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10 Jan 2009, 12:32
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I just walked out of the Pearson examination center with a smile on my face. It's a great feeling to see the fruits of your labor finally pay off after three months of preparation time. Although I was aiming for a score of 740~750, any score over 700 would have made me happy. Anyway, I'll try to relay my experience in the hopes that this will aid others in their preparation.
Background
I travel for about 52 weeks a year and spend more time in the airports than my apartment. I had taken the GMAT about two years ago and had gotten a score of 650 (Q45, V34 AWA 4.5), so I knew I had to make some changes to my preparation this time around. Also, last time I had paid for the Kaplan course, which did not help me too much. Throughout the course I was scoring in the 700s however, I found the math too easy and the verbal too difficult to help me pin point my exact problem areas. Added to this was the fact that I did not take the test too seriously and there was a two month gap between my last Kaplan test and the actual GMAT. From my experience, I don't recommend Kaplan.
Preparation
This time I did not have the time nor the money to afford another class so I went about creating my own path. My overall preparation time was about 16 weeks and a cost of about $400 (including the $250 for the test). I broke up my preparation into 4 week chunks. The first four weeks was a brush up on concepts followed by a diagnostic test. The next four I focused on Verbal, then on Math and finally kept taking tests the final four weeks. I also created a spreadsheet to help me keep track of all my mistakes. I also bought the Official Guides and both the supplements. Surprisingly, Kaplan had never mentioned using these tools and I found this the single most beneficial book.
Verbal
My primary focus was on Sentence Correction because I knew this was the make or break section for me. The spreadsheet helped me improve my score from about 65% to 90%. I used the OG and the verbal supplement and practiced each question (Sentence Correction twice). I strongly recommend keeping track of mistakes as this will help you focus on the areas you need to improve on.
Additional resources: https://owl.english.purdue.edu (a good resource for understanding grammar rules)
Quantitative
Again, I followed the same strategy as the verbal and practiced all the questions from the OG and the supplement. In addition, I had discovered GMAT Club Tests. I strongly recommend anyone who is scoring about 45 in practice tests to use the GMAT club tests to boost your Q score by about 4~5 points. Also, don't be discouraged by your results in these tests, I was averaging about 22 to 23 correct questions in my tests till the very end when I started getting about 27~30 questions right.
AWA
Go through the guide by chineseburned. I am attaching the link because I had to search for this guide about 20 times before I found it (1-p513672?t=64327&hilit=+chineseburned#p513672). Also, if you have the time (my last two weeks of preparation), write a few essays from the Official Guide.
Practice Tests
The $39 I paid MGMAT for their tests was the best investment I could make. I found these to be the closest to the real deal (from my experience with Kaplan) and a little tougher than the actual tests. The good thing about these tests is that the quantitative section is challenging, almost like the GMAT club tests. Also the verbal concepts they test really help in raising your overall score. The other good thing is that they have an extensive database to pull out 700-800 level questions. There are only 6 tests, so once I completed the first 6, I reset the pool and for the last two weeks I did one test every 2 days.
A big note to everyone, download and practice the GMAT Prep tests. I think this has been the common theme in everyone's debrief and I can see why. While the questions are very similar to the OG and supplements, it is pretty close to the real thing. I don't know which test is harder, the GMAT or GMAT Prep, either way it gives a clear understanding of where one stands.
Here are my scores on the practice tests:
MGMAT 1 650 (Q47, V32)
MGMAT 2 680 (Q43, V39)
MGMAT 3 640 (Q43, V35)
MGMAT 4 710 (Q45, V41)
MGMAT 5 690 (Q46, V38)
MGMAT 6 680 (Q49, V34)
GMAT Prep 1 680
GMAT Prep 2 750
GMAT Prep 1 (Retake) 740
Actual GMAT 710 (Q49, V38)
G-Day
The night before I did not do much preparation. I went through a couple of essays, but in the end decided to watch a French action movie, District B13 (I don't understand French but the action made it worth it), and then Scarface. My exam was scheduled for 8 AM. I am not a morning person by anyone's stretch of imagination, but this was the only date I could take the exam without it conflicting with my work for this year. I woke up early around 530, practiced a couple of challenge questions from MGMAT to get my mind thinking, did the SC quiz on GMAT Prep and then played the guitar for ten minutes. I got to the test center about 30 minutes before the test with two bananas and a starbucks coffee. 4 and a half hours later, I walked out with my unofficial score report and a smile.
