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09 Jun 2015, 14:15
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I went from a 650 to a 720 almost two years apart. Here's my story...
First Attempt – 650 -Took a 10 week MGMAT Live Course + a month of studying after the course. 55 percentile math, 85 percentile verbal (this is off memory. I think my percentiles might be a point or two off)
I first took the GMAT in the October of 2013. I took a MGMAT class because my company at the time paid for it and I knew business school was in my future. I probably wouldn’t have spent the money if I had to pay for it myself. Although, I thought the class was extremely helpful. It gave me a sense of structure and kept me motivated throughout my studies and gave me access to online tools with amazing in-depth explanations to the Official Guides. I would say the class is definitely worth the money if you have the ability to invest the time in doing the homework. Just showing up for the class once a week for three hours is definitely not going to cut it for most people. Like many GMAT test takers- I was shooting to break the 700 mark. I studied for about month after the 10 week class and was scoring 700-710 on practice tests. I sat for the exam and scored a 650 and naturally was pretty bummed based on how I was scoring. I knew I could do better. At the time, I was convinced that I couldn’t have prepared any better and was unsure about my bschool plans since then I simultaneously decided to change jobs and wanted to give my new job a fair chance before school.
Fast forward a year and a half…I decided in March of 2015 that I definitely wanted to apply to school in the fall and knew I should give the GMAT another crack. I started studying again and much to my disappointment definitely lost the momentum I had – I basically had to start studying from scratch. So my BIGGEST piece of advice would be if you’re even thinking about retaking the test – do it right away. Putting a year + in between attempts was a huge waste of time.
Second Attempt- 720 - Studied from 3 months. 76th percentile math. 90th percentile verbal.
Looking back, I'm not all that surprised by my 650 the first time. I was way more confident with the quant the second time around. Not that my quant is even great, but definitely felt more confident. Also, historically I have pretty terrible test taking anxiety. On my gmatprep exams I was getting a 740 so I was much more comfortable with the buffer I was giving myself. My second try my approach to studying changed in three key ways:
1) I took a practice test every Sunday. As much as doing practice problems for 30 minutes here and there is helpful – getting yourself used to that rushed time environment is key. I started to experiment with testing strategies. For example, I noticed my scores were highest when I invested a little more time on the first 10-15 questions (2 min and 30 seconds per question) and then strategically guessed on harder questions I knew I just wasn't great at (e.g. geometry and probability for me).
2) I didn’t focus too much time on the fundamentals and dove into real problems. My first time around I studied a lot from the MGMAT math foundations book - which is a great resource but don’t waste too much time here. Make sure you’re spending a lot of your time doing REAL gmat questions.
3) I diversified my study materials:
a. GMAT Club – hands down the reason why I felt so much more confident with the math. I didn’t just look at only the MGMAT way to solve problems. I used the forums to see multiple approaches and find ones that were most intuitive to me. I used the question banks by topic and by difficulty to deep dive into trouble topics. For example, I noticed I wasn’t great at absolute value questions. Using the forum I worked my way through all the absolute value questions starting with the easier ones at the 500-level and worked all the way up to the 700-800 level questions to make myself a pro at every type of absolute value question out there. Also, I used the GMAT Club Math Book PDF almost as a means of flashcards. I would take it with me on work trips and just read through it when I was burnt out of doing questions.
b. Kaplan – The MGMAT books are great but diversifying to see different approaches is important. I bought the Kaplan Premiere book (most helpful for the 6 practice tests that came with it) and the Kaplan 800. Since I was pretty strong at verbal I used the Kaplan 800 to take my verbal skills to the next level.
Walking into test day I was nervous but definitely knew I was more prepared than the first time around. My test day experience on the second attempt actually could have been better. During my 8 min break before the quant I asked the proctor how many minutes I had left and she said “6 minutes” and I thought, hm it’s definitely been more than 2 minutes? But I wanted to take the full break. Turns out…I had USED 6 minutes. Thankfully I didn’t fully trust her so I went back to my station a minute later and it said that I had forfeited 1 minute of time on the math section. 1 minute isn't a HUGE deal, I knew it meant I would have to guess on 1 more question, but still I was pretty frazzled but I somehow managed to make up the time and I actually think it kind of helped me do better because I actually ended up moving a little faster than normal. BUT, my piece of advice would be to gauge the timing of the break yourself, even though you can't wear a watch.
Lastly for those of you out there who have tiny bladders like me I would advise you not to drink anything during the breaks. If you feel like you need a burst of caffeine or water go for it, but in my last 15 questions on the verbal I really needed to go to the restroom and it definitely distracted me and made me rush through those last problems than I normally would have.
