From 670 to 730

Hello,

I scored 730 (Q50,V39) today. Last time I took the GMAT I scored 670. That was two years ago. From then to three months ago I did not study any at all. I focused on my work since I was involved in a very time absorbing project that did not let any time to prepare myself for the test again. Last december I visited a friend in one of the top business schools and decided it was the right time to start the application process to one of the top business schools (GMAT, TOEFL, Apps, etc..). Hoppefully I will reach my goal this time.

Background: I hold a Bachelor in Mechanics Engineering, a MSc in Electronics and a MSc in Control Systems. As an international student, I can speak Spanish, French and English. I would say English is my third language as I did not studied English at school and four years ago I could not even read in English. In addition I do not use English at work. As you can imagine I am not Shakespeare.

1St Attempt: November 2005 – 670 (Q48,V34)
First time I prepared for the test I spent about three months. I attended a course in a local school for one month and then studied on my own for two months. I did not practice very much with powerprep or GMATPrep (in fact, two years ago I did not know GMATPrep existed). My performance on the real test was not as good as I would have hoped since I was targeting +700.

On verbal I focused on SC and CR and did not spend much time on RC. I did around 250 SC from the document 1000SC and more or less the same for CR. On RC I did around 100 questions. In addition I did all the questions in OG10 but I did not work on my mistakes. On quantitative I took 5-6 GmatTests but I scored quite poorly (22-27 on each test). In fact, by the time I booked a place, I was not ready to beat the 700 barrier but I was a bit tired about GMAT and I wanted to finish as soon as possible.

2nd Attempt: April 2008 – 730 (Q50, V39)
When I started to study three months ago I made myself aware that this time would be the last time I would pay to take the GMAT. In my opinion GMAT has a very important mental side that you must control in order to get a good score.
For the first month I focused on the basics and try to remember all I had learned two years ago. It took me some time to find the way. Then I began to take some GmatTests and I realized I was performing in the same range as I used to perform two years ago. At this point I did not know what to do so I decided to contact with a tutor. Four-five classes were sufficient for me to find the RIGHT way. Before doing tutoring I was not convinced at all about this but now I think this can help a lot as long as you need some guidance. Finally you will be the one who will be on the test center answering the questions, but you can get the best of you if you find stuck at some point and need some guidance.

This time I PRACTICED A LOT. I did the following:

-1000SC document: I did the 1000 questions; wrong/right ---- 9/1
-The reading comprenhension part of 15 LSAT tests: This has been the key for me to reach 39 on verbal. In fact RC was the most difficult part for me before working on LSAT test but became the easiest part afterwards. If you are targeting +700 this is a must.
-For quantitative I did 23 of the 25 GMATTest available. My marks have been the following (as you can see I have improved a lot by practicing)
m01 25
m02 26
m03 25
m04 28
m05 24
m06 20
m07 20
m08 22
m09 23
m10 29
m11 29
m12 24
m13 30
m14 32
m15 26
m16 25
m17 31
m18 29
m19 32
m20 34
m21 30
m22 30
m23 34

GMATPrep: I took 9 tests. In fact only the first four tests are representatives of my performance as from the fifth to the last test I found many repeated questions, especially on verbal. Anyway, taking tests from GMATPrep as many times as you can is very important since doing so you get used to the format of the real test, develop the skills to be concentrated for more than three hours and feel comfortable taking a test. These were my results:

GMATPrep1: 700 (Q50,V33)
GMATPrep2: 720
GMATPrep3: 740 (Q50,V41)
GMATPrep4: 760 (Q50,V42)
GMATPrep5: 760 (Q51,V40)
GMATPrep6: 770 (Q51,V44)
GMATPrep7: 770 (Q50,V46)
GMATPrep8: 770 (Q51,V44)
GMATPrep9: 780 (Q51,V47)

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:
You can take as many test as you want. Any time you take a test GMATPrep generates a *.xact file in the “exams” directory. When the test ends GMATPrep asks you whether you want to finish the test or leave it unfinished. You must choose unfinished and then cut the *.xact file that has been generated and copy it into another directory. The sofware will not know that you have taken the test and you will be able to review the test taken if you copy the *.xact file in the directory “exams” again. DO NOT WORRY GMATPREP. IT IS JUST A TOOL FOR YOUR PREPARATION!!!

TIPS
1. GMATTests from GMATClub for quantitative.
2. LSAT paper tests fot RC
3. 1000SC for SC
4. GMATPrep for all of them
5. PRACTICE, PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE....