GMAT - The exam!!

In my previous post I mentioned about the Dos and Donts of the preperation involved. In this post i would mainly concentrate on the nuances involved in giving the exam.

GMAT - Graduate Management Admission Test.

GMAT is an exam with a maximum score of 800. It comprises of two sections, Verbal and Quant. I will not go into the details of explaining the individual sections. The details can be looked in at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Management_Admission_Test

It is an adaptive exam which means that the difficulty of the questions we encounter depends on our previous replies/answers or in other words, the difficulty of the exam adapts itself to match the competence of the exam taker.

The first few questions is where the exam decides on our competence and adjusts the level of the questions to come. Hence it is of utmost importance to spend sufficient time in the begining of the exam and to make sure that the accuracy of answering is optimal.

Time management:

There can be different strategies to manage time efficiently and excel in GMAT. I will take the example of Quant senction and explain the strategy i followed. Quant section has 37 questions to be answered in 75 mins, which gives approximately 2 mins for every question. I spent nearly 35-40 mins on the first 10 questions, 25-30 mins on the next 15 questions and the remaining 10-15 mins on the last 17 questions. This strategy suited me the best during my practice mocks as well.

A simple thumb rule for adaptive exams like GMAT and GRE, " you can afford to make mistakes in the tougher questions but never in the easier ones"

In the exam if you encounter a series of tough questions, that means your performance is pretty good and you are sure of a decent score. The score is decided in the first 10 questions of each section with a deviation of +- 30.

General Tips:

Keep your cool during the exam, you need not carry any material for rough work. The concerened people in the examination centre will provide you with the needful. I would advice you to take a bottle of water and a few energy supplements like chocolates/ red bull with you.

Never try to finish the exam before the prescribed time. There are NO bonus marks for early finishers.

You have an option to cancel your score at the end of the exam, but be extremely careful before opting for cancellation. Remeber that GMAT is a competitive exam and no performance is absolute. GMAT is just one of the many parameters involved in the admission process for an MBA. 99 out of 100 times you should go ahead with the score you get.

I have tried to cover the general aspects of giving the exam. If you have any specific doubts please feel free to drop in your queries.

GMAT dos and donts

Its been almost 6 months since i have given my GMAT. Got a score of 700. Its an average/good score, no where near an excellent score. I thought I should jot down a few Dos and Donts before i forget about the experience completely. As a side note, a good GMAT score alone doesn't guarantee an admission in a good school nor an avg score rule out the possibility of an admission, its just one of the many parameters the ad com takes into account.

I will start of with the donts...

Donts

1. Do not take GMAT lightly. Its a general perception of we Indians that quant is a cake walk, verbal requires a little hard work. NO. The DS part of quant is quite tricky. Scope to make a good score a great score.

2. Verbal is what i found difficult. Not because of the vocabulary usage or anything, but because of the erratic strike rates (accuracy). Do not take this section lightly. The RCs and CRs seemed easy. The SCs are the one where i was never confident.

3. There will come a stage where you will hit a plateau, do not take this level to be your optimal level. Persevere during this phase. This is the difference between a 710 and a 750.

4. Do not book your exam date just a week before the desired date. Booking the date late is advised by most GMAT gurus. Its a shit load of crap. As long as you do not book a date, your prep will not get serious.

5. Do not join any of the coaching institutes. A sheer waste of time and money. GMAT is all about self learning.


Dos

1. Start your preparation well in advance. I would advice people to prepare for at least 45 days. 45 days is an ideal time to prepare and give the GMAT. Ideally you should be peaking in 35-40 days.

2. Book the date early. It helps in preparing. Until and unless we have a deadline to look up for we don't tend to be serious.

3. Treat OG like bible. Do it once, twice, thrice...every time i solved OG i learned something new.

4. Remember that GMAT is an adaptive exam. Be extremely careful while solving the first few questions. Device a time management strategy as per your strengths and convenience. No use completing the exam well before the time limit.

I covered most of the aspects of prep I felt important. I will keep updating as and when I remember more points.

This post mainly concerns with the preparation for the GMAT. I will write another post on giving the exam soon.