Cracking GMAT - Things to keep in mind

By Harshit Maloo

(Harshit is currently in the final year at St. Stephen's College. He secured 780/800 in GMAT)

For those of you who don’t know, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is an exam, the scores of which are accepted by most of the internationally acclaimed Business Schools including Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business and so on. Most of us in our pre-final or final year of college attempt this examination for the ISB-YLP program, as did I.

The very first thing to keep in mind is when you would want to give the exam. If you are constrained by deadlines for applications, then as the case may be. Otherwise, I’d recommend giving the exam at a point when you know you can devote at least a month beforehand for preparation. It isn’t usually a good idea to keep it near your college examinations or other entrances (GRE or CAT). However, with adequate preparation, it is possible to do well in all scenarios.

Choice of Examination Centre is something that is overhyped. I have seen a lot of debate over which centre is better for the examination. Personally, the date and time should take precedence over the location. The centre at Pitampura, where I gave my examination is nice and quiet. It seats a maximum of 3 examinees at a time, which ensures peace and keeps away chaotic situations. It is a good idea to visit the test centre once before your GMAT date to not waste time in navigation on the day of the exam.

Preparation time is relative from person to person, their background, and their level of comfort with Mathematics (Class X level) and English. As soon as you begin thinking about giving the GMAT, it is essential to give a diagnostic or an online mock test to evaluate where you stand. This can be done as early as 3 months prior to the examination. Preparation can then start accordingly.

There is a misconception that GMAT cannot be taken without tuitions, and that preparation time for it needs to span months. You can prepare for GMAT in the last 3 weeks also, but you have to make up for it by burning the midnight oil and doing nothing else for those 20-something days. A comfortable preparation time would be about 6 weeks.

The very first reference book you need to follow is the GMAC Official Guide. This book contains the basic preparation material; it will set the flow in motion. It is just the first step, as it does not contain 800-level questions in abundance. I would suggest keeping track of your performance during the first two weeks and then delving into higher-level books according to your areas of difficulty. The Manhattan guides for individual sections are extremely helpful in this regard. As you read the material, you’ll realize that even the higher-level books contain basic material, and acing the GMAT is all about practice and time management.

I’ll go into further detail, section wise:

Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)

AWA is the first section, for 30 minutes. You are given a 4-5 line argument that you need to comment upon. You should aim to write about 4-5 paragraphs of 3 sentences each. It is not a lengthy task. The introduction and conclusion are standard, but in the body each paragraph must pick a separate point about:
(a) How the argument is invalid if certain assumptions are disregarded?

(b) What could be added to the argument to complete it?

(c) Any additional comment on the argument or its fallacies.

Be sure to not diverge far from the topic at hand. Since the essay is checked by software also, it is essential to have the keywords and basic vocabulary – with NO spelling mistakes. If you try and differ too much from the normal phrases and try to draw analogies, it might backfire.    

Integrated Reasoning

Integrated Reasoning is the next half an hour section that contains 12 questions. Each question has 2 or 3 subparts to it. IR is relatively easy, and it tests you on basic logic rather than on math. This is the only section where use of online calculators is allowed. 

The problem with IR is that there are limited resources to study it, so you have to make the most of what is available through the GMAC Software and certain other mock tests.

Quant

There is an optional break before beginning your Quant section for 8 minutes. You can use this opportunity to relax, stretch a bit, have a quick bite to eat (a chocolate does good for you J) and some like to gulp down an energy drink!

The Quant section tests speed and accuracy more than anything else. The concepts, formulae and so on can be brushed up using the reference material. But what it doesn’t prepare you for is the nerves, and the widely observed phenomenon that you automatically tend to double check your answers and thus lose on time as compared to when you were sitting at home and giving your mocks. When it comes down to crunch time, and you see that you do not have too much time remaining, do not linger on a question. It is not a taboo to make an intelligent guess (I made one in my Quant Section!). Your main aim should be to attempt ALL questions as you are heavily penalized for not completing the exam.

Verbal

The Verbal section starts after another optional break. This section tests your use of the written English language. Remember, what ‘sounds’ right may not always be right, because in our day to day usage of the language, we tend to misuse grammar and phrases. The Manhattan Sentence Correction guide and the Kaplan 800-Level Verbal Guide are of immense help in this regard. It is a recommended to attack these rules and idioms a few at a time as the list will seem overwhelmingly long towards the end.

With respect to Verbal again, only practice can serve your purpose. All the strategies and rules that you’ll read about will be of no use unless you can implement them. This should reflect in you mock test performance as you keep giving them.

Mock Tests

There are a horde of mock tests available online, some free and some for which you need to shell out a few dollars. I highly recommend giving as many mocks as humanly possible before the exam. Since all your other practice material will be divided into sections, and the questions will be also divided accordingly, it will not give you a fair idea of whether or not you are able to use all the principles you have learnt in a test like environment, where the type of questions and their difficulty vary.

While giving mocks, keep in mind that your score and percentile do not matter much. Each company’s mocks have different scoring algorithms and a different database of students against whom your percentile is scored. What you should review is the questions you were unable to solve, or solved incorrectly. Keep tab of which type of question persists in troubling you, and then go back and work on that area using the additional reference material.

You should save your GMAC mocks till the last week as they provide the most accurate image of your position. They have two mocks and they can be reset to take advantage of the vast question base. When you give the tests after resetting the score, some questions might be repeated, so do not get too happy if the scores are high!

You should be relaxed the day before your GMAT – if you do all that’s advised above, you will definitely be. It is an easy examination; all you have to do is put in some effort.