From 630 to 750 (48Q, 45V)

[alanliberkeley]

Hello all,

I just finished taking my GMAT today and scored a 750 (48Q, 45V) and am pretty satisfied with my score. On the math portion, I did not time it effectively and had to guess on the last three questions unfortunately Sad However, GMAT Club has been a huge resource throughout my time prepping for the GMAT so I thought that I would share my experience which I think may be very beneficial to many people on this forum.

Beginning
I started prepping around Mid February 2/12/14 when I took my first practice CAT on GMAT Prep CAT. Here are my following scores throughout the entire process

2/12/14 630 (47Q, 30V) GMAT PREP 1
3/28/14 640 (45Q, 33V) MANHATTAN
4/1/14 670 (46Q, 35V) MANHATTAN
4/5/14 710 (42Q, 44V) MANHATTAN
4/15/14 690 (45Q, 38V) MANHATTAN
4/20/14 660 (45Q, 35V) MANHATTAN
4/22/14 690 (48Q, 36V) GMAT PREP 2
4/23/14 640 (43Q, 35V) MANHATTAN
4/28/14 730 (49Q, 40V) GMAT PREP 1A (Retake)
4/29/14 650 (47Q, 33V) GMAT PREP 3 (Purchased from MBA.com)
5/3/14 660 (48Q, 33V) GMAT PREP 2A (Retake)
5/6/14 650 (48Q, 32V) GMAT PREP 4 (Purchased from MBA.com)
--
5/12/14 760 (50Q, 44V) GMAT PREP 3A (Retake)
5/13/14 770 (50Q, 45V) GMAT PREP 4A (Retake)
--
5/15/14 750 (48Q, 45V) GMAT ACUTAL EXAM

As you may have noticed, I probably took way too many CATS, I used them more as a proxy to guess where I was rather than as a learning tool... However, I began off with an ok understanding of Quant, and a horrendous Verbal... I spent the next month or so beginning in February to the end of March reading through all the MGMAT books, through every chapter and every problem set. I thought that the benefit from just reading the MGMAT books maybe raised my points by about 30-60, to get me to a high 600 range. Caveat, during the month of March, I took a week off for spring break in addition to another week and a half off for a competition that my friends and I were participating in. Thus, all in all before April, a solid interrupted month was put in to reading over the MANHATTAN GMAT prep books.

During the end of March and beginning of April, I set my date to take the test on April 2nd. Thus, I buckled down and started going HAM on all the practice tests that Manhattan GMAT for $49 I believe. These tests really helped with timing, and the quant is definitely a little more time consuming and more difficult than the actual GMAT or the GMAT Prep CATs. However, I think the Verbal section of the Manhattan prompts could really use some work, the CR, RC, and SC were not that similar to the actual GMAT, but they were sufficient for you to practice on.

However, as I was approaching April 23, my scores were decreasing and I was getting extremely nervous. I thought that one more week would not be sufficient so I changed my test date to 5/6/14 to give a few days extra of studying and to only pay a $50 reschedule fee instead of a $250 reschedule fee if within 7 days of the exam. As you may have noticed in my scores, I was getting really nervous since my Quant was OK, but my verbal was destroying my score and preventing me from reaching the 700 level. I ended up reading through the MGMAT SC book again, looked up difficult problems to do, and while it did help increase my V score a few points, it didn't get me to the 99th percentile that I wanted. As you may have noticed, when I took the GMAT PREP CAT 2, I expected a 730+ at least, and was highly discouraged and immediately took another CAT the next day although I was extremely exhausted.

However, after I took the GMAT PREP 1A retake and got a 730, I was a little bit more calm again. Then, my friend said I should take another real GMAT PREP CAT because my score may have been skewed because I have already seen a lot of those questions. I took the advice, bought the two extra GMAT prep CATS, and took GMAT PREP CAT 3. I scored a 650 and was devastated. My verbal score would just not improve.... Then, a lot of personal stuff happened in my life, and I was definitely not ready to take the GMAT on 5/6/14. Thus, I canceled the test indefinitely and did not reschedule again until I was scoring in the range that I wanted to. I retook GMAT PREP 2A at some point and then took GMAT PREP 4 and was scoring in the mid 600s... I could not for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong. I really wanted help and searched all of the internet for advice on how to improve...

That is when I stumbled upon VERITAS Prep's free Sentence Correction lesson on Youtube. I watched all 4 videos, and it completely changed my mindset on how to approach SC. I redid a lot of the problems in the OG 13 Verbal and I started scoring 90%+. I was super ecstatic and wanted more of these videos to see if they could help with my other Verbal portions. Turns out, ALL THE VIDEOS ARE FREE ON IPHONE or IPAD, but for some reason if you watch on your computer you have to pay... Thus, I downloaded the Veritas Prep app onto my iPhone and iPAD and started watching all of them.... Those videos were literally a life saver, as I watched over two or three videos a day... Everything started to click with me, and I thought that I was ready to take another CAT. I then retook my GMAT prep 3A (retake) and scored a 760, when I killed the Verbal section. However, I attributed this to my reviewing of the problems after the exam that may have skewed my score. I remembered that I did not review a single problem for GMAT prep 4, so I decided that if I retook GMAT PREP 4, and got a decent score, I would rescheduled my exam. Fascinatingly enough, I scored even higher on GMAT PREP 4 although I did not remember a lot of the questions... I felt that I was ready, I scheduled the test for two days later on 5/15/14 to take. Ended up taking the test today and got a 750. Although I messed up the Quant Portion... I was really proud of my Verbal score because I worked so hard to improve that over the last week or so. Finally done with this exam and feels so good.

Here are the key Takeaways and Strategies for the GMAT:

1. I recommend self study (no videos or tutorials just books) to reach your limit on what you can do yourself on raw talent. I ended up getting to the around 700 level on just self study and going through practice problems. However, once you plateau and reach your peak, I recommend going over all the FREE Veritas Prep videos. This is because the video tutorials identify so strongly with what mistakes you have been doing and gives you strategies that you can quickly adapt to what you have been doing. The reason I don't recommend watching the videos first is because you may or may not have an understanding of what their IMPACTS or SWIM method may actually mean. However, if you have taken a few CATS and reviewed all the MANHATTAN GMAT Books, the videos will resonate extremely well with you. Then, you can further boost your score the last 50-70 points you need to score above a 750.

2. There will be some days where you will think that you will never be able to finish the GMAT with the score that you want. Learn from your mistakes those days and feel sorry for a few minutes, but then get right back on to it. Just keep grinding, look for all the resources that you possible can to help you. Magically, I found Veritas Prep when searching "GMAT" on Youtube. People click different ways, and the only way to get through the "Plateau" is if you change your studying habit or if you seek outside help in the form of Video Tutorials.

3. How I went from 56% in 99% in Verbal, make sure that you understand logically what is happening. Please watch the Veritas Prep Videos but basically they focus on that the GMAT is an exam to test your logic, not your grammar or reading speed. Make sure everything LOGICALLY makes sense instead of just looking for the verb tense or parallelism. This changed my mindset and helped me improve on Verbal enormously.

[vabsanu]

That really inspired me a lot. Congratulations for your awesome score . All the best