I decided to share my story for those of you who aren't aiming for a 700+.
About me: I'm almost 27, female, born in the USA (native english speaking), have been out of school going on 4 years, with an undergrad from VCU in Fashion Merchandising. I literally have not taken any of this math since junior year of high school.
When I first started my GMAT journey I took a test completely cold--I hadn't even read up on what the format of the test was. I took the Official GMAT prep test and scored a 540 right out of the gate...doing very well on verbal and bombing quant. When I was taking it I literally couldn't answer one question because I didn't remember what the definition of "hypotenuse" was...that's how bad the math section was for me. I knew right away that I had a lot of work to do.
I'm aiming to get into Emory's evening program, and they have an average of 640, with an average 80% range of 580-720. From going to the open houses, I knew that they were looking for strong demonstration on quant so that they knew you would be academically successful in their finance courses, especially if you didn't have a finance background. I set my aim for a score above 600 with a strong Q score.
I've always been pretty good at teaching myself, plus my boyfriend is a nuclear engineering major (so he's around to help with questions)--and I decided to self study. I bought the official guide, the OG Quant supplement, and the entire MGMAT series. I decided on MGMAT after reading the raving reviews on Amazon, and I knew I had several months to go through them all.
I started studying in November and methodically went through each of the math MGMAT books (math only), learning the concepts. I only did the first part of each book and decided to go to the "advanced techniques" sections if I had time. I was at first overwhelmed with the amount of material, but what kept me going was remembering that this was high school math--and I ACED it in high school! I took honors classes and got A's, so I knew I could do it, I just had to re-learn it.
When I took my first practice test I finished in more than enough time on each section, so I wasn't worried about timing (BIG MISTAKE...I'll get to that in a second).
As I was studying my scores steadily went up, getting as high as 640! I was so excited. This was about a month before my test and I knew that all my studying was paying off.
Then, about a week before my test, I took another practice test....and had major timing issues. I was on question 27 of Quant with only FIVE minutes left. Verbal was fine (in fact, I barely studied any verbal). I scored a 510 on that test and rightfully, panicked. How could I get a LOWER score after 3 months of studying?! I figured out it was because when I first took it, I "guessed" on a lot of questions because I didn't have the knowledge to even BEGIN to work the problem. Now I had way too much knowledge floating around in my head and felt that I needed to work every problem until I got the answer.
I took another test two days later and had the same issue. At this point it was too late to reschedule my test so I came up with plan B and started just skipping questions that seemed too hard just so I could finish on time, and just hoped for the best. Took another practice test 2 days before my test and scored a 610 with this technique.
Test day was at the end of January and I felt pretty good after the essays. Started doing my quant and stuck to my plan to skip anything that seemed really hard, finished the section with 4 minutes to spare. I felt like all the questions I did do, I got right, so I thought I had maybe redeemed myself. Verbal went great and I concentrated way more on these questions than I had during the practice test.
When I scored my test, I was expecting around a 610---I got a 590. At first I was okay with this, but then I saw the split: 34Q, 37V. I knew that if I had gotten that score with a high quant score I'd be okay, but I couldn't turn this in. Especially when I KNEW I could do better. I was upset for the whole weekend, but then Monday cracked open the books and started again.
This time, I read up some more online about the best way to go about this and completely changed my strategy. I spent 2 weeks going through advanced techniques in the back of the MGMAT book. Then, I focused solely on doing as many practice problems as possible. I found this article on MGMAT.com https://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/ ... oblem.cfm and bought the MGMAT Official Guide Supplement, and started timing each question. After each question I stopped, read the MGMAT explanation and reworked the problem if I got it wrong. I did this every day for at least 1-2 hours for a month. By the end I was getting 95% of 500 level questions correct, about 75% of 600 level correct, and maybe 50% of 700 level correct. I was doing this and rarely spending more than 2 minutes on a problem. I took a practice test 2 weeks ago and again one week ago--and scored a 700 and 660, both with a 42Q score. I was feeling great knowing I had greatly improved my math skills.
I took my test yesterday and did much, much better! I was getting crazy hard questions during Quant so I knew I was doing well. I finished the section with 30 seconds to spare.
Final Score: 630--42Q, 34V
I was so happy I almost cried. What a huge improvement on my Quant score! I'll be honest that I was a little annoyed with myself because I didn't study any Verbal the second time around and my score dropped some from the first time--but it's still a great score and this should get me into my #1 program, especially since I did so much better in Quant.
What really helped me the second time around was the practice problems and analyzing each problem after I did it. After a couple weeks of this I started noticing myself actively looking for "traps" in problems and thinking things like "be careful here, there's a negative!" which really helped me so much.
Here is the short version:
1. Learn the basics first, and don't sweat the advanced stuff.
2. Practice problems--do the OG front and back. Time yourself and keep a log, analyze each question RIGHT after you do it, when it's fresh. I highly recommend the MGMAT OG Supplement, the explanations in the OG don't even compare to these explanations and I really think this book helped me so much.
3. Read stories on this site, they are really inspirational!
4. Don't stress out the day before. I took the day off work, did some light review, and watched my favorite movie.
The way I see my progression on Quant reminded me a lot of when I first learned to drive a stick shift. At first, you learn just enough to get you buy in case of an emergency. If there was a sticky situation, you could get home, it just may take awhile and a few stalls. Then, you start feeling a little more comfortable, but still have to "think" the whole time you are driving. Eventually, with enough practice, it becomes second nature and you don't have to think about it, you just know how to do it. That's when you know you're ready.
I hope my story of my lil ole 630 inspired someone. Good luck--as for me, I'm getting started on my applications!!
Jess
