GMAT experience

It's been about two months since my last post, so this one is a big one.

I just took the GMAT and received my scores. I've read a lot about it previously from other test takers and many freely offered up their experience for others to critique or learn from. I have decided to do the same. I scored a 700 when I took it (70th percentile Quantitative, 95th percentile Verbal) and received a 5.5/6.0 on the AWA writing section. The 700 score is widely viewed as a marking point or milestone because it puts you in the top 90% of test takers. Additionally, if you look at the mean scores of the best of the best business schools, the average score will be about 700. I think the highest average I ever saw published was 720 for Stanford. Therefore, people say you should aim for 700. A lot of that may be mental since there's probably not a whole lot of difference between 680, 690, and 700, but when you hit 700, that first digit changes to a whole new number. It's kind of like the difference between having 99 cents and one dollar.

Where do I begin?

So you've decided that you want to go to business school. This (very likely) means that you will have to take the GMAT. Not every school requires its applicants to take the GMAT to gain acceptance. For instance, there's a few local colleges in my area that have MBA programs that do not require a GMAT or require it only if you are short on other criteria.

To study for the exam you have three options: buy some prep books and study the material by yourself, sign up for a class, or hire a personal tutor/consultant. I chose the first option. The books are relatively cheap to buy and will be as close to the exam material as possible without actually being the exam itself. There are several companies that publish prep books to choose from. The Official Guide, Kaplan, and Manhattan are the notable ones. This doesn't mean that there aren't other publishers out there that put out quality material in print or online. This simply means that most people choose these texts due to the brand name and reliability of results established from prior test takers. Note that this does not mean you will achieve good results. It simply means that these books provide the most realistic study material and the scores that these materials yield is very comparable to the real exam. Therefore, please don't think that by buying the book you WILL get the score.

Of course, by choosing the self-study method, you're on your own to study and learn the material. If you have a question, there's no one there to answer it. If you're not a person who is capable of self-motivation, the book isn't going to jump off the table and slap you in the head and tell you to study. However, this means that you can set whatever study pace or plan you want. You don't have to pay an extra fee to a study program class or tutor or go to the class/tutor at prearranged times that they have set. From all accounts that I have read, they end up giving you the same types of books that you can buy on your own anyhow.

This worked for me but it may not for everyone. I would suggest that everyone at least TRY to learn/study the material on their own. If you find yourself completely lost or doing poorly on the practice material, then the classroom or a tutor may be your best option. I can't really provide advice regarding classes or tutors to any great extent since I didn't experience that. There is no right way. Some people claim to have studied for a grand total of 40 hours and scored a 760 (99% percentile) while others study for a whole year and can't break into the 600's.

What books did I chose? Below is a list of books that are recommended. I've linked them to Amazon.com so you can see what they look like and the approximate price.

Highly recommended - Necessities

• Kaplan GMAT Premier Program, 2009 (Book & CD-ROM) ~ $28
  
• The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition ~25$
• Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) ~ $18
• Downloadable practice exams from GMAT website (free)
  

Recommended - Not necessary but helpful for practice

• Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook ~ $14
• Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook ~$14
• Kaplan GMAT 800 ~$17
• The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review ~$10
  
• The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review ~$12

Total price ~$138

The Kaplan book with the cd is probably the most necessary tool on this list. Many people will tell you that the official guide should be ranked #1 because it contains actual test questions from past exams, but the Kaplan questions are very comparable. Occasionally, the Kaplan book may have a Critical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension question with a "correct" response that I felt was arguable, but that was rare. What makes this book so necessary is the cd-rom that contains four computer adaptive exams structured just like the real GMAT and a lot of quizzes. You basically logon to the Kaplan website to take the tests and other quizzes and it keeps track of your scores and progress. Once you take a online practice test, you can't repeat it over and over. However, I did find that there are some quizzes and test on the cd-rom that could be taken while offline and COULD be repeated. No other book on the list above will provide you with a similar tool. If you pay for the Kaplan course, you supposedly can take what they refer to as the Ultimate Practice Test in which you can go to the actual test center and take a practice exam on the computer.

