510 to 700 in 2 months!

Sorry this is so long, but my heart is still racing. Thank you to all of you on here and especially to my wife for the support and encouragement this whole time.

ust sat for the GMAT this morning. What a relief. While my score is not what I had been aiming for (720), I am not one to get my self all bent out of shape over 20 points.
I am hoping to land a spot in one of the top schools in the country and am a firm believer that the GMAT is but just a small part of the overall application. It was my feeling that if I could score a 700 then I would have the rest of my application reviewed.

So without further adieu, here is my journey through the last 60 days.

First, my materials.

Manhattan Advanced Quant-Key if you want to master those 700-800 questions. Really helped forumlate a strategy on the quant side.
Kaplan 800-Great book to cover all of the subjects and strategies to conquer those difficult questions.
Manhattan Number Properties
Manhattan Sentence Correction
Manhattan Reading Comprehension
OG
OG Archer-This is a manhattan product and it is huge! I would highly recommend that you spend the $10 and then use this to help analyze where you need help. It also is great if you want to focus on specific areas as it breaks down all of the OG questions by topic and give explanations for lots (if you don't see one you can request one).
GMATPREP

Started my studying a few months back and did a quick 2 day review and then took the first diagnostic test. I did the 2 day review as I have been out of school and not using any of this for quite some time. I took the test that evening and scored a whopping 510 34Q 26V I stared at the screen for nearly 30 minutes before looking at where things went wrong.

With that under my belt I looked at where I was terrible. As you can tell from my materials I had my biggest weakness in Number properties, sentence correction, and reading comprehension. The math was expected, but the SC and RC were shockers. I didn't understand how I scored a 26 on the V when I am a native speaker of English.

Over the next few days I put together a plan and set out on studying. I naturally found myself studying more quant than verbal as it was easier on my mind and fun. For two weeks I divided my time between Q and V and spent about 2/3 of my time on Q and 1/3 on V as I still felt that I was better on my V than I originally tested.

Took test 2, Kaplan Free test, and scored a 580, 41 Q and 31 V: improvement, but nowhere near my goal. But improvement nonetheless.

I continued with this studying plan of heavy Q and light V for the next week and then spent the 4th week gauging where I stood with 3 practice tests over a week. The evening and day following a test I would review where I went wrong and then make mental note to review those concepts.

Manhattan 2: 600 44Q 30V-Improvement in q, but V still the same. Alright, small improvement.
Manhattan 3: 580 43Q 27V-AHHH! Fell asleep in the verbal as it had been a long 2 days, but still AHH!
Manhattan 4: 590 42Q 30V-Well, this sucks. No improvement, in fact, I feel like I am declining.

At this point, as you may imagine I was stressed like crazy. Fortunately, my wife was a huge supporter and had me book a trip with the kids to DisneyWorld long before this journey began. She made me leave all GMAT materials alone for the next 3 days. What a relief. I actually enjoyed life again. I think that far too often I was letting it all get to me and that every quesiton had to be right or else it was going to be terrible. But that isn't how this test works. It isn't like the school exams and I had to get past that thinking and accept that I wouldn't get everything right.

I came back and was more focused. With just over 3 weeks till test date I knew that I had to change things up. I started spending 1/3 my time doing OG practice questions on the quant subjects I had struggled with and then 2/3 my time on strategy and questions in the verbal section.

I went another week before taking another test.
Manhattan 5: 610 44Q 31V-Not a lot of improvement here, but made a lot of mental mistakes that were easily fixed.

Studied again for another week and took my 6th Manhattan test.
640 44Q and 34V: Good, but still far off from where I wanted to be. 7 days left. Took a few days or part days off of work and really focused my studies on the weak areas that I was able to identify through the OG Archer.

3 days to go and I took the last GMATPREP test. I simulated as much as possible the GMAT itself even going so far as to go through the same routine I did this morning at the same times.

GMATPREP: 48Q 40V 710! Ecstatic. Just the confidence boost that I needed a few days before the test. I reviewed where I went wrong on this practice test and made some mental notes...then shut it down. The next day I reviewed some of the mental notes that I had been making and made sure that I had everything all ready to go for this morning.

Hang already gone through the same routine a few days prior I felt comfortable and at ease. I think this was huge for me to not have anything really new happen. I had a Noosa yogurt (go get some if you haven't had some...life changer!) and some water. Reviewed my AWA notes and structure and went in a little before my scheduled time.

AWA was a breeze, just like writing an email to a client. IR was a little more difficult and I mismanaged my time, but felt decent overall. The break was key for me as it allowed me to refocus following AWA and IR. I had a banana and some gatorade and then attacked.

Quant felt familiar and comfortable. I managed my time nearly perfectly leaving myself 1:30 for the final question.

Took the next break and put everything else behind me and focused on my verbal. Saw a number of questions that I recognized from GMATPrep and was able to move through those questions rather quickly. This section I mismanaged my time a bit as I had only 1:30 left for the last 2 questions. Had to quickly scan both CR questions and make quick answers.

Hit the end button and then just waited. Accepted the score report screen and then just stared. I thought for sure I had scored in the mid 600's, but when I saw the 7 as the first number I was delighted. Sure I wanted 720+, but I am not complaining either.

The GMAT is difficult. But it is manageable. Here are some key takeaways:

1. Confidence-This is key. Believe in yourself. I can't stress this more.
2. Weakness study is key. Once you master something you need to move on.
3. Timing is key and understanding that you will not get every question right
4. Simulation of the test and the routine will be key to helping you calm nerves-I wish I would have done this before the last practice test
5. OG is the best for questions. The others are good to help master concepts, but use OG to help get a feel for the real questions.
6. Support, find it, keep it, and lean on it. This forum is great.
6. Because it is so important, mentioned again: Self Confidence.

Good luck to all of you still working on it. I look forward to reading about scores a lot higher than mine.

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