Just made it! Q48 V37 - 700

As some of you may know from my other thread (road to 700 - road-to-106737.html) - I've been hammering away at this beast for months and months and months.


I sat the GMAT on 21/9, and I got a Q48 (81st percentile) V37 (81st percentile) 700 (90th percentile)

I was so so stoked when I saw that the scores were perfectly balanced - seeing the score on the screen, I legitimately almost cried tears of joy. It was a major relief. I also feel as though I did well on the AWA section, but time will tell.

To start my prep, I did an MGMAT practice CAT, and fluked a 640 - so I was feeling pretty good about myself. After a few weeks of solid study, I was ready for another CAT, and I scored a 620. With a lot of things going in in my life, I was adequately demoralised to just quit.

After a long lay off, I decided to get back on the wagon in July, and give this sucker one last crack. After a bit of refreshing my memory, I did another CAT, and scored another demoralising 630. I knew I must have been studying wrong, I snooped around, and I got back to basics.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
- OG11 or 12, Official Verbal Review, Official Quant Review. Seriously. Pay proper respect to the OG and Verbal/Quant review guides, and you're well on your way. If you're starting off at around the 600 mark, solve the last 50% of problems in the OG & two review guides.

- The simplest error log you can possibly build - 5 columns - source of question, time taken, your answer, OA, correct/incorrect. The Error logs with 20 columns and different stats are a waste of time. You find that you spend more time populating the log, than actually studying.

- Flashcards. Every time you get a problem wrong, flashcard it. As an example:
*Question: "If you are presented with a problem that asks for "x", how do you go about answering such a question?"
*Answer: "You answer the question in the following steps..."

- MGMAT Advanced Quants Guide. I deadset could not get past 70th percentile on Quants. 3 weeks with that baby, and I hit a 90th percentile in one of my CATs, and was generally shooting around the 80th% mark in other instances. This thing WORKS. The MGMAT guides in general a super awesome, and are worth every cent.

- BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. As tempting as it is to be slightly relaxed when you're at home taking a mock GMAT, try to make the experience as real as possible with your breaks and environment.

- MGMAT Test Simulation Booklet. Get one. That is all.

- MGMAT CATs. Good practice tools. Uncharacteristically hard, and don't represent the actual difficulty of the GMAT. Some questions are just simply too hard, and you won't see problems like that on the real thing. GMAT Prep CATs should be a MANDATORY part of your prep. The simulate the experience perfectly.


From my experience, all I can offer is that you stick to basics, back your ability, and practice, practice, practice.

Thank you to everyone who has followed me along for the ride - Rnd 1 applications to Said Business School close on October 14, and I'm hoping to have my application well and truly done before then.

Time to go and prepare my application! Any and all good advice will be gladly accepted