GMAT Strategies...

To all ye future GMAT applicants-

Just pasting the cumulative essence of whatever worked for me during the 2 months that I studied for the GMAT...and I'm sure there's lot more to it, but I'm presenting my 2 cents.

Best,
~vectorSpace


The 2-month strategy that worked for me

Disclaimer : The author takes no liability towards reduced scores or dings. Lawsuits could be long-drawn and dirty.

Afterthought : I feel 2 months was a slight overkill (see my GMAT score progression). I decided to play safe since I was working full-time all along these 2 months. No regrets. Hindsight kills.

Total Prep Time: 2 months(@ 1-2 hours/day on weekdays, and 4-8 hours/day on weekends)
Resources: OG 11, GMAT Sets, Manhattan GMAT, Test Magic, GMAT PREP

Week 1: I started with OG 11 to get an initial feel for things. I gave just about 1-day for each topic (PS, DS, CR, SC and RC only). At the end of week 1, I managed to complete about 10-15 questions from OG 11 for each topic. This gave me a great 'sense' for each problem type on the GMAT. I divided all topics into one of 3 groups:
a. I Suck: I absolutely suck at these.
b. Average: I do fairly OK on these, but not quite GMAT-ready yet
c. Awesome: I am my own standard here – bring on the GMAT!

At the end of week 1, I rated myself at: I Suck: SC; Average: CR, DS Awesome: RC, PS

My goal was to get all or most into the awesome bucket at the end of 2 months.

Week 2 and Week 3: I did each of the above types in 2-hour slots. This gave me time for about 50-60 questions per slot, and about an hour of error-analysis.

Error analysis and the mistake-scale: I cannot stress how important error-analysis is. In the past, people have tracked errors through different methods: from the basic and trusty writing-pad, to the Word Document, to the Excel Spreadsheet. I started off with a writing pad, and then graduated to an Excel spreadsheet. The advantage of a spreadsheet is that you can embed links to discussions on questions that you have erred on. My initial sheets were littered with links to test-magic discussion threads. It also goes well with doing OG and GMAT Set questions – almost every question is documented and discussed on Test-Magic.

To measure performance, I focused on mistakes per 100 questions. IMO, the mistake scale (let's call it the M level) is a good indicator of improvement while preparing. On a bad day, mistakes on key questions could lower your score by more points than you can imagine – and theoretically, it is hard to deliberately spread your mistakes. Mistakes follow essentially a randomized distribution – which means that you cannot control how they are spread over a 40-question test. It is best to try and minimize the total number of mistakes while preparing. Putting the spotlight on weak areas guarantees improvement.

Week 4: Having gained sufficient accuracy in weeks 2 -3, my next focus area was speed. Timed conditions turn the GMAT-game on its head – most of us can do most questions given ample time. I started off by doing timed GMAT Sets (in batches of 40). I realized that my performance dipped slightly – since the 2 minute mark rather than deducing a solution now decided whether I needed to move on to the next question. It was not entirely unexpected – but again, more practice in Week 4 helped me get back to my original M-level.

Weekend 4: On the weekend that followed, I decided to take GMATPREP 1. I got a 760 (Q50, V40), but more importantly, my M levels were: Q7, V11. There was a remarkable pattern on the mistakes: all Q mistakes were in DS, while 7 of 11 mistakes in V were in SC. Which meant that I needed to focus squarely on these 2 areas to improve my M-levels. With some more practice, my M levels would reduce even further. At this point I took the next available GMAT appointment - a month away.

Week 5: More practice on all areas – though from GMAT Sets and OG only.

Day Off
At this point, I was feeling quite saturated with GMAT preparation. So I took a day off from the GMAT just to let my mind wander and refresh. It certainly helped – the next day, I was feeling recharged once again.

Weekend 5: This weekend, I did 1 practice test (from Kaplan I think). My M levels were Q2, V15 (with more practice, my Verbal M levels should have dropped, if anything. I decided to discontinue practicing from Kaplan – it is too inaccurate an indicator).

Week 6: At some point during this week, I attempted GMATPREP 2: My M levels were Q6, V3. It was certainly an improvement over GMATPREP 1.

Issue: I also realized that I was having one issue in the quantitative section: at high-difficulty levels, I sometimes ran out of time on account of hard questions in the latter half of the CAT. The quality of hard questions on the GMATPREP was way above that of Kaplan or GMAT Sets.
Resolution: I decided to look at 2 other sources: GMATClub and Manhattan GMAT. I purchased a 6-test set from Manhattan – and I had a fabulous experience. The hard questions on the Manhattan GMAT were sometimes tougher than those on the real GMAT / GMATPREP. My timing improved dramatically in the Q-section as well. To anyone wanting high-quality practice in 700+ level questions, I would recommend the Manhattan GMAT's online test package. It is adaptive – so you get harder questions if you do well, and its results co-relate closely with my GMATPREP scores.

Week 7 and 8: More Manhattan GMAT, and a little bit of GMAT Club, coupled with more error-analysis, and tracking M-levels.

Score Tracker:

Week 4: GMATPREP 1 (Q50, V40) (Q7, V11) à 760
Week 6: GMATPREP 2 (Q50, V47) (Q6, V3) à 780

Between Weeks 6-7:
MGMAT 1: 730 (Q48, V41)
MGMAT 2: 780 (Q48, V51)
MGMAT 3: 740 (Q51, V40)
MGMAT 4: 750 (Q50, V42)
MGMAT 5: 740 (Q51, V39)
MGMAT 6: 750 (Q51, V41)

Tactics I Used:

• Practice doing full-length tests: The 4 weekends that led up to my GMAT, I made it a point to practice full-length tests from quality sources (GMATPREP and Manhattan GMAT). Doing an hour of AWA writing does affect stamina, and has a bearing on the performance.
• Keeping it fresh: Revisiting all quantitative problem types in the last few days: just to make sure that things remain fresh in my mind on the real test.
• Priming: I found this strategy to be highly fruitful – about an hour before you start your practice test, 'prime' your mind by attempting 4-5 questions Q and V questions. I compare it to like warming up the mind – when you start the test, your mind is already in top gear. I have noticed that if I do not do this, I spend more time with the first few Q questions – until I reach my full problem solving speed.
• Study in a pattern: I had booked an appointment for 9 AM. During the preparation stage, I was always up early and put in an hour in the morning before heading out to my office. This helped by tuning the mind to be at its test-taking best at that time of the day.
• Time yourself: There is an excellent spreadsheet floating around that lets you monitor the time you took for each question. I highly recommend it during the prep-stage. I was able to pin-point what questions I typically took more time with, and this helped me focus efforts.
• Use technology: Embed links on the same spreadsheet that you use to practice. This way, during crunch-time, you can simply look at your errors, and click on the links to be taken to a discussion on the question.
• M Levels: Focus on your mistakes. It's OK to make mistakes – it's not OK to make the same mistake multiple times. It means that you are not learning. Analyze your mistakes, and think of ways to prevent these from happening again.
• Quality over quantity: I tried to keep my question sources to the standard and accepted ones – GMATPREP, OG, GMAT Sets, GMAT Club and Manhattan GMAT. So I never had to bother about an 'ambiguous question' – one variable out of the equation!