Background, I am a native English speaker and I studied for about 2 months or so. I've always had a decent background in Math but I had not practiced it in a while. I graduated with my undergrad in MIS (business school).
Practice Tests:
Gmat Prep - 650
MGMAT1 - 650 44/35
MGMAT2 - 670 44/37
MGMAT3 - 670 46/35
MGMAT4 - 680 46/37
MGMAT5 - 710 47/40
GMAT Prep - 740 48/42
MGMAT - 710 45/41
I used the following books (all MGMAT except OG12):
Number Properties
Geometry
Equations, Inequalities, & VICs
Quantitative Review
Sentence Correction
OG12
I thought all of the books were really good. I didn't get much out of the VICs one. That was my worst subject but I still couldn't improve upon it much. My strategy was to take an official practice test first so I could baseline myself. I got a 650 which isn't too bad so I knew I only needed to study a few months to get my 700+ score. I then studied the math section of the OG and bought some MGMAT books. After 2 weeks, I took my first MGMAT test and used their subject breakdown to start refining my study habits. I immediately studied Geometry as that was one of my weakest subjects, but it soon became one of my strongest (great book!). I then moved on to number properties and VICs. The number properties book is top notch as well, I doubt I missed a geometry or number properties question on my test. The sentence correction book was pretty good. I really just improved by repetitions and the biggest key was to find out about the trick of using the answer choices to break down each sentence. If 3 of the answer have "have" as an option and the other 2 have "as", then it's obvious that that is being tested. For reading comprehension and critical reasoning, I would say the biggest thing you can do is read! Just read books and you'll develop all of those skills, including sentence correction.
Test Day:
Quantitative -
As you can see from my official score and my practice tests, I did not score as high in that area as I was hoping for. I scored a 43 which is lower than all of my practice scores. I started out the test with a VICs question, my worst subject, and probably botched it. Then, I got hit with 7 data sufficiency questions out of my next 9 questions. I really wish that I could have had a better split on my questions! I'm sure that this set my score a little lower than normal but I felt more and more confident in my answers as the test went on. I figured that I didn't do great on quantitative but I was able to take my break and shrug it off. I have the ability to forget about what just happened and to refocus on the task at hand.
Verbal -
44 on verbal! Ok so I guess I killed this section. I started out the test with 2 sentence correction questions and I thought to myself, here we go again. I answered them to the best of my ability and then moved on. I had a nice breakdown of every question type. None of my reading comprehension questions were too long or too difficult. I was able to pick out most of the tricks they were throwing at me. I'm guessing I only missed a few questions.
Getting my score:
So my heart was pounding, of course, as I was clicking through all of the demo information. I finally saw my score pop up as a total of 710 and a sense of relief came over me. Then, I saw my breakdown of 43/44, wait, the 2nd number is supposed to be smaller. I realized then that I had blown quantitative but I demolished verbal. Oh well, overall I'm happy with 710. It should be enough to get me in to the schools I want to go to (UT, Rice, etc). I don't think that Q43 is low enough to cause any concern for schools. I'll answer questions if anyone would like to ask something.
Practice Tests:
Gmat Prep - 650
MGMAT1 - 650 44/35
MGMAT2 - 670 44/37
MGMAT3 - 670 46/35
MGMAT4 - 680 46/37
MGMAT5 - 710 47/40
GMAT Prep - 740 48/42
MGMAT - 710 45/41
I used the following books (all MGMAT except OG12):
Number Properties
Geometry
Equations, Inequalities, & VICs
Quantitative Review
Sentence Correction
OG12
I thought all of the books were really good. I didn't get much out of the VICs one. That was my worst subject but I still couldn't improve upon it much. My strategy was to take an official practice test first so I could baseline myself. I got a 650 which isn't too bad so I knew I only needed to study a few months to get my 700+ score. I then studied the math section of the OG and bought some MGMAT books. After 2 weeks, I took my first MGMAT test and used their subject breakdown to start refining my study habits. I immediately studied Geometry as that was one of my weakest subjects, but it soon became one of my strongest (great book!). I then moved on to number properties and VICs. The number properties book is top notch as well, I doubt I missed a geometry or number properties question on my test. The sentence correction book was pretty good. I really just improved by repetitions and the biggest key was to find out about the trick of using the answer choices to break down each sentence. If 3 of the answer have "have" as an option and the other 2 have "as", then it's obvious that that is being tested. For reading comprehension and critical reasoning, I would say the biggest thing you can do is read! Just read books and you'll develop all of those skills, including sentence correction.
Test Day:
Quantitative -
As you can see from my official score and my practice tests, I did not score as high in that area as I was hoping for. I scored a 43 which is lower than all of my practice scores. I started out the test with a VICs question, my worst subject, and probably botched it. Then, I got hit with 7 data sufficiency questions out of my next 9 questions. I really wish that I could have had a better split on my questions! I'm sure that this set my score a little lower than normal but I felt more and more confident in my answers as the test went on. I figured that I didn't do great on quantitative but I was able to take my break and shrug it off. I have the ability to forget about what just happened and to refocus on the task at hand.
Verbal -
44 on verbal! Ok so I guess I killed this section. I started out the test with 2 sentence correction questions and I thought to myself, here we go again. I answered them to the best of my ability and then moved on. I had a nice breakdown of every question type. None of my reading comprehension questions were too long or too difficult. I was able to pick out most of the tricks they were throwing at me. I'm guessing I only missed a few questions.
Getting my score:
So my heart was pounding, of course, as I was clicking through all of the demo information. I finally saw my score pop up as a total of 710 and a sense of relief came over me. Then, I saw my breakdown of 43/44, wait, the 2nd number is supposed to be smaller. I realized then that I had blown quantitative but I demolished verbal. Oh well, overall I'm happy with 710. It should be enough to get me in to the schools I want to go to (UT, Rice, etc). I don't think that Q43 is low enough to cause any concern for schools. I'll answer questions if anyone would like to ask something.
