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buckybadger4
Joined: 01 Jan 2016
Last visit: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 6
Location: United States
Schools: Booth '20 (A$) HBS '20 (D) Kellogg '20 (A$)
GMAT 1: 790 Q50 V51
GPA: 3.8
Updated on: 01 Jan 2016, 13:48
Originally posted by buckybadger4 on 01 Jan 2016, 12:37.
Last edited by buckybadger4 on 01 Jan 2016, 13:48, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by buckybadger4 on 01 Jan 2016, 13:48, edited 1 time in total.
Kudos
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790 - Q50 - V51 - 8 IR
Like many others, I used this forum as a resource while studying. In light of my unusually high score, I want to compile my thoughts so others might benefit from them. In particular, I want to talk through an epiphany I had about a month before my test: that strategy, not simply studying, is required to achieve an elite score on the GMAT.
But first the usual stuff...
My Background
I am a 2015 college grad who majored in humanities. Native English speaker. I scored a 1450 on the SAT (710 math, 740 CR) back in the day, so I had some positive history with test-taking upon which to draw. I had not taken a hard math course since my first year of college, so quant was the primary focus of my early prep. I work ~50 hours a week in a non-technical position at a software company.
Materials
Magoosh account - I just about exhausted the materials on Magoosh. Reviewed all of the lessons and took all of the practice questions (many of them twice). Great for early-stage prep. As others have noted, I found it to be stronger in verbal than in quant.
Manhattan Prep (MGMAT) Advanced Quant - Did all of the lessons and practice questions. The best resource for 49+ quant, especially for transitioning from material prep to strategy prep (more on that below). If you can nail 60-70% of the practice questions in here, you can score 50Q on the actual test.
Official Guide 2015 - Study materials are worthless, but the practice questions are useful for late-stage verbal review.
Official Guide 2015 Verbal Review - Ditto.
Study Timeline
5 months out - Began to review material, primarily using Magoosh lessons. Aimed for 40 minutes of lesson review, plus 5-10 practice questions for each section, each weekday.
3 months out - First practice test. Began transition from primarily studying material to primarily taking practice questions.
2 months out - Second practice test. Spend prep time reviewing problem areas and doing more practice questions.
5 weeks out - Third practice test. 95% done with learning the material. Transition from study to strategy (see below). Increase study time from 1 to 2 hours per day.
2 weeks out - Fourth practice test. Mop up material review for topics I have struggled with. Keep pushing strategy while doing many, many practice problems.
3 days out - Fifth and final practice test. Review detail items like idioms, strategy rules (more below). Relax and sleep a lot.
Test day - Rock and roll.
Practice Tests
9/26 - VeritasPrep Free CAT - 670 (43Q, 39V) - No AWA or IR
10/24 - Magoosh Practice Test - 740 (51Q, 40V) - No AWA
11/14 - Magoosh Practice Test - 760 (51Q, 42V) - No AWA
12/5 - GMAC Test 1 - 780 (50Q, 47V) - Whole test
12/19 - GMAC Test 2 - 770 (50Q, 46V) - Whole test
12/23 - Test Day
Now on to the good stuff...
Material Prep vs. Strategy Prep
I think this is an important distinction. Material prep is the time you spend reviewing math rules and learning the GMAT's particular style for the verbal sections. It is important - you are unlikely to score 760+ on the GMAT if you have glaring gaps in your knowledge base for either section. Key quant material prep areas for me were prime factorization tricks, integer properties, exponents/roots, probability, geometry, and multiple-traveler questions. Key SC prep areas were sequence of tenses, parallelism, diction, and noun modifiers. It is harder to define discrete prep items for RC and CR. The lessons on Magoosh are strong enough in all of these areas to fuel your 760+ study plan.
But knowing the material only gets you so far. When you're riding the CAT at the 760+ level, there are ALWAYS going to be questions that are so unrecognizably hard that it's impossible to answer them within 2 minutes on knowledge alone. This is where strategy comes in.
Strategy Overview
I thought of strategy as the ~5 seconds I spent deciding how to approach each question. To score 760+, you MUST take time to do this. I found that one of the best reasons to nail the material prep was to minimize the amount of computational time for each question, thus maximizing the amount of time I could spend strategizing on the hardest questions. Below are some specific strategy items that I endorse.
Quant Strategy
In addition to my material prep, the following strategies helped me (a non-quant) score 50 on the GMAT quant:
1. Define and follow a standard process for common question types. This is especially useful for commonly missed questions like multiple traveler, probability, and advanced geometry. For multiple traveler, I wrote out D=RT equations (unless I was picking numbers). For probability, I always started with positive cases / total number of cases. For geometry, I always drew figures with givens. Magoosh is good for this sort of thing.
2. Know when to pick numbers instead of solving algebraically. I picked numbers whenever there were variables in the answer choices, and on most complicated multiple traveler and work questions. MGMAT Advanced Quant is your best resource for this. Make this kind of strategy a part of your practice - if you're not in the hang of picking numbers in practice, you might not do it on the test.
