Took the GMAT today (11/30) @ 8AM -- 710

[sanjay.aiyar]

I took the GMAT this morning after preparing with the Manhattan GMAT classroom lesson plan. I just wanted to give everyone a summary of the experience and what worked for me.

I got a 710 (Q48,V39). This was my first and only attempt. I think it's good enough and I only have one month to write the 24 or so essays.


The test itself was not bad at all. I do have to say that (VERY luckily) I don't get the jitters or nervous before standardized tests, and that probably helps much more than you'd think. With that said, PLEASE KEEP SOME OF YOUR SANITY AND SCHEDULE TWO TEST DATES... one 31 days after (in other words, ASAP after the first one). It really helps with the stress.

*** One thing I realized was there seemed to be an overwhelmingly large number of data sufficiency problems on D Day. I honestly don't remember having that many on any of the practice exams.


If I had to give a cliff notes version of what's important, I would say the following:


- Get through the strategy guides. DO NOT think you're strong in a subject/area and skip it. There were times when I was very busy with work (or even a bit lazy) and I didn't get to the OG problems on the specified week. As long as you go through the guide chapters, you'll be ready for class. Just make up the problems ASAP.

- Time yourself with the OG problems. PERIOD.

- I thought that taking tests would be the best strategy. MGMAT warns against it. I listened. Thank goodness I did. This isn't like the SAT, MCAT, etc. It's made to be hard to finish and is adaptive, so no going back, no skipping. Worst of all the penalty for not finishing is SEVERE. Do timed OG practice problems instead and then review them. The test situations are too taxing to learn from. Remember: When taking a test you're trying to maximize your score, not learn.

- Reviewing OG problems means any problem you guessed on or weren't sure on should be considered wrong. Go through the wrong ones and redo them right then and use the solutions as hints.

- If you are short on time, do the 12 Edition OG problems on the weekly schedule. Towards the end of the course, you can use the Quant and Verbal specific guides to practice problem areas.

- USE THE SOFTWARE ON THE SITE TO RUN THE DETAILED ANALYSIS ON YOUR PRACTICE TEST. It takes 10-15 minutes to jot down your problem areas.

- One problem I had was timing. Once I got my timing down, I realized timing remained a slight issue when I would do a GMAT practice test "cold". I found myself a bit behind time-wise until I got into the groove. As such, on test day and before practice tests, WARM UP (6 quant and 6 verbal is good). In fact, do those warm up even quicker than you normally would. Speed through them to get your brain awake and not sluggish.

- I only got one critical reasoning problem that involved the bolded segments. I caught myself spending waaay too much time so I guessed as best I could and moved on. They are hard. If youre slow on these move on after 2 min.