730 (Q49, V40) If I can, YOU can!

Hey Guys,

The reason I said ANYBODY CAN DO IT, is because I truly believe this, I didnt study for 6 months and I am not that smart, i promise. Before telling you why I think this, let me tell you a little about what I could have done better.

1. OFFICIAL GUIDE & KAPLAN 800: when i first started studying I was using princeton reviews, arco, and kaplan premier. These are good materials, but in my opinion it will be hard to achieve a 700 score with these alone. I stumbled across this forum about two weeks before my test and learned about OG 11 and Kaplan800. I overnighted them and they saved my butt, OG in particular is absolutely crucial to have.

2. PUT THE MOST TIME INTO YOUR WORST AREA. I hate reading comprehension and sentence correction, and so I spent the first half of my studying on Quant only because I like doing quant. This is a bad idea. Spend more time on your worst areas, not best.

3. DO PRACTICE TESTS RIGHT. I didn't do a single practice test all the way through including essays and both V and Q. This was a mistake, because on the real test I was soo exhausted..this could have been avoided. Also, doing a lot of practice tests helps with timing which is a HUGE.

MY ADVICE

I AM WRITING THIS IN CAPS BECAUSE IT IS PROBABLY THE NUMBER ONE REASON I BROKE 700. This test is a mental game. I did the following things to help prepare for the test. Keeping in mind that I didnt study that much, this is what saved my butt.

-Ran every day the week leading up to the test
-Gave up fast food and soda for the week leading up (not easy for me)
-Made sure I got at least 8 hours every night leading up to the test

This was critical for me. In general I am not a very self-confident person, but I knew without confidence on this test, I was doomed. Exercising, eating well, adn sleeping well, probably did nothing except give me confidence and mental discipline.

The day before the test, I also ran over to the test center quickly. I talked to the guy at the front desk and he explained to me how the room was set up. This helped because when I went in for test day, everything was predictable and therefore nothing was able to rattle me up. I was able to visualize everything the night before(the test center, the guy working at the desk, etc)

The day before the test, I also looked over my notecards for about 30 minutes and thats it. I watched movies and tv all day and exercised of course. This 'break' is crucial for having the stamina and energy for the real test.

I REPEAT MYSELF AGAIN: Prepare mentally for the test and YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO WELL. Dont just study study study...visualize yourself doing well, change your diet, exercise, do anything necessary to help give you the confidence and mentally prepare for the test. SO CRUCIAL FOR ME

As far as the actual studying, here are a few tips that helped me

Quant - every question I EVER got wrong and every questions I got right but guessed on I WROTE DOWN ON A NOTECARD. I also studied number properties inside and out.

Also, contrary to what when people have said on this forum, i would suggest when you encounter a hard question you have no idea how to solve, dont just randomly guess and move on. I always took at least 20 seconds to look only at teh answer choices and find some pattern. Maybe all the answers were multiples of 19 except one. I would then gues that one.

SC: Spideys notes and Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Guide were critical. Download both! These helped me soo much. Knowing the difference between who/whom, may/might. etc I was able to narrow hard questions down to two choices instantly. DOWNLOAD BOTH

RC: Scope is key. Also if I was guessing, I never guessed on answers with strong words like ALWAYS, NEVER, etc

CR: Practice, no real advice here.

One more thing...i know this post is all over the place, but another thing I did to give me confidence was print out a few posts from this forum of people that did well and inspired me. I literally taped this to my desk and saw it probably 100 times a day. One post was from somebody who consistenly scored low-mid 600s on practice tests (the range I was getting) and got her highest score of 720 on the real test.

overall guys, this forum saved my butt, and i hope i helped some of you out. dont forget to prepare mentally though. Even if you know every rule under the planet, if you dont mentally prepare, you may psyche yourself out on the test.

This topic has expert replies