3. Know when to work backwards from the answer choices. MGMAT Advanced Quant helps here.
4. In a worst-case scenario, know how to eliminate a few answer choices, make a smart guess, and move on without sinking too much time into the question. If you're good, you can get close to 50% of hard questions with smart guesses. Again, this is where MGMAT Advanced Quant shines.
My biggest takeaway from the quant section is that you don't have to be an engineer or finance guy to score well on the GMAT. In addition to reviewing your math rules, identifying and carrying out a strong quant strategy will help you focus your time on the test and maximize your score.
Verbal Strategy
Almost as important as quant strategy, but often overlooked. Verbal strategy most often comes into play when you've whittled it down to 2-3 answer choices and can't eliminate any more based on knowledge alone, a situation that GMAC purposefully builds into the test's hardest problems. In these situations, you should be prepared to:
1. In CR and RC, know what sort of answer is most likely to be correct. The GMAT is fairly consistent in the sort of answers that it considers correct. Most commonly you will be able to whittle it down to a dull, slightly vague answer that sounds technically correct and a more meaningful answer that requires more of a logical leap. 95% of the time, the dull answer is the correct one. The only real way to nail this is to enough practice problems that you start to see the testmaker's logic in each question.
2. In SC, know which grammar/style rules can be broken and which can't. Hard SC questions will often try to lure you into the wrong answer by putting unattractive elements in the correct answer. Common unattractive elements include passive voice, funky sentence construction, and unfamiliar punctuation. Don't eliminate an answer unless you are sure it is technically incorrect, and keep looking for smaller details that can guide you to the correct answer. Magoosh and lots of practice questions are helpful here.
3. In SC, know your idioms and use them. The GMAT has specific standards for which English idioms is considers technically correct, and which commonly used idioms it considers incorrect. Knowing both of these sets will allow you to eliminate 2-3 answer choices on many stems, and get down to the meat of the question more quickly. Magoosh idiom flashcards are a great start, but the best prep is to do tons of practice questions and identify the idioms that have tripped you up.
I recognize that my verbal score might seem unattainable (particularly if you are a non-native English speaker), but I want to suggest here that GMAT verbal is not as much of a crapshoot as people often think - there are patterns at work in every verbal question that, if processed correctly, will guide you to the correct answer.
Like many others, I used this forum as a resource while studying. In light of my unusually high score, I want to compile my thoughts so others might benefit from them. In particular, I want to talk through an epiphany I had about a month before my test: that strategy, not simply studying, is required to achieve an elite score on the GMAT.
But first the usual stuff...
My Background
I am a 2015 college grad who majored in humanities. Native English speaker. I scored a 1450 on the SAT (710 math, 740 CR) back in the day, so I had some positive history with test-taking upon which to draw. I had not taken a hard math course since my first year of college, so quant was the primary focus of my early prep. I work ~50 hours a week in a non-technical position at a software company.
Materials
Magoosh account - I just about exhausted the materials on Magoosh. Reviewed all of the lessons and took all of the practice questions (many of them twice). Great for early-stage prep. As others have noted, I found it to be stronger in verbal than in quant.
Manhattan Prep (MGMAT) Advanced Quant - Did all of the lessons and practice questions. The best resource for 49+ quant, especially for transitioning from material prep to strategy prep (more on that below). If you can nail 60-70% of the practice questions in here, you can score 50Q on the actual test.
Official Guide 2015 - Study materials are worthless, but the practice questions are useful for late-stage verbal review.
Official Guide 2015 Verbal Review - Ditto.
Study Timeline
5 months out - Began to review material, primarily using Magoosh lessons. Aimed for 40 minutes of lesson review, plus 5-10 practice questions for each section, each weekday.
3 months out - First practice test. Began transition from primarily studying material to primarily taking practice questions.
2 months out - Second practice test. Spend prep time reviewing problem areas and doing more practice questions.
5 weeks out - Third practice test. 95% done with learning the material. Transition from study to strategy (see below). Increase study time from 1 to 2 hours per day.
2 weeks out - Fourth practice test. Mop up material review for topics I have struggled with. Keep pushing strategy while doing many, many practice problems.
3 days out - Fifth and final practice test. Review detail items like idioms, strategy rules (more below). Relax and sleep a lot.
Test day - Rock and roll.
Practice Tests
9/26 - VeritasPrep Free CAT - 670 (43Q, 39V) - No AWA or IR
10/24 - Magoosh Practice Test - 740 (51Q, 40V) - No AWA
11/14 - Magoosh Practice Test - 760 (51Q, 42V) - No AWA
12/5 - GMAC Test 1 - 780 (50Q, 47V) - Whole test
12/19 - GMAC Test 2 - 770 (50Q, 46V) - Whole test
12/23 - Test Day
Now on to the good stuff...
