I just Beat The GMAT!

For those interested, I'm an American. English is my first and only language. I hold a BS in management and an MBA. I'm a PhD aspirant.

After months of prep, a 640 is all I have to show after today. I got a 610 5.5 years ago with less than two weeks of prep, making this score all the more painful. I hoped to crack 700. This isn't a huge surprise, as my mocks never consistently indicated that I would do much better. But 640 only represents a 10pt improvement since the end of July.

Materials:
OG13
QR 2nd Edition
VR 2nd Edition
GMATPrep CATS
GMATPrep Exam Pack 1
GMATPrep Question Pack 1
MGMAT Quant Series

Courses:
EMPOWERgmat
Quantum GMAT (Dabral's)

I'd love to give my opinion on the materials/courses I used, but I wouldn't listen to me if I were in your seat. I'd be interested in the opinion of someone who actually showed some improvement. I will say that Rich from EMPOWER was very responsive and encouraging; I'm appreciative of the help beyond what I actually paid for. I will say, though, that the video based learning didn't translate into better scoring for me. Quantum and EMPOWER would both fall into that category. With that said, that's not necessarily a reflection of the teachers or courses; it very well could just be me. One takeaway could be that $ + time do not mean you'll get a great score. There was certainly no lack of financial or time investment on my part. I spent quite a bit of dough and worked my tail off. For those interested, these were my mock scores:

GMATPrep CAT 1: 640 (Q42/35) June 29th
GMATPrep CAT 2: 660 (Q42/39) July 5th
MGMAT CAT #1: 580 (Q38/V31) July 13th
GMATPrep CAT 2 Retake: 710 (Q47/V40) Aug 4th
MGMAT CAT #2: 640 (Q39/V38) Aug 31st
MGMAT CAT #3: 630 (Q45/V32) Sept 7th
MGMAT CAT #4: 640 (Q40/V36) Sept 14th
GMATPrep CAT #3: 680 Sept 21st**

**This was really a retake. My software screwed up and gave me some repeat questions, so this really isn't a trustworthy score.

Now for the actual test...

The AWA was a breeze, but that was about the last of my smooth sailing. I scored a 7 in my IR mock I took in my last GMATPrep CAT, so I wasn't too worried (I just didn't want to bomb it). Well, somehow I lost track of what question I was on, and ran out of time on the last question. I wasn't too worried, though, as I knew quant and verbal are the main events.

Quant was rough. Number properties are typically a strength of mine, but a few of these were exceptionally difficult (inequalities, absolute value, etc.). There was one combination question that I didn't even understand what was being asked. The geometry I was dealt was very layered and complex. I had nothing on rates or work, one sequence question that was manageable, and a really bizarre interest question. To top it all off, I had to rush on the last 3-4 questions--even after dumping 3-4.

Verbal felt much better. SC and CR were pretty manageable, and even the first 3 RC passages. Then comes the long science RC. I got bogged down with 4 straight detail questions that I was hunting down. Before I knew it, I swung a time surplus into a deficit. Again, I ended up rushing on the last 3-4. The last two questions were outright guesses, not even reading the stimulus or question.

Clearly, overall pacing was an issue, but so was conceptual knowledge (quant). I poured everything I had into prepping for this test, which makes falling this far short of my goal (700) that much tougher.

Hope this helps someone. That'd make my day a bit brighter!

fourteenstix wrote:
GMATPrep CAT 1: 640 (Q42/35) June 29th
GMATPrep CAT 2: 660 (Q42/39) July 5th
MGMAT CAT #1: 580 (Q38/V31) July 13th
GMATPrep CAT 2 Retake: 710 (Q47/V40) Aug 4th
MGMAT CAT #2: 640 (Q39/V38) Aug 31st
MGMAT CAT #3: 630 (Q45/V32) Sept 7th
MGMAT CAT #4: 640 (Q40/V36) Sept 14th
GMATPrep CAT #3: 680 Sept 21st**

What exactly were you doing between those CAT tests? It seems like you did cat tests over a fairly long period of time but didn't see much improvement. On the plus side if you could just improve a little bit on quant and verbal than you would have a fairly good score.

What was your score on Gmatprep # 4?

Retook today: Q47 V39 700

Debrief to come!

what did you do differently!?

Congrats!