I just Beat The GMAT!

In the beginning of my prep I started out at the sub and low 400. Prepared for the exam for 4 months off and on, but focused for a good 2 months.

460 26Q 27V on actual exam day. IR was hit or miss, since I did not study for that section, did not think it was important since the schools did not ask for it. AWA was easy since I read many AWA examples. On the practice exams prior to test day I scored 530 and 560 GMATPREP, I was aiming to score above 500 so I was confident I could on exam day now. Highest I scored on the Quant practice was 39! 27 Verbal score was a personal record, I was stunned I scored higher on Verbal than Quant on exam day.


I think my low quant score can be attributed to doing the AWA and IR before I got to the Quant section, probably some test anxiety too, the test center I was at had 15-20 in a small room it was noisy with many people on the keyboards. There were people who were taking other exams who got in arguments with the proctor inside the room not happy with score or time constraints, many distractions. Also, I had a feeling the Quant questions I saw on my exam day were more difficult than the ones I did in practice exams, problems I had seen before, but worded in a way that looked nearly impossible to complete in the time frame given. Lastly, I will be doing the QUANT portion of the 60 day guide again, and this time thoroughly going into my errors. I will go through the verbal section of the 60 day guide too, but I will complete it in a week. Taking 2 days to do the IR portion too instead of 3. Even though schools will not be looking at the IR part, only Q and V.

When doing the GMATPREP practice exam, I will do the AWA and IR section too. I should not have skipped doing this the first time.

QUANT section was more difficult on the actual exam than any practice questions I saw in GMATPREP. I will be focusing more on QUANT this prep. Not sure how I score 39Q on practice but only 26Q in the actualy exam. I guess the factors I outlined above hindered my score.


Trying to improve from 460 to 500+ score in a month and half. Already scheduled another exam day for July 30. Redoing the Quant section of 60 day guide, Practice Exam, and then completing the AWA, IR, Verbal, then another practice exam 2 days before exam day. I will complete 2 practice exams before exam day. This is a custom study plan I came up with. I only have around 40 days to study.


60 day guide-
Instead of taking 1 day per quant day, I am taking 2 days per quant day to give me more time to understand the material thoroughly. When Im done with quant it should leave me around a week and half to CRAM the IR, AWA, and verbal again, emphasizing more on the verbal than IR/AWA. I am trying to meet the deadline for my admissions and feel this is my best plan possible. I took off work for the next month to solely focus on studying and have no distractions, so I have a lot of time during the day now to do what ever is needed before July 30.


9 paper tests- I had the 9 paper tests so I went through them all mostly towards the end of my prep. I think doing the math problems on these set me back. Supposed mid level and difficult level questions on these paper tests are too easy, and were nothing compared to the actual exam. The Verbal sections were good review, and I think helped me increase my verbal score.


Any advice for what I have outlined?

Before I start the 60 day quant prep I am going to work through the MGMAT foundations for a couple days, I think this covers many of the concepts you outlined. The concepts you covered above I will spend 2 days for each concept, and then do statistics, counting, and probability combined into 2 day period, following a custom version of the 60 day guide I made. Thank you for the response.