Preparation:
G-Day:
Bachelors in EE in India (BITS, Pilani), Masters in Comp Engg in the US and 3.5 years work experience in microprocessor design in one of the well known semiconductor companies in the Bay Area.
Preparation
Two years ago, I wanted to give the GMAT and started studying vaguely. Tried to improve my verbal but without much success. My diagnostic was 690 and my PP practice tests were 710 and 730. Most importantly I had no confidence in the scores and felt that on a bad day I could end up with a 690 or so. I just gave it up at that time as I did not have any immediate requirement to give the GMAT.
Recently, I had a quite period at work and finally decided to take another stab at the GMAT. This time I had an invaluable resource that I did not have the first time, the forums. I would attribute a 30-40 point jump to the forums and most importantly it ensured the consistency I was so lacking the first time.
Diagnostics: First off, I took the diagnostics. The Kaplan and Princeton ones online. I found that my quant was pretty strong and identified that I was rusty in P&C in quant. Verbal was definitely weaker and I felt very uncomfortable with SC's and RC's especially. CR's seems much easier. These were my diagnostic scores.
Week Test Q NumberWrong V NumberWrong (SC/RC/CR) Score
1 Princeton Diagnostic 48 2 39 7(2,4,1) 730
3 Kaplan Diagnostic 47 2 40 9 (6/2/1) 720
Weeks 1 and 2 were spent mostly in trying to identify resources, scrouge the forums, read a few Just Finished the test posts and formulated general strategy for preparation. From the third week onwards I started full scale preparation. It involved atleast 2 hours every night and 5-6 hours every weekend day. First I concentrated on SC and P&C.
P&C: I had done similar problems a long time back, so I knew I could start doing them well. I just needed practice. For this purpose the Math forum is excellent. I started solving questions from there and over time gained immense confidence. Doing problems like counting number of words that can be formed by rearranging letters of a word (and variations like vowels need to be together) strengthens the basics tremendously. After you start understanding the basic concepts the rest follow pretty intiutively. I was never weak in probability but I still did some for practice.
Other math: I found that I was strong in geometry, algebra, measurements, work problems etc and relied on the practice tests for practice on these. One method to find interesting problems is to sort the math forum by number of replies. The hardest and trickiest problems in the archives show up on top. I found that I was making mistakes in number theory and then fixed that by substituing [-2,-1,-0.5,0,0.5,1,2]. I never relied on backsolving, plugging in answers etc since I could solve the problem by multiple ways and doing so increased my confidence on the correctness of the solution. I typically found that I never made too many careless mistakes since I solved each problem in atleast 2 different methods. This practice helped me blaze through questions in the real test when I had time pressure with relatively good confidence on the solution. Surprisingly, I never made silly mistakes in conversion etc since I was always on the lookout for the tricks.
Sentence correction: Here comes the biggest focus in my entire preparation. I knew that I had to master this section if I wanted to get the 99 percentile range. There is simply no way to crack the GMAT by having a glaring weakness in one of the sections. I knew that the SC questions showed up a lot in the earlier questions in verbal and would be key in determining my range. I started by reading Grammar Smart by Princeton. Believe it or not, when I started my preperation I did not know what an adverb was. I meticulously did all the exercises and slowly the difference between a participle, gerund, infinitve, subordinating conjunction and independent clause dawned on me. Though these concepts are not tested in the GMAT it is imprtant to understand what each means when the OG talks about them in the solutions. Also, in general it increases your confidence on sentence structures and subconciously helps you identify mistakes faster.
The next step was to start from the oldest posts in sentencecorrection.com and work my way backwards in the archives. Here is where I gained the most in terms of what is being tested on the GMAT. For example, here is where I learnt when to use "that" and when to use "which", what is the difference between "like" and "as", when can "one" take a plural verb, when is "each" singular and when is it plural. These are all subtle concepts that you will be definitely tested on if you are above the 85 percentile. Make no mistake. This process is long, painful and a very hard route. But as far as I can see this is the surest way to crack this section. I did about 500 questions, before I started seeing repetitions and my ROI was much lower and I stopped. If you are focussed you can do 50 posts a day and you can get this done in 10 days. Does not seem very unreasonable, does it? The key here is not to move on if you got the question right. It is to read explanations written by various people and understand the concepts.
