Prep time for the GRE/GMAT

Originally Posted by pebblegrain

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Are you meeting a March 1 application deadline? It's not really enough time to both study, take the GMAT and do your applications. You should be spending at least a month on your applications alone. Unless of course, you are applying for a very specific program and you know they don't care about the application (i.e. local, work-sponsored, part-time, all they care about is the GMAT,etc)
+1 If I could go back and redo all of my essays, I would have done all of my essays differently. I learned if you want to go to a top school, make sure you have realistic goals. If you tell them you want to go into private equity, you're immediately red-flagged unless you're a HYP, Goldman analyst type. They have one goal in mind: making sure you are employed after 21 months. If you want investment banking from a non-finance role, tell them you want corporate finance and support that. You can change your mind once you're in and the admissions group will see you as vastly more employable.

OP, why not just take a GMAT or GRE practice test and see where you stand. If you score decently in either you wouldn't need a great deal of studying to sharpen up.

If you didn't take the LSAT, I wouldn't ignore verbal. My favorite way to practice CR is to look at poasts on SF.net and find the leaps of logic. To wit:

I took the GMAT in 2007 and didn't study. For the GMAT - brush up on geometry formulas and alegbra (FOIL, etc....). Ignore the verbal if your time is limited. Like Pio, I literally did not miss a question on the verbal part. Granted, I've always tested well and had just finished law school, but the verbal part is still easy. Doing geometry for the first time since high school? A little more difficult.

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Which of the following statements, if true, most seriously undermines FLMM's bolded conclusion: A) The GMAT was given only on Saturdays in 2007. B) FLMM did not end up going to b-school. C) If you are having trouble with geometry, you will not see the harder math problems, like combinatorics and rate/work stuff. D) If you find the verbal section easy, you will find the math section even easier. E) I usually agree with FLMM, but not now. I agree that taking the LSAT makes the verbal part much easier, I think due to the fact that on the LSAT you're training yourself to answer 4 RC passages in around 7 mins each, and the GMAT assumes a longer time will be spent on these. Sentence correction can literally be done in 30 secs per problem and you have on avg 2 mins to complete all the verbal questions. I didn't notice a huge difference in difficulties of args and RC across LSAT and GMAT. I just think with LSAT you're shooting for a much higher standard b/c the raw intelligence of the applicant pool is a bit higher. For the OP, take both and official gmat prep test and get a Manhattan GMAT book (there are 8 of them on different topics, very focused, about $20 each). The MGMAT book comes with access to 6 computer adaptive tests, and these have very detailed explanations of the questions you get wrong. They are also much harder than the real thing, which is good for practice.

Originally Posted by pebblegrain

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Are you meeting a March 1 application deadline? It's not really enough time to both study, take the GMAT and do your applications. You should be spending at least a month on your applications alone.

Unless of course, you are applying for a very specific program and you know they don't care about the application (i.e. local, work-sponsored, part-time, all they care about is the GMAT,etc)

I have a specific program in mind. It's very unique in its focus and in an almost perfect match for my career goals. Other schools are looking into offering similar MBA programs, but as of right now it's only being offered by one school.

It would be a make it or break it situation for me. I will either ace the GMAT in the time I have left or I won't. Same thing with the application process. Because I didn't take my Undergraduate as seriously as I should have, my GPA was not strong. To get in, I will need a strong GMAT score and an application that can really sell myself.

As I said, my time is extremely limited. I want to stay positive and believe I can make it, but I am also realistic that I just may not have enough time to accomplish my goal here. If I don't make it in, I could also try again next year. Plus, by then I may find additional Grad programs of interest.

Originally Posted by CunningSmeagol

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If you didn't take the LSAT, I wouldn't ignore verbal. My favorite way to practice CR is to look at poasts on SF.net and find the leaps of logic. To wit:



Which of the following statements, if true, most seriously undermines FLMM's bolded conclusion:

A) The GMAT was given only on Saturdays in 2007.
B) FLMM did not end up going to b-school.
C) If you are having trouble with geometry, you will not see the harder math problems, like combinatorics and rate/work stuff.
D) If you find the verbal section easy, you will find the math section even easier.
E) I usually agree with FLMM, but not now.

