I beat it! 710 (45Q, 41V)

GMAT Prep:
I started studying in early June for probably about an hour per day / 4 days per week. I took the first gmatprep (the official practice test provided by GMAC) in late June and scored a 680. Unfortunately, I saw several questions that I had previously answered in the OG. This score probably was not representative but I didn't realize it at the time.

I continued to study by answering questions in the OG (both the main one and the separate math and verbal) and was starting to feel good about my abilities. I signed up to take the test in mid-September. About a week before the test I took the second gmatprep and again scored a 680. Again, I saw several repeats. I (incorrectly) convinced myself that this was a representative score. I thought that if I could score a 680 on the gmatprep that I could definitely score a 700 on the real test.

On test day I was extremely nervous. I began the test and immediately realized that I should have spent a little time preparing for the essays. Because I didn't prepare for them, the essays took a lot of brainpower. I was already flustered by the time I got to the math section and I felt like I was guessing on every other question. It seemed like the questions were MUCH more difficult than the OG. I got to verbal and I had a similar experience - very difficult critical reasoning questions, reading passages I didn't understand, and sentence correction questions where I found myself guessing between 3-4 of the answer choices. I finished the test, clicked report scores and prayed that my guessing had yielded a 700. How naive of me! The 640 popped up and I was distraught... I got a 41 on verbal but a horrible score (by my standards) on the math (somewhere around the 55%).

The GMAT was not over for me. I hired a private tutor to improve my math score. We had 8 sessions (2hrs each) where we covered different topics such as rates, combinations & permutations, work problems, geometry, etc. This helped a lot.

I took 3 MGMAT practice math tests (Late December) and scored between 44 and 48 on each one. I then took 3 full MGMAT practice tests in late December/Early January scoreing 680, 670, and 690. The problem was that my verbal scores were slipping into the mid 30's. I really think that MGMAT underestimates verbal scores. I was starting to feel confident and signed up for the GMAT on Feb. 23 (today).

Also during this time I purchased MGMAT sentence correction per its good reviews on this message board. I agree with many others in that this book is extremely helpful. I highly recommend it.

Two weeks before the test I retook the first gmatprep practice test and scored a 690 but did not recognize any of the questions since I wasn't using the OG that much anymore. One week before the test, I retook gmatprep2 test and scored a 720 and I didn't recognize any questions. Things were finally coming together. I believe that taking lots of practice tests is a great way to study - especially MGMAT because they provide a full breakdown of the questions you got right/wrong.

This past week leading up to the test, I reread MGMAT sentence correction and did the last 25 questions in each of the math sections of the OG. I agree with many others in that the math questions in the OG are not representative of the real test and too easy except for the last 20-30 in each section. I also did several reading comprehension passages just to get my mind back in that mode (that being the mode of paying attention while reading the most incredibily boring topics). It is EXTREMELY important to go over the questions you get wrong and actually understand how to get the right answer. When I first started studying, I would just breeze over the answer explanations on the questions I got wrong - BIG MISTAKE.

I woke up test morning at 5:30AM so I could get my brain functioning, drank a Red Bull and drove over to the testing center. Again I was extremely nervous. Fortunately though, I had prepared for the essays this time (just read over about 10 of the samples provided on this message board) and was able to breeze through them. I got to the math section and felt like I was getting every questions right. I was thinking at least a 48 scaled score when I finished 7 minutes early. While I probably should have spent more time on a few questions, I did adopt the practice of entirely guessing on a couple of the questions if I had no idea how to do them. As many people have said on here before, it is horrible to waste 6 minutes on a question and then not get it right.

I got to the verbal section and breezed through it finishing 8 minutes early. I thought I did ok, perhaps a 39 scaled score. But I was really hoping that my math would be able to get me in the 700 arena.

Finally I got to see my score and was elated/relieved/didn't want to touch my computer because I was afraid the score might somehow disappear...haha.

This is my first real post on this message board and I'd like to thank the creators and everyone who contributes. I'd say that this site was the main tool that got me into the 700s. I think I came to it every day and was inspired by all the great scores that people were getting. It was almost one of those, "if they can do it then so can I" sort of things.

Best of luck to all studying! You can do it!

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