To those who got a 700+

Question

just a few questions

1. what was your score in your first GMATprep (if possible, before even reviewing)

620

2. what was your score in your last GMATprep (last test before taking the exam)

770

3. my important question: while taking the test and answering all the problems.. how did you feel? were you confident that you were able to answer most of the questions correctly?

Felt good. Was used to GMAT format from practice tests.

4. one short advice

Rest well. Relax. Don't waste time on questions you can't solve within 3 minutes.

good luck enjoy the the elite schools!

Praetorian · Answer

The first two are not relevant because I took the old version back in 2003.

Remember that the test is adaptive and it should keep you on the edge of you seat if you are nailing every question thrown at you.

But the "feel" for how you are doing on the test is not very useful and can be misleading. You will read reports of students "feeling" that they bombed the math, so they didnt care much about verbal because they "felt" would have to take the test again. Turns out they do have take the test again , but not because they did bad at math. They "felt" wrong, ended up doing great in Math and bad in verbal. Others felt that they were doing very well only to be surprised by a low score.

I will do you one better. 

1)  Humility  Tons of advice on the forum. My first advice is to check your ego at the door and tell yourself that it is ok to add/multiply/subtract again. No 700 scorer ever got past 700 without getting the easy questions correct. Force yourself to pay extra attention to the easiest questions. 
 
2)  Starting off Right.   Take a diagnostic test, say, GMAT Prep Test 1 with no prep at all. Just go with the details of what the test is about , how much time you have etc. Take this test as seriously as you can. Analyze your results and understand your strengths and weaknesses. This analysis will serve as great input into the areas you need to improve.

When working on problems, avoid guessing. If you get a question correct, you better be sure that you did not get it correct because you were lucky. 

Always stay in learning mode. 

3)  Measure your progress  

The only rational way to understand how you are doing is to measure your progress. Some of your most frustrating mistakes may be arithmetic and not paying enough attention to details in questions. Keep a good log of your errors as you progress in your prep. If you find yourself making the same errors over and over again, you must make some changes in your prep. 

Make a point of recording what you learnt after every study session..
At the end of every study session, you should be able to write a small paragraph that details what you learnt that day. This could complement your error log. 

4)  Sleep/Exercise  

This is by far the most ignored and underrated factor.

Believe it or not, the most heartbreaking of reasons to not do well on the test is insufficient sleep the night before. The test is 4 hrs long. You are human. If you are not a morning person, dont be a hero. Sign up for a late afternoon test. If you are morning person, dont say I didnt warn you. 

Exercise will keep you focused and help you stay positive. If you have a full time job, its even more important. 

5)  Practice Tests Scores  

Dont take practice tests scores very seriously. Whether you do well or not on the practice tests, try to understand what went right or what went wrong. 


6)  GMAT Club 

Participate in discussions and explain your answers on the forum. This will help you the most. You will have truly understood something when you are able to explain a concept to someone.

ricokevin · Answer

couldn't agree more.

Stay in the learning mode and try to learn from your mistakes. Focus and get easy questions right. You want to build up confidence so that you don't want to re-check ur answers everytime. You choose an answer, stick to it (you have to be confident about the answer you chose) and move on. The exam is timed, you don't have all the time to go over every answers only to find out that you did right the first time. (When I'm not confident, I tend to waste time going over my answers to easy questions which are 99% correct...)

londonluddite · Answer

Like Praetorian, I think health and wellbeing, both mental and physical, is a very important factor. I stopped drinking alcohol and caffeine, stopped eating rubbish, and made sure I regulated my sleep pattern whilst preparing for the test. You also need to make sure you don't let the test stress you out, if you are scared of the GMAT you will not perform.

I scored a 750 on my second attempt.

1. what was your score in your first GMATprep:  700 (after 1 month prep) 

2. what was your score in your last GMATprep:  770 (after 3 months) 

3. my important question: while taking the test and answering all the problems.. how did you feel? were you confident that you were able to answer most of the questions correctly?

