750 (98%) -- Q49 (89%) V42 (95%)

I rocked the GMAT! This forum was incredibly helpful to me, so in an effort to "give back," I am posting my story below ...

OVERVIEW

I took the GMAT yesterday after just under three months of studying -- nine weeks enrolled in an in-person MGMAT class and two weeks of post-class prep on my own.

Verbal came very naturally to me (I'm an editor/writer by trade), but quant was very challenging for me and I wanted to take a course that could re-teach me the concepts tested in quant. I picked MGMAT (which I learned about through this forum), b/c it seemed to have a reputation for stressing concepts and material over tips and tricks as compared to Princeton Review and Kaplan.

PRACTICE TESTS

Pre-Class:
MGMAT 1: 610

Middle of Class:
MGMAT 2: 680

Post-Class:
MGMAT 3: 720
MGMAT 4: 720
MGMAT 5: 720
MGMAT 6: 730
GMATPrep 1: 730
GMATPrep 2: 760
GMATPrep 1 (Re-take 1): 740
GMATPrep 2 (Re-take 1): 760
GMATPrep 1 (Re-take 2): 750
GMATPrep 2 (Re-take 2): 770

ACTUAL TEST: 750 (98%) -- Q49 (89%) V42 (95%)

I took the GMATPrep exams three times each -- a tip I got from another poster on this forum that proved incredibly helpful.

I didn't specify the Q/V breakdown for each of these above, but basically, in every practice I took after the class ended I consistently scored in the 70 percentile range for Q and the 94-99 percentile range for V. So I focused all of my prep time outside of full-length practice tests on drills of quant problems from the OG guides.

Based on the advice of my MGMAT instructor (who was phenomenol), I focused specifically on problem solving questions in the 600+ range, because those had been my weakness in the practice tests. Here are some helpful guidelines he gave me for how the questions are organized in the OG books that I'd like to pass on:

Questions are roughly divided into 1/4's. So in any given section of practice questions in one of the OG books (say the set of problem solving questions in the orange book), you can generally assume that the 1st quarter are in the 300-500 range, the 2nd quarter are in the 500-600 range, the 3rd quarter in the 600-700 range, and the 4th quarter in the 700-800 range.

THOUGHTS AND LESSONS LEARNED

I would highly recommend MGMAT to others. I can't speak to the effectiveness of doing one of their classes virtually, but I found the in-person course incredibly helpful. Their instructor was very good, as were the books that they provided.

I did not find their online tutorials particularly helpful (with the exception of one focused on how to "rephrase" data sufficiency questions), but that may be more about my personal learning style than the effectiveness of the tutorials. (I did find the voice of the narrator in the tutorials somewhat condescending -- they should work on that.)

MGMAT is INCREDIBLY demanding in terms of the homework, and it's pretty challenging to get all of it done if you work full-time (as I do). But you really need to commit yourself to getting through all the assignments each week if you want the course to "work." My instructor had suggested focusing on only the practice questions that were assigned each week from the orange OG book and skipping the problems assigned from the green/purple books. This made it easier to get the homework done, and also left some good OG questions for me to practice with at the end of the course that I had not yet been exposed to.

I made flash cards for all of the quant concepts I learned from the MGMAT books as part of the homework each week. Writing down and summarizing the concepts after I read about them helped me to absorb them better, and I looked through the flash cards periodically during long trips on the subway.

I felt that MGMAT's practice tests were slightly more challenging than the GMATPrep ones (especially in quant). But the ultimate scores I got on the MGMAT practices still seemed pretty accurate.

I felt that the GMATPrep practice tests were right on in terms of what the actual test is like, both in terms of difficulty level and scoring accuracy. I did see some repeats when I re-took them over and over again, but still found the re-takes to be incredibly helpful.

I took two weeks to prepare from the time that the course ended to the time of the actual test. During the last week and a half, I took a full-length practice test each morning, and practiced with OG quant problems from the books in the afternoon and at night. This two-week time period was sufficient for me b/c I was able to take off two weeks from work, and b/c I only really had to focus on improving in quant (as opposed to both quant and verbal). But if you don't have the luxury of taking time off from work or need to prep a lot for several question types, you may need more than two weeks.

OK, I think that's the basic jist. Thanks again to everyone who posted the comments that helped inform my strategy. And if you decide to sign up for an MGMAT course, don't forget to use the discount code available on this website!

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