Posted on by Phil

How I Studied for the GMAT

Every 6-10 weeks someone asks me how I studied for the GMAT and any advice I have.  Well, here’s my story!

Unfortunately, in college I was friends with a bunch of over achievers who thought it’d be a good idea to take the GMAT during senior year after they’d secured full time jobs.  So, due to peer pressure and insecurity, I too signed up to take the test.

I took the ManhattanGMAT class which was ~7 weeks long.  Each week consisted of 2 hours in a classroom, and 2 hours or so of homework.  I’d say I did around 1/2 of the recommended homework each week.  After taking the prep course, I immediately signed up for a date to take the actual exam which was about 2 weeks out.  The date was during my finals week at NYU, but I wanted to take it before I headed out for a post-graduation trip to Asia with friends (the same ones who’d peer pressured me into taking this exam!!).

Before the prep course, I took a practice test and scored ~610 (my memory is slightly hazy, but it was in that ballpark).  My goal was to get to a 700 by the time I took the test, and I was around a 680 by the time I finished the prep course.

The number one piece of advice for anyone taking this test is to create and use flashcards to internalize the information you need to answer the most difficult questions.  This was a strategy I stole directly from my Dad who used it to become a doctor (much harder than getting into bschool – so it seemed battle tested).

With that in mind, I went through the 7-8 books that the test prep course had provided, and made a flashcard for any piece of info that I thought would help me answer questions.  I made them for the types of triangles, grammar rules, and for the toughest types of questions (two trains going towards each other, the ones that require factorials, etc).

I had 200-300 flashcards, and would look at them when I had 5 mins on the subway, or while waiting for a friend.  When I’d correctly answered a given card in three consecutive cycles (I put the card on the bottom of the deck after I’d tried to answer it), I discarded it.

The week before the test, I studied for 3-4 hours/day (mostly the flashcards plus some practice problems).  The day before, I didn’t do anything but workout, eat some good food, and watch a movie.  It’s important to rest your brain and de-stress!  Now, I’d probably also do an extra long mediation session but I wasn’t into that back then.

I don’t remember exactly the slope of the curve, but there was a huge increase in my scores in the week before the test.  I started off maybe at the 700 mark for a practice test, and then got a 720, and a 750 before my studying ended (don’t take too many practice tests.  They are good to gauge where you’re at, but take a lot of time and aren’t very instructive in helping you improve).  I’m pretty confident if I’d pushed the test back another week I could have continued to improve…but the commonly accepted rule says increasing your score above a 700 doesn’t help too much in getting you into school.  Btw, I share these numbers only so you can see my progress from the original 610 to when I took the exam and what I did to get there – not to brag!!!

The day of the test of course I was a bit nervous.  The worst part of the GMAT is that they ask you “do you want to accept this score” after you take the test.  Basically, you can say “no” – and it’s like it never happened.  But, if you “accept the score” it goes on your record.  My advice: just accept the score unless you had a monumental meltdown for some reason.  Because of the way the test works, you get harder questions if you answer questions correctly.  So, if you’re getting hard questions, even if you can’t answer them, you’re doing well!

In the end, I scored a 740.  I remember not being completely happy with the score when I got it, and the person working the front desk who’d given me the score basically said “I don’t get it – if I got that score, I’d be jumping up and down!”

My advice is to not put that much pressure on yourself.  And, if you score above the range you need to get into your dream school, go celebrate!  Luckily, I came to my senses about 10 mins after leaving the test center and couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for a few days.

Good luck, don’t stress, and look forward to two of the best years of your life 🙂

14,712 Replies to “How I Studied for the GMAT”

  1. Excellent post. Keep writing such kind of information on your blog.
    Im really impressed by your site.
    Hello there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll definitely
    digg it and in my view suggest to my friends.
    I am sure they will be benefited from this website.

  2. I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog.

    It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here
    and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme?
    Fantastic work!

  3. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the
    video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking
    about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could
    be giving us something enlightening to read?

  4. Hello There. I discovered your blog the use of msn. This is
    a really well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark
    it and come back to learn more of your helpful info.
    Thank you for the post. I’ll certainly comeback.

  9. Great blog here! Also your website loads up very fast!
    What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
    I wish my web site loaded up as fast as yours lol

  11. Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all folks you actually
    recognize what you are talking approximately!
    Bookmarked. Kindly additionally seek advice from my site =).
    We will have a hyperlink change arrangement among us

  13. You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find
    this matter to be really something that I think I would
    never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me.
    I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get
    the hang of it!

  14. What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It positively useful and it has aided me
    out loads. I’m hoping to give a contribution & aid other customers like its helped me.
    Good job.

  15. Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to
    be running off the screen in Internet explorer. I’m not sure if this is a
    format issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know.
    The design look great though! Hope you get the problem solved soon. Many thanks

  16. Hello would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using?
    I’m looking to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.

    P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!

  17. Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your
    blog. You have some really good articles and I believe I would be a good asset.
    If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to
    write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to
    mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Many thanks!

  19. Hey! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new
    project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have
    done a extraordinary job!

  20. Simply wish to say your article is as astonishing.
    The clarity in your post is simply nice and i could assume you’re an expert
    on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your feed to
    keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please carry on the gratifying work.

  21. Hello, I believe your site may be having browser compatibility issues.
    Whenever I look at your blog in Safari, it looks fine however, when opening in IE, it has
    some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to provide you
    with a quick heads up! Apart from that, fantastic site!

  24. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as
    though you relied on the video to make your point.
    You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just
    posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening
    to read?

  26. I’ve been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours as of late,
    yet I never discovered any interesting article like yours.
    It is beautiful value enough for me. In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made excellent content material as you probably did, the net
    will be a lot more useful than ever before.

  28. I like the helpful info you provide in your articles.

    I will bookmark your weblog and test once more here regularly.
    I am quite certain I will be told a lot of new stuff right
    right here! Best of luck for the next!

  29. I’m amazed, I must say. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s both equally educative and interesting, and let me tell you, you’ve hit
    the nail on the head. The problem is something which too few folks
    are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.

  30. Hey! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my good
    old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward
    this page to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read.

    Many thanks for sharing!

  31. What’s Going down i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I
    have found It positively useful and it has aided me out loads.
    I am hoping to contribute & assist different users like its aided me.
    Good job.

  32. Heya great website! Does running a blog similar to this require a large amount of work?
    I’ve absolutely no knowledge of coding however I had been hoping to start my own blog in the near future.
    Anyhow, should you have any ideas or techniques for new blog owners please share.

    I understand this is off topic but I just needed to ask. Kudos!

  37. I’m not that much of a internet reader to be
    honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!

    I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later.
    Cheers

  38. Hi there would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re using?
    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most.
    Can you recommend a good internet hosting
    provider at a fair price? Cheers, I appreciate it!

  42. of course like your web site but you have to take a
    look at the spelling on several of your posts. Many
    of them are rife with spelling issues and
    I find it very troublesome to tell the reality then again I’ll surely come again again.

  43. Good day! Would you mind if I share your blog with my facebook group?

    There’s a lot of folks that I think would really
    enjoy your content. Please let me know. Cheers

  48. Aw, this was an extremely good post. Taking the
    time and actual effort to make a superb article… but what can I
    say… I procrastinate a whole lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.

Comments are closed.