Happy to say my GMAT experience is over, but know there's lots of work to come ahead with the application....
good luck all!
First Attempt – 650 -Took a 10 week MGMAT Live Course + a month of studying after the course. 55 percentile math, 85 percentile verbal (this is off memory. I think my percentiles might be a point or two off)
I first took the GMAT in the October of 2013. I took a MGMAT class because my company at the time paid for it and I knew business school was in my future. I probably wouldn’t have spent the money if I had to pay for it myself. Although, I thought the class was extremely helpful. It gave me a sense of structure and kept me motivated throughout my studies and gave me access to online tools with amazing in-depth explanations to the Official Guides. I would say the class is definitely worth the money if you have the ability to invest the time in doing the homework. Just showing up for the class once a week for three hours is definitely not going to cut it for most people. Like many GMAT test takers- I was shooting to break the 700 mark. I studied for about month after the 10 week class and was scoring 700-710 on practice tests. I sat for the exam and scored a 650 and naturally was pretty bummed based on how I was scoring. I knew I could do better. At the time, I was convinced that I couldn’t have prepared any better and was unsure about my bschool plans since then I simultaneously decided to change jobs and wanted to give my new job a fair chance before school.
Fast forward a year and a half…I decided in March of 2015 that I definitely wanted to apply to school in the fall and knew I should give the GMAT another crack. I started studying again and much to my disappointment definitely lost the momentum I had – I basically had to start studying from scratch. So my BIGGEST piece of advice would be if you’re even thinking about retaking the test – do it right away. Putting a year + in between attempts was a huge waste of time.
Second Attempt- 720 - Studied from 3 months. 76th percentile math. 90th percentile verbal.
Looking back, I'm not all that surprised by my 650 the first time. I was way more confident with the quant the second time around. Not that my quant is even great, but definitely felt more confident. Also, historically I have pretty terrible test taking anxiety. On my gmatprep exams I was getting a 740 so I was much more comfortable with the buffer I was giving myself. My second try my approach to studying changed in three key ways:
1) I took a practice test every Sunday. As much as doing practice problems for 30 minutes here and there is helpful – getting yourself used to that rushed time environment is key. I started to experiment with testing strategies. For example, I noticed my scores were highest when I invested a little more time on the first 10-15 questions (2 min and 30 seconds per question) and then strategically guessed on harder questions I knew I just wasn't great at (e.g. geometry and probability for me).
2) I didn’t focus too much time on the fundamentals and dove into real problems. My first time around I studied a lot from the MGMAT math foundations book - which is a great resource but don’t waste too much time here. Make sure you’re spending a lot of your time doing REAL gmat questions.
3) I diversified my study materials:
a. GMAT Club – hands down the reason why I felt so much more confident with the math. I didn’t just look at only the MGMAT way to solve problems. I used the forums to see multiple approaches and find ones that were most intuitive to me. I used the question banks by topic and by difficulty to deep dive into trouble topics. For example, I noticed I wasn’t great at absolute value questions. Using the forum I worked my way through all the absolute value questions starting with the easier ones at the 500-level and worked all the way up to the 700-800 level questions to make myself a pro at every type of absolute value question out there. Also, I used the GMAT Club Math Book PDF almost as a means of flashcards. I would take it with me on work trips and just read through it when I was burnt out of doing questions.
b. Kaplan – The MGMAT books are great but diversifying to see different approaches is important. I bought the Kaplan Premiere book (most helpful for the 6 practice tests that came with it) and the Kaplan 800. Since I was pretty strong at verbal I used the Kaplan 800 to take my verbal skills to the next level.
Walking into test day I was nervous but definitely knew I was more prepared than the first time around. My test day experience on the second attempt actually could have been better. During my 8 min break before the quant I asked the proctor how many minutes I had left and she said “6 minutes” and I thought, hm it’s definitely been more than 2 minutes? But I wanted to take the full break. Turns out…I had USED 6 minutes. Thankfully I didn’t fully trust her so I went back to my station a minute later and it said that I had forfeited 1 minute of time on the math section. 1 minute isn't a HUGE deal, I knew it meant I would have to guess on 1 more question, but still I was pretty frazzled but I somehow managed to make up the time and I actually think it kind of helped me do better because I actually ended up moving a little faster than normal. BUT, my piece of advice would be to gauge the timing of the break yourself, even though you can't wear a watch.
Lastly for those of you out there who have tiny bladders like me I would advise you not to drink anything during the breaks. If you feel like you need a burst of caffeine or water go for it, but in my last 15 questions on the verbal I really needed to go to the restroom and it definitely distracted me and made me rush through those last problems than I normally would have.
Happy to say my GMAT experience is over, but know there's lots of work to come ahead with the application....
good luck all!
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