From 0 to 710 with Target Test Prep and e-gmat!

So I recently got 710 (Quant - 47, Verbal - 40), and decided to share my story.

I started my GMAT journey sometime in March, this year. Purchased Kaplan Premier 2015 and took diagnostic test, and well, the score was just shameful â˜º
So after reading bunch of posts at Beatthegmat.com and gmatclub.com, I came up with a strategy to study Kaplan Premier for around a month to get familiar with the test and then study all the concepts in details with full set of Manhattan 6th edition. The reason why I decided to follow this strategy was that I did not feel comfortable with any part of the test; all of them required a lot of work. So after completing Kaplan, and studying with Manhattan books for around 3 month, I felt that I am very comfortable with the majority of concepts. I took another CAT, and it was 410!!! Maan, was I bummedâ˜¹ I realized, the working with Manhattan books is not working for me, and I need to completely change my strategy.

I shopped around for online courses, and came across Target Test Prep. After using the free 5-days trial, I changed my attitude towards quant completely. These are the reasons why I liked TTP:

1. It is the SINGLE STUDY MATERIAL I used to improve my quant. The course gives the lectures, practice questions with solution videos, evaluation of my weak parts. The quality of lectures is exceptional, they are short and to the point, and they teach all possible strategies and skills I can possibly need for quant. I didn't need to buy any more materials for quant, and I liked it a lot. Those courses and books can get really pricey!
2. TONS of practice questions. I think the main disadvantage of books like Manhattan Prep is a lot of theory and only 10 questions after each chapter. It is not enough! I realized for GMAT, one needs to develop and ingrain the strategies for each type of question deep in the brain, so during the test the strategies will pop like a second nature. For that I needed a LOT of quality practice questions.
3. COST. It is definitely cheaper to buy monthly or 4-months subscription with TTP, than spending couple of hundred dollars on VARIOUS books (what I did), get no results, feel frustrated, and finally get subscription to TTP. I could have avoided those unnecessary costs, if I would come across TTP earlier.
4. Finally, the software is very well structured and designed, it is such a pleasure to use such a high quality website.

So after purchasing 4-months subscription for TTP, I worked on every single topic I didn't feel comfortable with. I first reviewed the lectures, did all the practice questions in the lectures. After that, I started with easy practice questions, and after feeling very comfortable with them, I moved to medium and high level questions. I always tried to achieve high level of correctness in my practice tests. If I felt that some concepts are still kind of wiggly, I went back to the lecture and reviewed it again. Great part is that on the bottom of every question, I could see the topic that question refers to, so it was easy to review that part again. That was pretty much my strategy for quant. I didn't find those daily practice questions you get from beatthegmat helpful, because they are posted by the students, and I have to scroll down the list to find the right solution. And if I get lucky, there would be solution by gmat tutor, if not, I would just end up wasting my time. Some people find those questions useful, but they didn't work for me.

My final advice for Quant:
1. Study with Target Test Prep. Start with easy questions. Never attempts hard questions, they are useless if you are not comfortable with the concept. Hard questions, without good basis, will just wear you out and crush your spirit.
2. Stay focused on one study material. There are so many sources, free and paid, but if you end up attempting all those questions without any clear strategy in mind, you will just waste your time.
3. General advice: Before starting preparation, set the exam date. If you are a procrastinator like me, it is a very good strategy to have a deadline. Without a clear deadline, you will not pace yourself and will lose precious time.

For verbal, I signed up on e-gmat.com. I first wasn't very impressed with the lectures: it seemed like the lady is reading the lectures instead of explaining them. This manner seemed very dull and unappealing. I also didn't like the website itself, it requires some getting used to, not very well structured. But I couldn't find any other affordable verbal course and decided give it a try. After taking few lectures, I took one of those free live lectures and it made me to change my mind about this program â˜º Looking past the unappealing design and other factors, e-gmat teaches the strategies that really work!

1.In RC, I would get a lot of mistakes before applying the e-gmat reading strategies. But after practicing the strategies for quite a bit, my accuracy level increased a lot!
2. SC is the same, I applied the strategy of reading and understanding each sentence, finding the mistake and looking for a sentence that fixes that mistake in the answer choices.
3. For CR, I memorized the strategy to be applied towards each question type, understood the premises, conclusion, and predict the answer before reading the questions.

E-gmat strategies do not work overnight, but after practicing with a fair number of questions, you will see, they WORK!

Also, of course, I did do all of the Official Guide questions (quant and verbal) twice. They are great practice questions, but after doing them so many times, I just memorized them all:)) I found the practice questions from Target prep and e-gmat more helpful, because 1) there are more of them, and 2) they are great quality.

Finally, I want to say that there is no way to trick your way in GMAT. It requires a clear understanding of each and every concept. I am sure there are people out there who can take GMAT without any significant preparation. But to people like me, I want to say, stay focused, use Target Test Prep and e-gmat courses and you will get the score you want â˜º

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