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24 Sep 2016, 10:14
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Hello Everyone,
I wanted to share my GMAT experience, as the GMAT club was a huge part of my ultimate success.
I come from a Mathematics-Economics background in undergrad, but have never been a great test taker. I scored well, but not great, on both the ACT and SAT, and throughout college, was never great with the midterm/finals regimen (3.2 GPA).
I took my first GMAT in March of this year. When I got the 660 (Q44, V37), I wasn't shocked. Even though I had put in 100s of hours, I knew deep down that I wasn't ready. For that test, my focus was on learning the fundamentals and having the mindset of once I finished the books, I'm ready to go. In the month of January, I wasn't placed on a project (consulting) so had tons of time to study. I bought the self-study Manhattan prep and went through all the sections in 3 weeks. I thought, wow, I finished all of that so quickly and can now get a 730 just like my friends just did. I took the Manhattan prep practices tests though, and couldn't score above a 620. I searched on forums everywhere for "Manhattan prep test too hard" just to justify that I shouldn't be defeated by these low scores. After taking 3 of those, I finally took a GMAC official one at the end of January, and scored a 640. This. Was. Terrifying. I thought to myself: How in the world could I have just completed all the lessons and homeworks for Manhattan Prep and still be doing under 700? I delayed my original scheduled test of February to March, to better position myself for success (really just delaying the inevitable). I then got staffed on a project and had much less time to devote to studying. I did problems here and there, but didn't put in more than 10 hours in any given week in February. Test day came. And it went. I was left in a situation of doubt.
I took the next 2 months off to enjoy myself in the beautiful life of San Francisco and forget about the GMAT. I started "casually studying" as I like to call it, meaning that I put in around 5-10 hours a week, but if I missed a week, oh well. I bought the GMAT club tests and just did quiz questions of 5 when I had time. Easy enough right? I did this for the months of June and July, trying to regain the fundamentals that I'd lost over the past few months since the first GMAT. Finally, a good friend of mine talked about going to Vegas and how he was going to take the GMAT again, and just have to hit the button that drops $250 and a target date. My competitive nature set in, and I committed to that date. I went into overdrive and committed to doing as many problems as I could. I googled (again) to see what I should do, and read one article about just doing the 600 problems on the GMAT club over and over, and another about doing LSAT problems. I started doing that. Aggressively. I put in 10 hours or so on the weekends and anywhere from 5-10 during the week, just doing these problems. I completed all the 600 level problems on GMAT club finally in the first week of September. Was I done? No. I filtered for the incorrect ones (which was like 200) and started churning through those.
Problems problems problems. I had to keep going. This was it. It was a rollercoaster. I took a GMAC practice test 2 weeks before on a Saturday and got a 660. WHAT?! A 660?!?! I hadn't improved at all. I was heartbroken. But I chalked it up to miss timing the problems because it was my first practice one, and realized that I had about 6 left at the end of the Q and V sections that I had to guess on (even though I got 4/6 right on both...somehow..). I took another test the next day and got a 690. A relief, but I was still thinking to myself: "I've done how many problems? And I barely improved and am still not over 700?".
I had high expectations for myself and my competitive nature. I finished all the incorrect problems on the GMAT club, in addition to working on my RC with LSAT problems, and then started the 600 level GMAT problems fresh again (yes, again). I was doing much better on them now, and not because I had seen them before, but because I understood the concepts and the tricks better. I knew what to look for. My confidence was high and I took one last GMAC practice exam on Saturday before the Friday exam. 710. Woah. I was in aw. I did it? Have I finally made it? Looking at the problems, I got some of my guesses correct. I couldn't settle. I needed to be on my game for the Friday test. I put in around 2 hours Mon-Wed after work to continue doing 600 level problems and keep my mind fresh.
Friday came and I worked a half day before taking off to the test center. I arrived an hour early, but my stomach was so nervous that I didn't go in until 15 minutes before the exam. The essay and IR felt like an eternity. I took my break, drank a little coffee water that I had prepared for myself for the breaks for some pick-me-up, and went back in to conquer the quant.
The quant started easy, got harder, then GOT SO HARD. I was thinking to myself, am I getting these right? From 1-15, I think I missed half of them. But from 15-25, they were much easier, and I started thinking to myself that I got this. Then, much, much harder again. And I couldn't help but think that I was loosing it. This was it, I was done. Going to have to take the test another time. I had 5 min left for the last 2 problems. The 36th prob came and it was a complicated problem that I had started to break down. By the time I was close to finishing, I had 1.5 minutes left. I had to guess
I went to the last problem and it was a probability one. My worst area. I finished the problem in 30 seconds, looked up, and none of the answers matched what I had got. Another guess...
