly 10 questions per category - PS, DS, RC, SC, CR) and review them. The day of the exam I would go about it as if it were the real GMAT (take the exam at the same time, eat the same snacks, no water during the test). The day after a practice test, I would review all the questions (right or wrong!) and write down major takeaways (ex. “don’t forget that 1 is not a prime number”). I didn’t use an error log, though I know many people find it helpful.
I don’t have a favorite practice exam. I thought all of them were pretty accurate, and keep in mind I only took advantage of the free exams offered online.
There are lots of free resources for studying GMAT online (this forum included). If you are the type of person that is self-disciplined and has experience self-studying for standardized tests, my experience shows that self-studying (without a GMAT study guide) does not put you at a disadvantage.
Test Day:
My test day experience was a little weird. The morning was fine. I did about 15 practice questions covering every category to get warmed up (very easy ones!). I did 30 min light exercise. I was very nervous so I didn’t eat much before my exam.
I arrived at the test center 30 min early (as the GMAT website suggests). However, as soon as I was done checking in (about a 5 min process), the proctor wanted me to start testing immediately. That flustered me, since I had no idea we could even start before the appointment time. I ended up taking a few more minutes, but I went into the exam not as prepared as I had hoped to be (ex. I forgot to pin my hair back and had to deal with bangs falling in my face the entire exam).
I suggest you write a list of everything you want to do right before the exam. Whether that’s stretches, reviewing notes, going to the bathroom, listening to music, etc. In the panic right before the exam, it’s easy to forget the little things that will make your exam experience more comfortable.
Otherwise the exam itself was fine. I used about 20 min for the essay, 25 min for IR, 70 min for Quant, and 60 min for Verbal. These timings match what I was doing on the practice exams. I started off using the big over-ear headphones to block out noise, but halfway through each section, it would start to hurt my head and I’d just take them off. The exam room isn’t very noisy anyways. I had no trouble using the provided notepads. There’s actually quite a lot of room so feel free to scrawl.
During the breaks, I made sure to drink a lot of water (I get thirsty easily), go to the bathroom, and do some stretches/jumping jacks. I didn’t eat anything (still too nervous), but didn’t feel hungry. I will say that during my practice exams, I was always able to eat a snack during the breaks, so you just can’t account for nerves on the actual day. Don’t worry if you’re not hungry during breaks and don’t want a snack - adrenaline will probably keep you from feeling starved until after the exam is over.
Advice for Quant:
Know your basics. I had a cheat sheet of quant basics that I reviewed on the bus ride to the GMAT center. Use your practice tests to figure out your weaknesses (ex. I always had trouble with number properties) and then study those. There are lots of threads on this forum about essential quant, and GMAT Club even has their own free Quant study guide that is very comprehensive and helpful.
Do as many practice questions as you can. Ultimately, there are only so many variations of questions the GMAT can create, so the more you see the better off you will be. I probably did close to 500 Quant practice questions before my exam (over the course of 2 months).
Advice for Verbal:
Since CR, RC and SC can test very different things, try to figure out which of those 3 you need the most work in first. For example, I never studied RC because I always scored decently on those questions. Instead, I focused all my energy on SC and CR.
For SC, I found just doing practice questions helped me. You start to see how the GMAT likes to construct questions and what phrasing they prefer. Also focus on just a few main error types - there are 8 that I kept in mind: pronouns, modifiers, verb tense, s-v agreement, parallelism/comparison, idioms, quantity errors, and redundancy. This will cover nearly all of the SC errors on the GMAT. In fact, I’d say I mostly focused on modifiers, s-v agreement and parallelism. Those three alone were enough to eliminate most answer choices for me.
For CR, I found pre-thinking very helpful (and I think this is an e-GMAT or Kaplan approach). After reading the stem and prompt, jot down what the ideal answer should be. Even if it isn’t a real answer and is just as simple as “weaken conclusion that more businesses = more money” that will help you organize your thoughts before looking at the answer choices. Granted, I was able to do this because I have always had plenty of time in Verbal. If you typically take up the entire 75 min on Verbal, perhaps skip this (since writing stuff down will always slow you down).
I am also a fast reader, so that helped me a lot during Verbal. If you’re pretty slow, I’d spend some time practicing skimming RC passages and reading dense material quickly.
Overall:
It was a stressful experience that I can honestly say I never want to do again. Thankfully my score is good enough that I won’t have to retake the GMAT
It is a difficult test, but definitely conquerable. Stick to a study plan (literally plan it out day by day if you must) and stay focused. Good luck! 
06 Apr 2015, 10:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
Awesome job! Monster score:) Agreed that for the dedicated self-studier there are a TON of excellent, free GMAT resources out there (including the GMAT Club Quant book). This is great advice for test day:
"I suggest you write a list of everything you want to do right before the exam. Whether that’s stretches, reviewing notes, going to the bathroom, listening to music, etc. In the panic right before the exam, it’s easy to forget the little things that will make your exam experience more comfortable."
Congrats again and great write up. I'm sure that this will be helpful for a whole bunch of GMAT self-studiers aspiring to a great GMAT score.
A.
"I suggest you write a list of everything you want to do right before the exam. Whether that’s stretches, reviewing notes, going to the bathroom, listening to music, etc. In the panic right before the exam, it’s easy to forget the little things that will make your exam experience more comfortable."
Congrats again and great write up. I'm sure that this will be helpful for a whole bunch of GMAT self-studiers aspiring to a great GMAT score.
A.
06 Apr 2015, 10:35
Kudos
Bookmarks
V46 is just amazing. In fact, I noticed that you had not achieved this feet in any of your mocks!
This is very motivational for a person like me who is preparing to re-appear in GMAT.
Good luck. It looks like you would only be utilizing your GMAT score only after few years, since you are still studying.
This is very motivational for a person like me who is preparing to re-appear in GMAT.
Good luck. It looks like you would only be utilizing your GMAT score only after few years, since you are still studying.
