Third time's the charm, 590 -> 640 -> 730

Took the GMAT for the third time last Monday and got a 730 (46Q, 45V). My first attempt back in the spring was a 590 (39 Q, 33 V). Took it for the second time in September and got a 640 (43Q, 35V).

My first attempt was very rushed and only consisted of a disorganized 3-week study period. I studied 2 hours a day for 3 months prior to my second attempt and was getting 700 and above on every practice test. For whatever reason, I just didn't do as good as i thought i would on my second attempt. I planned my third attempt to take place 6 weeks after my second attempt. I lightly studied during this 6 week period, and mostly focused on verbal. I think a major difference between my second attempt and my third attempt is that I scheduled my third attempt for 1:00 PM instead of 8:00 AM. I took the entire day off from work that Monday, slept in, ate lunch, and took the exam.

To prepare, I bought just about every GMAT book I could get my hands on. I bought the entire MGMAT series, OG 12, GMAT 800, a couple of Princeton Review books, and the $80 subscription to the GMAT Club tests.

The OG 12 and MGMAT books were very helpful. Of the MGMAT series, the Sentence Correction and Number Properties books were the best. Princeton Review was terrible, the SC in GMAT 800 were good but the rest was crap. The GMAT Club tests were hard, but not very representative of the real test, and the answer explanations were weak.

I took the MGMAT and GMAT Prep practice tests multiple times. Your scores on these practice tests are going to be a little inflated if you take them multiple times and neglect to do the AW sections each time. Regardless, they are a great way to prepare and get your timing down. The MGMAT practice tests provide great explanations of each question. Make sure to analyze every question you get wrong. Preparation is more about quality than quantity. Also, don't just focus on the hardest math problems. Definitely know your exponents and factors, I had plenty of those types of questions on the real thing.

Here are my 3 tips for anyone taking the GMAT:

1) If you are not a morning person, don't schedule your test for 8:00 AM.

2) Study verbal. Many people fall into the trap of concentrating most their prep efforts on quant. Studying a little for verbal can significantly increase your score. If you are a native English speaker, you are at a huge advantage in this section.

3) If you get to a question in the quant section you don't understand, skip it. You can use those 2 minutes on another question you know you can get right.

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