DONE- 730 (965ile) 48Q (83%ile), 42V (95%ile)

[casey.chopek]

I'm done! I took the GMAT today and scored 730. I got a 48 in Quant, which was higher than all of my practice tests, and a 42 in Verbal, which was lower than most. I'm not taking this thing EVER again!

I used the Guided Self Study from MGMAT, which was extremely helpful. I needed the structure and schedule it provided. The class recordings were pretty useful, and the office hours were very helpful, too.

My practice tests:
MGMAT 1 510 (26Q, 34V)
MGMAT 2 640 (43Q, 35V)
MGMAT 3 720 (44Q, 45V) *** After this I resolved to only take GMATPrep tests
GMATPrep 1 740 (47Q, 44V)
GMATPrep 2 730 (47Q, 44V)

Some lessons I learned:
-MGMAT is awesome for learning content. Once I was done the MGMAT syllabus, I stuck to the OG-11, and then OG-12 (this was released as I was studying.)
-MGMAT CATs are harder than the real thing.
-MGMAT verbal sections, specifically the CR and RC, weren't representative of what I saw on the real GMAT or the GMATprep. The logic behind the more difficult CR and RC questions doesn't work a lot of the times.
-MGMAT SC is awesome.
-The GMAT will always feel hard. Thus, I tried not to dwell on how I thought I was doing and just pay attention to doing my best on each questions.
-Use CATs to build stamina. They are not a good way to learn content, though.

I also read debriefs here and on the BTG forums for inspiration.

Thanks to all the posters from whom I've benefitted, and thanks to MGMAT!

[Jeff.Butler1]

Congratulations on the score! I just took my 3rd CAT and my score is identical to your 3rd one. I noticed that you really improved your quant from then on, which is what I really need to do. Do you have any advice other than doing as many problems as possible?

[casey.chopek]

Congratulations on the score! I just took my 3rd CAT and my score is identical to your 3rd one. I noticed that you really improved your quant from then on, which is what I really need to do. Do you have any advice other than doing as many problems as possible?

My experience was that the MGMAT quant was harder than the GMATPrep and the real GMAT. It's been said before, but the MGMAT problems seem to require more steps and thus involve a little bit more heavy lifting. The OG, GPrep, and GMAT problems seem to just require you to find the 'trick' to the problem. I got to a point, about a month from my exam, when I resolved to only do OG problems and GMAT Prep. To me, there was no point in looking at anything else.

After my 3rd CAT I figured I was in the right range and should switch to GMATPrep. I think the extra 3pts in quant just came from the discrepancy in difficulty between MGMAT and the real thing.

Good luck!