The Official Guide contains questions from old GMAT exams but you'll find no great revelations here. There's a lot of questions along with brief explanations of the correct answers. It's good for practice. The guide numbers the questions from easiest to most difficult. This means that as you progress through the problems they will get more difficult. This also means that the questions at the beginning will be insultingly easy. You very likely will not get questions of such ease on the real exam.

The Manhattan Sentence Corrections book is also considered a necessity because the other two texts do a pretty poor job of explaining and teaching sentence correction. They'll briefly explain the different verb tenses and the basic concepts but it's nothing more than a superficial effort. The Manhattan Sentence Correction book will teach you pretty much everything you will need to know about sentence correction. There room for improvement, but it's substantially more helpful than the other two guides.

The offical GMAT website also offers a small downloadable program that contain some practice questions and two computer tests. It's free so why not?

The optional material will provide a lot of questions and problems so you can practice the skills that you've developed within the three "required" books. Kaplan GMAT 800 supposedly contains the hardest GMAT problems. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's just like the other optional books, good for practice but no major leaps in understanding.

The Timeline

Now that you've got your books it's time to start studying. If you are like me, you will think it's going to be a piece of cake. The material is nothing that a freshman in high school hasn't seen. Algebra, geometry, and reading. How tough could it be? I'm a chemist so I figured that I already mastered topics far beyond this. Reading? Are you kidding me? I know how to read. I actually got a little cocky about it. I'm going to blow this thing out of the water. When I take this test, I'm going to finish in half the time. I'm going to score so high that the computer will set on fire because it won't be able to process my score because it had been previously impossible to achieve. Streamers and strobe lights will shoot out of concealed compartments in the ceiling. Well, streamers and strobe lights didn't happen for me and it won't happen for you, even if you score an 800.

Getting back on topic, your timeline is very flexible. There's not a rush to take the test by any certain date (so long as you can send it to your choice schools by admissions deadlines) and you can schedule to take the test at numerous locales and times. The only thing you should watch out for is the Kaplan cd-rom. You register the cd online so you can take advantage of a lot of the online material from Kaplan. When this is done, there is a little note saying that your registration will expire by a certain date (several months I believe). I'm guessing that you won't be able to take the computer adaptive tests or use any other online material after that period. This is just a theory though, I haven't actually tried to go back and use the online material afterwards.

I've listed below the basic order in which I did things:
1. Manhattan Sentence Correction
2. Kaplan book with cd -rom (don't use cd-rom content yet, just the book)
3. Official Guide
4. Kaplan Math and Verbal Workbooks
5. Official Math and Verbal Review
6. GMAT 800
7. Kaplan cd-rom and practice tests.

This is what worked for me, but feel free to experiment. It may start out slowly at first because depending upon where you are in life, you may not have had to study for an exam in a while. A lot of it will come back to you. It will take a little time to get in the proper mind set.

Study Tips

I won't waste your time telling you things that the books will tell you or that you can figure out from numerous other blog or old-fashioned intuition. Instead, I thought it would be more instructive to give you a few pointers about things that AREN'T in the books.

1. Get a notebook and take notes of things as you progress through the books. If there is an important equation or concept, write it down here. It will make review much easier.

2. Get a second notebook. As you practice problems, write down your mistakes here. This will be especially helpful for math. This way, when you see a similar problem, you will remember your previous mistakes and hopefully won't make them again.

3. Do not overemphasize probability problems. I see many people studying combinatorics like they were taking a statistics class. Out of all of the problems in the books, practice tests, and the actual exam, there was only one such problem I encountered. All other probability problems could be figured out with nothing more than a basic understanding. Therefore, don't obsess over very niche specific types of problems and obscure arcana. Your time is better spent elsewhere. If you do end up getting a combinatoric problem during a (practice) test, it probably means that you're already doing very well.

4. Practice enough sentence correction problems so that you don't miss any idiom problems. For example, choose the correct sentence below:

Brian is credited for having written this blog.
Brian is credited as having written this blog.
Brian is credited with having written this blog.
Brian is credited in having written this blog.
Brian is credited to have written this blog.

The correct idiom is "credited with." You'll find this in the Manhattan GMAT book that lists common idioms. Idioms aren't logical and don't necessarily make sense. All you can do is work enough sentence problems so that what a question appears, you can recognize the idiom as being correct or incorrect and find the right answer. Only having practiced a problem with a similar idiom will help. Make sure to write down problems you miss due to idioms in the notebook. You should eventually have a list of about 2 dozen fairly common idiomatic phrases that will appear more frequently than others. Do not worry about memorizing the entire list in the Manhattan book.

