I just Beat The GMAT!

Hey guys,

I just wanted to come back and write about my GMAT journey and how I managed to finally beat the GMAT after a somewhat difficult battle. I'll give a quick background but will mainly try to keep it short and sweet. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

I'm 29 years old and originally from NY. My target schools for the 2nd round are GSB (Stanford), Sloan, HBS, and Wharton. I won't be applying to CBS since I did my undergrad at Columbia.

I originally took the GMAT last summer in hopes of getting it out of the way while I had a little bit of time. I scored a 610 and was outright shocked. I thought I was going to break 700 for sure and I was nowhere near. For a little while, I felt down and like I was not meant to go to a top program but eventually I snapped out of it and refused to give up. This time, I planned ahead and stuck to my schedule. I studied for a total of 9 weeks and used the following resources along with the BTG forums as it got closer to the test:

Manhattan GMAT Verbal Books (Not much to it. MGMAT is highly recommended for Verbal.) https://www.manhattangmat.com/

Benchmark GMAT (My friend referred their online material and they were great. Benchmark is highly recommended for Quant.)
https://www.benchmarkprep.com/gmat/

Official Guide 12 (Don't bother taking the test If you don't go through this book)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047044 ... 25STSDF51T

So good luck to any of you who are about to take the plunge for the first time. For anybody else who has felt beaten down by this daunting, "career-making" test, don't let it get to you. It's only a matter of getting your mind right, preparing with the right stuff, and knowing what that computer is going to throw at you. I look forward to reading all your beat the gmat stories in the near future. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

FINAL SCORE: 730 (Q50 V39)

JL

congrats, great score! what was your daily study breakdown during those 9 weeks, i'm very curious.

Just PM'd you buddy.

Congrats on the score!! i actually took the gmat a couple weeks ago and scored the same shocking 610...was very disappointed and literally walked to car crying. I did pretty well on verbal, but my quant score drastically dropped from the usual 46-47 mark to a 36 on the actual ...any advice for the re-take?

I used all Manhattan Guides and all OG material....