7 tips to do well in GMAT

After I gave my GMAT a lot of friends came to me to asked how I scored so much. I think everyone has his own unique style of studying and something that might work for me might not work for you but still here are few things that might help you. Have a look and see if they might work for you.

Here are the 7 tips to score high in GMAT.


1) Do and Redo the OG - As I have mentioned in my previous posts, doing OG again and again( in a period of time) will help you to get tuned to the questions that are asked. Also you will be doing the questions that have already come in GMAT so you would have a fair amount of idea of how exactly you need to approach the questions.

2) Don't expect a pen and paper for rough work - Some people believe that they would get a pen/pencil and a paper. In fact even I wasn't aware of that. You actually get a marker and a square checkered sheet having 5 leaflets. So be aware of that and don't panic when there is some deviation with the settings in which you gave your mock CATs.

3) Maintain an error log which can help you trace your errors. - This is really helpful. You continuously practice questions and commit errors. Unless you maintain it somewhere and keep referring it on time to time chances are you will repeat those same mistakes. So whenever you find a good concept or commit an error, enter it in your error log. In this way  in a month or so you would have a notebook which will have lots of key concepts, referring that will help you improve your accuracy over time.

4) Give mocks as if you are giving the real test - Don't skip AWA. The thing is GMAT is a long gruelling exam. During the end you will find it hard to concentrate. So boost your stamina by giving as many CATs as you can in the same setting. Don't smoke in between(unless you can in the exam center as well), Don't take breaks more than the allotted time. In this way you will be preparing yourself to face the same thing as in the real GMAT.

5) Don't try to score a 800 - When I was at my last leg of the preparation I really wanted to break all the barriers and at least try to score a 800. It backfired. The reason why it backfired was because when you try to score a 800 you want to do every question right. There is a good chance that that wont happen and you would get stuck in a couple of questions. When it happens you lose the hope, you start thinking that you have already lost the battle where in reality you might be hovering around 750 mark! So don't try that. Try to solve every question but when you are not able to take an educated guess and move on.

6) Focus on your weakness but don't ignore your strengths. - I made this mistake. I worked 90% of my time on verbal and not much on QA. I did get a 50 in QA but if I would have given some extra time I think I would have got a 51 and might got a 760 overall. At least work on some key things. For example if your QA is strong there would be some areas like probability statistics etc you might be weak in. Work on them and improve in those areas as well.

7) Have some breaks in between - I mean chill out. Don't let GMAT get to your nerves. My GMAT was one 16th July. The previous weekend I had one of the best weekends with friends. It helped in releasing the tension a lot which ultimately helped me score well :)

I might add some more when I remember some more :)

How I scored 740 in GMAT

In this blog I will discuss in detail about what I did to get a 740 in GMAT. If you are new to GMAT you might want to read So What is GMAT? and come back here. 


Why GMAT?!


I had always wanted to do my MBA. In fact I researched a lot of B schools right from my third year of engineering. After working a couple of year I thought its time to take the plunge!




How many months I took?


I took almost 3 months for my preparation. But honestly it depends on your aptitude. I know some friends who got a 760 with 1.5 months of preparation. In my case I had an advantage of coming from an engineering background hence maths was easy for me. I had to mainly work on verbal which I did for most of the time. I averaged almost 1.5 hours of daily preparation. So that makes it 135 hours in total.


What books I read?


Official guide for GMAT or OG


I cant help but praise this book. It should be your bible for those months you are preparing. Not just because it has questions that have appeared on GMAT in the past but doing and redoing OG will train your ear to get hold of where to look for the answer which will ultimately help you increase both your speed and your accuracy.


Princeton Review guide for GMAT


Good book, especially for Verbal. They have divided the questions in 3 bins. Bin 1 is the easiest and Bin 3 is the toughest. It helps you in tracking your level and work on that level to move to next one. Princeton Review also has the best material for AWA. If you are starting your preparation I would suggest start from this book. It will help you get used to the types of problem asked in GMAT. Though I feel the difficulty level of this book is a little easier than that   of OG and Kaplan.


Kaplan Workbook.


