GMAT debrief

[cutlass]

Folks,
Gave my GMAT this Saturday and got a 720 (49Q/40V). This is a bit below my practice test scores, but given that a 20-30 point drop is quite common on test-day, I am ok with the outcome. Here are my practice test scores:

Kap 640 (beginning of Apr)
MGMAT 1 - 710 (Mar 10th)
MGMAT 1 - 710 (Mar 25th)
Kap 610 (June beginning)
GMAT prep 1 - 750 (June 10th)
GMAT prep 2 - 740 (June 17th)
MGMAT 1 - 750 (June 19th)
Few GMAT prep retakes above 750

I just wanted to share a few things about the whole GMAT experience(test and prep). These are purely my opinions, so treat them accordingly:

i) Stick to reputed companies for your test prep. I am not trying to say that they have the best test prep material on earth, but atleast they care about their reputation and hence stay away from illegal practices such as exposing students to "live" questions. The folks at Manhattan promptly delete posts that don't cite the source of the question. In case you are not aware of it, GMAC just busted one such racket:

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/co ... ssed_ssi_5

In the course of your testprep,you will come across several sources on the internet that claim to provide quality questions for GMAT. Do your homework before trusting them. IMO, the retired questions in OG and GMAT prep are more than enough to expose you to the nature of questions you will encounter on GMAT.

ii) Early on in your prep make sure you get a handle on:

a) Basics of CAT - That fact that it is adaptive and that the questions are drawn from a pool containing questions of various difficulty levels etc. Note: Don't take the lovely binary tree representation of CAT,with questions starting at the 500 level and proceeding up or down, to heart. I didn't get the impression that the CAT algo. was behaving this way, both in the GMAT prep as well as GMAT tests. In fact, the first few math questions on my GMAT were pretty difficult and threw me off a bit. I can guarantee you they were not in the 500 level or even in the 600 level for that matter. So, don't try to expect the algo. to behave a certain way, and get worked up when it doesn't. A related point is the myth about acing the first 10 questions, no matter what. If hard questions come at you right in the beginning, you have to move on after spending a reasonable amount of time.

b) Scope of the topics - Especially for Q and SC. The OG gives a preview(actually a crisp discussion) of the topics in the Q and SC review section. That sets up the domain for you. I can't comment on the relative importance of the topics on Q as I didn't get a consistent picture after my GMAT prep tests and GMAT. On my 2nd GP test I got a truck load of Statistics questions, but don't recall seeing any on my GMAT. So don't pin your hopes on your strengths in certain areas; cover the topics well.

Taking the GMAT prep test can serve as a good introduction. In retrospect, I think I could've been better off, had I used the GMAT prep earlier in my prep. That is the most accurate representation of the GMAT. Don't try to conserve both the tests to the end of your prep. Work with one of them early on and get used to the nature of questions, CAT, and resources such as internet forums that are associated with it. The OG diagnostic is another good resource for this, although it is not CAT.

iii) Practice with the OG and supplement books very seriously. I did several timed sessions with OG(using the OG stopwatch in Manhattan site) and found it helpful. I just did the questions once, but I strongly recommend doing it multiple times -- esp math -- so that you become very comfortable with the questions types. If you feel that you are not comfortable in a certain area, try to bolster your fundamentals in that area and work on more problems. I had to do this for number properties, inequalities etc. BTW,the Manhattan guides covering these topics are pretty good.


iv) Manhattan GMAT tests - Several people complain about the difficulty of the Q section in the Manhattan tests. I felt the same after my first test. That is because I hadn't taken a single GMAT prep test before that :). GMAT Q is not a walk in the park. Manhattan tests you pretty good in some of the topics and I felt my confidence in Q improved quite a bit after facing the Manhattan tests. I felt that MGMAT had a greater percentage of tough questions compared to the GMAT prep tests, but to compensate for that, Manhattan's evaluation was more lenient. Bottom line, don't think about the MGMAT score, their CAT algo. etc., but instead treat the tests as a set of good quality questions that test your fundamentals. In my case, the MGMAT test scores turned out to be a pretty good indicator of my actual GMAT score, but you never know.

v) GMAT - AWA topics were pretty simple. Q started out on a slightly bumpy note, but I think I kept my cool and managed to complete it on time. Practice making calls on questions. I had 3.5 mins for the last two questions and the last but one was a paragraph long. I just glanced at it and clicked Next :). I was able to comfortably answer the last question with 45 secs in hand. Conversely, somewhere in the middle of the test I was faced with a screwy Geo problem. I was tempted to click next, but I ended up solving it after devoting some time. So, knowing your strengths helps you make such calls. V was pretty standard: tons of SC questions touching upon various rules, strengthen/weaken/assumption and one BF in CR,and four RC passages two of which were scientific. I started off a bit slow on V, and was lagging behind by ~5min till the middle of the test. I made up for it in a couple of SCs and an RC passage. So, knowing where you are timewise is very crucial. The block timing strategy ( 15min blocks with 7-8 questions in each block) worked well for me. The following are the only things I did to "game" the algo.:
a) I didn't make more than 1 guess in a particular area
b) I distributed my time fairly equally throughout the test, accelerating when needed
c) I had also prepared myself to not get upset upon not seeing a BF CR or a tough multi-line SC. I noticed that in my first GP test, I didn't get any BF CR, but still managed a 750 and frankly I think BF CRs are easier than some of those weaken questions!

The noise cancellation headphones are a big plus. I was a bit annoyed with the quality of pens. They dry up if you leave them open, which is esp a pain in the verbal section where you spend more time reading the material and use the pen only for POE. My test admin was pretty responsive and handed me pens whenever I requested for one. IMO, the GMAC can come up with a better mechanism for this. The test takers don't have to deal with even the minor of such infrastructure problems!

vi)
Useful links/resources:

http://www.gmathacks.com/ - Excellent set of essays on various GMAT topics. Must read.
http://www.sosmath.com/ - good coverage of inequalities,absolute values
owl.english.purdue.edu/ - English grammar
http://grammar.uoregon.edu/toc.html - English grammar
The Elements of Style, Strunk and White - Truly exemplary work on brevity and effectiveness. Read it for the fun of it.


Thanks to the MGMAT instructors. You are a committed lot who know the ins and outs of the subject well. Keep up the good work. I also enjoyed the community-based test prep model that the Internet has made possible. But for a full-time job, I would've participated more in the forums. I hope you find the above information useful. Enjoy your test prep and good luck for the GMAT.

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for taking the time to give everyone such a thoughtful debrief of your study and test experience. I'm sure others will find it very useful. I'm also going to move it to the "GMAT Test Day" thread so it's easier to find.

And great job on the test! Good luck with apps!