I agree that taking the LSAT makes the verbal part much easier, I think due to the fact that on the LSAT you're training yourself to answer 4 RC passages in around 7 mins each, and the GMAT assumes a longer time will be spent on these. Sentence correction can literally be done in 30 secs per problem and you have on avg 2 mins to complete all the verbal questions.

I didn't notice a huge difference in difficulties of args and RC across LSAT and GMAT. I just think with LSAT you're shooting for a much higher standard b/c the raw intelligence of the applicant pool is a bit higher.

For the OP, take both and official gmat prep test and get a Manhattan GMAT book (there are 8 of them on different topics, very focused, about $20 each). The MGMAT book comes with access to 6 computer adaptive tests, and these have very detailed explanations of the questions you get wrong. They are also much harder than the real thing, which is good for practice.

How'd you do on RC on the LSAT (and when did you take it)? I found the RC on the LSAT vastly more difficult - more dense, harder questions, trickier answers.

Originally Posted by BC2012

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I learned if you want to go to a top school, make sure you have realistic goals. If you tell them you want to go into private equity, you're immediately red-flagged unless you're a HYP, Goldman analyst type. They have one goal in mind: making sure you are employed after 21 months. If you want investment banking from a non-finance role, tell them you want corporate finance and support that. You can change your mind once you're in and the admissions group will see you as vastly more employable.

+100000

You need to put an achievable goal/plan in your application so that they believe they will be able to keep up their placement percentages.

Originally Posted by JMRouse

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I have a specific program in mind. It's very unique in its focus and in an almost perfect match for my career goals. Other schools are looking into offering similar MBA programs, but as of right now it's only being offered by one school.

It would be a make it or break it situation for me. I will either ace the GMAT in the time I have left or I won't. Same thing with the application process. Because I didn't take my Undergraduate as seriously as I should have, my GPA was not strong. To get in, I will need a strong GMAT score and an application that can really sell myself.

As I said, my time is extremely limited. I want to stay positive and believe I can make it, but I am also realistic that I just may not have enough time to accomplish my goal here. If I don't make it in, I could also try again next year. Plus, by then I may find additional Grad programs of interest.

"I will either ace the GMAT in the time I have left or I won't. Same thing with the application process. "

Is this a full-time program? Honestly this sounds like a recipe for disaster. If you bomb the GMAT, you will have to take it again. Admissions will see any and all scores you have ever scored.

If you write crappy essays, get rejected, and apply again next year, you will have to explain what you did during the year in order to strengthen your app. "well, I uh took the gmat again and scored 20 more points" is not a good answer.

Originally Posted by CunningSmeagol

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If you didn't take the LSAT, I wouldn't ignore verbal. My favorite way to practice CR is to look at poasts on SF.net and find the leaps of logic. To wit:



Which of the following statements, if true, most seriously undermines FLMM's bolded conclusion:

A) The GMAT was given only on Saturdays in 2007.
B) FLMM did not end up going to b-school.
C) If you are having trouble with geometry, you will not see the harder math problems, like combinatorics and rate/work stuff.
D) If you find the verbal section easy, you will find the math section even easier.
E) I usually agree with FLMM, but not now.

I agree that taking the LSAT makes the verbal part much easier, I think due to the fact that on the LSAT you're training yourself to answer 4 RC passages in around 7 mins each, and the GMAT assumes a longer time will be spent on these. Sentence correction can literally be done in 30 secs per problem and you have on avg 2 mins to complete all the verbal questions.

I didn't notice a huge difference in difficulties of args and RC across LSAT and GMAT. I just think with LSAT you're shooting for a much higher standard b/c the raw intelligence of the applicant pool is a bit higher.

For the OP, take both and official gmat prep test and get a Manhattan GMAT book (there are 8 of them on different topics, very focused, about $20 each). The MGMAT book comes with access to 6 computer adaptive tests, and these have very detailed explanations of the questions you get wrong. They are also much harder than the real thing, which is good for practice.

WTF are you talking about? I earned my MBA from FSU in '08.
I took the test on a Saturday, and I'm not sure where I said I took it another time. Did you read my post as saying I literally went from a law school class to the test? No, I meant I had just finished law school. Why the hell would just finishing a law school leave me more mentally prepared for a test? I'd think the opposite.

