560 to 680 in a Month

I recently took the GMAT for the second time and was thrilled with the turnaround I had in just one month. I scored a 680 (Q44 V40) and this was a massive change from the score I received only one month prior. To put it lightly, after the first attempt I thought I'd be submitting my post to the "Disaster Stories" forum. Despite beginning studying in March of this year I waited until September to take my first real GMAT, which considering I applied R1 to my top choice was an awful decision. Although I began studying in March I really cracked down in late June/July and put consistent time and effort in. I will get into a little more detail below but suffice to say I absolutely cracked under the pressure of my first real GMAT, and was absolutely shocked to see 560 on my screen at the end of the test. 560, after months of studying, reading forums and various strategy guides and taking the test with at least a degree of confidence that I would score no less than 600 at the worst. Boy was I wrong.

In terms of materials, I had the OG, as well as the Official Verbal and Quantitative Guides. In addition I had the Manhattan series, Books 0-9. Below are the dates and results of my practice and real scores. I will preface this by saying that I did not take enough practice tests. Looking back after falling way short of expectations the first time around I came to the realization that I was too scared to take more practice tests closer to the real thing and shatter my confidence. This was a terrible choice on my part.

5/31/2015: MPREP 590 Q39 V42
8/9/2015: GMAT Prep 600 Q41 V31
8/22/2015: MPREP 600 Q40 V33
9/5/2015: Official GMAT 560 Q36 V31 AWA 6 IR 8
9/19/2015: MPREP 660 Q45 V35
9/26/2015: GMAT Prep 650 Q42 V37
10/3/2015: Official GMAT 680 Q44 V40 AWA 6 IR 7

As I mentioned, I truly believe the biggest contributing factor to my 560 was letting my nerves get the best of me. I was intimidated by the test and let the GMAT beat me. Given that I had scored a 590 with little preparation I never imagined scoring below that after putting the time and effort in that I did. I work full time in corporate finance so I would spend a little over an hour every morning before work studying the Manhattan guides and taking extensive notes (I learn best by writing things down). After dinner every night I would work through about an hour of timed practice problems in whatever I had studied that morning.

Attempt #1

On my first test day I was a nervous wreck. I had a 12:00 appointment, made myself a normal sized breakfast but then did not eat again as I was too nervous. I brought a Snickers to the testing site along with a Vitamin Water and a bottle of spring water. In retrospect I think I should have forced myself to at least eat a small lunch before the test, as I effectively took the test right through lunch time with minimal food in my system. I typically wear glasses but also have contacts, and I chose to wear glasses to the test as occasionally my contacts bother my eyes when I stare at a screen for a long time. Although a small detail this turned out to be a mistake. I used the over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones that the test site has at every station and the pressure of the headphones against my glasses gave me a mild headache while I was taking the test. Luckily I had packed some advil in my locker (advice that I had seen on GMATClub and something I recommend doing). I cruised through the AWA and IR sections, took my first break, splashed some water on my face and settled in for Quant. It was over in a blur, for the first time ever I finished with significant time remaining (not a good sign), as at the end I was getting very easy questions. I kept getting Data Sufficiency questions, my weakness, and was very likely falling into trap answers (this is probably confirmed by the fact i scored 35th percentile in DS according to the Enhanced Score Report). I took my second break and knew deep down quant had not gone well, but I did not think it was as bad as it turned out to be. I tried to stay motivated to work through the verbal section. Verbal felt no different than my practices, but towards the end I felt myself losing focus. I had to keep rereading CR paragraphs and the idea of seeing my score soon shot my heart rate up. I felt like I was looking at the words but not understanding them. I battled through, hit submit, and saw my score. 560, Q36 V31. I was absolutely devastated. I was just over a month from submitting a round one application and the score made me question everything I had thought up to that point. I went home, cracked open a beer, put some college football on and tried to put the awful experience behind me.

