Prep time for the GRE/GMAT - Page 4

What school and program? The other thing to keep in mind is that some programs are very insecure about themselves and want applicants who have done their homework and networking with that program.

I wonder which exam it was. I took all of them from 2000-2009 during my practice period. I hated that damned thing. Mine was Sept 09 and it wasn't super hard but not easy either. I think -9 was a 170.

Which ones? Haas comes to mind, but I can't think of any others. Maybe Cornell/Yale?

that about sums it up.

Yes haas. Stern also. CBS to some extent. Never really looked at cornell and yale so don't know.

I "studied" for about 2 months. I just went over vocab. The day I took the real test was the first time I completed a full test.

Took GMAT/GRE/LSAT. I think that 8-12 weeks is what you need in order to realize your full realistic potential . GMAT math can be tricky, GRE verbal (vocab!!!) is a pain, and LSAT logic games and some of the harder questions can be tough. All three can be mastered into 95th percentile combined pretty easily if you have enough time, perhaps much higher than that..

If you have the ability to get there. I think this is true if you were able to get into the 95th percentile or higher on other standardized testing. So if you cranked out a 1350+ on the SATs or a 32+ on the ACT then a 167 LSAT, 720 GMAT, or 1400 GRE is possible with 2-3 months of study time.

I'm not sure if it's the chicken or the egg, but yeah I guess I agree.

I just wrapped my MBA but thought I would share my prep plan for the GMAT. I have about a dozen friends and people online who have used it with generally high success (lowest score is a 700, highest is a 790). The strategy is for people who aren't having trouble per se just want a good prep plan without taking a class. If people want I can also add details of what to do if you are having a trouble (helped my friend go from a ~550 to 740)

My "nums": Overall - 770, Q:50, V46

Time required - 5 weeks for steps 1-6, 1 week intense or 2/3 weeks normal for steps 7-13

Materials you need
1) Princeton Review
2) Kaplan Premier
3) Kaplan 800
4) Offical Guide (All three books)
7) The replica of the pad & pen (they sell the Manhattan GMAT one on Amazon for like $20 - GET IT don't skimp on this)
Optional Materials
1) A Manhattan GMAT book focusing on the area you are having the most trouble with (for most people this is the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction book)

DO NOT START WITH A PRACTICE EXAM - The idea that Kaplan/Princeton use of starting with an exam to see where you are weak is silly you need to have a good basis of knowledge and understanding of the exam to accurately understand the material you are weak in

Step 1: complete Princeton Review book - read everything, do all practice problems (skip exams)
Step 2: complete Kaplan Premier Book - read any new materials & strategies and do all problems (skip exams)
Step 3: complete Kaplan 800 book (skip exams)
Step 4: Take practice Exam #1. Use one of the real ones you downloaded from the GMAT site. (You downloaded them right?)
Step 5: Review and redo the hardest 10% of the problems from both Kaplan books in the areas you were weakest in
Step 6: Finish the big OG . Use different time frames and challanges to get used to pressure (ex: 5 easy questions in 2 minutes, 5 hard in 5 minutes, take 5 problems and give yourself 10 seconds less on each one (60, 50, 40 30...secs). Pay attention to what you get wrong and look for trends. You're weaknesses will show up better under harsher practice conditions

(note that steps 7 onwards i did during a week off so they are more daily plans)
Step 7 - Take Practice exam #2. REDO the same real one you took before (only 2-3 of the problems will be repeats, and you probably won't remember them anyways)
Step 8: Practice exam #3 - I used the one in the Princeton book. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books
Step 9: Practice exam #4 - I used test #2 from the web. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books
Step 10: 120 questions from the OG books
Step 11: Practice Exam #5 - I used one form Kaplan 800 I think. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books
Step 12: Practice Exam #6 - Retake #2 from the web. Also do 60 practice questions from the two smaller OG books
Step 13: Day before exam - Take it relatively easy - 5-10 questions from each section, 5-10 extra in your weakest section (like 1-1.5 hours of work) and then go to sleep so you get a normal nights worth before the next day. Set your damned alarm, the backup alarm and your cell phone. Let not take the chance that you sleep too late.

TEST DAY - if you have a morning exam wake up VERY early & chill out for a bit. If you have some time about 2 hours before you leave do 15-20 total questions from every type of problem to get the mental juices flowing. Get ready, grab your stuff. Did you grab your wallet & ID? Walk back inside get your wallet - no your corporate ID doesn't count as official ID - grab that drivers license/passport etc. Now you can go to your exam. Leave way early - did I hear you complain that you'll arrive an hour early if you leave now? My test center let me start 25 minutes early and you want to make sure that anything short of a meteor strike won't make you late. Grab a snack & drink for your breaks on the way (I used a vitamin water and protein bar - ate half of the bar each break and drank as much as I felt comfortable with).

Since this thread has more replies than the others....

What does the membership think about taking a prep course vice studying at home? Or perhaps taking the course to get spun up and then studying at home? I'm not in a time crunch in terms of applying...just want to start to lay out some groundwork on preparation. Any recommendations?

It just depends how much discipline you have. If you are the type than can force yourself to work, then I'd say the prep course is a waste of money. Online, there are a ton of tests available, free if you have no qualms with using torrent sites. I prepared 3 months for mine, going through four prep books (purchased) and taking over 30 complete tests (minus the essays). The test itself felt like a walk in the park; I wasn't even exhausted after finishing (and since I took the computer based test, I had to take an extra quantitative section). I did obscenely well on the verbal and quant (169/170 and 168/170...sorry for bragging but I only got the scores back a week ago so still feeling the elation ). This was the second time I took it...I also had taken it three years ago, with about a month of prep time. I didn't take it anywhere near as seriously and my scores reflected it (I don't remember the scores, but the percentiles were 95% for verbal and 60% quantitative).

 

The one area it might be nice to get some outside feedback on are essays. I didn't practice mine at all (the last time I had taken it I did very well on them), and ended up with a 4.5 writing score. So...mistake on my part.