Reading Comprehension: Surprisingly, I got 7 RC questions out of the first 10 questions in the real test. Q 2-5(business) and Q7-10(native American) were RC's and I cracked both. This was where I probably lifted my level even though I had missed the second question. This section looks to be increasingly important nowadays. When I started prep I was very weak on this one too. I used to skim the passage not understand it well, look at it with hatred and muffed up the questions.
Then I changed my attitude. I started to read the RC's with relish. I looked forward to reading RC's as a way to improve my knowledge on different subjects. I started taking an active and curious interest in the passage. Consider the caffeine example in the OG. As soon as I see the passage, I tell myself that it is a good way to understand why people are addicted to caffeine and how does it really stimulate the body. As I keep reading I get excited by the information the passages and by the time I an done I have a clear picture of the passage. This improved my RC hit rate and timing tremendously. For most questions I did not have to go back to the passage and I could easily sense the answer. Maintaining scope is very important in RC's and you cannot add your views on top of what the author says. It is good to do about 20 passages from the OG. Once I understood the concepts I did not have to spend much time preparing for the RC's.
Critical Reasoning: I never had much trouble with this from the begining. Basic strategies like reading the stem first work here. If you practice from the OG and if you fell comfortable you are good to go. It is important to have a clear mind for this section. One thing I found useful was to make an answer grid and score out choices that are totally out of scope. This helped me prevents re-reading the choices just to be "sure" after you find the right choice. This saves a lot of time. In the real exam I did not have time to read all choices in many questions and relied on my mental map of what should be the right choice. You can try to make similar mental maps.
Practice Tests: As I kept preparing, I took the practice tests though I never cared much about the scores except for the powerprep ones. The practice tests are only good for stimulating a 4 hour mental marathon. None, except the PP mimic the GMAT. I would recommend not trying to estimate your final score based on the practice tests and focus on concepts you missed in the tests. Here are my practice test scores.
Week Test Q NumberWrong V NumberWrong (SC/RC/CR) Score
4 PP1(before OG) 51 0 42 7(2/3/2) 770
5 Kaplan1 50 3 37 12 670
6 Peterson1 50 3 57 7(2/3/2) 790
6 Kaplan2 50 3 36 12(2/5/5) 650
7 Kaplan3 50 1 35 13 650
7 Peterson2 50 3 39 7 690
8 PP2(after OG) 51 0 45 3(2/1/0) 780
Kaplan: Excellent for math. Terrible for verbal. I sleepwalked the verbal sections
Peterson: Math was good again though had some wrong answers. Verbal is OK for practice.
PP: Math is much easier than real test. Verbal is pretty similar to real test. After PP1 I felt pretty good. After PP2 I did not feel so confident as I was not solving most of the questions as I remembered them. Still it was good to get a feel of the real test just before the test. Another good thing is that the lack of confidence in the verbal just before the test, kills even the smallest overconfidence you might have!
Preparation Material:
- Forums are the best for Math and SC
- OG is best for RC and CR.
- Kaplan is good for math
- I cannot stress the importance of OG enough. I recommend doing the OG in the last 2-3 weeks if you are already scoring well. You remember the last material the best. lf you are not doing that great, you may want to do the OG in the very early stages once and do it again towards the end.
Some random notes
- You will do yourself a favor if you do not underestimate the psychological nature of the test. It is more of a mental marathon than anything.
- Use a practice answer grid and keep reviewing the questions you made mistakes on (especially in the OG). Staple all the sheets so you do not lose them.
- If you burn yourself out with overpreparation you will not peak at the right time.
- There is NO shortcut to the GMAT. You have to practice, practice and practice your weak points. Learning the concepts rather than shortcut strategies is the best way for a 700 plus score. Over time these concepts are embedded in your mind and this is very important when racing through the sections. If your aim is less than 650 the basic books like Kaplan, Princeton may be good enough.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Ursula- 760 (Q49, V46)
Preparation
G-Day
Profile
Female, age 46. First attempt at GMAT – had never even heard of it until 3 months ago. First language German, but have worked in English and French for over 20 years (living in Montreal). Bachelor of Fine Arts (1979), M.Math. in Computer Science (1982). Last academic exam of any kind was 22 years ago…
Prep materials & schedule
After deciding in January that I wanted to return to school for an MBA, initial research on the web suggested I should give myself 2-3 months to prepare for the GMAT, particularly since I’d been out of school for “a while” (yeah, right…).