After Action Report

The next day I shook off the mild depression. I sat down and reevaluated my approach to studying. I came up with a new plan, and using the Enhanced Score Report I came up with a study plan that would target my weak areas (DS, CR primarily). I also decided that investing in tutoring might be a good idea to help me really address the problems I was having. I registered for another official GMAT only a month out (the last weekend I could do it before submitting my application). Additionally, I went on the Manhattan Prep website and purchased 5 tutoring hours, to be divided into two two-hour sessions and a final one-hour session the Sunday before my second attempt. I understand that tutoring is not for everyone, but let me just say this was the best decision I made. I used an official MPREP tutor in Boston (for those of you in the area it was Faruk, the guy is incredible and I can't say enough about how much he helped me). The next day, Monday, I was back to work, more motivated and more calculated in my studying. On Thursday I had my first session with Faruk, and we spent the first hour talking about my studying and my first attempt. The second hour was primarily focused on data sufficiency. We worked through multiple practice problems and he noted that I often jumped to conclusions and answers too quickly, often misreading the question or an answer choice. I actually left the session feeling much better about data sufficiency questions, determined not to let them steer me wrong. He also had me purchase and work through the Manhattan Foundations of GMAT Quant book. This book is an amazing source for refreshing all the old math you forgot about and it definitely helped me fine tune old skills. The following Saturday I took a practice test, just a week after blowing the real thing. My results spoke for themselves. 660, a 100-point increase in a week, Q45 V35. I had my confidence back, and upon looking at my answers I noted that I answered nearly 60% of DS questions correctly. The tutoring had already paid off. I had another session with Faruk the next day, worked through wrong answers and took another practice the following Saturday. 650, Q42 V37. It was a different mix of scores but I felt like it was a good sign that I could score in the range in different ways and my confidence was sky high. The next Saturday was the real thing, and I just had to mimic what I had been doing once more.

Attempt #2

The day arrived, and I woke up feeling far better than I had the first time. I had a 4:00 appointment, so I had a fair amount of time to kill. I made myself breakfast at around 9:30, then went to a driving range and hit some golf balls. If you are a golfer I highly suggest this if you have the time. It was an amazing way to take my mind off the GMAT and I left feeling very relaxed. I grabbed a sandwich on my way home and ate lunch while watching some football. I did not touch any of my preparation materials, I knew it would not make a difference. I definitely had a much better test day attitude this time, despite the fact that there was actually more pressure on me, I needed to improve and get myself in the range of the schools I was applying to. I got to the test center early and was actually able to begin at 3:15. I moved quickly through the essay, being a native English speaker and having the experience of writing multiple GMAT essays I knew I could score a 6 without taking more than 15 minutes. The IR felt slightly worse this time but I did not want to get caught up too much in it. I took my first break, splashed water on my face and ate a couple energy chew candy things that are more or less just a cube of sugar but do the trick. During the quant I felt much more focused this time, I was careful to check answers that I was positive I should know, and I also gave myself three guesses to bank extra time for problems that I was positive I could do. This was an important part of my strategy, and it paid off since my last two questions were fairly difficult and I finished with only 3 seconds left. I took my break and put quant behind me, but approached the verbal with the attitude that I needed to crush it in case quant was not as great as I thought. It was by far my best day on verbal, I felt extremely confident as I went, and my confidence only increased towards the end where I got very few SC problems and kept getting difficult CR questions. I had a ton of time left for the last five questions, so I took my sweet time, and still finished with 7 minutes left in the section. I pretended I had 20 left and did not let the looming thought of seeing the score increase my nerves and heartrate like last time. I hit submit, pushed through the information section that was already filled out, and then my score popped up. 680, Q44 V40. As shocked as I was the first time I was shocked again in a good way. I sort of laughed, did a double-take, and flagged down the administrator with a big smile on my face. I waited for the printout, confirmed that the score I saw was real, and left the test center feeling amazing.

For some people 680 is a disappointment. For me I felt like I was finally feeling some reward for the time and effort I put in. The month between my attempts was stressful, I was pushing myself as hard as I could, but it was all worth it to see the improvement that I had made. For now I have no plans to retake, depending on how applications go I will reevaluate this. I think it is important to realize that you read a lot of things telling you the limits to improvement you can make in a short period of time. I improved 120 points in a month, some of which was due to a performance that did not reflect my true ability, but I also put the time and effort in. When it comes down to it, the GMAT is different for every person. I read a lot of posts, articles, etc. on how to score 700+. I took what I read with a grain of salt and looked for experiences similar to my own. Ultimately putting trust in my abilities and not being scared to see practice results made a world of difference, and I am proud of the turnaround I had.