I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi all, first off I want to thank the forum for providing me with valuable information. I would suggest everyone to look through forums such as this one, urch, testmagic, manhattangmat and learn from them. I would type into google practice questions that I missed and often stumbled onto great insights, such as "The GMAT usually...", which I found invaluable.

I'll give you some background about myself so that you can better understand my experience. I just graduated in May with a degree in business and will begin work with a big consulting firm. I really think that if you are pretty sure about going to B school within 5 years time, then it makes a lot of sense to take the test before starting work. You can focus on the test without other distractions. And I knew going in that I was a good math test taker, I got a 800 on SAT Math and verbal was always going to be my weakness.

I took the first GMATPrep right after graduation, gave me a baseline to work off. Then I went on a trip for a month, and started studying for 1.5 months. The first GMATPrep gave me a good idea of how much time I needed, and in hindsight I probably could've taken the test two weeks earlier. However, I tend to procrastinate and work well under time pressure, so assess yourself and decide. Taking that first test also showed me the areas that I needed to improve on and which books to purchase.

Test history:
GMAT Prep 1: 690 (Q49, V34)
Kaplan Premier test in the book: 650 (Q50, V35)
Kaplan CAT CD 1: 610 (Q50, V30)
Kaplan CAT CD 1: 640 (Q40, V38)
MGMAT Online CAT 1: 700 (Q49, V36)
MGMAT Online CAT 2: 680 (Q48, V35)
GMAT Prep 2: 740 (Q50, V40)
MGMAT Online CAT 3: 640 (Q51, V30)
MGMAT Online CAT 4: 730 (Q50, V40)
MGMAT Online CAT 5: 740 (Q51, V39)
GMAT Prep 3: 750 (Q50, V41)
GMAT Prep 4: 750 (Q51, V40)
Note: I installed GMAT Prep on two different computers, so that I could review old problems. You should also be able to do the same by backing up your old GMATPrep exams.

Strategy:
After the first test I saw that my weakness was definitely SC, and then CR and RC were equally weak. So I bought the OG, Kaplan Premier, Kaplan verbal, Manhattan SC, and Powerscore CR. I think that the Manhattan books were better than Kaplan, but both are good. I really did like the Manhattan CATs though, they encourage you to develop a good algebraic foundation upon which to solve problems, and the verbal is quite accurate too.

So I reviewed topics to improve my knowledge for 2-5 days at a time, then took a practice test. I used each test to gauge how my progress was going and by the end my SC was at about the same level as CR and RC. Develop your own way of thinking about problems! I kept a log on all the problems that I missed realized that I missed every single boldface... so find that weakness for yourself.

Test Day Reflections:
Can't believe that was just today, I think that the Math section is a little easier than on GMATPrep because of experimental q's. Also, make sure you really time your breaks well, because I thought I had a minute to spare when I actually lost 15 secs on verbal. I really thought verbal was tough... I was losing confidence that I could score a 40 or whatever would push me above 700, as I was pretty sure of a 50/51 on quant. But don't lose confidence! Just keep focusing on dissecting each problem and doing so quickly. At the end I was overjoyed at my score, you can do it too!

I'll answer any questions that I can help with. Thanks again everyone!

Congrats on a great score. Wishing u the very best for the rest of the process.

Regards,
CR