I took the GMAT for the first time on December 20 and scored a 720. I began studying Halloween week (around October 28th, I think). My score breakdown was as follows:
Q47 (81%)
V41 (93%)
720 (95%)
The majority of my study time was spent with the Kaplan Online Premium course. This course was VERY expensive, but in the end, it clearly paid off. It is broken down into 9 weeks of study, but you work at your own pace (I took about 7 to finish it all). If you are familiar with it, I simply completed every "Required" workshop/quiz as well as every one of the "Challenge" workshops and quizzes. The course also has many CATs, and I completed 6 of them. Here were my scores:
Kaplan Diagnostic CAT - 600
Kaplan CAT 1 - 620
Kaplan CAT 2 - 610
Kaplan CAT 3 - 680
Kaplan CAT 4 - 680
Kaplan CAT 5 - 610 (Ultimate Practice Test)
The CAT 5 was the "ultimate practice test" where I actually got to take my Kaplan CAT at the Pearson test center 1 week before the actual GMAT. This was very helpful because I became fully aquainted with the test center and the procedure for test day.
Once completing the Kaplan Online material, I spent the last 1.5-2 weeks going through the Official Guide to the GMAT 11th Ed. and the Kapln 800 books. Because I was consistently doing better on the verbal section in my practice tests, I focused mostly on the Quantitative sections of both of these books. The problems and explanations in both of these books were excellent. I truly recommend going through both of these books, and if you are short on time, complete the last 75-100 questions in each section in the Official Guide, as these tend to be the hardest of the questions.
In the final 2 weeks I also used PowerPrep (downloaded for free) and GMAT Prep (downloaded for free from MBA.COM) and did two practice tests from each. These tests tend to be much more accurate than Kaplan (which weighs your score down significantly). My scores on these tests were:
GMAT Prep 1 - 710
PowerPrep 1 - 710
PowerPrep 2 - 730
GMAT Prep 2 - 730
I took the PowerPrep 2 and GMAT Prep 2 tests in the 2 days leading up to the test. Having received a 730 on both of them, this gave me some very good confidence (which is extremely important in tests like the GMAT) going into the actual test.
I hope this information is helpful for those of you trying to break into the 700s.
Good luck to you all.
Q47 (81%)
V41 (93%)
720 (95%)
The majority of my study time was spent with the Kaplan Online Premium course. This course was VERY expensive, but in the end, it clearly paid off. It is broken down into 9 weeks of study, but you work at your own pace (I took about 7 to finish it all). If you are familiar with it, I simply completed every "Required" workshop/quiz as well as every one of the "Challenge" workshops and quizzes. The course also has many CATs, and I completed 6 of them. Here were my scores:
Kaplan Diagnostic CAT - 600
Kaplan CAT 1 - 620
Kaplan CAT 2 - 610
Kaplan CAT 3 - 680
Kaplan CAT 4 - 680
Kaplan CAT 5 - 610 (Ultimate Practice Test)
The CAT 5 was the "ultimate practice test" where I actually got to take my Kaplan CAT at the Pearson test center 1 week before the actual GMAT. This was very helpful because I became fully aquainted with the test center and the procedure for test day.
Once completing the Kaplan Online material, I spent the last 1.5-2 weeks going through the Official Guide to the GMAT 11th Ed. and the Kapln 800 books. Because I was consistently doing better on the verbal section in my practice tests, I focused mostly on the Quantitative sections of both of these books. The problems and explanations in both of these books were excellent. I truly recommend going through both of these books, and if you are short on time, complete the last 75-100 questions in each section in the Official Guide, as these tend to be the hardest of the questions.
In the final 2 weeks I also used PowerPrep (downloaded for free) and GMAT Prep (downloaded for free from MBA.COM) and did two practice tests from each. These tests tend to be much more accurate than Kaplan (which weighs your score down significantly). My scores on these tests were:
GMAT Prep 1 - 710
PowerPrep 1 - 710
PowerPrep 2 - 730
GMAT Prep 2 - 730
I took the PowerPrep 2 and GMAT Prep 2 tests in the 2 days leading up to the test. Having received a 730 on both of them, this gave me some very good confidence (which is extremely important in tests like the GMAT) going into the actual test.
I hope this information is helpful for those of you trying to break into the 700s.
Good luck to you all.
