The GMAT defeated - 730

Hello All. As you can see I have not posted for a little over 2 months. However I return with good news from my hiatus. 730 on the GMAT!!! Woop!!!

In my upcoming posts, I will dissect my entire GMAT "experience" which hopefully will provide some useful insights for aspiring candidates.

Lets get cracking.

How important is the GMAT?

As I have mentioned previously, the GMAT is only part of your application. If you score extremely high but your essays are woeful you probably will not get into your school of choice. Conversely, if you score slightly below par and your essays are outstanding you still have a shot. The main thing to take away, is try your best to get a decent score (700+) and focus on making the rest of your application (essays/references etc) really stand out. Also bear in mind, even if you get a terrible score you can always retake. Thankfully, I managed to get a 730 first time round.

My background

You can read about my background in my first post. I would say I'm a pretty smart guy but not exactly a genius. Regardless, being smart certainly does not guarantee a good GMAT score. You need to have adequate & thorough preparation and "learn" how the exam is tested. I would say that I am equally strong in both maths and verbal and my score certainly reflects that (49 Quantitative and 40 Verbal). For non native speakers I can imagine that the verbal section might be quite tricky and so you may have to prep more on that section than I did. To put it plainly, being smart will not guarantee you a good score but thorough preparation will. (NB being a genius certainly does no harm. So if you are one, well done.)

Preparation

As you can see from my last post I began studying for the GMAT in mid-April. So a preparation time of 2 and a half months. However my first 2 months of study would be what I describe as "casual". Not in terms of effort or time spent, but in terms of approach. Let me explain.

Typically I would spend about 40 mins to one hour after work, from Monday to Friday. I normally started around 9pm, and would do a series of questions from my official guide book. My approach was casual, as I did not actively note which types of questions I got wrong and I did not time myself. I also listened to music as I did my questions (Pop, Rap and RnB if you are interested). On weekends I would do about 3-4 hours a day, again just running through questions. This approach is initially acceptable, to familiarise yourself with the types of questions asked, but in hindsight is NOT an effective way to study. I would recommend only doing this for a month or so, lets call it the "familiarisation process".

Once this process is over, its time to devise a proper revision plan, which strategically identifies which areas you are weak in and to strengthen those areas accordingly. I strongly recommend visiting www.beatthegmat.com and reading through their Strategy section. Here are my general tips:

• a casual familiarisation process is fine, but do not maintain this approach for too long!
• begin timing yourself while doing GMAT questions and note which types of questions you typically get wrong. Study these weak areas accordingly.
• do lots and lots of questions - eventually you will begin to recognise the "style" of question enabling you to answer it quicker and in extreme cases make educated guesses when stuck.
• download the CAT software from www.mba.com and take the practice exams.
• read www.beatthegmat.com - they have lots of useful resources including free flashcards for all topics and recommended study plans.

I only started adopting this approach in the last 2 and a half weeks of my preparation. Data Sufficiency (DS) and Sentence Correction (SC) were my weak points (like most people) whereas I had few if any errors on Reading Comprehension (RC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). I began focusing on specific areas where I had problems such as complicated factor and rate questions in DS. I will go through my thoughts on each section later on. First lets look at my prep material.

Having read the forums extensively, I have seen candidates that use around 10+ GMAT prep books. While I am not necessarily saying this is over-kill, I did not adopt this approach (after consulting with several MBA students). By all means if you feel you are especially weak in certain areas, such as SC, feel free to buy books that cover this material in more depth. Nevertheless, this is the prep I used:

• Official Guide 11
• Official Guide 12
• Official Guide Quantitative and Verbal Review
• GMAT Prep software off www.mba.com

That's it folks. In some ways my prep is slightly unusual in comparison to other candidates as I decided not to flesh out my revision with any 3rd party books. Let me re-iterate that I am not saying this is the best approach but rather this is the approach that I found worked for me. One thing that I will say though, is, there is no substitute for the OG books. They replicate the same principles and "types" of questions you find on the real test, and although their difficulty is somewhat easier that the test itself, they are an invaluable resource.

This leads me onto my second point. The real GMAT exam and the GMAT Prep Software contain more difficult questions than the OG books. I only realised this 2 and a half weeks before my exam, when I took the mock prep exam and found it noticeably more difficult than any questions in the OG. This was a bit of an "Oh crap" moment for me, and I did not even finish my first mock exam, quitting out of frustration. However I found a useful document from www.beatthegmat.com which provided a large sample of numerical questions used on the GMAT prep test with suggested workings (link here - couldn't find the original source on the forum). I studied the approach adopted on the questions I struggled with (DS), and slowly but surely began learning how the GMAT was trying to test (or trick) us.

So I recommend working through the OG but bear in mind, the prep software contains noticeably more difficult questions, and accordingly is more representative of the real thing. Also run through the prep software a couple of times as different questions will pop up. I ran through Prep 1 twice and Prep 2 twice. Like many people have suggested it is probably a good idea if you sit through the Prep and treat it as a real exam, doing the AWA section and not to take any breaks. I will admit though.........despite my best intentions I did not manage this. I typically did the AWA took a break. Then did the numeracy, took a break (30 mins to one hour) then did the verbal section.

From my previous experience in Uni, I knew I had the stamina to take 3 hour exams, so deep down when the pressure was on, I knew I was not going to fade away or have a blank mind. Also in my defence, the summer has been incredibly hot, and I was unable to physically sit by my computer 3 hours straight! Nevertheless good sense dictates, sit down and treat your mock exam as the real thing. (Unless like me you know you can sit 3 hour exams and would rather just endure the pain once, rather than 3-4 times over). My scores from GMAT prep were from the 740-760 range. This gave me confidence but I was fully aware they had been achieved in a relaxed environment with ample breaks.

So in summary:

• OG books are a must. But remember the real thing contains harder questions.
• GMAT Prep Software is great preparation. Do this multiple times over.
• Using these 2 resources identify which areas you are weak in. Keep practising until you can quickly interpret what the question is asking for, the best methodology for solving and how the GMAT is trying to trick you (because its evil).

More to come in later posts........