5. Know this equation: A/x + A/y = 1. The equation is used for rate problems such as the follows:

Bob can paint a house in 3 hours. Jane can paint the same house in 7 hours. How long does it take for them to paint the house when working together?

In this equation, x = the time it takes for person x to finish the job, y = the time it takes for person y to finish the job, and A = the amount of time it takes for both x and y working together to finish the job. I don't think any of the books will give you this equation directly, so here it is for you. It seemed like they preferred solving it in a different way. Like any math problem, there are lots of variants. If you know this basic equation, you should be able to solve any type of rate problem. Here's a variant example:

Bob can paint a house in 3 hours. Jane can paint the same house in 7 hours. Bob and Jane work together to paint the house for 1.5 hours before Jane must leave. How many hours will it take Bob to finish the job alone? You should be able to solve this type of problem.

6. It's okay to guess. If you're stubborn like me you will hate simply giving up on a problem and moving on to the next one. The Math/Quant section, for instance, has 37 questions in 75 minutes, so you can't dwell. The only instance in which you should spend more time is during the first 10 questions. The first ten questions of each section are weighted more heavily. Now, depending upon who you are talking to, the importance of these first 10 questions differs. Some feel that if you get the first 10 correct, then you can just coast through the rest of the problems and miss a whole lot and still get a good score. Others feel that they are scored only slightly more than the other 27 in a section. No one knows what the GMAT algorithm for determining scores is except for two facts: getting question correct is good, not finishing a section is bad.

7. If you are not fluent in English, you will be at a disadvantage. That may be culturally biased, but I don't really see any way around it. Most people who are fluent in English still find the English/Verbal portion of the exam to be more difficult than the Math/Quantitative. If you're not fluent, you will likely encounter more difficulties. There's not much that you can do about it at this point, because it will be pretty much impossible to pick up all of the little nuances and cruxes within the English language if you haven't been doing so for a LONG time.

8. Math can be distilled down to equations and true/false logic. English cannot. For this reason, the formulaic approaches that the book teaches you regarding math are MUCH more effective than the English. The Kaplan book will attempt to take the same approach and tell you that if you follow their easy step-by-step methods, you can solve the English/Verbal in a similar manner.

There is ONLY ONE solid method I can suggest for reading and critical reasoning: do not stray from the topic. There will always be answers that seem very good but in reality they stray from the topic and bait you. For instance, if you asked me, "How was your day?" and I responded, "I had a lot of work to do," then I am straying slightly from the topic. It sounds as if I told you I had a bad day, but in reality I just avoided the questions and talked about something that would lead you to believe as though I answered it. I never gave you a direct answer. You'll see more of these. Just ask yourself if this is really relevant to answering the question or if it's a answer that's related but not a direct answer.

9. There is a luck factor. Say it ain't so! Like any exam, you can study all you want but when you take the actual test, who knows what will show up. When I took the exam, the math seemed a lot more difficult than the practice exams I took and the English seemed much, much easier. If I took the exam again, maybe the computer gives me questions that just happend to click with me more than the previous ones and I score higher. Therefore, if you don't score well, you can always take it again. Schools have differing opinions on retaking an exam. Some will use only the highest score while others may average the scores.

10. If you don't read, then reading comprehension will be more difficult. I've read a lot of posts from people comparing the practice material to the actual exam and most state that the math is comparable but the reading comprehension is a lot more difficult... almost painful. The topics are almost always similar in theme: economics, politics, science, philosophy. It follows that if you enjoy or read about these types of topics, you will likely be more engaged when you read these sections on the exam. If you absolutely hate these topics, or reading in general, then you'll probably hate the exam material. I'm a suscriber to the Economist that's published weekly and it just so happens that economics, politics, science, and philosophy are the themes of pretty much all of their articles. I happen to be interested in this stuff as well so it's not as if I'm forcing myself to read it. If you want to try going outside the box, get a subscription and read the magazine and consider the material good primer for your brain. I can't be certain how much this contributed to my 95th percentile Verbal score, but it certainly did not hurt.

