First of all, many thanks to everyone else for sharing their debriefs. They kept me inspired when I wasn't getting the results I wanted as quickly as I wanted them!
Very happy to report that I got a 730 (Q47, V44) after about 6 months of studying. In June, because I had limited funds and didn't want to spend $1500+ on an in-person class, I signed up for Knewton's online class and took the diagnostic test. I ended up with a 570 (Q31, V39) and knew that I had a lot of work to do to pass the elusive 700. I diligently watched Knewton's videos and did their homework and practice problems. While I wanted to improve my verbal score, quant was my obvious weakness, so that's what I focused on.
Anyway, during Knewton, I took 5 more of their practice tests:
Knewton # 2 July 6 - 660 (Q42, V40)
Knewton # 3 July 31 - 600 (Q38, V37)
Knewton # 4 September 8 - 610 (Q39, V37)
As you can see, I let summer weekends get the best of me and did minimal studying in August, which resulted in a dip in my scores. In September, with a November test date in my sights, I knew I had to buckle down. Around mid-September, I started reviewing all of Knewton's lessons and re-doing their quant practice problems. After finishing that, I moved on to MGMAT's books. I focused exclusively on quant from here on out. The only verbal problems I did were on my practice tests. Much to my relief, my scores started to climb.
Knewton # 5 - September 21 - 680 (Q42, V42)
Knewton # 6 - October 6 - 710 (Q46, V42)
I ran out of Knewton tests, so I did one GMATPrep test, then started doing the free diagnostic tests offered by the other test prep companies:
GMAT Prep #1 - October 19 - 700 (Q44, V41)
Veritas - October 27 - 730 (Q47, V43)
Kaplan - November 3 - 680 (Percentiles: Q 66th, V 97th - I can't find my raw scores from this one)
Manhattan - November 11 - 690 (Q45, V38)
GMAT Prep #2 - November 17 720 (Q47, V42)
My test date was November 20! Again, my final breakdown was 730 (Q47, V44). FWIW, I got a 7 on IR and a 6 on the essay.
Here are a few things I learned during my GMAT journey:
1 - Practice, practice, practice! It's difficult to pick up or learn content doing practice tests or practice problems, but getting a feel for what the test-maker is getting at based on the style of the question is absolutely essential. You only have ~2 min to spend on each question, so it's so important to familiarize yourself with the GMAT's style so as not to waste precious time going over the question again and again.
2 - To learn content and strategies, study from at least 2 different sources. After I was finished with my Knewton lessons, I moved on to studying from MGMAT's books. There were a few quant topics I still struggled with, but as soon as I learned a different way to go about them from MGMAT, things clicked for me. On the other hand, there were a few topics that I had mastered while studying from Knewton, and MGMAT's strategy for them just confused me, so I continued solving those problems as I was previously taught by Knewton. It's all about feeling out which strategies make the most sense and are most intuitive to YOU. Everyone's brain works differently, and sometimes there are two equally valid strategies for solving the problem, but time is of the essence and it's important to know the fastest way for YOU to solve that particular problem.
3 - As I said, I didn't focus much on studying for verbal, but I did have a few strategies that helped me to be successful on test day. For SC -- I haven't really studied grammar rules in many years. However, I do read a LOT, so while I may not be able to name the exact grammar rule in a particular sentence, I do have a feel for how sentences should be structured and what feels or sounds wrong. Read about things that interest you -- it can be on ESPN, Glamour magazine, or the Wall Street Journal, whatever. It doesn't have to be boring, and you don't even have to think of it as practice. But I believe that helps.
For RC and CR -- I read on a debrief here the idea that you have to trick yourself into being interested in the passages; pretend you really want to know what the passage is about. I work in public relations consulting, so I had a similar strategy in which I pretended that I was reading these passages to summarize and analyze for a client. They're not all fascinating passages, but you can convince yourself that they are for a few minutes
4 - Do not get down on yourself if your practice tests stagnate. I really beat myself up after I studied for 3 months and was still scoring in the low 600s on my practice tests. You CAN achieve your target score, but sometimes it may take longer than you'd like. Allow yourself plenty of time to change course and drill down to what's really holding you back. Some test prep practice questions keep track of that data for you, but it's also possible to go over questions you got wrong and figure out the patterns in your mistakes. Don't give up -- you can succeed!
5 - Along the same lines, psych yourself up on test day and be confident! You are smart, dedicated, driven, and well-prepared. I personally watched "Jessica's Daily Affirmation" before I left for my test that morning (not kidding): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg.
I think that's all I have for now! Feel free to ask any questions, and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to all, and have a happy and healthy new year!