An excellent resource for both QA and Verbal. They have some really difficult problems that you should expect in your GMAT if you want to cross 700 mark. They also have the best material on Reading Comprehension( something they call a "Road Map", I found it really helpful! ). 


Kaplan800


If you are eying a 720-800 this book can be of help. But you should go for this at the last stage of your preparation. You wouldn't want to get demoralize starting your preparation with the toughest quesitons to find out that you are not doing that well as you expected. 




CATs


Once you register at www.mba.com you have access to two free GMAT CATs. You cant afford to miss them! They are prepared by GMAC guys( ones who control the exam) so naturally they are closest to the actual GMAT questions. 


You also have access to one free Manhattan GMAT CAT which you can get here.


Two more from princeton review here and kaplan here.


Generally these are the most trusted tests which most of the test takers follow. I followed them as well.


How I studied:-


1st Month


I started my preparation first by briefing myself with the test, which took almost a week. After that I registered at mba.com and downloaded the GMATPREP tests. I took the first test and got a 640 with 49 in QA and 20s something in Verbal. I did so to get to know my level, my strengths and my weaknesses. Since I was targeting 720+ I decided to take 3 months and scheduled a date accordingly. I then started with OG. I worked mostly on Verbal since I was pretty much comfortable in QA. I would do 20 questions at one go and then found out my hit rate. For the questions I did right I would still look at the explanations and learn some key things from them. For the questions I did wrong I would look for the explanation and write my own notes on the error I have committed. Something I called error log. Error log is very helpful in a way because you learn a new concept with each error. For QA I use to practice OG by doing 50 questions in one go. I generally got 42+ correct. I found OG maths pretty easy but the questions that came in my actual GMAT were pretty difficult than that were present in the book. At the end of first month I gave Manhattan GMAT test and scored a 690. I improved in Verbal but still my accuracy was around 60-70%. 


2nd Month 


After the end of the first month I noted that I am lagging mainly in SC and a bit in CR and RC. So I took the plunge to Princeton Review and started reading its theory. The theory in Princeton Review was very helpful and helped me understand the 7-8 types of common errors found in SC. This helped me improve my accuracy in SC a lot. I also started practicing Kaplan which helped me improve my RC. 


3rd Month


Third month was mainly giving tests. Here I would like to advice one thing. You get a CD ROM with the Kaplan book in which you have some 8 CATs available. These tests are very difficult and they don't match with the actual GMAT test. I found them discouraging and stopped giving them, however you might wanna give it a try and see if it works for you. I redid OG once again to give final touches to my preparation. In the last 20 days I gave the 2 GMATPREP tests and got 720 and 700. My QA was 50 both the times. But i still found it hard to cross 37 in Verbal. However I thought I have done enough preparation to get a 720 in real GMAT.


The G Day!


I reached the examination center half an hour before. There was a guard outside the room who checked my appointment printout and then let me in. Inside there was a facilitator who verified my documents. She also took my photo on the web cam, scans of my right and left palm and checked my passport. Then she gave me a locker key and asked me to put in everything inside the locker before going to the test room. I waited for 15 mins after which she asked me to go inside. At that time my heart was pounding and I was just saying to myself that there are people who are praying for me right now and I have worked hard for it so it cant possibly go wrong. 


Just outside the test room there was a guy who was monitoring the cubicles. He gave me a marker and scratch sheet for rough work and escorted me to a cubicle. He entered a password and the instructions page flashed in front of me.


I clicked on Next after skimming through the instructions and saw the Analysis of Argument essay. I entered my response rather quickly as I wanted to have some extra time before QA. I did the same thing for Analysis of Argument and was able to finish the AWA section before time. After which I took almost a 7 min break :).


I came back with all the determination to kill the QA section. But it was a shaky start for me. I got my initial questions from Probability and Statistics which I wasn't very comfortable at. Things seem much smoother after the first seven questions. At the end I thought I did enough to bag a 50 scale score. With this thought in mind I took the last break. I knew that now the whole thing depended on how I will fare in Verbal section.


