My score was 760 - M49, V44. AWA was 5.5. I prepared for around 2.5 months.
-Orient yourself with the exam a little bit and then give the GMAT prep before you start your real prep. Do this only if your exam date is 3-4 months away as by then you would have forgotten the questions so you can safely retake it (Don't worry...all the questions won't repeat if you reinstall...I took both the exams twice). You can also take the MGMAT practice test in addition to the gmat prep exam. When giving these exams, remember to provide an answer to all questions even if you guess blindly, as o/w your scores will be skewed. This will help you understand what the exam is like and make your weaknesses apparent (math or verbal or both). you will also have some idea of how much improvement is needed.
-Attack your weaknesses first. I don't think its possible to improve your scores by a significant margin until you really learn the concepts. Your mental abilities have to move up first, which will only happen if your fundamentals are strong in the body of knowledge which is tested. You don't need a PhD in math, but in whatever limited topics are tested, you need to be extremely good with the concepts. Same with SC...without knowing the content, you will not improve. Just solving SC/math questions is a very inefficient way to learn concepts. Learn the theory of a topic, then practice it by solving ~100 problems or so. Then move on to the next topic. As there are only a finite number of topics (maybe 10 or so in math + SC), it is doable.
-Test yourself after you finish a couple of topics. Don't wait by saying that I am going to learn everything and then start tests. Thats risky. You should see your scores trend upwards, or otherwise you need to seriously rethink your strategy. Note that testing yourself is not dependent on how much time has passed. It is dependent on how much you have studied. Its pointless to test again and again without learning new stuff.
-Get a study partner who is as motivated as you are and roughly at the same level as you or slightly better. Obviously, you have to do the studying, but it helps to compare notes with people and learn from each other. It also keeps you on track.
-Just remember that the first rule of GMAT is to finish the entire section and give your best shot to every question. I do believe that initial questions count more than the later ones, but I also believe that trying to artificially jack up your scores by devoting more time to the initial questions does'nt pay off (maybe it pays off slightly for the first 8-9 questions, as in if I know I can solve a question in 40-45 seconds more I will do it...but I won't do this for every question in the first 8). If you think that you can take half an hour to finish the first 10 questions, forget about it. how do you think you will gain those 10 minutes back? Imagine you are running a marathon...you can run real fast in the beginning and get ahead of the pack...but if you are not a good runner...you will just get spent out and will fall back. so once again, the first rule is to finish the section. never ever fall so far behind during a test that you can't catch up without blind guessing. follow this from the first test that you give. Its just not allowed. period.
-Take the exam at a time when your mental abilities peak. If you are an early riser, don't give the exam in the afternoon. If you are a late riser, don't give it in the morning. Give practice exams at the same time as the real thing. I believe that these itself can make a 10-20 pt difference in your scores. your mind is stressed enough as it is...don't load it up more.
-For math (I know my math scores are not stellar, but I worked hard at it and had I not, they would have been even worse) : As I said earlier, to really improve, you have to learn the concepts and then practice. MGMAT books are a good start. Also refer to other sources that explain particular topics well and have problems available (see reference at end). Once you get the hang of a topic, do problems in timed mode (initially its ok to forget about time as you are learning a concept). after that, keep a stop watch and say that you have 2 minutes or max 2.5. Don't sit around thinking about it. Thinking when the clock is ticking is very different from thinking when there is no time constraint. you have to acknowlege the clock but not let it affect your mental processes. that skill will develop if you solve problems with a stop watch in hand (don't be cheap...buy one...it costs like 7 bucks).
-If you are taking the MGMAT class, do the labs early on. I really regret not doing the strategic speed guessing lab until the end. It really has some good techniques for guessing.
-For verbal : I think anyone can crack verbal because there are fewer skills you need to master.
--- RC : GMAT RC's are not fuzzy which is good. They may be subtle but they are not fuzzy. Fuzzy is when two reasonable people can come up with two reasonable answers. Subtle is when everyone who notices details will come up with one answer and those who don't will come up with another. Conversely, if you are answering wrong, or you are not sure of the answer, it is because you are probably not noticing details. Practice RC's in a timed mode until you get the hang of comprehending every tiny nuance of language. When reading, do so with the aim of understanding the broad point the author is making as well as the details he is giving to support that point. Actively focus on this goal and this habit will help you. Go through the MGMAT RC book and make a list of strategies that are helpful to you (this will depend from person to person). Follow these strategies from day one.
--- SC : MGMAT SC book is all you need for the content. It will give you a solid foundation. You should know every concept in that book by heart. You should understand the implications of every rule they describe. Top this off by practicing the OG guides multiple times and may be also portions of some of the other online resources.
--- CR : CR is mostly about practice. There are very few concepts to learn. Noting details helps a lot here as well. Make a list of strategies and solve a few hundred problems and you will be well on your way.
- My general take is that GMAT is definitely beatable. You just need to stay organized and focused and you will get a respectable score. Don't lose hope even if your first scores are low. Have a target score in mind and slog it out. The target score should be a function of (time available, other strengths/weaknesses). Of course there is an upper bound on the score you can get (I just can't get a 51 in math without considerable investment of time), but this upper bound is sufficiently high for all people....your capacity is more than you think. Good luck! hope to see you in Bschool.
- For those who can't finish a section in time, here is a tactic that helped me.
-- I draw a table before starting a section. This table will tell me how far behind I am.
After each set of 8 questions, I will fill in a row in the third/fourth columns. The calculation is simple TimeAvailableForNextSet = ActualTimeRemaining - TargetForTimeRemaining.
I only do this after every 8 questions, so it does'nt waste more than 20-25 seconds during the exam. But it keeps me on track. You can use this in verbal too...the third column is optional...experiment with this and it will help you stay on track.
Materials used:
I used the following resources
- MGMAT math books (all except FDP)
- For algebra - http://www.purplemath.com/
- For algebra - http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu
- Select topics from "Quantitative aptitude for MBA examinations" by Abhijit Guha -- This is an indian author so may not be easy for all to get, but its a pretty good book with lots of problems. It really helped me in Prob/Perm/Comb. available at http://shopping.sify.com/shopping/book_detail.php?prodid=13916960&cid=4805
- MGMAT SC
- MGMAT some of the math books
- misc online problem sets for SC and CR
- OG (orange book, purple book, green book)
- www.gmatclub.com -- they have a good collection of timed sections which cost 80 bucks for 25 math and 5 verbal sections. The math sections are slightly tougher than the real thing even though they are non adaptive (I would say their questions are 700 level).
- 800score awa guide