I read various reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, then ordered:
[*]Kaplan GRE & GMAT Math Review Third edition[*]Kaplan GMAT 2004 edition with CD-ROM[*]Official Guide 10th edition[/list]Towards the end of my prep I added deltacourse.com for additional background on combinatorics and probability (not covered in Kaplan Math book).
After I had researched and ordered prep materials, I decided on my strategy, and set up a detailed study schedule. I figured that my main weaknesses would be very rusty math in general, data sufficiency problems (had never seen this format before), speed/time management, and exam psychology (handling the pressure, building up stamina to focus for 4 hours). My total prep, ignoring a 1-week break due to an urgent consulting project, worked out to 8 weeks, averaging 2 hours on weekdays, and 10 hours over the weekend = total of approx. 20-25 hours per week = 160-200 hours.
My overall strategy was to focus exclusively on math for the first four weeks, then work on math along with verbal for the second four weeks. I worked through all of KapMath (every single problem) in those first four weeks, and also did all the PS and DS practice sets in PowerPrep. Another part of my strategy was to complete all the Kaplan materials in the first 5-6 weeks, while also starting to introduce OG and PP practice sets in week 3. This allowed me for the last 2-3 weeks to work only with OG and PP, which are definitely closest to the real thing. To build up speed and stamina, I did all PP practice sets and all OG problems under timed conditions. I also did both PP CATs, and 3 of the 4 Kaplan CATs (see below for scores). I decided to forget about doing the 4th Kaplan CAT because I was getting close to G-day, and didn’t want to risk undermining my confidence, so I finished on a high note with PP CAT2.
Getting the most out of OG
In OG, I did 100% of PS and DS problems, about 50% of CR, 80% of SC, and 30% of RC. In all sections, I did all the problem sets that are included in PowerPrep. I found that those are a good way to practice on the computer screen, which feels a bit different than reading problems in a book. Note that the practice sets are EXACTLY the same as the early questions in each section of OG (for example, the first 96 problem solving questions from OG are the ones that appear in the six PS practice sets in PowerPrep), so I skipped the early questions in each section when doing OG. The practice sets are not timed, but I just noted my start time on my scratch paper to get used to proper pacing.
To get the most out of OG, I made myself a standard answer sheet with 40 rows for a batch of 40 questions. The sheet had these columns:
In the Time column I wrote down the starting time on every 10th question, and the end time on the last question. For the Question #, I had preprinted 1-40, and then just wrote in the first actual # for that batch (e.g. 1 = 261). I recorded my answers in the A-E columns, and used the next two columns to track my reaction while I was doing a problem. For any problem where I felt it took me a long time, I marked an X in the “Slow” column – sometimes an “XX” if it was really bad. Similarly, while I was working through problems, I used the “Unsure” column to keep track of any questions where I wasn’t 100% sure of my answer, or where I ended up guessing. This allowed me later on to include those questions in a second review, even if I had been lucky enough to answer them correctly the first time.
I would always try to work through a complete set of 40 problems in one 80-minute session, just to build up my stamina and focus. I didn’t mix up problem types – I simply did 40 DS, or 40 PS, or 40 SC etc. After answering a complete set, I used the “Correct” and “Wrong” columns to score myself. Unfortunately OG doesn’t contain an answer grid, so the correct answer is embedded in the explanation. But I tried NOT to read the explanation at first, and just to find whether I had answered correctly. On any question I got wrong, I would then immediately try to solve it a second time. You learn a lot more by figuring something out yourself than by reading the solution. Only after I had completed the initial scoring and second attempt for wrong questions, I would then go through the explanations – for ALL questions, regardless of whether I got them right or wrong.
That’s also when I used the last two columns in my grid for any questions that I had wrong on the first attempt. I would put an X under “Careless error” if I got a wrong answer due to sloppy math, or careless reading of a question or answer. I would put an X under “Concept error” if there was something more fundamental about the problem that I didn’t understand or hadn’t noticed. All this nitpicking analysis turned out to be extremely helpful. I realized that more than 50% of my mistakes were in the “Careless error” category. I also found that there were very few problems that I couldn’t solve correctly on a second try, i.e. before reading the solution.
I kept all of my answer sheets in a binder, and in my final week of prep just focused on my problem questions (any that I had marked as wrong, slow, or unsure).
Scores (in chronological order)
G-day
The day before G-day I just took the day off – no studying of any kind. I got my stuff organized, went for a walk, read, had a nice supper, watched some mindless TV (American Idol – made me realize that I’d much rather write the GMAT than have to sing in front of millions of people!), then went to bed early.
