I learned for the test for about a month (although I took a week of in the middle) and learned for about 4 hours per day. I primarily used the Princeton review book (OG GMAT) and their online practice exams (also OG GMAT). I think that is a good cheap option to get used to the test format and most of the questions, as I didn’t feel like spending hundreds of dollars on MBA.com. I did however go through the free practice stuff on their website.
I would say that I had a very high baseline, as I scored a 705 after a minimal learning (a day or so). So results from my style of prep will probably vary.
I tried TTP with the free trial for a few days, directly before the GMAT. I can see why many people on this sub like it. Seems like a very comprehensive and well structured course. My experienced was a not that great. I took the the diagnostics test and based on the results it seemed like they wanted to tell me that I am not ready to score above 685. To me that was a bit ridiculous, as by that point I had a 705 and 735 in practice exams. Not sure if I misinterpreted the results, or if their diagnostics aren’t that good or if they just want to sell their course. To me I felt like they really wanted to convince me, that I need their course.
I am curious how many correct/wrong or each section you can get to get that score. At the moment I’m struggling a bit with hard questions in general, so I would be curious if you had some insights on that, or perhaps also how many easy/medium/hard questions you faced (given your score i guess most of them were hard?)
Ill be honest with you, I really dont think it has to do with knowing math like that. I just scored 745 this morning on a couple weeks of prep with just the official guide as a Business major specializing in finance. We european business students have quite a bit of math but that didnt really help for the test I think. The way I see it is that it essentially is way more of an intelligence test than people make it out to be with all the prep materials.
I used a lot of the old school IR stuff. I feel like that + the data sufficiency questions are covering most of the questions. For the most part I used the IR part from the Princeton review practice exams to prep. The access came with the book and only cost me about $15, so definitely great value for money
I think that is very true. I can’t say that I know all the math techniques and shortcuts for the GMAT, but there was only one advanced combinatorics, where you really needed to know the technique (or have more time)
I took the two free practice exams, and one that I bought (all MBA.com). Had the same score (735) on the last two practice exams, and overall they seemed comparable. Additionally I took about 6 OG GMAT mocks, from Princeton review. They were very cheap (came with the ebook for ~15$) and I felt like they are a great way to get used to the test format and questions. You can simply ignore the grammar and geometry questions, the rest seems pretty much unchanged
@eepak-with-a-D@meowradiseee I think that is very true. I can’t say that I know all the math techniques and shortcuts for the GMAT, but there was only one advanced combinatorics, where you really needed to know the technique (or have more time)
I found this interesting as well. On my last practice exam I missed two (#17 and #21) and got an 83. Maybe the FE is more punishing on missing easy questions given there are less questions total. This would mean that missing a question at the lower end of the bracket the test thinks you are in will have a greater effect, whereas missing a question at the higher end of your bracket (especially if you are at the end of the test after getting all others correct) may be more forgivable. @they-call-me-raj-jay
@they-call-me-raj-jay Thanks, I know that on two of the official practice exams, I got a 90 verbal with one mistake. Maybe that is because the verbal sections has 23 questions.
I am currently in my last year of undergrad (business major). So I can’t say that I use it all the time, although I had some more math-centred courses last year. I would say that I am quite fast when doing calculations, so that offsets for some concepts that I don’t know. For me it was also always about focusing on the questions I can solve, you can miss a few questions and still get a high score.
But yeah I was very happy when I saw that sentence correction was not part of the FE, and I am sure that I would have scored worse on the OG GMAT.
was it sufficient for the preparation? I mean I am trying to get a good score but I am stuck around 660 or so. There is this gmat club, where I practice a lot of questions, but I do not know how to go about the exam, in terms of dividing my time n all. Could you help me out for the same or maybe suggest some good youtube channels for gmat.
you’re almost there. I think you should manage your time better because if you are getting around 660 you must be getting bogged up on hard questions. Spend more time analyzing your mocks, see which questions to attempt and which ones to skip. See where are you lagging and study your errors. Also, check out GMAT Ninja or Veritas Prep on YouTube for helpful strategy videos that can really help you out.
