Well, this is my turn to tell a story on how I went up to 700 score in GMAT starting from 600 and going down to 550 in the meantime. The point of this post is to prevent people from the mistakes I did.
Thanks to EMPOWERgmat and their team, especially Brian, who supported me a lot during my preparation phase.
1/ My first attempt in Feb 2016 was
600 (43, 29). I didn't practice seriously - just re-read some formulas and got the overall idea what GMAT was. It was quite arrogant from my side or better to say ignorant. I just couldn't imagine what specifically one could practice on verbal if he/she already speaks and reads English^)) My score proved how wrong I was! Nevertheless, I decided not to retake and went to Indonesia for some rest.
2/ I spent a few weeks out there admiring beauty of Asia and one day an ancient scent of local magic somehow influenced me and after bathing in a saint Hindou pool I decided that I should retake ^) I registered for the test at the airport lounge in Bali and started reading some verbal related materials. I must admit that the resources I used were somehow boring, uninformative, unappealing and NON-SYSTEMATIC. I practiced maybe 3 weeks or so but, again, my next score proved that I did something wrong. I got
560 with quant and verbal even weaker than before! I don't exclude that ancient scent of Indonesian magic had something to do there but now I can say fore sure: all that was about the same thing - lack of consistency.
3/ I said to myself that I need to improve seriously and that jokes are over and that I should start playing seriously. I remember I noticed a post from a guy who wrote about EMPOWERgmat and how helpful it was in boosting his verbal skills since he had applied mathematics background. I thought that possibly our hurdles in English were the same (even though I already new that verbal was not about just English). I decided to boost my GMAT and I picked EMPOWERgmat for the job.
I had already applied to my school with the score of 600 and was anxious to retake asap as the school was ready to wait a bit for my commited score of 700. So I started practicing like crazy. Right from the gate I was surprised how I enjoyed the process (I would make a stress at Rich's math videos - they are amazing and really inspiring). Actually, GMAT is all about processes at which your skills are tested. What one really needs is rehearsal and not pure learning. Many things I was working on were something we all know from the high school and the only difference is the appearance of the material and this is at identifying and fast unfolding of each item that one should become better and better. Somehow you should learn to enjoy what you are doing since this takes quite a considerable part of your life. Now I can admit that first time I tried it by assault, so never do it!
Then I committed one more serious mistake. And I paid for it! Exactly 250 USD))) My third attempt, after completing almost 100% of the course, was
550! And at this point Brian from EMPOWERgmat team helped me a lot!
4/ Brian was able to set my mind to win and supported me in carrying on. The EMPOWERgmat gave me one month of complementary use after my failure and supported during 17 days which separated my third test from the fourth one. Meanwhile I was under pressure that my school would drop me during that period. Neverthless, I realized my mistake which was to go and take the third test right after so intense practicing. I just couldn’t get higher score with the head packed with all the things I learned/rehearsed. I was ready BUT had to consider the whole thing under a slightly different angle. So I used the course for some rehearsal and some practicing: no major efforts during this period – just concentrating on the future result.
You may imagine the stress I had the test day after all the previous wrong steps I had already made. When 700(47 38) appeared on my screen it was a fantastic feeling! Here I would add that I took only one practice exam before the last official test and also scored 700(49 35).
Take GMAT seriously and you will be rewarded. I hope that other test takers won’t repeat the same silly
mistakes:
a/ it was only one month during which I was working on the specific course and it was not a good idea at all. I’d say 3 months would be just great, and thus my score might be a way better;
b/ don't concentrate on the number of problems you solve. You better focus on how good and precise and quick you are at each type of problem - they are basically quite the same within their clusters;
c/ for verbal don't really find a 100 % solution to each question as you run out of time much faster that you even imagine - give your intuition more voice while making your final decision but before that educate well your intuition, namely know all the types of RC, CR and SC, be flawless at underlying assumptions as well as at some common shortcuts like triage, testing the answers or detecting the flag words;
d/ the most important in my case, don't compromise
consistency. I highly recommend EMPOWERgmat (or maybe you pick another company - just make it a consistent way) but of importance here is to take a good preparatory course.
As for EMPOWERgmat, I did appreciate the style of the lessons. Video format is more helpful than a classical text lesson. I understood that finding a proper answer is only a half of the deal - another one is
how exactly you go through the process, and EMPOWERgmat is great in setting you on the right trail. The material is given in a consistent and concise way, without some additional burdensome information which was out there when I looked into other courses (Economist,
MGmat and Veritas). Sometimes
Magoosh might also be interesting to follow. I would recommend to try different courses in order to pick up yours (almost all give free trial). Possibly there are some similar resources which do the same, I don't even exclude that there are some free resources on YouTube or elsewhere, but consistency is the must! Again, with EMPOWERgmat there are no exaggerated loads of materials yet what is present is widely enough to achieve what you really need - boost your GMAT score. After all, it’s worth paying a bit, not really a fortune. I paid $1000 just for retaking and I should have taken a decent course instead! The only thing to be ready for is the need of having
the official guide as many things on the course are referring to it and without the
OG the course couldn't be fully comprehended.
After all, I was admitted to my school with a new score. The studies here teach me consistency further)
GMAT is not that hard if you attack it the right way. My cousin from a high school was able to resolve many math problems I took from GMAT and she said - nothing special:) So, good luck to everyone and know that if a lazy and unorganized guy can do it then you’ll do it for sure!
P.S. Don't be bothered by AWA and IR at all. The half of AWA essay is a one-fit-for-all stuff which can be just memorized and put in for any argument. IR is more about your ability to quickly go through it because the real business is ahead.