GMAT 710 (Q50 V 37)

[umamakesh.n]

Here it goes

My Prep Strategy

Total time for preparation : 7 weeks

Background information

First, I am an engineer by profession. I thought i will do well in quants section, unfortunately that proved out to be wrong. With an engineering background, anybody can solve the 600-700 level questions with no problem. It is true that 700-800 level questions are tough, not because they require the use of multiple formulae, but because they require a twisted thinking. I realized it when i took the first powerprep exam before my preparation. I scored a 660 (i was prepared to flunk verbal because i knew verbal requires extensive preparation). It became clear to me that i had to devote considerable amount of time for quants also.

I do not have a weekly schedule to share with you guys, but i am going to explain how i attacked each section. I spent most of my time preparing for Sentence correction. However, in the final exam i think i did not perform as i expected in SC section. But, that is a different story.

General Thoughts

I cannot stress this more. i read it in one of the forums before starting my prep. "It is not important how many questions you practice. But how many questions you diligently review after answering it is important". I limit practicing questions to 1 hour and spend another 1 hour to review all the questions including the right ones. It is really important to review the right questions. A lot of time i have found better ways to solve a problem.

Sentence correction

Manhattan Gmat SC guide is a must. Whether you are a native speaker or not, you should review the concepts in MGMAT SC. Agreed, it will not teach English grammar thoroughly, but it cogently describes the common errors tested in GMAT with examples and strategy to tackle them. It took me a week to complete MGMAT. I became familiar with the concepts but not thorough. I took notes in an excel sheet in order to review them during my preparation days. You cannot get the concepts solid until you practice different questions. I used OG 11, OG 12 and OG 11 verbal review for questions. I maintained an excel sheet to track my hit rate and take notes specific to each questions. My hit rate increased from 60% to 90% , thanks to Manhattan!

Critical Reasoning

You will need Power Score CR bible to improve your accuracy. Before doing power score, i used to extrapolate or choose answers irrelevant to the question. Tip: always and always choose an answer that is supported by the stimulus. Books: OG 11 OG 12 verbal review. My hit rate improved from 70 to 90%. Also, the number of CR is lesser than SC and RC individually.

Reading Comprehension
This is one of the sections that i prepared the least. I did OG 11 and OG 12 only.
Strategy: The passages in RC are dry and uninteresting. You have to live with it. In order to focus myself, i started taking notes of important points paragraph by paragraph. Though It takes at least 5-6 mins to read a passage, it helped me stay focussed and be with the content of the passage. As the weeks progressed i reduced taking notes and ultimately i was able to read the passage actively without taking notes.
Tip: for according to the passage questions the answer will be in the passage. Also, the answer will be only a rephrase of a sentence in the passage. Always, go to the line mentioned in the question and find a suitable rephrase to that sentence. DO NOT choose answers based off your memory. Test designers design trap answers specifically for those cases. Also DO NOT assume anything outside the passage. At first, i got almost all the inference questions wrong because i went one or two levels more to infer the answer. I followed this strategy; go to the section referred by the inference question. Read 2 or 3 sentences above and below the particular section of interest. The answer should reside in those sentences.
My hit rate for RC went from 50% to 100%. It took me 7 weeks to find the right technique to attack each question.

Quants:
After Powerprep disaster, i bought all Quants book sold by Manhattan. I can vouch for number properties. Your background does not matter. our daily lives does not revolve around the number properties tested by GMAT. GMAT tests finer points in those concepts that we are familiar with but not sure of.

Problem Solving
Till date i am strongest in this section. I got almost all the questions right in my practice and test (except questions in MGMAT CATs, i will discuss this later). Though, i was not good with the timing for 700-800 questions, after practicing OG 11 OG 12 mgmat books and CATs i was in good shape.
Refresh all concepts, i paid extra attention to geometry, combinatronics and special word problems. It helped me solve some tough ones in real exam.

Data Sufficiency
I started off with Princeton review for data sufficiency. Their AD-BCE approach if not the best was adequate to solve all the problems. DS tested my nerves and at times made me feel ashamed of myself. It happens a lot with tough questions. But thats ok! remember the GMAT guys want you to make a mistake. Only practice and variety of problems will help you identify the trap. I used OG 11, OG 12 and MGMAT books for this section.

AWA
i just went through the topics and wrote essays in all the tests and i think that should be enough.

CAT tests
OMG! its been 4 years since i wrote a full length test. How much ever preparation you do, it is really important to have your mind straight during the last 1 hour of your test. Unfortunately, those GMAT people chose the right section, verbal, to be the last section. Without sufficient practice exams, one will find it tough to get a good score regardless of preparation. I took an exam almost every 5th day. During the first few tests, i skipped the AWA section, but later i started doing those also. It is real important to review wrong and right answers after test. it would take atleast 5 hours ( 3.5 hrs test and 1 hour for review) for a test . Following are my practice test scores

powerprep I - 660
MGMAT CAT 1 - 620
MGMAT CAT 2 - 680
MGMAT CAT 3 - 670
MGMAT CAT 4 - 710
MGMAT CAT 5 - 720
MGMAT CAT 6 - 740
GmatPrep I - 700
GmatPrep II - 710
GMatPrep I - Retake - 760
GMatPrep II - Retake - 740

Manhattan Math questions are a nightmare. I was sweating after section 1 of CAT 1. After seeing the score i almost gave up. Finally, i found that GMATprep math is not as tough as Manhatattan math. After few rounds of mgmat cat i was in good shape with quant section. Verbal was ok till CAT 3, after that i got RC strategy to work, CR was improving and was doing full steam with SC. I think the reason my retake scores are high is repeat questions even though i spent 1.5 minutes in each.

GMAT test day.
I took exams on four consecutive days before the exam. Since my test was at 8 AM and as i am not a morning person, i tried to take all exams at 8. That really helped me to stay focussed and think straight. I took snacks in between the breaks and did some stretches. Also, during the breaks, think about the section that you are going to attempt. Do some problems in the mind and try to get into that mindset. I did this during my practice test as well. As for my Gmat performance i think i could have got a 730. Even after practicing 4 hour exams i had a meltdown during 32nd question in verbal. I tried coming out of it by focusing and doing some breathing patterns. But that took a toll in my score. It took some precious minutes needed for the last few questions. May be i was too tired after all those practice exams or i wanted to get over it soon. I do not want to go into further discussion as things are not going to change. One thing was sure, questions were tougher than GMatprep and there were some math questions equivalent to Manhattan's. So prepare well!

Final notes:

I used testmagic forums, beatthegmat, MGMAT forums and gmatclub for a lot of questions and followed a lot of discussions. A wealth of information is out there, make good use of it.

I have to thank Stacey Koprince (MGMAT), Ron Purewal (MGMAT), 800Bob, Erin for all their contributions to questions and hats off to their explanations for SC.

I am still waiting for my AWA score and will post it once i get it.

Disclaimer: Sorry guys, i did not have the patience to read through this long debrief (never written on this long, may be my first blog) for grammar and spelling mistakes. Please bear with me. I would be happy to take any questions regarding my gmat preparation.

Good Luck! Happy GMATing

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!

One question: did you fin the math questions much more difficult than MGMAT?

I do not know if the exam is harder now than 2 years ago...

[umamakesh.n]

Well questions are not tougher than MGMAT CAT. Some were on par with mgmat cat, i.e it took more than 2.5 minutes to solve them. but, for sure most questions in real gmat were tougher than gmat prep.

-Uma