Debrief - First Attempt 720; Retook for 730

Hi All,

Long time lurker here with few posts. I began my study back in mid-December and took my first GMAT exam Feb 11th. Interesting experience for sure. Got a 720 with 49Q (85%) and 39V (87%). Pretty balanced score, but not as high as I need to help my profile for my target schools. As such, I will be retaking on March 26th. Shall the studying once again begin

Background:
I've got "soft" major during undergrad, but have never had a problem with math. It's been about 1.5 yrs since graduating college. I was not born in the U.S., so verbal doesn't come to me as naturally as it would to native speakers.

Prep Material:
1. MGMAT series for all of quant, and SC of verbal. I definitely think the Numbers Properties, Word Translations, and Sentence Correction guides are the best in class. However, I think CR and RC guides are garbage.
2. Critical Reasoning Bible for CR. Finished the book during a business flight. Very well structured and very readable, despite being 300+ pages. You do not need to master the book to see your CR score improve drastically.
3. OG 12. Enough has been said about it, so there's nothing really new to add here. It's essential for you to practice to train your pattern recognition skills. The GMAT is all about recognition. Practice makes perfect.

I averaged about 1-2 CATs per week after the first two weeks of prep:

Number, Score, Quant, Verbal.
MGMAT 1 650 45 34
MGMAT 2 650 45 34
MGMAT 3 690 43 40
MGMAT 4 660 44 36
MGMAT 5 720 47 42
GMAT Prep 1 690 48 36
MGMAT 6 700 48 37
GMAT Prep 2 720 50 38
MGMAT 7 780 51 45
GMAT Prep 3 730 49 41
MGMAT 8 780 51 45
GMAT Prep 4 710
GMAT Prep 5 750

MGMAT 7 and 8 were reshuffles, and had repeat questions that I had seen before, so they are definitely overstated. GMAT Prep 3, 4, 5 had few repeat questions as well.

I took most of the exams on weekends, but as time approached my GMAT date, I started taking after work, or back to back, to train my endurance.

GMAT DAY Experience:

I purposely scheduled it at mid-day, as I am not a morning person. Woke up and had a chocolate milk (make sure you get full fat and full sugar kind. Sugar provides quick glucose for the brain, and fat slows down digestion to provide "timed release" benefit. Also had a banana, and a small muffin to go with it. If you do not take a multi-vitamin, I suggest you bring a banana for potassium, glucose and fructose, and Gatorade for vitamin B complexes. Just treat the GMAT day like an intense work-out day.

Went in the test center feeling "normal". AWA was straight forward, but did feel rather drained right after. Took a break, had sips of Gatorade, and washed my face with cold water. Then came quant. I was a little thrown off by the way the question was asked on the first question. I thought, ****, perhaps the actual GMAT is more different than I anticipated. Calmed myself and figured it out. Next one was normal. Third question was asked in such an obscure way that I had no idea what I needed to do. But knowing it's the third question and that it must not have been a difficult one, I refused to move on. Re-read it twice, and told myself, **** it, let's move on. After that point, I felt less nervous, as my expectations shifted from "Rock it", to "Finish it, and learn from it." Finished last question just about on time. Verbal started with my mind lingering on how underwhelming my performance could have been on quant. But I told myself to stop being a little *complain* and move on. Sentence Corrections seemed very straight forward, almost an extension of the practice problems from OG12. First RC was short, but tough. However, I typically preferred shorter and tougher passages, than longer and "easier" passages. Made my best selections and moved on. Then came a RC about some volcanic eruption, with layers of thick vocab that got me a little nervous about time. I had to re-read a couple of sentence more than twice to make sure I followed. Questions were a mess as well. If I had to guess, I probably lost lots of my verbal points here. CR were relatively normal, and I proceeded with confidence. But as CR's get hard, it takes much longer to do, and I certainly took my time. In the end, I had to rush a little. Heart pounding, I finished the second to last question with 1 minute and 5 seconds last. Last question was a short SC, and I quickly spotted the splits and selected my answer. Phew, life goes on. Submitted. 720. Surprised I did not mess up quant as much as I thought I did, and surprised my verbal was still sub-40. Overall, the score was just in-line with expectation.

I was content with the score, and moved on to relax and to worry about my next steps in my application process. My to-be admission consultant then sent me back to the GMAT forum, saying that my 720 is my biggest weakness, relatively, for my target schools. Hah. Back to studying .

Hope my debrief helped. Also welcome any advice regarding my next month of studying.