GMAT Score 740 (50Q, 40V, 5.0AWA)

[Ryancbrueckner]

I posted this in response to someones question, but I thought I would share on the Course Feedback section as a thank you to MGMAT.

Let me just say that from what I have been told, my experience and approach was a-typical.

I was enrolled in the 9-week online course, but I didn't really do the homework and only logged in the first few sessions. That was in February. I decided I was going to spend 25-30 hours a week studying for a month. I began the last week of September, and to motivate myself, scheduled the GMAT test (anytime I dish out money, I want to make it count) for October 26.

I went straight through the Study Organizer, week by week. I didn't do each line item in order, but I did complete each week before moving on to the next. This included going through the class recordings and doing the labs. Some are more helpful than others. By week 6 I was feeling pretty strong and I included the "Advanced" questions. The final week of prep, I took all three Quest for 750 workshops. The Sentence Correction Quest workshop was excellent, and I think I learned some great strategies that I employed on the test. It was a good supplement to my study regime. The Advanced Quant and Data Sufficiency Quest workshops would have been great if I hadn't already taken the 9 week course (sorry MGMAT). I didn't think they were as useful as the Sentence Correction workshop, but that may have been because I was stronger in the Quant section as it stood.

I spent no more time than the class and the lab forced me to on the essays. My plan was not to let myself "care" about the essays because I felt like I could get a 5 without any focus on them. Plus, I keep hearing they don't matter.

My CAT exam scores were: 690, 660, 670, 690. Many people say they score better on the CAT exams, but for me, I didn't "care" enough on the practice tests. Call me Alan Iverson, but "practice?...we talkin' bout practice, man... practice". I thought the CAT exams were helpful only to get used to the timing and duration of the test.

I worked on timing on the OG problems and I think I got more out of that. BEST ADVICE: DO NOT JUST ANSWER OG QUESTIONS UNDER NON-TIMED CIRCUMSTANCES - ONLY ALLOW YOURSELF 2-3 MINUTES MAX ON EACH ONE. ALSO, DO NOT JUST SEE IF YOU GOT THE RIGHT ANSWER - SPEND MORE TIME GOING THROUGH THE ANSWERS THAN YOU DID ON TRYING TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. Why were the wrong answers wrong? How did the book derive the right answer? If they derived it in multiple ways, do you understand each?

I have played competitive sports my entire life. I have always been a good test taker. When it was no longer practice and it was "for real", I showed up to the dance. The two things that I focused on: KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE THE ENTIRE TIME WITHOUT TRYING TO "SCORE" YOUR TEST AS YOU GO AND MAINTAIN YOUR TIMING. Timing is what killed my scores on the CAT exams. I would regularly have 3 minutes for the last 7 questions. Well, that just killed your score.

I finished the Quant section with 5 mins to spare and finished the Verbal section right on time. My score:

740 (50 Quant, 40 Verbal).

BOOM!!! So, I scored much better on the real exam than the CATs. A lot of that had to do with having my "game face" on, but the majority was that I made sure to use a strategic guessing approach if needed and keep my time down. I was never rushed, so the questions I could answer, I was able to stay calm and get the right answer. If I got one of the three strategic guesses right, I would say that is a win.

Keep plugging away, learn how the right answers were derived, time yourself on OG questions, ensure proper timing on the exam, and HAVE A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE ON THE TEST. You can get the score you want.

Thank you Manhattan GMAT!!

[messi10]

Hi Ryan,

Congrats on a great score!!!!

I have a question on Reading Comprehension. How did you find the ones on the exam compared to the ones in the OG.

Also, can you please post the scaled scores of your practice MGMAT CATs?

Thanks

Sunil

[Ryancbrueckner]

Sunil,

The whole test, including the RC, I found to be very consistent with the questions that I came across in the OG. Obviously, when you are doing well on the test, you begin to get harder and harder questions, so they were most similar to the questions in the later third of each section.

I found that the test has the ability to give you a relatively easy passage or a relatively difficult passage, but they have a variety of questions they can ask. In other words you might get an easy passage, but they can ask either easy or hard questions relating to that passage. I felt as though I mainly received rather difficult passages, but I got mid-range questions.

[messi10]

Thanks

Good luck with the applications :)

[Ryancbrueckner]

Thank you!

And Sunil, you asked for the weighted scores of my practice tests:

CAT 1: 46Q, 38V
CAT 2: 44Q, 36V
CAT 3: 45Q, 36V
CAT 4: 48Q, 36V

Again, the most important thing that I did on the test was rely on strategic guessing, particularly in the first part of the test. It left me enough time at the end of the exam. On nearly all of my practice tests, I was in the low-mid 90th percentile until the end of the test when I would run out of time.

I felt confident that I could raise my score in the Quant simply by adhering to the timing strategies discussed in the 9-week course. I was right.

Therefore, the last week leading to the test, I really focused on idioms. I found that idioms helped me eliminate several answers and was solely responsible for one or two answers. I think that was the difference in the slightly higher score in Verbal.

[messi10]

Great, thank you very much for info and the advice. :)