I just Beat The GMAT!

I've just had my GMAT on Monday afternoon and scored a 730 with q51 and v37. When I pressed the submit-button, I expected something around 690. So I couldn't believe my eyes when the 7 popped up in the screen. I want to say, thank you beatthegmat for helping me, thanks to everyone who inspired me, even though you probably don't even know it, but without you guys in this community, I wouldn't have made it.
I want to share my experience with you. Hope this will help those, who are afraid that the time left might not be enough or who does not feel good enough for this test. Before I start, I want to say, you can achieve anything as long as you reaaaaally really want it and put enough effort into it.
1. My background:
25 years old female from China, grew up in Germany.
Decided to study in the US in January 2014.
Started studying for GMAT on 23.7.2014 (I know it so precisely because my best friend left for her mba program at Cornell this year on that day.)
Planning to apply for fall 2015 mba programs.
Full time employee at a logistics company in sales / business development
Took 2 weeks holidays just for studying.
Test date: 15.09.2014
2. What I used:
- Manhattan GMAT - all of them
- OG 13
- Gmat Prep Tool + Exam pack 1 + Question pack 1
- Gmat Sentence Correction Grail (Aristotle)
3. Preparation:
- I did a practice test for diagnose before I started, online, with Princeton Review. I scored a 580 and was very disappointed. My dream was to score 720 or above. I would be satisfied with 700, but 580?! But I had to study anyway so I just eliminated the 580 from my memory.
- I went through the math books in combination with the OG within 4 weeks, did all the problem sets and all the OG questions. I made notes on things I haven't known before (formulas, tips, short cuts) and skipped things I could do well already. I repeated the questions I'd done wrong for the first time, both for the problem sets and the OG questions.
Since I had always been good at maths, I just tried to remember all the things I almost forgot 6 years after school. Once you looked at these things, you remember everything quickly.
I do recommend you to learn short cuts and things like 21-10, diagonal of a cube etc by heart. These things will help you loads in terms of pace!
- I went through the verbal books from Manhattan within 2 weeks, same as for quant but more detail oriented. I am not a native speaker so I had some troubles with reading and grasping the content quickly. I was also horrible in SC. When I went through the OG questions for the first time, I had an error rate of 30%! During the two weeks, I almost gave up. I was so sure that I would never be good enough in verbal. But fortunately, I DID NOT GIVE UP.
- I did my first practice test on Gmat prep directly after I went through all the books. The result was motivating 680 q49 and v33.
- I started to do all the gmat prep questions, mostly focusing on the medium and hard questions. After one week, I tried the second gmat prep test: 660! I know the reason now: I was tooooo focused! I did not relax enough! I had to take breaks. I mean, what would you expect, if you work 45 hours a week and study more than 30 hours after work? You brain just does not work that way!
- I bought the SC Grail do have more exercise questions. I found out that the SC Grail was much more precise and concrete with the explanations and idioms.
- During the whole gmat preparation phase, I used some apps to do some questions every morning in the subway. I would recommend Prep4Gmat and Pocket Gmat from Manhattan whereas the latter one only consists of quant.
- For the rest of the time, I just practiced a lot on verbal and occasionally on quant just to make sure that I could still follow the concepts. I did not take any further gmat prep exams because I did not want to get myself frustrated for the real test, in case I scored low.
4. Test day
- I slept 8 hours the night before, so I was very fit when I woke up. Had a good breakfast. Did some warm up with 15 problem solving question and 10 verbal questions and arrived the test center 45 min before the official Start.
- During the test, I felt that some things may be wrong but I tried to focus on what was coming and not on what I did. I looked outside a couple of times in order to relax my eyes. That helped a lot.
- And when I finished, there it was: 730. I had never expected such a score before, but apparently the hard work was worth it.
Sorry for such a long text. I just want to share everything with you.
I think, the most important things are:
- A good "I will never give up" attitude
- High concentration when you prepare, try to convince yourself that you like this stuff
- Friends and people around you that give you the support you need
- Willing to sacrifice on your sparetime.
As you can see, it IS possible to make an improvement of 150 points within 2 months.
I wish everyone good luck!!!

Congratulations on your achievement!
Well Verbal part...how did you strategize?Did you develop short cut techniques for the Verbal part.Please discuss your preparation strategies for this section.It would be a great help.

sameer3105 wrote:Congratulations on your achievement!
Well Verbal part...how did you strategize?Did you develop short cut techniques for the Verbal part.Please discuss your preparation strategies for this section.It would be a great help.

I would say following:

Critical Reasoning --> Learn different question types by heart and try to recognize the question type at first. Then dive into the argument as though they are important info for a project you are currently working on. Try to think about possible solutions during reading. Cross wrong answers off.

Reading comprehension --> Do not interpret to much. Try to focus on what is REALLY mentioned in the text.

SC --> Split the answers and work through it vertically. You just don't have enough time to read everything.

You have to read a lot in order to improve on verbal. I registered at Scientific American and occasionally read one or two articles on the Economist. Try to read faster by reading in blocks (phrases, clauses, several words at once). And try not to listen to your "voice" in the brain during reading because the "voice" reads slowlier.

hope this can help...

Congratulations

What schools are you considering for MBA