Mr. 700 - How I studied for the GMAT

So I thought it might be helpful to tell you all how I studied for the GMAT. Before I get started, you should be aware of www.beatthegmat.com and www.gmatclub.com. Both of these sites gave me A LOT of help for the GMAT, and I’m sure they could help you as well. Both of those are forums with a ton of members who share insights on all three sections of the test and business school in general.

Besides the sites mentioned above, I also used the Cracking the GMAT by the Princeton Review and the Official Guide to GMAT Review. The Princeton Review book is written in a very understandable way, and they only focus on what’s important. The second book has a ton of info, but it’s written for scientists I think so I really didn’t find it helpful. The second book is made by the people who made the test, though, so you know the practice questions are just like the ones on the test.

The test has five sections: math is broken into Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency questions, and verbal has Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Sentence Correction. Examples of all the problems are located on the sites I mentioned above. I did a few of each question to find out which ones I had the most trouble with. In the end it turned out that my list from hardest to easiest looked like this:

• Critical Reasoning
• Data Sufficiency
• Reading Comprehension
• Problem Solving
• Sentence Correction

I studied the first two sections for two weeks each, and the rest for only one week. “Studying” included reading the entire section in the Princeton Review book and completing 15-20 questions from either book or a set of questions I downloaded from beatthegmat. I would look at the ones I got wrong and study the type of question that was asked. The test has a lot of recurring elements, so understanding what is being asked is key. The Princeton Review book did a good job identifying each type of question that the test throws at you.

Before beginning each day I would do about 10 review questions from the previous section. By the end, I had done about a million of the questions that I thought were the hardest. Truthfully, I spent about an hour on the writing part of the test, and got a 4.5. Pretty average score I guess. Overall, I scored a 700 on the test. I scored a 43 on the math section and a 42 on the verbal.

So that’s how I prepared for the test. Use the comments link below to share your stories or ask questions. I’ll be checking back regularly and hopefully I can clarify any questions you have to help you out. Good luck!

-The RBG