I began studying for the GMAT in January of 2013 and set a goal of 700 early on. I started with a Kaplan book and then took a course by Manhattan GMAT from March to May of that year. This was a decent intro to the test, offering some basic tips and outlining key concepts, but I don't think this was a great use of my time overall. The Kaplan book is full of a lot of fluff; the authors really want their personalities to shine as you read. There is less fluff in the Manhattan material, but sitting in class is not very productive. You waste a lot of time waiting for others to noodle through things you might already know. I decided to hire a private tutor and had one recommended to me by a friend. The tutor worked for the Princeton Review he hooked me up with some of their test books and practice tests. I met with him about 10 times, but I still wasn't improving much. He would zip through answers quickly and cover several topics in one session. I don't think I retained much of what was taught in these sessions as my practice tests didn't change much. I took the test in August of 2013 and scored 640 (44Q, 34V), which was a huge disappointment as I had been testing in the high 670-700 range. I ended up postponing my application for a year and I didn't study for several months.
When I finally picked things up again the following year I started looking for a second tutor. I found an ad for Target Test Prep and had a quick chat with Jeff (their head of GMAT instruction) about it. I have to say I was skeptical at first, but once I started working with the material, I realized quickly how superior the Target Test Prep Online GMAT Math Self-Study Course was to all the other GMAT curriculums I had used. There was no fluff (jokes, analogies, stories - which is one of the reasons why I hated the other material). TTP is just straightforward GMAT concepts broken out by topic and each one gets to the meat of what you need to know immediately. This was when the tide started to turn for me. Jeff at TTP would drill me on concepts until I was comfortable with them, and then test me again on those concepts randomly at a later date to make sure I still knew them. I found myself shaving precious seconds off my problem setup time as I was increasingly able to look at a problem and know exactly what to do. My practice tests started to rise within a few weeks. 700, 720, I even scored a 760 on a GMAC test. When I walked into the test center in September 2014, I was confident and ended up hitting my 700 goal (46Q, 40V). The only trouble was that I was no longer stratified with a 700 as I KNEW I could do better and the 46 quant was lower than I was use to. I think I just had a bad day as I also scored 3 on the integrated reasoning section, which was also way below where I normally tested. I rescheduled the test immediately and had a few more sessions with Jeff just to stay fresh. I cooled down on studying a bit and my final sessions with Jeff focused on the most important topics on the test (number properties, inequalities, etc.). I scored 720 (48Q, 41V). All-in-all I'm pretty happy with 720 although I think I could have done better. It's a bit annoying to have not done as well as I was doing on my practice test, but continually raising my target goal was a much better place than had been before: studying like crazy and seeing little to no results.
In short, there are three elements that are key to this test. 1) You must be willing to put in the time. You are not going to raise your score 100 points with 10 hours of studying. It's hard to raise your score that much, but it can be done if you keep at it. 2) Know your weaknesses. You have to take some practice tests and figure out where you are really struggling and then focus on those areas. This is hard as it's easier to study the things you better at. You have to avoid this and spend tones of time on the stuff you hate. 3) Find some good material to study. I've heard various perspectives on different material, but for me, I was struggling in quant couldn't really move the needle until I started using Target Test Prep. This material, coupled with the official guide, was key to my success.
When I finally picked things up again the following year I started looking for a second tutor. I found an ad for Target Test Prep and had a quick chat with Jeff (their head of GMAT instruction) about it. I have to say I was skeptical at first, but once I started working with the material, I realized quickly how superior the Target Test Prep Online GMAT Math Self-Study Course was to all the other GMAT curriculums I had used. There was no fluff (jokes, analogies, stories - which is one of the reasons why I hated the other material). TTP is just straightforward GMAT concepts broken out by topic and each one gets to the meat of what you need to know immediately. This was when the tide started to turn for me. Jeff at TTP would drill me on concepts until I was comfortable with them, and then test me again on those concepts randomly at a later date to make sure I still knew them. I found myself shaving precious seconds off my problem setup time as I was increasingly able to look at a problem and know exactly what to do. My practice tests started to rise within a few weeks. 700, 720, I even scored a 760 on a GMAC test. When I walked into the test center in September 2014, I was confident and ended up hitting my 700 goal (46Q, 40V). The only trouble was that I was no longer stratified with a 700 as I KNEW I could do better and the 46 quant was lower than I was use to. I think I just had a bad day as I also scored 3 on the integrated reasoning section, which was also way below where I normally tested. I rescheduled the test immediately and had a few more sessions with Jeff just to stay fresh. I cooled down on studying a bit and my final sessions with Jeff focused on the most important topics on the test (number properties, inequalities, etc.). I scored 720 (48Q, 41V). All-in-all I'm pretty happy with 720 although I think I could have done better. It's a bit annoying to have not done as well as I was doing on my practice test, but continually raising my target goal was a much better place than had been before: studying like crazy and seeing little to no results.
In short, there are three elements that are key to this test. 1) You must be willing to put in the time. You are not going to raise your score 100 points with 10 hours of studying. It's hard to raise your score that much, but it can be done if you keep at it. 2) Know your weaknesses. You have to take some practice tests and figure out where you are really struggling and then focus on those areas. This is hard as it's easier to study the things you better at. You have to avoid this and spend tones of time on the stuff you hate. 3) Find some good material to study. I've heard various perspectives on different material, but for me, I was struggling in quant couldn't really move the needle until I started using Target Test Prep. This material, coupled with the official guide, was key to my success.
