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How I got a 770 in 5 months


BGPC Eliza

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I knew early on that I wanted to do a JD/MBA program, which meant that I had to take BOTH the LSAT and the GMAT. I agonized over which test to take first and after a lot of research, I ultimately decided that I should do the LSAT first. The reason I decided to do this is because of the two sections that overlap on the tests (Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning) the ones on the LSAT tend to be harder. This worked out for me, because when it came time to study for the GMAT, I didn’t need to study those sections at all.

 

Overall, I studied for the GMAT for about 5 months. I wasn’t living in a place that offered any courses and my internet wasn’t very good, so I couldn’t take a live online or classroom courses, so I decided to study on my own. The first few months, I spent casually studying and working my way through all the Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides (except reading comprehension and critical reasoning, which I only skimmed), then I went through all the questions in the OG guide and then the Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant book. In the final two weeks before my test, I took a full CAT practice test 5 times per week. A lot of forums discourage taking too many practice tests, because they say you are not learning anything new when you take the practice tests, and you need to do some serious review of critical information before taking another practice test. While this is true, I think the key last step to studying is training your brain to be high functioning for the full 3.5 hours. Once you know you are capable of getting your goal score, you then need to ensure that you can get it under less than ideal circumstances. Its a marathon, not a sprint, so it is helpful to build up your brains capacity to dealing with difficult problems for a full 3.5 hours.

 

The final two days before my test, I gave my brain a break to rejuvenate and did absolutely no studying, so that I could be in my best form when I showed up on test day. I also went to the test center the day before the test, so I wasn’t stressed about how to find it the actual day. Another key part of my studying was making sure I maintained a good schedule of sleeping 8 hours a night, exercising every day and eating brain boosting food like whole grains, fish and broccoli.

The day of the test, I tried to remain calm, taking deep relaxing breaths if I was getting too nervous. I took full advantage of all the time offered in the form of breaks and brought snacks and water to have during those breaks. Ultimately, I was extremely happy with my score with a 42 in Verbal, a 51 in Quant, 8 on IR and 5.5 on the AWA essay. I have now decided to take what I learned and use it to help others through my own GMAT website!

 

I hope this helps other people find the best way for them to study!

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys,

 

I wanted to elaborate on my strategy in case that helped people. While going through MGMAT guides I took detailed notes and when I finished each book, I summarized everything I learned in the form of a cheat sheet. For the quant and SC sections, I think that is really important, because there is so many rules to learn. As I previously stated, for the R and CR sections I only skimmed the guides, but even if I hadn't taken the LSAT previously I don't think it is as important to take detailed notes for that section, because unlike the other sections you are not learning any new facts, just learning how to take the test.

 

Overall, I think the most important fist step in creating your study plan is assessing your needs by taking a practice test. After you have done this you can see how far away you are from your target score and where your weaknesses are.

 

Hope this helps and good luck!

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