Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The GMAT story - Part I

And slowly my "Blogommunity" is beginning to build up. For those of you who are yet to write the GMAT, let me share my experience and what I learnt from it. Perhaps it might turn out helpful :-)!

GMAT is not a test of intelligence. Consequently, getting a good score does not require an IQ of 140 above. The whole story seems to hinge on speed, concentration, time management and accuracy.

Speed and Accuracy: These NEED to go hand in hand. You cannot compromise on accuracy for speed or vice versa. Knowing when to take a chance and when not to, makes all the difference between an average score and a good score. For example , if you have 5 minutes left and you decide to take a guess in a question that you are not sure of, getting it wrong will not reduce your score as much as if you do that in the first five minutes. Yes, this point is in every GMAT Prep guide on the market, but it really is important to understand that it makes a LOT of difference.

Try to come up with a strategy to make that "guess or solve" decision. An example for a working strategy would be : If in the first 13 questions in quants, you are unable to find the answer in 3 minutes, make a calculated guess and move on. In the next 13 questions, make that guess if you are unable to complete it within 2 minutes. In the last set, stick strictly to the one minute time, especially if you don't have a lot of time left. This is just an example of a strategy; you can go with whatever you are comfortable with. The point is that you need to think about when it is worthwhile to spend some extra time and when it is better to take a chance and keep moving and you need to have a rough guideline to follow.

Devote some real time to practice the average difficulty level questions as they are the ones that you would be facing till the last 15-20 minutes and they contribute most to your score. It's all very well to keep practicing the tougher questions, but the "return on investment" is less :-). Getting an answer correct in the first two sets count a lot more to your final score! That's not to say you can ignore the very difficult questions in your prep; you need to go through and work them out too. But increasing your speed and accuracy in the average difficulty bucket would also help by giving you additional time to work on the tougher problems during the exam. The trick is to plan your prep in a way as to improve your efficiency in cracking the exam , not the problem -- this is not a Math Olympiad or a Language certification. It is not an achievement to just solve the toughest problem in the GMAT exam! What you need to do is get the best possible score.

You know, that is probably why this is in a "Management Aptitude test". After all, this is an exercise in making quick decisions, solving problems, knowing when it is worth it to keep going, and when it is better to quit!

... To be continued!

2 comments:

Eric Hodges said...

Hi Seagull,

Welcome to the MBA applicant blogosphere! It sounds like you're off to a roaring start in your application process as well! You're also a very good writer, which should certainly serve you well in the process.
Good advice on the GMAT; I'm currently in the middle of my preparations for the GMAT, so hopefully I can do as well as you have. Good luck in the process. I'm sure you'll be successful!

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's a great start on the GMAT part. I am in the middle of prep too. Losing my concentration & focus is my major concern these days. I sit for 3 days & next 4 days are gone. It's just that I need to focus. Reading u'r post at the moment has helped me gain some momentum.

All the best with u'r apps.