Key Takeaways
One word: Practice
Background
I travel for about 52 weeks a year and spend more time in the airports than my apartment. I had taken the GMAT about two years ago and had gotten a score of 650 (Q45, V34 AWA 4.5), so I knew I had to make some changes to my preparation this time around. Also, last time I had paid for the Kaplan course, which did not help me too much. Throughout the course I was scoring in the 700s however, I found the math too easy and the verbal too difficult to help me pin point my exact problem areas. Added to this was the fact that I did not take the test too seriously and there was a two month gap between my last Kaplan test and the actual GMAT. From my experience, I don't recommend Kaplan.
Preparation
This time I did not have the time nor the money to afford another class so I went about creating my own path. My overall preparation time was about 16 weeks and a cost of about $400 (including the $250 for the test). I broke up my preparation into 4 week chunks. The first four weeks was a brush up on concepts followed by a diagnostic test. The next four I focused on Verbal, then on Math and finally kept taking tests the final four weeks. I also created a spreadsheet to help me keep track of all my mistakes. I also bought the Official Guides and both the supplements. Surprisingly, Kaplan had never mentioned using these tools and I found this the single most beneficial book.
Verbal
My primary focus was on Sentence Correction because I knew this was the make or break section for me. The spreadsheet helped me improve my score from about 65% to 90%. I used the OG and the verbal supplement and practiced each question (Sentence Correction twice). I strongly recommend keeping track of mistakes as this will help you focus on the areas you need to improve on.
Additional resources: https://owl.english.purdue.edu (a good resource for understanding grammar rules)
Quantitative
Again, I followed the same strategy as the verbal and practiced all the questions from the OG and the supplement. In addition, I had discovered GMAT Club Tests. I strongly recommend anyone who is scoring about 45 in practice tests to use the GMAT club tests to boost your Q score by about 4~5 points. Also, don't be discouraged by your results in these tests, I was averaging about 22 to 23 correct questions in my tests till the very end when I started getting about 27~30 questions right.
AWA
Go through the guide by chineseburned. I am attaching the link because I had to search for this guide about 20 times before I found it (1-p513672?t=64327&hilit=+chineseburned#p513672). Also, if you have the time (my last two weeks of preparation), write a few essays from the Official Guide.
Practice Tests
The $39 I paid MGMAT for their tests was the best investment I could make. I found these to be the closest to the real deal (from my experience with Kaplan) and a little tougher than the actual tests. The good thing about these tests is that the quantitative section is challenging, almost like the GMAT club tests. Also the verbal concepts they test really help in raising your overall score. The other good thing is that they have an extensive database to pull out 700-800 level questions. There are only 6 tests, so once I completed the first 6, I reset the pool and for the last two weeks I did one test every 2 days.
A big note to everyone, download and practice the GMAT Prep tests. I think this has been the common theme in everyone's debrief and I can see why. While the questions are very similar to the OG and supplements, it is pretty close to the real thing. I don't know which test is harder, the GMAT or GMAT Prep, either way it gives a clear understanding of where one stands.
Here are my scores on the practice tests:
MGMAT 1 650 (Q47, V32)
MGMAT 2 680 (Q43, V39)
MGMAT 3 640 (Q43, V35)
MGMAT 4 710 (Q45, V41)
MGMAT 5 690 (Q46, V38)
MGMAT 6 680 (Q49, V34)
GMAT Prep 1 680
GMAT Prep 2 750
GMAT Prep 1 (Retake) 740
Actual GMAT 710 (Q49, V38)
G-Day
The night before I did not do much preparation. I went through a couple of essays, but in the end decided to watch a French action movie, District B13 (I don't understand French but the action made it worth it), and then Scarface. My exam was scheduled for 8 AM. I am not a morning person by anyone's stretch of imagination, but this was the only date I could take the exam without it conflicting with my work for this year. I woke up early around 530, practiced a couple of challenge questions from MGMAT to get my mind thinking, did the SC quiz on GMAT Prep and then played the guitar for ten minutes. I got to the test center about 30 minutes before the test with two bananas and a starbucks coffee. 4 and a half hours later, I walked out with my unofficial score report and a smile.
Key Takeaways
One word: Practice
10 Jan 2009, 12:40
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congrats. Did you use additional resources to improve in SC?
10 Jan 2009, 12:59
Kudos
Bookmarks
No I didn't use additional resources. In hindsight, it would have probably helped if I had read the MGMAT SC book, but the OG books are good enough to identify common mistakes and coming up with strategies to tackle SC.