Material Prep vs. Strategy Prep
I think this is an important distinction. Material prep is the time you spend reviewing math rules and learning the GMAT's particular style for the verbal sections. It is important - you are unlikely to score 760+ on the GMAT if you have glaring gaps in your knowledge base for either section. Key quant material prep areas for me were prime factorization tricks, integer properties, exponents/roots, probability, geometry, and multiple-traveler questions. Key SC prep areas were sequence of tenses, parallelism, diction, and noun modifiers. It is harder to define discrete prep items for RC and CR. The lessons on Magoosh are strong enough in all of these areas to fuel your 760+ study plan.
But knowing the material only gets you so far. When you're riding the CAT at the 760+ level, there are ALWAYS going to be questions that are so unrecognizably hard that it's impossible to answer them within 2 minutes on knowledge alone. This is where strategy comes in.
Strategy Overview
I thought of strategy as the ~5 seconds I spent deciding how to approach each question. To score 760+, you MUST take time to do this. I found that one of the best reasons to nail the material prep was to minimize the amount of computational time for each question, thus maximizing the amount of time I could spend strategizing on the hardest questions. Below are some specific strategy items that I endorse.
Quant Strategy
In addition to my material prep, the following strategies helped me (a non-quant) score 50 on the GMAT quant:
1. Define and follow a standard process for common question types. This is especially useful for commonly missed questions like multiple traveler, probability, and advanced geometry. For multiple traveler, I wrote out D=RT equations (unless I was picking numbers). For probability, I always started with positive cases / total number of cases. For geometry, I always drew figures with givens. Magoosh is good for this sort of thing.
2. Know when to pick numbers instead of solving algebraically. I picked numbers whenever there were variables in the answer choices, and on most complicated multiple traveler and work questions. MGMAT Advanced Quant is your best resource for this. Make this kind of strategy a part of your practice - if you're not in the hang of picking numbers in practice, you might not do it on the test.
3. Know when to work backwards from the answer choices. MGMAT Advanced Quant helps here.
4. In a worst-case scenario, know how to eliminate a few answer choices, make a smart guess, and move on without sinking too much time into the question. If you're good, you can get close to 50% of hard questions with smart guesses. Again, this is where MGMAT Advanced Quant shines.
My biggest takeaway from the quant section is that you don't have to be an engineer or finance guy to score well on the GMAT. In addition to reviewing your math rules, identifying and carrying out a strong quant strategy will help you focus your time on the test and maximize your score.
Verbal Strategy
Almost as important as quant strategy, but often overlooked. Verbal strategy most often comes into play when you've whittled it down to 2-3 answer choices and can't eliminate any more based on knowledge alone, a situation that GMAC purposefully builds into the test's hardest problems. In these situations, you should be prepared to:
1. In CR and RC, know what sort of answer is most likely to be correct. The GMAT is fairly consistent in the sort of answers that it considers correct. Most commonly you will be able to whittle it down to a dull, slightly vague answer that sounds technically correct and a more meaningful answer that requires more of a logical leap. 95% of the time, the dull answer is the correct one. The only real way to nail this is to enough practice problems that you start to see the testmaker's logic in each question.
2. In SC, know which grammar/style rules can be broken and which can't. Hard SC questions will often try to lure you into the wrong answer by putting unattractive elements in the correct answer. Common unattractive elements include passive voice, funky sentence construction, and unfamiliar punctuation. Don't eliminate an answer unless you are sure it is technically incorrect, and keep looking for smaller details that can guide you to the correct answer. Magoosh and lots of practice questions are helpful here.
3. In SC, know your idioms and use them. The GMAT has specific standards for which English idioms is considers technically correct, and which commonly used idioms it considers incorrect. Knowing both of these sets will allow you to eliminate 2-3 answer choices on many stems, and get down to the meat of the question more quickly. Magoosh idiom flashcards are a great start, but the best prep is to do tons of practice questions and identify the idioms that have tripped you up.
I recognize that my verbal score might seem unattainable (particularly if you are a non-native English speaker), but I want to suggest here that GMAT verbal is not as much of a crapshoot as people often think - there are patterns at work in every verbal question that, if processed correctly, will guide you to the correct answer.
Kelzie01
Joined: 22 Dec 2015
Last visit: 25 Oct 2016
Posts: 83
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 40
Concentration: General Management
Schools: Kelly Online'18 (A)
GMAT 1: 760 Q48 V47
GPA: 3.89
WE:Accounting (Energy)
Products:
01 Jan 2016, 12:52
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thanks for your debrief, it was very valuable. My strengths are a lot like your-strong verbal, weak quant. I already plan to do Magoosh but I might add Manhattan as well now. So you spent, what, like an hour a day studying?
buckybadger4
Joined: 01 Jan 2016
Last visit: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 6
Location: United States
Schools: Booth '20 (A$) HBS '20 (D) Kellogg '20 (A$)
GMAT 1: 790 Q50 V51
GPA: 3.8
01 Jan 2016, 13:16
Kudos
Bookmarks
Kelzie01
An hour a day most days until I had all the materials down pat (about a month pre-test). In this phase of prep, Magoosh was my primary resource.
For the last month, I upped the time to about 2 hours a day and tried to focus more on strategy. If you're trying to take your quant to the next level, I strongly recommend adding Manhattan and doing something similar.
