From 610 to 740!

[blargh!]

Hi all,

Just wanted to post a quick note on my GMAT experience. I took the GMAT several years ago, about a week after being evacuated from a war zone (long story) and scored a 610. I wasn't happy with it, so I left off for a few years while I continued working. I decided to apply in Rd 2 this year, so I started preparing in October for an early december test date (today). I got my unofficial score report: Q47/V45, 740 overall (76th percentile q, 99th v, 97th overall). I'm pretty happy with my score, and the 130 point increase.

I used the official guide (12th edition) and the following Manhattan prep books:
- Official guide companion
- Number properties
- Word translations
- Advanced GMAT quant
- Sentence correction

My biggest weakness was on the quant side - on my original GMAT, I scored in the mid-30th percentile on quant, and low 90s for verbal. So, I decided to focus a lot more on the quant. I can probably verify that moving quant is easier than moving verbal.

My recommendation would be that the official guide companion was not all that helpful. I should have used an additional quant topic area book, rather than working more on the same questions. The sentence correction guide was helpful, but again, it required a level of effort that probably wasn't proportional to the increase in verbal.

I did 7 MGMAT practice tests (5 without the AWA, 2 with the AWA) and then did 3 of the practice GMATs from GMAC (uninstall/reinstall trick...) The last practice I took, I did the full AWA and used the GMAC - scored a 740 on the practice, which mirrored my actual score. My practice had my quant slightly higher and my verbal slightly lower.

I found the mgmat math prep very helpful, but their practice GMATs were much harder in math than the GMAC/actual gmat. The content review was helpful; to be fair, though, it seems as though they focus on teaching you to beat the manhattan gmat, rather than the actual gmat.

So, for everyone struggling... keep working at it! Especially if you're in my shoes (hyper verbal, not so great at math), you can definitely bring your score up!

[DanaJ]

Wow, evicted from a war zone?! That's crazy! But in any case, congrats on the score! Awesome job!

[chieftang]

Big time congrats on a fantastic score. The hard work clearly paid off!

One question about the GMATPrep tests. Could you explain the uninstall/reinstall thing? Are you able to get different CAT tests by simply doing this?

[arpitad]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I have a similar situation to yours. I am very weak in the quant section and found that using the official guide and the first 100 questions in the problem solving section have been quite easy. They questions do get a bit tougher towards the end but may not be the best preparation for the tougher questions on the GMAT which you need to get in order to get a 690+ score. Do you have any advice in terms of how to review the quant section?

[blargh!]

@Arpitd - I would get the advanced quant from Manhattan; I think it really helped me develop. Not to where I wanted to be, but it was a definite improvement on my previous effort. If I had to do it again, I would definitely spend more time on just doing problems; perhaps the official guide quant might have helped as well. Practice, practice, practice...

@everyone else - thanks for your kind words! I was a bit disappointed in my quant score, but I know I should be very happy with my overall. Thanks for the encouragement!