790 with 1 week of studying (holding your pee works!)

I took the GMAT today and received a score of 790. I started studying about 6 days ago. Am I smart? Yes. Am I smarter than any of you? No. With that said, I just wanted to share my experience and how I studied, with the hopes of helping people who are at a low 700 level (with a roughly balanced verbal and quant) make the most of their study time and reach 750+

My Week (I didn't specifically plan it out this way, it's just an account of what happened):

Day 1 - Practiced questions of all types. Not timed. Focused on the logic of how one would come up with the answer to a question rather than the answer to the question itself.
Day 2 - Did a GMATPrep exam, did not know what I was facing so completely bombed Data Sufficiency and Sentence Correction questions - Scored 700. Practiced only Data Sufficiency and Sentence Correction questions. Made a mental checklist of Sentence Correction rules to check off when faced with difficult question. Learned to completely ignore whether a sentence "sounded right" (it's a huge distraction and disrupts focus) and rely purely on rules.
Day 3 - Practiced only Data Sufficiency questions. Every question I got wrong, I wrote down the reason on a sheet of paper. I then figured out which were because of a lack of knowledge/unclear understanding of basic concepts (e.g. number theory, standard deviation, etc). Looked up articles on Wikipedia to supplement knowledge as well as made a cheat sheet of concepts (e.g. standard deviation of a set increases by x% if you increase every element in the set by x%)
Day 4 - Kaplan free GMAT practice test - scored 670. Decided it was crucial that I get any 750 level questions I encountered (usually DS) in the first 10-15 questions right. Practiced only 750 level DS and a few PS questions that I found online. Figured out I needed to work on timing - did a bunch of DS questions, timed to 45 seconds each, but instead of getting an answer (execution), understanding the question and figuring out the process needed to get an answer (whether it was a calculation, or trying even numbers, etc). Found this helpful since with DS questions, wrapping your head around what it is they want you to do (e.g. oh okay, so it's telling me to figure out the number of prime numbers between 20 and 30) is often the hardest part. Another note about this is, if you have a few questions left at the tail end of the quant section, and you've only got a couple minutes left on the clock, this can help you guess more accurately than if you were just randomly picking answers.
Day 5 - Continued to practice DS and SC questions. For DS questions, I gave myself 2 minutes to come up with the answer or to make a guess. Basically focused on training myself to maximize my guessing chances in the case that I spent 3 minutes on a questions, came up with some insights, but didn't have enough to get a 100% certain answer.
Day 6 - GMATPrep Exam 2 - scored 760. This might seem unorthodox and yes you can call me weird, but I did a ton of DS questions while having to pee really bad. The sense of urgency and stress that puts you under, I find, is extremely helpful in simulating exam conditions (especially when you see the clock, and you're worried because you spent 4 minutes on a question). Having to focus with that distraction there was really helpful in making me quicker. Took a brief look at AWA tips (didn't really care about this section) before going to bed.

There's probably some stuff I left out, so let me know if you have questions. Hopefully there's something in that mess (Im jacked on Redbull from the exam, so apologies if I'm incoherent) that helps. If not, I fully accept any bashing that ensues.

Cheers

This smells fishy to me because of the way it's written, but for what it's worth, my friend got a 780 without studying at all. Of course, he's a special kind of genius and I am not, so I couldn't follow his lead if I wanted to, but it's possible to score well with minimal studying if you've got something truly special in your head.

And most of us have had to come to the realization at some point that while, yeah, we're pretty smart, we ain't that smart. Fortunately, it's not just pure mental power that counts.

are you serious?! yall kids are mad gullible. this kid probably never even took the exam and just blowing smoke. shoot, he probably hasn't even checked back on this forum. Not to be an asshole, but does it makes sense that everyday there's like 10 different people scoring 750+?! I'm not too sure I believe a lot of them "debriefs" but that's just me. If you want to convince me, take a pic of your unofficial score, and post it. A picture is worth a thousand words. end of story. gg kthx.

I think he is suspect too.

thanks for the verbal notes. any specific tips for RC?? please share.

i keep hearing totally 7-8 mins for one RC. is it including reading the passage and answering the q's ? any info on this would be useful.

are you serious?! yall kids are mad gullible. this kid probably never even took the exam and just blowing smoke. shoot, he probably hasn't even checked back on this forum. Not to be an asshole, but does it makes sense that everyday there's like 10 different people scoring 750+?! I'm not too sure I believe a lot of them "debriefs" but that's just me. If you want to convince me, take a pic of your unofficial score, and post it. A picture is worth a thousand words. end of story. gg kthx.