 I don't think you can gauge how you are doing, at least I couldn't. Many times when I thought I was doing great I got a bad score, and many times I thought I was doing bad I got a good score. Because the better you do the harder the questions become, it is difficult to know where you stand. My advice would be to approach every question in isolation.
 

4. one short advice

 Resign yourself to the possibility of having to retake the exam. If you go in with a one shot mentality you are adding extra pressure to an already stressful situation.

pelihu · Answer

I will support the idea that health, plenty of rest and a positive mindset on test day can do wonders for the final score. My preparation went something like this.

Studied the OG11 for 2-3 weeks.

Took GMATprep 4 times over the course of 2 weeks scoring between 750-780 each time.

On test day, I didn't sleep well the night before so I decided a little extra caffeine & sugar would help me combat the lack of sleep. The extra caffeine & candy bars, combined with a little nervous tension and lack of sleep resulted in a pounding headache by the time I got to the verbal section. I couldn't concentrate or sit still and I couldn't wait for the test to end. The result was 730 48Q/41V/6.0. The verbal was markedly lower than any of my practice exams, and I believe resulted in poor test day execution (too tired, too much caffeine).

I had to wait a month to retake the exam so I went over all the OG questions again and ordered the Official quantitative guide (the green book). Strangely, even though I pooped myself on the verbal section, I was pretty confident I could do well if I just managed my test day better so I focused on getting 2-3 more points on the quantitative section (great advice from GMATT a friend here at Gmatclub).

A month later, I rolled into the exam center again for my afternoon sitting. I had a good night of sleep and avoided any more caffeine or sugar than normal (I still drank the coke I normally do at lunch). I cruised through the AWA section and felt so good that I skipped the first break and went right into the Q section. Things fell into place and I was able to work briskly early in the section, saving some precious minutes to grind through some tricky questions at the end.

I took a quick break and returned for the verbal section. To answer your question, truly it felt as if I was absolutely sure about every single answer in the whole section. For every SC I seemed to notice what they were testing, for every CR I seemed to see through the logic of the question, for every RC I seemed to predict every issue. I finished the verbal section with more than 20 minutes to spare. Final score 780 50Q/51V/6.0.

My advice would be to build as much confidence as you can during practice. A week before the exam, try to adjust your body to the exam schedule. For example, if you have a 1pm time, start a week ahead of time and try to practice each day at 1pm - and practice four hours to simulate the duration of the exam if you can. Also, try to adjust your body to eating before the exam, but not snacking in the interim so you don't get hungry and cause your mind to wander on test day. But the best piece of advice is to practice rigorously so you can walk in with confidence on test day - this will allow you to really do your best, whether that is 600, 700 or 800.

kripalkavi · Answer

760 (Two weeks before G-day. After 3 months of prep) 780 (Two days before G-day) Hmm...my answer to this will be an anomaly. In all my GMATprep's I scored a 50 in quant. On G-day, I 'felt' I wan't doing as well and ended up with a 49. Also, I 'knew' I was doing extremely well on verbal. Don't ask me how. I just did and ended up with a 46. So in essence, what I 'felt' turned out to be true. Then again, I would recommend not guaging your perfomance during the test . You have all the time in the world to do that after the 4-hour monster! Praetorian's given you all the advice you'll need

Hold on..I got something. Do NOT skip the AWAs in your practice tests. The extra one hour makes a huge difference.

necromonger · Answer

1. what was your score in your first GMATprep (if possible, before even reviewing) 

620

2. what was your score in your last GMATprep (last test before taking the exam) 

770

3. my important question: while taking the test and answering all the problems.. how did you feel? were you confident that you were able to answer most of the questions correctly? 

Felt good. Was used to GMAT format from practice tests.


4. one short advice 

Rest well. Relax. Don't waste time on questions you can't solve within 3 minutes.

javed · Answer

This is good stuff. a real stuff
Thanks you everyone

Javed.

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