Exam Day

I scheduled my exam for 12:15 on a Saturday. Towards the end of my studying when I was taking practice tests, I would take them around noon on Saturday or Sunday. This kept me consistent. I had to drive only about 20 minutes since a test center was nearby. The exam center consisted of just two rooms, the lobby/check-in area and the test room. When I got there, a gentleman behind a desk asked me what test I was here for. I told him GMAT. I had gotten there a little early but he said that it wasn't a problem and that I could start as soon as someone else finished. I showed him my driver's license and then he took a photograph of my face and fingerprint scan of my right index finger. I was expecting some sort of security measure to protect the integrity of the exam, so it wasn't much of a surprise. I thought that they may have had a palm vein scanner, but no such luck.

I put my belongings in a locker and was told the only things I could bring into the test room were my locker key, my driver's license, the marker board used for problem solving, and the markers. Before entering the room, I had to put my right index finger on a finger pad and a person monitoring it would then tell me I could enter once it checked out. I had to use the finger pad every time I entered and every time I exited the room and they'd check every time. Additionally, when I reached the 10 minute breaks and decided to take them, the timer would start and my picture would pop up on the screen.

If you don't like people monitoring you, get used to it. The same person that would monitor the fingerprints when entering and exiting the only door in or out of the room was also sitting next to a large glass window so she could see into the test room. I think there were also cameras taping the room. There were maybe a dozen or so small cubicles with computers so she could easily monitor all of them. Overall, my experience was good. They were very professional, helpful, and most of all, quiet.

How does this score compare to my practice exams? I don't have all the practice numbers in front of me but I believe I averaged about a 670 throughout all of the materials. No result strayed too much from the mean. I believe the highest practice score was 690 and the lowest was 650. Most people feel that the Kaplan algorithm scores more harshly than the real exam and that your real exam score will be a little bit higher. This was my case. Many others have had similar experiences. As indicated previously, this is why people choose these book publishers. They provide content that is comparable and consistent.

What about the AWA?

I suppose I should impart some advice about the writing section. Like the rest of the exam, pacing yourself to finish in time is important. If you're like me you probably took a lot of honors english courses in high school. Unfortunately, you just don't have the time to outflow an honors essay. You'll no doubt read the Kaplan essays that they qualify as 6.0 essays and they'll seem almost too deep and long for a someone to possibly be able to write in the allowed time. When in doubt, use the five paragraph method:

1. Introduction: briefly sum up your position and three key points you'll use to prove/discuss your position
2. Point 1
3. Point 2
4. Point 3
5. Conclusion: recap your three points along and end with a nice closing sentence.

It sound pretty juvenile, but it works. Just make sure to use solid structure and transitions and you'll be fine.

The BEST thing about the AWA is that it is a good warmup for your brain. You'll get a good solid hour of critical thinking before starting the Quant and Verbal sections. This cannot be underestimated. I tried taking practice exams and skipping the essays beforehand and I felt that I wasn't as focused as I was when I did write the essays.

The Facts (supposedly)

I am by no means an admission committe member or affiliated with any school, so keep that in mind. The big question most people have is about how much it matters. Well, it must matter to some measurable degree otherwise they wouldn't require it. I'm sure lots of people could argue about the legitimacy of standardized test and the educational system in the U.S. but that's a whole different topic. GMAT is a standardized test and just like all standardized tests, it is intended to measure your ability. There apparently is a strong correlation between GMAT score and how well student perform during business school. However, we all know that no test is a perfect indicator and that correlation does not always equate to causation.

You will likely read about or hear stories about GMAT cheaters. The most notable one occured fairly recently. There was a website that had people go and take the exam and then post actual exam questions on the internet to anyone who was a paid suscriber to their web site. The debate ensued about the legalities and ethics of the people who ran the website as well as the people who suscribed to it. Lots of GMAT test takers were implicated (thousands actually). This can be discouraging to test takers like myself who went about it the old-fashioned way and studied. You simply have to put these other events at a distance from your mind. You can't help it if some other people tried to cheat the exam. It will have no bearing upon how well you perform at all. Just focus on yourself and your preparation and block out any distractions.

The End

Hopefully, you found something in my blog that will help you in your GMAT studies. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them and I'll replay as soon as possible!