When I started my verbal section I was extremely cautious and that sucked a lot of time for me. After the first five questions I paced myself to get on schedule. I got few difficult questions on the sentence correction in the middle.After concentrating for so many hours I found it hard to concentrate in the last 30 mins of the Verbal section. My third passage was extremely difficult( heck! it was on probability) but I knew I was doing well to get such a complex passage. Finally the last few questions I concentrated as much as I can and finished the verbal section. I couldn't wait to see my score hence I flipped the last pages in a frenzy and at the end it displayed 740 with 50 in QA and 40 in verbal. I was extremely overjoyed and couldn't stop smiling. I raised my hand signalling I have finished the test. The invigilator saw my score and smiled back at me. I was so relieved that all the hard work has payed off! I went straight outside and had a nice cup of tea. The first call went to my Dad and the next to my girlfriend. She was equally exited for hearing the score and asked me to thank her for praying for me. :)


In the next post I would be taking up few tips to increase your GMAT score.

How is GMAT scoring done?

This is a much hyped topic. In fact GMAC, the body that governs this exam hasn’t ever disclose the algorithm used to score the exam. So obviously there are many speculations on the topic. But there are few things that we do know.

GMAT is a computer adaptive test or CAT. This means that the difficulty level of the next question that pops up in your screen depends on whether you marked the previous one right or wrong. If you mark the previous question right then the next question will be harder and if you mark the previous question wrong then the next question will be easier than the one before. The very first question is of average difficulty level. As you proceed with the test the algorithm decides whats your aptitude level and keeps scoring you on that, giving a final score at the end on the basis of how you performed in all the questions.

Illustration:-

GMAT740 gets this question as the first question of the QA section.

1) James takes 1 hour to travel from his school to his college and 2 hours while returning back. What is the average speed of James considering that the distance between his school and college is 15 kms.

a) 10km/hr
b) 7.5km/hr
c) 5 km/hr
d) 7km/hr

Lets assume that the difficulty of this question can be mapped to a 600 score.

Now if I answer this question correct which is option ‘a’ then the next question would be more difficult, lets say of a 620 score level. On the other hand if I answer the question wrong the next question will be easier, lets say of a 580 level.

So if you keep on marking the questions correct your subsequent questions will be more difficult but your score would also increase.

A myth about scoring pattern:-

People have a notion that the first 10-12 questions are more important then the later ones. And that test takers should focus more on the first 10 questions then the last ones. This is completely false. There is nothing like the first few questions are more important. The penalty of marking a question anywhere in the section wrong is the same(though it depends on how you had performed in the previous ones). Ideally one should not try to spend more time in the first few questions just for the sake of getting them right. It might lead to you to miss/guess on some questions in the last. The more you guess the more your score would decrease.

Ok this much for how GMAT scoring is done. For computer geeks who want to taste some more of it search for- Response Theory, the algorithmic theory on which the GMAT is based.

PS: GMAT also throws some experimental questions at you. These wont be counted in calculating your score. They are just there to check what should be the difficulty level of that question.

Something about gmatcrazy! (thats me lol..)

So how do you interpret the scores?

Hi Fellow Gmatters,

I am just another guy who has dreams to do an MBA from a damn good B School. After two failures at Common admission test 94(2006) and 83(2008) percentiles I decided to have a take on GMAT and boy I was serious about it! I did a lot of research and learned a lot of things about the much hyped exam. In this blog and the upcoming blogs I will be sharing my tricks and tips that I learned over the course of my preparation. Lets hope it might help a couple of you. I would feel great even if it makes your score jump by 20 points. To start with here are few stats about the exam i took on 16th July 09′.

GMAT Score : 740 -97 percentile
QA score 50 -93 percentile.
Verbal score 40 - 89 percentile
AWA( I sucked!) - 5 - 56 percentlie.

740 is my total score which is out of 800. So the max you can score in the exam is 800 and yes some guys do get that score. Percentiles i am pretty sure you guys are already familiar with. The 50 and 40 score in QA and verbal is my scale score which is out of 51. So again the max scale score you can get in QA or verbal is 51. AWA stands for “analytical writing assessment”. Your AWA score is not considered while taking out your total GMAT score and generally its ok if you get a 4.5 +.

In the next post I will be telling you the fine details about the GMAT exam. The sections, dificulty level, no. of questions and all that stuff. So till then happy GMATING