Scored in the 70th percentile on the math part, so you're right, I probably didn't see the harder part. And you obviously know more about the test than me, so I'll give you that. But implying you caught me in some sort of lie is completely off-base.

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

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WTF are you talking about? I earned my MBA from FSU in '08.
I took the test on a Saturday, and I'm not sure where I said I took it another time. Did you read my post as saying I literally went from a law school class to the test? No, I meant I had just finished law school. Why the hell would just finishing a law school leave me more mentally prepared for a test? I'd think the opposite.

Scored in the 70th percentile on the math part, so you're right, I probably didn't see the harder part. And you obviously know more about the test than me, so I'll give you that. But implying you caught me in some sort of lie is completely off-base.

Haha, he said the answer was C (assuming that means the other answers are all not true).

Originally Posted by pebblegrain

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"I will either ace the GMAT in the time I have left or I won't. Same thing with the application process. "

Is this a full-time program? Honestly this sounds like a recipe for disaster. If you bomb the GMAT, you will have to take it again. Admissions will see any and all scores you have ever scored.

If you write crappy essays, get rejected, and apply again next year, you will have to explain what you did during the year in order to strengthen your app. "well, I uh took the gmat again and scored 20 more points" is not a good answer.

+1 on all of this. I considered taking a year off and just drudging through my job (although it would have been a tough sell as I had to have my current boss write me a recommendation). In the end, I decided that a slightly lower ranked school with loads of $$ in a city I love was worth it.

Originally Posted by pebblegrain

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Is this a full-time program? Honestly this sounds like a recipe for disaster. If you bomb the GMAT, you will have to take it again. Admissions will see any and all scores you have ever scored.

I applied this past spring and only one school requested past exam results.

Originally Posted by pebblegrain

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"I will either ace the GMAT in the time I have left or I won't. Same thing with the application process. "

Is this a full-time program? Honestly this sounds like a recipe for disaster. If you bomb the GMAT, you will have to take it again. Admissions will see any and all scores you have ever scored.

If you write crappy essays, get rejected, and apply again next year, you will have to explain what you did during the year in order to strengthen your app. "well, I uh took the gmat again and scored 20 more points" is not a good answer.

It's a full time program. I doubt I would "bomb" the test, but I may not get as high of a score as I would like (i.e. good enough to help compensate for my Undergrad GPA) the first time. From what I have heard and understand people often don't do as well as they would like the first time and retake it. Is it that bad of a red mark on your record if you don't get a high score the first time around? Wouldn't they be more concerned with your latest and hopefully improved score?

I'm not that worried about the essay. Certainly don't think it will come out "crappy." Several of my friends who got into good Grad schools are going to help me with it.

Not trying to argue with your points here. Again, I don't have experience with this process. So if I am missing something, please let me know.

Originally Posted by newinny

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I applied this past spring and only one school requested past exam results.

When you send them an official score report, all past scores are on the report.

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

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WTF are you talking about? I earned my MBA from FSU in '08. I took the test on a Saturday, and I'm not sure where I said I took it another time. Did you read my post as saying I literally went from a law school class to the test? No, I meant I had just finished law school. Why the hell would just finishing a law school leave me more mentally prepared for a test? I'd think the opposite. Scored in the 70th percentile on the math part, so you're right, I probably didn't see the harder part. And you obviously know more about the test than me, so I'll give you that. But implying you caught me in some sort of lie is completely off-base.
Dude, I made all the statements you're responding to to be deliberately misleading. Except for the part that you're agreeing to, which was the answer.

Originally Posted by BC2012

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How'd you do on RC on the LSAT (and when did you take it)? I found the RC on the LSAT vastly more difficult - more dense, harder questions, trickier answers.

I think I got them all (2005), but I also think I got all the GMAT ones. My LSAT, though, was easier than most, i.e. I'm sure MANY people got all the RC questions right. Once you missed only a few questions you were down to low 170s on that curve. The scale skipped a bunch of mid 170 scores b/c the test was so easy.

You might be right that LSAT RC is harder than the GMAT version. My comparison isn't all that valid considering there were 5 or so years between taking the two. The MCAT also has RC right? I remember helping a buddy with that and just pointing him to the more difficult LSAT study materials.