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lukedmurphy
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I've finally decided to write this post to encourage others that it's possible to dramatically improve your score.
My early practice tests were in the low 600s (and even one at 540). I'm 5 years out of college and had passed out of all my college math classes from high school, so it was a lot of work re-learning the quant info. For two months I studied about 20 hours/week at night, 5-6 hours/day on the weekend.
You really have to make sacrifices if your goal is to dramatically improve your score. Bottom line - practice practice practice. In the last few weeks I was consistently scoring over 700 (710-740 range). In the last two weeks I took a FULL practice test every other night until my test. My last practice score was a 760 and I was feeling really confident on knowing the material. The day before my test I got acupuncture and a massage and went to the gym. I recommend staying active with runs, gym, etc and eating healthy during your study period - it really helps de-stress.
I was personally hoping to get a 750, but was even somewhat surprised myself with a 770 (49 Quant / 46 Verbal). I think the main difference from the 710 range to 770 was in knowing when to skip problems and learning how to make educated guesses. I probably got lucky with a couple of my guesses, but was also very strategic about when to move on. If there was a problem I knew I could solve with an additional 1-2 minutes, I usually would still skip it (based on time, of course). Time management is key!
I used BeatTheGMAT, Veritas for practice tests, Official Guide, and MBA.com for the "official" practice tests. I found Veritas scores to be accurate with the MBA.com and my official GMAT score.
Good luck!
My early practice tests were in the low 600s (and even one at 540). I'm 5 years out of college and had passed out of all my college math classes from high school, so it was a lot of work re-learning the quant info. For two months I studied about 20 hours/week at night, 5-6 hours/day on the weekend.
You really have to make sacrifices if your goal is to dramatically improve your score. Bottom line - practice practice practice. In the last few weeks I was consistently scoring over 700 (710-740 range). In the last two weeks I took a FULL practice test every other night until my test. My last practice score was a 760 and I was feeling really confident on knowing the material. The day before my test I got acupuncture and a massage and went to the gym. I recommend staying active with runs, gym, etc and eating healthy during your study period - it really helps de-stress.
I was personally hoping to get a 750, but was even somewhat surprised myself with a 770 (49 Quant / 46 Verbal). I think the main difference from the 710 range to 770 was in knowing when to skip problems and learning how to make educated guesses. I probably got lucky with a couple of my guesses, but was also very strategic about when to move on. If there was a problem I knew I could solve with an additional 1-2 minutes, I usually would still skip it (based on time, of course). Time management is key!
I used BeatTheGMAT, Veritas for practice tests, Official Guide, and MBA.com for the "official" practice tests. I found Veritas scores to be accurate with the MBA.com and my official GMAT score.
Good luck!
