Improved my score by 80 points in 2 months

Dear Friends,

Two months ago, I was in the park guzzling a beer and wondering from where all my problems had come. My low GMAT unofficial score report in my hand had no relation to any of the practice exams scores that I had taken during the previous week.

Nonetheless, I gathered myself up and started restudying for the exam at the beginning of June. This time, however, I began utilizing BTG and many of its recommended sites. Now, I'm proud to announce that this week I finally beat the GMAT with a 96%ile score.

Truly, I'm completely in debt to the online GMAT community, especially the many contributors to BTG.com. Therefore, I would like to make a few shout-outs.

First, Eric Bahn has created an amazing GMAT community within BEATTHEGMAT.com. IMHO, his greatest contribution is his flashcards. I reviewed these every morning after waking up and every evening before going to bed. At one point, it felt like we were taking the exams together. Among varieties of practice exams and materials, I found references from his flashcards. In fact, I felt the "compared to/with" SC flashcard came in handy many times. As well, his explanations of probability, permutations, and combinations allowed me to access the 700 level math questions.

Second, MGMAT's practice exams are second to none. Its daunting math section helped me cultivate a "third eye" for tricks and spins within question stems. The thorough explanations created clear methodologies that taught me how to pre-phrase before looking at CR answers. The estimated percentile question analysis on its test overview page taught me the value of quick guesses and the detriment of wrong answer skids.

Third, Kaplan's Question Bank produced a consistent source of quizzes that I used for the whole month leading up to the exam. Reviewing flagged questions on Sundays allowed me to discover patterns. One week, I noticed that I could avoid errors by drawing my Venn Diagrams bigger. Another week, I found that taking note of the phrase "positive integer" in the question stem can make a world of difference on DS problems.

In summary, I wish you all the best in your studies. By periodically perusing this site, you will find every shortcut, quick-fix, and instinctive edge that catapulted me past the 700 mark and into the 700+ club. Now, I'm in my room drinking a beer and wondering where to begin with all of these problematic B-school applications.

Sincerely,

Tim Badley

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