In less than a month, if possible, I’ll be taking the infamous GMAT test. I’m not applying for an MBA (yet) but I still need it for most of the top European Management schools I want to apply to. It’s tricky. I just realized how little time I have to prepare for it and how much I procrastinated. Now, with little time to spare and a lot of pressure on me I finally sat down to study.
Here I’ll let you know about my plans and give anyone who is going to take the exam a clear plan of action to achieve the highest results possible in this short time span.
What Is the GMAT?
Unless you have been living in another galaxy, you probably heard about the GMAT before. It’s a long, varied and fearful exam which most Business Schools require in order to admit students in.
The score varies from 400 to 800, with 800 being the top. Most people get something in between 500-650, and what I’m going to target here is the almighty 700s. It will be hard, sure, but having a high goal will make me study and practice harder.
The test consists of five sections: analytical problems, data sufficiency, practical reasoning, reading comprehension and sentence correction. All sections are hard on their own, even for native English speakers.
Beating The GMAT – My Plan
Most people take the GMAT after months of preparation. If my plans go alright I’ll have less than a month (or, at most, a month and a half) to take the exam and still hit the deadlines of most European Schools.
I won’t be an easy task and because of that I’ll extensively practice every day. I’ll be putting 4-5 hours of deep studying every day. As much as it looks, it probably won’t be enough. But as long as I keep my productivity and learning rate high I believe I can make and still get the score I want.
I have bought all the recommended material (see below) and decided to use one big notebook entirely for my GMAT practice. I’m quite organized with notebooks and so should you: give the notebook an Index, use multiple colors and make notes in the margins highlighting what will be vital to remember. I’ll be using flashcards too.
The Sections
Right now I’m not particularly strong in any of the sections, but because of lack of practice in the last year (and a bit more) my math has been getting quite rusty. I’ll put an extra focus on the beginning to that and then move to the other topics.
I will focus, then, on one topic at a time. I won’t go crazy trying to learn a bit of everything every day as that is not really productive. Instead, I’ll focus on getting all the exercises in one section done and achieving a high proficiency on them before moving to the next part of the exam.
But, even after moving on, in order not to lose rhythm or calibration I’ll keep practicing and doing 10-20 exercises from the completed sections every day.
Last, I’ll leave the few days before the exam to review all topics, sections and to focus on where I think I can make a bigger increase in performance.
The Point-Chasing Scheme
I have been and always will be a point chaser. I study how the exam will be, how to get the maximum points and then I calibrate accordingly. GMAT won’t be the exception. Here are my best advices for aspiring point-chasers:
1- Always study from old or practice exams. Leave theory behind and get down to what really matters. Especially if you don’t have much time to spare.
2- Use the law of decreased productivity. Don’t study a topic until you are 100% proficient on it. Instead, focus getting an 80-90% level in all sections. Before working on that hard and time-consuming 10% left make sure you have achieved the same level in the other sections.
The Material
It’s important to work with the best material. If you have to pay premium for it, pay it. The exam is worth it and to achieve the highest results you need the top resources. After a long research, reading countless reviews and discussing in multiple GMAT forums I found out that the material I needed was:
If you want to rock the exam, you’ll need this guide. It contains hundreds of exercises, explanations and resources to fight your way to a high score. It’s vital as it also includes many questions and exercises which have been tested on previous examinations.
These are the ultimate resources for those who are serious about getting a high score. They include sets of very tough questions and exercises and careful and detailed explanations. It’s the material which all test takers say it helped them most.
Recommended by all test takers and experts, this is the book for the sentence correction. It includes all you need to learn all the results and beat that particular section. This book coupled with the OG will get me all points in that part of the exam.
- Forum Feedback
Learn from the experts. People who have taken (or are going to take) the exam will give you the motivation, unique insight and personal strategies that no book can. Half an hour to an hour a day reading and taking notes from the forums will prove vital. Check out my personal favorite here and here.
Conclusion
We’ll see what happens. I’m confident but I know it won’t be an easy ride. I’ll give my best and push myself to the limits. The results will, in the end, be a reflection of how much I studied, how well did I study and, always, if I had a bit of luck the day of the exam. I’ll let you know!
Photo credit: limbte
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Buenos Aires, Argentina.