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I was busy (read bootcamp!) preparing for and writing the GMAT over the past two weeks. That’s why I haven’t written much lately, but I thought I’d share with you my fun experience with the GMAT!

First thing, this was a really quick decision. I had thought of writing this test for a while, but hadn’t really had the opportunity to do it. So, this time around, as soon as I had time to breathe, I decided to just go for it and get it over with. My strategy was simple: just pick a date 2 weeks from now (well originally I was more ambitious and wanted to do it in one week, but I had a humbling experience). Then everyday, in an all-you-can-eat-buffet-like approach fill your brain with training before it realizes what happened and gets tired!

I stuck to a strict and intensive schedule to make sure I do well on the test. I tried to do a timed test a day, but in the end I had 4 or 5 tests under my belt. I highly recommend the GMATPrep and POWERPREP tests. I also did most of the GMAT Official Review (11th ed, the orange one) and read through some parts of GMAT 800 by Kaplan.

In the final days of prep, I came across this website which I wish I’d seen much earlier: Beat The GMAT. I highly recommend having a look at this. I also took review notes while studying the books and writing tests. I’ve included a part of the document here (GMAT study notes). If you are interested in the full document, send me an email. (I’m doing this to see how many people are actually interested)

Another piece of the strategy was time management. This changes from person to person, but I came up with and used the easy-to-memorize V19-40-30-20/Q17-40-27-20 rule for myself. This cryptic rule basically means: For Verbal, be on question 19 or further when the clock shows that you have 40 minutes left, and be on question 30 or further when it hits 20 minutes. Same for the Quantitative section. I have a spreadsheet for helping with making these rules. If you are interested in seeing and using it, let me know.

Also, make sure you don’t forget preparing for the Analytical Writing Assessment part. There are good resources online (listed at the bottom) for practicing and improving time-management for these essays.

In the end, I had a blast on the test day. And the result was amazing, too. Actually, way better than expected! I had studied hard to get a score above 700. I was pleasantly shocked to see my score in the end. If I were a little better at marketing, I would change the title of this post to: “get an unbelievable GMAT score in two weeks!”

Hope this post is of use.

Last but definitely not least, I’d like to thank Kevin Au and Todd Presswood for sharing with me invaluable information regarding the test.

Additional Material

Email me for this stuff:

• The full study notes
• The Time-Management Rule Maker spreadsheet
• My actual score if you’re interested

Online Resources

Here is a list of webpages that I may have used.

• http://www.4tests.com/exams/examdetail.asp?eid=31
• http://www.crack-gmat.com/gmat-test.htm
• http://www.projectgmat.com/problems.html
• http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com/2005/08/reflecting-on-my-gmat-experience.html
• http://www.mba.com
• http://www.kaptest.com/Business/Business-School/BU_home.html