Before I begin the debrief, I want to thank Brian Galvin. Without his help I would not have achieved this score. He is the most knowledgeable and responsive expert on this site. My RC and CR improved by leaps and bounds as a result of his help.
I would like to thank my Veritas prep instructor Frankie Beecroft. I don't think you will find a better GMAT instructor. If you are in the Chicago area and contemplating taking a class, take the Veritas course and ask for Frankie. She's phenomenal. She stayed late and helped me with geometry problems. She always took the time to explain and answer all of my questions. She goes above and beyond. She was great.
I want to thank Eric and David, through the contest they ran, they gave me a voucher for this attempt. I really appreciate that. I want to thank money9111. He was always always encouraging me and being supportive and helped me maintain my motivation when I wanted to say that a 680 wasn't that bad....lol.
The debrief.
I got the 680 at the end of January. I am in a pre MBA program so we had to have a score by Feb 1. I knew I wasn't ready for the exam but I had to take it for the program. I got a 680. I was very disappointed. I really felt like I could score higher. My verbal score was just horrid. In the middle of Feb was when I took my Veritas course. I was really only expecting help with verbal, but the Veritas course was amazing. It helped me with everything. The way they teach Reading Comp and Critical Reasoning is second to none. My RC and CR rate went up to about 90+% in my practice problems. It was like something just clicked once Frankie began going over those two areas. The math was great as well. I came in not really expecting much from it because my math score was high. I originally used the MGMAT series to prep for math so I thought I was strong there, but I learned that there are things that are on the GMAT that Veritas teaches, that MGMAT does not cover. I really believe those topics are responsible for my two point scaled score increase in math. I don't think I would have gotten the score I did without the Veritas class, so if anyone is on the fence about whether to take a class or not I would take the course if you can afford. You can search through some of my older posts. I was the biggest skeptic about taking classes, but I truly believe that it helped me achieve my score.
The biggest piece of advice I can give anyone preparing for this exam is to realize that learning the content is only about 50% of the battle. You have to spend time focusing on recognizing exactly what is being tested in a problem. You also have to spend time developing an approach. Your process for every RC inference question should be the same. Your process for every CR assumption question should be the same...etc. That is what I learned from my class, and I think that makes all the difference in the world.
If anyone has any questions going forward about how to study, I will probably still be around to answer questions in the strategy forum. I doubt I click on the verbal or math forums though...lol.
