I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi everyone, I just got back from the testing center and I was floored by my score. I would be remiss to not discuss my journey from 650 to 770.
I purchased the complete set of MGMAT books in January 2011 and had planned to take the test last year. I wound up deciding to refocus on work and my GMAT prep went to the back burner. Fast forward to February 2012 and I decided I wanted to go to b-school again. I had heard the test format was changing in June so I targeted the end of April as my first attempt and I figured I could take it again at the end of May if I didn't do well. I read all of the MGMAT books for my first test, but neglected any practice tests until the last weekend. I scored a 650 on my MGMAT practice test and scored the same (48Q 33V) on the real thing. I was disappointed in my score as I was shooting for a 700+ score.
After that test, I started reading the forums and realized that I hadn't been doing enough preparation or practice tests. I purchased the aristotle Sentence Correction ebook and refocused. I went over every MGMAT book again and I did a number of practice tests, probably too many! I did about 6 within 6 weeks. My scores were as follows:
MGMAT:
700 660 680 740
GMAT prep:
700 720
I was fairly confident about my next attempt. I did a bunch of practice problems the day before the test and on the morning of. I found that I got exhausted during the Verbal during the real thing. I scrolled through the score report and found that I scored a 680(48Q 36V). I was bummed. I thought that I would give it another shot, but take more time and study the right way. I bought the Powerscore CR Bible and the new OG. My study technique was to do every problem in the OG and then redo every problem that I got wrong the first time through the book. I focused more on verbal, but did all the quant problems too. I did every problem with a 2 minute timer and would redo them if I didn't finish within 2 minutes. Regarding practice tests, I only did 4 between June and August 29. I did the the new GMAT prep tests once and I redid the MGMAT practice tests, with the following results:
GMAT Prep: 700 750
MGMAT 730 680
I did my final MGMAT practice test on the Sunday before the test and scored the 680. I lost some confidence. During this final practice test, I was too slow on the quant and wound up guessing on the last 6 questions and I was too slow on the verbal and didn't finish. The last practice test showed me that it was imperative for me to speed up if I fell behind. On my test this morning, I skipped some quant questions in the middle in my weak areas (combinatorics and geometry). I was about 6 minutes ahead of pace on the verbal and really slowed down on the last 6 questions to make sure I got those right. I didn't expect such a high score, 770 (50Q 46V), but I am happy with the results. So here is some advice for those of you still working hard at the GMAT:
-Use the MGMAT books, OG, and the Powerscore CR Bible, and apply the techniques on real problems
-Take a max of 1 practice test per week and review every problem in the test
-Review your problem areas and make sure you finish those OG questions within 2 minutes
-Relax on the day before the test! Cramming won't do anything, but exhaust you for test day
-Review your practice test question timing. The GMATPrep software tells you how much time you took for each question, so use that information to your advantage!
-Guess early rather than later
-Eat a plain breakfast the morning of the test and get a good night's sleep before. Don't stress yourself out the night before.
-Take advantage of the forums and read up on your problem areas. You can do a forum search for each subject area and review those problems.

Sorry, I know this was long! Good luck on your preparation everyone and PM me if you have any questions!

Congrats!! That is a very impressive score!!

Congrats on the score! Application time...

Congratulations! You beat the Gmat

Superb Improvment. Keep it up!

You did it...Congrats..

Hi mtt 240, did you find the real test Verbal problems close to those of the OG? Besides Powerscore CR, what helped you increase your verbal score so much, did you redo also the OG verbal problems that you got wrong once?

Why do you think you scored so high on your latest attempt? What changed from last attempts to this one? Any strategy change or study material change? Anything you did differently during the real test this time?

In short, if you have to outline few factors that you give credit with such an improvement, which ones those would be?

Daniel072684 wrote:Hi mtt 240, did you find the real test Verbal problems close to those of the OG? Besides Powerscore CR, what helped you increase your verbal score so much, did you redo also the OG verbal problems that you got wrong once?

bellcurve wrote:Why do you think you scored so high on your latest attempt? What changed from last attempts to this one? Any strategy change or study material change? Anything you did differently during the real test this time?

In short, if you have to outline few factors that you give credit with such an improvement, which ones those would be?

Thanks for getting through my long post!
I felt that on the actual test, the verbal problems were very similar to those of the GMATPrep practice exams and the OG problems. In some cases the Sentence Correction problems were fairly easy, with only one modifier error. If you do as many problems as possible and read the SC forums then you will begin to spot the errors very quickly.

As for the increase in my verbal score, I think there were a few things pertaining to actual test taking and thought process that helped me. On the test taking side, I realized that on the first 2 actual tests I actually deviated from my normal practice test methods. I was so amped up for the test that I was rushing through the problems. I recall not reading through all of the answer choices on some problems and answering some RC questions without referring back to the text for clear evidence. I fixed these issues by making sure I read every word and choice carefully on each question.

In addition, I focused on the Critical Reasoning "weaken" problems a lot more. These questions were my weakest area on the MGMAT practice tests. (You can get a breakdown of your strongest and weakest areas on the test assessment link on the MGMAT website) I found that "attacking" the arguments really helped me to find the flaws in the argument and consequently weaken the arguments. Finally, I noticed that on many of the tougher CR questions on the actual exam there were some choices that seemed totally irrelevant to the argument and, upon reading the choice and pondering it for a bit, turned out to answer the question. This process goes back to the reading every choice carefully part of my improvement. I think practicing the questions you get wrong until you clearly understand why you got it wrong is key for these types of problems.

Congrats Dude.. looking forward to get the same score of 770. Thanks for the inspiration.