I posted a debrief of my GMAT test day on the GMATclub forum, and it's only fair to post one here as well, seeing how important the Manhattan books were in my prep.
Also, in case any of the authors of the strategy guides read this - if you're ever in Singapore, beers on me
Just a brief background - I'm a chemical engineer, male, Indian, working in Singapore. I gave the GMAT in December 2017 and got a 700. Considering I thought I had a pretty interesting profille ( having lived and worked in 4 countries in a 6 year career) I applied to Cambridge Judge after rushing through my essays. I got dinged without an interview.
To say I was crushed is an understatement. Determined to conquer the GMAT, I began again in late February, with a target test date in June. The first thing I did was order the Manhattan strategy guide.
I've always been good with verbal, so it was a question of raising my verbal from a V40-42 upto the V45 that I aimed for. Where the verbal guides were a big help was overall strategy - specifically reading comprehension. What used to be a weakness for me, turned into a strength, and I'm fairly sure that I got all 15-16 questions that I saw on the test correct. RC passages used to be a time waster, instead I started gaining time. The key is just to find a strategy that works for you, rather than the so called 'best'strategy. I would take upto 4 minutes for the first question, but breeze through the rest in 20 seconds or so.
SC was another topic where Manhattan was useful - specifically the tests. I would google the questions I got wrong, and this helped me vastly improve my Subject-verb agreement answers.
However, where I really can't give Manhattan enough credit is the quant - Wow guys, just wow. The strategy guides helped to improve my speed and understanding immeasurably. Topics that previously felt alien were suddenly understood ( shoutout to doube set matrix questions) . For those starting out I will say this - don't fall for one or the other topic being more important, but study ALL, especially when you're starting out. I was ace at Distance-speed-time questions but somehow froze completely on the exam and had to guess. I also got a similar question on the IR, and yep, guess again.
Also, just when I thought I was getting super smart and ready, the Manhattan tests would bring me back to earth
They really are difficult. My practice test scores are broken down belowMGMAT1 - 700
MGMAT2 - 660
GMATprep 1 - 770
MGMAT3 - 690
MGMAT4 - 700
GMATprep 2 - 780
GMATprep 3 - 770
MGAMT5 - 730
GMATprep4 - 770
MGMAT6 - 720
GMATPrep5 - 780
GMATprep6 - 770
I gave my test on June 26th. I was fairly confident going in, when that 770 showed up you best believe I was running laps around the test centre in excitement ( okay, I gave my test in Muscat, Oman and it was 50 degreees outside, so maybe not running ).
My point is - I did it through sheer hard work. I don't consider myself particularly intelligent, nor have I given any standardized tests before ( indian university exams don't count). I am lucky to have been brought up speaking english, but the key here was sheer brute force. I would solve 50 questions a day on weekdays, timed, and then go through the answers the same day. My job involves an insane amount of travelling, so the number of hours I spent in planes and airport lounges reviewing questions was ridiculous. I even gave a GMATprep test on a flight from Singapore to Germany
Weekends would involve 6-7 hours of study at least, with the only respite being the gym, and football if my beloved Chelsea were playing.
Just one suggestion for the Manhattan mods here - your books could do with a little more attention to the probability / combinatorics questions. I know only one or two show up per test, but that could be the difference between a Q50 and a 51
Oh, and my split was a 770 ( Q50,V46, IR7, AWA5)
Thanks again Manhattan !
Cheers,
Subir