I had visited the test center the week before, so I was not stressed about finding it, parking, locations of washrooms etc. My appointment was at 9am, and I got there at 8. After the formalities, they let me start immediately. And since I was one of the first 3 people there, I got a workstation at the far end of the room – nice, no traffic! I put in my earplugs and went to work. I had done my last practice CAT using earplugs, just to get used to the feel. It’s a bit weird to be typing without hearing your keys click, so it’s good to try it before G-day. But for me earplugs were definitely good, since I have trouble concentrating when there is noise.
I was happy to get the Analysis of Argument question first – in my practice CATs I’ve always found that one easier than the “blank page” of the issue question. But the issue question wasn’t too bad either, and I got through both with no problem. I did not use a template of any kind, but just followed the Kaplan advice on taking 8 full minutes to read and digest the question, think about it, and make an outline, and not to get overambitious (get in, make three points in a coherent manner, get out). Other than reading the Kaplan strategies, the only prep I had done for AWA was to put in a serious effort on the AWA sections in each of my practice CATs. I didn’t even look at the list of topics beforehand. I’m pretty confident I should score in the 5 – 6 range, but will post my score when I get it.
The Quant section was pretty much what I expected from OG. Slanted towards the more difficult end of the OG spectrum, but nothing totally unexpected. I was a bit surprised about the number of DS questions - I would guess about 50%, compared to the 33% suggested by Kaplan. Questions covered a pretty broad range – arithmetic, algebra, word problems (surprisingly no work or mixture problems), geometry, coordinate geometry, number properties, and 3 or 4 combination and probability questions. Those were pretty simple – positively benign compared to the stuff that vreddy posts in the PS forum
. Nothing on standard deviation, but a couple of questions involving mean and median – simple concepts, but with slightly tricky packaging (one in DS format).
Altogether I ended up having to use process of elimination with 50/50 guessing on two questions, and gave up on one geometry question after a couple of minutes of headbanging – the approach just didn’t come to me. Even though I knew I could probably figure it out eventually, this was around question 17, and I just guessed and moved on. My overall timing strategy worked out very well, and I solved the last question with about 10 seconds to spare. If I had wasted time on that geometry question, I wouldn’t have made it to the end. My basic strategy was to divide the 75 minutes into 3 blocks, and try to stick to completing 1/3 of the total questions in each time block, i.e. at the end of question 12 to have at least 50 minutes left on the clock, and at the end of question 24 to have at least 25 minutes left. I felt that difficulty increased during the early part of the test, but it hit a plateau around the half-way mark. In fact, some of the later questions were easier, so I’m glad I had enough time to do them.
After I got through the Quant I was a bit more relaxed. I started off with some SC and CR, and quite quickly was hit with the first RC passage (about 40 lines). And then I immediately got a second RC passage (about 75 lines – one of those dreaded science passages half written in Latin). Fortunately I had read about the possibility of back-to-back RC passages in one of the posts on this forum, so I just focused on the task at hand, and figured I’d catch up later on my overall timing. I used a similar overall timing strategy (1/3 of questions every 25 minutes, i.e. after Q 14 have 50 minutes left, after Q 28 have 25 minutes left). For the verbal you need to be a bit more flexible, though, depending on where the RC passages pop up. So after Q14 I was about 3 minutes behind, but with 2 RC passages out of the way I was actually in good shape. Then I got all SC and RC for a while, until another RC (social science) around Q26 or 27. By this time I was getting a bit tired, but I just told myself that I was in the home stretch. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and took some deep breaths, then attacked the passage making detailed notes to force myself to focus. It was definitely important, since there were 4 or 5 questions linked to that 3rd passage. Then some more SC and CR. I was just starting to think I was home free, when I hit question 38, and a fourth RC passage popped up! Fortunately I had enough time left to tackle it and answer the 3 questions, but I really had to grind it out at this point. The final question was a convoluted CR, where even with 3 minutes left on the clock, in the end I had to make a 50/50 guess.
Conclusions
1) PowerPoint CAT (before OG) is the best predictor of actual GMAT score
2) Kaplan is good for strategy and math review, but ignore their CAT scores. The CATs and specific practice tests (e.g. just DS practice test) are hard, but they helped me. Somebody in an Amazon review had mentioned that using the Kaplan tests is like an athlete training at altitude - it makes the real thing feel easier. Just stay away from Kaplan tests in the last couple of weeks before G-day, so you don't undermine your confidence.
3) OG is great, but you need to really work with it, not just read the solutions.
4) Speed, timing, and stamina are critical. All of these can only be acquired with practice.
5) I cannot overstress the importance of confidence, and remaining calm. The absolute worst thing you can do is to panic during the test. I have analyzed a lot of the forum posts from people who did less well than they had expected, and the most common cause is a psychological meltdown during or after the Quant section.
6) I had read that high scorers typically approach the GMAT as a challenge, or as an opportunity to "show their stuff", instead of viewing it as a scary hurdle that's trying to keep them out of B-school. Also, I had read that most people who make a second attempt improve their score, often by about 50 points. Anecdotal evidence suggests that much of the improvement is not due to additional prep, but simply less anxiety because of familiarity with the test format and environment.
7) In my prep, I focused a lot on building up my confidence with the goal of reaching my potential score on the first attempt. My 750 score on PP1 certainly encouraged me to believe that I could do very well (once I found out that I should just ignore the Kaplan scores!), but I would not have been able to pull off that same performance on G-day without the prep.
8) After visiting the test center the week before G-day, I did a few minutes of visualization each day - just closed my eyes and saw myself sitting at the workstation, doing well, moving confidently through each section, relaxing during breaks, finally answering that yes, I did want to see my score, and then seeing a 750 pop up on the screen. And on G-day, that's almost exactly how it went down, except that the 750 turned into a 760
G-Day
Profile
Female, age 46. First attempt at GMAT – had never even heard of it until 3 months ago. First language German, but have worked in English and French for over 20 years (living in Montreal). Bachelor of Fine Arts (1979), M.Math. in Computer Science (1982). Last academic exam of any kind was 22 years ago…
Prep materials & schedule
After deciding in January that I wanted to return to school for an MBA, initial research on the web suggested I should give myself 2-3 months to prepare for the GMAT, particularly since I’d been out of school for “a while” (yeah, right…).
I read various reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, then ordered:
[*]Kaplan GRE & GMAT Math Review Third edition[*]Kaplan GMAT 2004 edition with CD-ROM[*]Official Guide 10th edition[/list]Towards the end of my prep I added deltacourse.com for additional background on combinatorics and probability (not covered in Kaplan Math book).
After I had researched and ordered prep materials, I decided on my strategy, and set up a detailed study schedule. I figured that my main weaknesses would be very rusty math in general, data sufficiency problems (had never seen this format before), speed/time management, and exam psychology (handling the pressure, building up stamina to focus for 4 hours). My total prep, ignoring a 1-week break due to an urgent consulting project, worked out to 8 weeks, averaging 2 hours on weekdays, and 10 hours over the weekend = total of approx. 20-25 hours per week = 160-200 hours.
My overall strategy was to focus exclusively on math for the first four weeks, then work on math along with verbal for the second four weeks. I worked through all of KapMath (every single problem) in those first four weeks, and also did all the PS and DS practice sets in PowerPrep. Another part of my strategy was to complete all the Kaplan materials in the first 5-6 weeks, while also starting to introduce OG and PP practice sets in week 3. This allowed me for the last 2-3 weeks to work only with OG and PP, which are definitely closest to the real thing. To build up speed and stamina, I did all PP practice sets and all OG problems under timed conditions. I also did both PP CATs, and 3 of the 4 Kaplan CATs (see below for scores). I decided to forget about doing the 4th Kaplan CAT because I was getting close to G-day, and didn’t want to risk undermining my confidence, so I finished on a high note with PP CAT2.
Getting the most out of OG
In OG, I did 100% of PS and DS problems, about 50% of CR, 80% of SC, and 30% of RC. In all sections, I did all the problem sets that are included in PowerPrep. I found that those are a good way to practice on the computer screen, which feels a bit different than reading problems in a book. Note that the practice sets are EXACTLY the same as the early questions in each section of OG (for example, the first 96 problem solving questions from OG are the ones that appear in the six PS practice sets in PowerPrep), so I skipped the early questions in each section when doing OG. The practice sets are not timed, but I just noted my start time on my scratch paper to get used to proper pacing.
To get the most out of OG, I made myself a standard answer sheet with 40 rows for a batch of 40 questions. The sheet had these columns:
Time
Question #
A
B
C
D
E
Slow
Unsure
Correct
Wrong
Careless error
Concept error
Question #
A
B
C
D
E
Slow
Unsure
Correct
Wrong
Careless error
Concept error
In the Time column I wrote down the starting time on every 10th question, and the end time on the last question. For the Question #, I had preprinted 1-40, and then just wrote in the first actual # for that batch (e.g. 1 = 261). I recorded my answers in the A-E columns, and used the next two columns to track my reaction while I was doing a problem. For any problem where I felt it took me a long time, I marked an X in the “Slow” column – sometimes an “XX” if it was really bad. Similarly, while I was working through problems, I used the “Unsure” column to keep track of any questions where I wasn’t 100% sure of my answer, or where I ended up guessing. This allowed me later on to include those questions in a second review, even if I had been lucky enough to answer them correctly the first time.
I would always try to work through a complete set of 40 problems in one 80-minute session, just to build up my stamina and focus. I didn’t mix up problem types – I simply did 40 DS, or 40 PS, or 40 SC etc. After answering a complete set, I used the “Correct” and “Wrong” columns to score myself. Unfortunately OG doesn’t contain an answer grid, so the correct answer is embedded in the explanation. But I tried NOT to read the explanation at first, and just to find whether I had answered correctly. On any question I got wrong, I would then immediately try to solve it a second time. You learn a lot more by figuring something out yourself than by reading the solution. Only after I had completed the initial scoring and second attempt for wrong questions, I would then go through the explanations – for ALL questions, regardless of whether I got them right or wrong.
That’s also when I used the last two columns in my grid for any questions that I had wrong on the first attempt. I would put an X under “Careless error” if I got a wrong answer due to sloppy math, or careless reading of a question or answer. I would put an X under “Concept error” if there was something more fundamental about the problem that I didn’t understand or hadn’t noticed. All this nitpicking analysis turned out to be extremely helpful. I realized that more than 50% of my mistakes were in the “Careless error” category. I also found that there were very few problems that I couldn’t solve correctly on a second try, i.e. before reading the solution.
I kept all of my answer sheets in a binder, and in my final week of prep just focused on my problem questions (any that I had marked as wrong, slow, or unsure).
Scores (in chronological order)
Code:
Kaplan Diag. 630 Q39 V39 week 1
PowerPrep CAT1 750 Q47 V47 week 2 (before touching OG)
Kaplan CAT1 640 Q38 V38 week 4
Kaplan CAT2 650 Q37 V40 week 5
Kaplan CAT3 640 Q36 V40 week 6
PowerPrep CAT2 770 Q50 V47 week 8 (after OG)
Real GMAT 760 Q49 V46 week 9
The day before G-day I just took the day off – no studying of any kind. I got my stuff organized, went for a walk, read, had a nice supper, watched some mindless TV (American Idol – made me realize that I’d much rather write the GMAT than have to sing in front of millions of people!), then went to bed early.
I had visited the test center the week before, so I was not stressed about finding it, parking, locations of washrooms etc. My appointment was at 9am, and I got there at 8. After the formalities, they let me start immediately. And since I was one of the first 3 people there, I got a workstation at the far end of the room – nice, no traffic! I put in my earplugs and went to work. I had done my last practice CAT using earplugs, just to get used to the feel. It’s a bit weird to be typing without hearing your keys click, so it’s good to try it before G-day. But for me earplugs were definitely good, since I have trouble concentrating when there is noise.
I was happy to get the Analysis of Argument question first – in my practice CATs I’ve always found that one easier than the “blank page” of the issue question. But the issue question wasn’t too bad either, and I got through both with no problem. I did not use a template of any kind, but just followed the Kaplan advice on taking 8 full minutes to read and digest the question, think about it, and make an outline, and not to get overambitious (get in, make three points in a coherent manner, get out). Other than reading the Kaplan strategies, the only prep I had done for AWA was to put in a serious effort on the AWA sections in each of my practice CATs. I didn’t even look at the list of topics beforehand. I’m pretty confident I should score in the 5 – 6 range, but will post my score when I get it.
The Quant section was pretty much what I expected from OG. Slanted towards the more difficult end of the OG spectrum, but nothing totally unexpected. I was a bit surprised about the number of DS questions - I would guess about 50%, compared to the 33% suggested by Kaplan. Questions covered a pretty broad range – arithmetic, algebra, word problems (surprisingly no work or mixture problems), geometry, coordinate geometry, number properties, and 3 or 4 combination and probability questions. Those were pretty simple – positively benign compared to the stuff that vreddy posts in the PS forum
. Nothing on standard deviation, but a couple of questions involving mean and median – simple concepts, but with slightly tricky packaging (one in DS format).Altogether I ended up having to use process of elimination with 50/50 guessing on two questions, and gave up on one geometry question after a couple of minutes of headbanging – the approach just didn’t come to me. Even though I knew I could probably figure it out eventually, this was around question 17, and I just guessed and moved on. My overall timing strategy worked out very well, and I solved the last question with about 10 seconds to spare. If I had wasted time on that geometry question, I wouldn’t have made it to the end. My basic strategy was to divide the 75 minutes into 3 blocks, and try to stick to completing 1/3 of the total questions in each time block, i.e. at the end of question 12 to have at least 50 minutes left on the clock, and at the end of question 24 to have at least 25 minutes left. I felt that difficulty increased during the early part of the test, but it hit a plateau around the half-way mark. In fact, some of the later questions were easier, so I’m glad I had enough time to do them.
After I got through the Quant I was a bit more relaxed. I started off with some SC and CR, and quite quickly was hit with the first RC passage (about 40 lines). And then I immediately got a second RC passage (about 75 lines – one of those dreaded science passages half written in Latin). Fortunately I had read about the possibility of back-to-back RC passages in one of the posts on this forum, so I just focused on the task at hand, and figured I’d catch up later on my overall timing. I used a similar overall timing strategy (1/3 of questions every 25 minutes, i.e. after Q 14 have 50 minutes left, after Q 28 have 25 minutes left). For the verbal you need to be a bit more flexible, though, depending on where the RC passages pop up. So after Q14 I was about 3 minutes behind, but with 2 RC passages out of the way I was actually in good shape. Then I got all SC and RC for a while, until another RC (social science) around Q26 or 27. By this time I was getting a bit tired, but I just told myself that I was in the home stretch. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and took some deep breaths, then attacked the passage making detailed notes to force myself to focus. It was definitely important, since there were 4 or 5 questions linked to that 3rd passage. Then some more SC and CR. I was just starting to think I was home free, when I hit question 38, and a fourth RC passage popped up! Fortunately I had enough time left to tackle it and answer the 3 questions, but I really had to grind it out at this point. The final question was a convoluted CR, where even with 3 minutes left on the clock, in the end I had to make a 50/50 guess.
Conclusions
1) PowerPoint CAT (before OG) is the best predictor of actual GMAT score
2) Kaplan is good for strategy and math review, but ignore their CAT scores. The CATs and specific practice tests (e.g. just DS practice test) are hard, but they helped me. Somebody in an Amazon review had mentioned that using the Kaplan tests is like an athlete training at altitude - it makes the real thing feel easier. Just stay away from Kaplan tests in the last couple of weeks before G-day, so you don't undermine your confidence.
3) OG is great, but you need to really work with it, not just read the solutions.
4) Speed, timing, and stamina are critical. All of these can only be acquired with practice.
5) I cannot overstress the importance of confidence, and remaining calm. The absolute worst thing you can do is to panic during the test. I have analyzed a lot of the forum posts from people who did less well than they had expected, and the most common cause is a psychological meltdown during or after the Quant section.
6) I had read that high scorers typically approach the GMAT as a challenge, or as an opportunity to "show their stuff", instead of viewing it as a scary hurdle that's trying to keep them out of B-school. Also, I had read that most people who make a second attempt improve their score, often by about 50 points. Anecdotal evidence suggests that much of the improvement is not due to additional prep, but simply less anxiety because of familiarity with the test format and environment.
7) In my prep, I focused a lot on building up my confidence with the goal of reaching my potential score on the first attempt. My 750 score on PP1 certainly encouraged me to believe that I could do very well (once I found out that I should just ignore the Kaplan scores!), but I would not have been able to pull off that same performance on G-day without the prep.
8) After visiting the test center the week before G-day, I did a few minutes of visualization each day - just closed my eyes and saw myself sitting at the workstation, doing well, moving confidently through each section, relaxing during breaks, finally answering that yes, I did want to see my score, and then seeing a 750 pop up on the screen. And on G-day, that's almost exactly how it went down, except that the 750 turned into a 760
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