Those 2 guesses brought me down. A lot. But I thought to myself, it's a new test now. The verbal could make or break me if I somehow came through on the Quant. I took a break and enjoyed some more coffee water and got back in the driver's seat. A lot of sentence correction came my way to start, and I felt pretty confident. Then, the 10th problem hit and it was a CR about some excavation that I could not follow for the life of me. Not only could I not understand what was going on, but the passage was also 4 paragraphs and scroll-bar length. I looked to the problems after what had have been 4-5 minutes of reading, and had no idea what the "purpose of the passage" was. This was it. I was done. I guessed on that first one, and continued my educated guesses for the next 3. I continued to nail the SC, but was iffy on the CR. Then another passage came, and WHAT, ANOTHER 4 Paragraphs of science?!? This wasn't my day, I thought to myself. How am I getting such hard passages. Same thing happened and I couldn't understand what was going on.
I finished the test, after what felt like light years. I frustratingly clicked through stupid background questions, as I thought I was going to cancel it anyway. It finally came and I saw 720. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. You salty GMAT. You fooled me into thinking I was doing horribly. I was so happy. I raised my hand with force up in the air to get out of there and call my mom. What an emotional journey.
Anyway, here's what worked for me finally in the June - Sept timeframe to get me where I wanted to be
What I used:
1) GMAT Club - Quant
2) LSAT Exams - downloaded from GMAT club
3) SC 700+ - downloaded from GMAT club
3) GMATprep official tests
What I did:
1) GMAT Club - 600 level problems. Over and over. Did em all. Then did all my incorrect ones. Then I did it again.
2) LSAT Exams - Did CR problems in old LSAT exams that I found on the gmat club downloads forum
3) SC 700+ - did these on my iPad when I was flying or watching tv
3) GMATprep - bought a couple extra to give myself a gauge of where I was in terms of progress
PROBLEMS PROBLEMS PROBLEMS. I can't stress enough how important this was for my quant. Being able to realize certain problems and tricks truly did put myself in a better position for that stressful exam.
CONCLUSION
If I can do it, you can do it. It's a real emotional rollercoaster, but that feeling when I got out of the test, lemme tell you. I was shaking. I'm still shaking and checking my score to see that it's real. To see all that practice come to fruition is a beautiful thing.
Best of luck to everyone!!
I wanted to share my GMAT experience, as the GMAT club was a huge part of my ultimate success.
I come from a Mathematics-Economics background in undergrad, but have never been a great test taker. I scored well, but not great, on both the ACT and SAT, and throughout college, was never great with the midterm/finals regimen (3.2 GPA).
I took my first GMAT in March of this year. When I got the 660 (Q44, V37), I wasn't shocked. Even though I had put in 100s of hours, I knew deep down that I wasn't ready. For that test, my focus was on learning the fundamentals and having the mindset of once I finished the books, I'm ready to go. In the month of January, I wasn't placed on a project (consulting) so had tons of time to study. I bought the self-study Manhattan prep and went through all the sections in 3 weeks. I thought, wow, I finished all of that so quickly and can now get a 730 just like my friends just did. I took the Manhattan prep practices tests though, and couldn't score above a 620. I searched on forums everywhere for "Manhattan prep test too hard" just to justify that I shouldn't be defeated by these low scores. After taking 3 of those, I finally took a GMAC official one at the end of January, and scored a 640. This. Was. Terrifying. I thought to myself: How in the world could I have just completed all the lessons and homeworks for Manhattan Prep and still be doing under 700? I delayed my original scheduled test of February to March, to better position myself for success (really just delaying the inevitable). I then got staffed on a project and had much less time to devote to studying. I did problems here and there, but didn't put in more than 10 hours in any given week in February. Test day came. And it went. I was left in a situation of doubt.
I took the next 2 months off to enjoy myself in the beautiful life of San Francisco and forget about the GMAT. I started "casually studying" as I like to call it, meaning that I put in around 5-10 hours a week, but if I missed a week, oh well. I bought the GMAT club tests and just did quiz questions of 5 when I had time. Easy enough right? I did this for the months of June and July, trying to regain the fundamentals that I'd lost over the past few months since the first GMAT. Finally, a good friend of mine talked about going to Vegas and how he was going to take the GMAT again, and just have to hit the button that drops $250 and a target date. My competitive nature set in, and I committed to that date. I went into overdrive and committed to doing as many problems as I could. I googled (again) to see what I should do, and read one article about just doing the 600 problems on the GMAT club over and over, and another about doing LSAT problems. I started doing that. Aggressively. I put in 10 hours or so on the weekends and anywhere from 5-10 during the week, just doing these problems. I completed all the 600 level problems on GMAT club finally in the first week of September. Was I done? No. I filtered for the incorrect ones (which was like 200) and started churning through those.
Problems problems problems. I had to keep going. This was it. It was a rollercoaster. I took a GMAC practice test 2 weeks before on a Saturday and got a 660. WHAT?! A 660?!?! I hadn't improved at all. I was heartbroken. But I chalked it up to miss timing the problems because it was my first practice one, and realized that I had about 6 left at the end of the Q and V sections that I had to guess on (even though I got 4/6 right on both...somehow..). I took another test the next day and got a 690. A relief, but I was still thinking to myself: "I've done how many problems? And I barely improved and am still not over 700?".
I had high expectations for myself and my competitive nature. I finished all the incorrect problems on the GMAT club, in addition to working on my RC with LSAT problems, and then started the 600 level GMAT problems fresh again (yes, again). I was doing much better on them now, and not because I had seen them before, but because I understood the concepts and the tricks better. I knew what to look for. My confidence was high and I took one last GMAC practice exam on Saturday before the Friday exam. 710. Woah. I was in aw. I did it? Have I finally made it? Looking at the problems, I got some of my guesses correct. I couldn't settle. I needed to be on my game for the Friday test. I put in around 2 hours Mon-Wed after work to continue doing 600 level problems and keep my mind fresh.
Friday came and I worked a half day before taking off to the test center. I arrived an hour early, but my stomach was so nervous that I didn't go in until 15 minutes before the exam. The essay and IR felt like an eternity. I took my break, drank a little coffee water that I had prepared for myself for the breaks for some pick-me-up, and went back in to conquer the quant.
The quant started easy, got harder, then GOT SO HARD. I was thinking to myself, am I getting these right? From 1-15, I think I missed half of them. But from 15-25, they were much easier, and I started thinking to myself that I got this. Then, much, much harder again. And I couldn't help but think that I was loosing it. This was it, I was done. Going to have to take the test another time. I had 5 min left for the last 2 problems. The 36th prob came and it was a complicated problem that I had started to break down. By the time I was close to finishing, I had 1.5 minutes left. I had to guess
I went to the last problem and it was a probability one. My worst area. I finished the problem in 30 seconds, looked up, and none of the answers matched what I had got. Another guess... Those 2 guesses brought me down. A lot. But I thought to myself, it's a new test now. The verbal could make or break me if I somehow came through on the Quant. I took a break and enjoyed some more coffee water and got back in the driver's seat. A lot of sentence correction came my way to start, and I felt pretty confident. Then, the 10th problem hit and it was a CR about some excavation that I could not follow for the life of me. Not only could I not understand what was going on, but the passage was also 4 paragraphs and scroll-bar length. I looked to the problems after what had have been 4-5 minutes of reading, and had no idea what the "purpose of the passage" was. This was it. I was done. I guessed on that first one, and continued my educated guesses for the next 3. I continued to nail the SC, but was iffy on the CR. Then another passage came, and WHAT, ANOTHER 4 Paragraphs of science?!? This wasn't my day, I thought to myself. How am I getting such hard passages. Same thing happened and I couldn't understand what was going on.
I finished the test, after what felt like light years. I frustratingly clicked through stupid background questions, as I thought I was going to cancel it anyway. It finally came and I saw 720. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. You salty GMAT. You fooled me into thinking I was doing horribly. I was so happy. I raised my hand with force up in the air to get out of there and call my mom. What an emotional journey.
Anyway, here's what worked for me finally in the June - Sept timeframe to get me where I wanted to be
What I used:
1) GMAT Club - Quant
2) LSAT Exams - downloaded from GMAT club
3) SC 700+ - downloaded from GMAT club
3) GMATprep official tests
What I did:
1) GMAT Club - 600 level problems. Over and over. Did em all. Then did all my incorrect ones. Then I did it again.
2) LSAT Exams - Did CR problems in old LSAT exams that I found on the gmat club downloads forum
3) SC 700+ - did these on my iPad when I was flying or watching tv
3) GMATprep - bought a couple extra to give myself a gauge of where I was in terms of progress
PROBLEMS PROBLEMS PROBLEMS. I can't stress enough how important this was for my quant. Being able to realize certain problems and tricks truly did put myself in a better position for that stressful exam.
CONCLUSION
If I can do it, you can do it. It's a real emotional rollercoaster, but that feeling when I got out of the test, lemme tell you. I was shaking. I'm still shaking and checking my score to see that it's real. To see all that practice come to fruition is a beautiful thing.
Best of luck to everyone!!
Moderator:
