Just scored a 770!

I got home after taking the GMAT, ate some good food, went to my bed, and now surfing the internet. Feels good to close the millions of GMATclub forum tabs I had open, in addition to all the other GMAT related pages. I literally jumped out of my seat when the score screen came up because I really didn't think I'd score above 750.

My results:
Q51
V44
IR 7

To all those in the quest for a good GMAT score, I'll make this post to help out since I probably won't be checking this forum as often.

I started studying with Kaplan and took their in-class course after being blown away by hard the GMAT math was. People hate on Kaplan, and for the most part the classes were not worth my time. What did help a lot was their online resources- Kaplan has a bunch of good CATs and an awesome question bank system. After Kaplan I took my first GMAT

Score: 690
Q50
V32
IR7

Two things surprised me- the Quant and IR were both MUCH easier than online resources and google searches had led me to believe. As much as it hurt though, I cancelled these scores since my GPA is very low and I knew a 690 would not fly at the schools I was aiming for. It did hurt though...the Q50 just looked so awesome and I was quite pleased with IR7. I realized I definitely took the verbal for granted.

I decided I would try Manhattan GMAT tutoring instead, and get 1 on 1 help for verbal. I also downloaded the GMAT prep official CATs and both exam packs. I completed 5 MGMAT CATs and 4 GMAT prep CATs before my second attempt, scoring well above 700 in most cases; averaged around 730 for Manhattan and 760 for GMAT prep. At this point I felt much more confident, and my tutor had helped me significantly increase my SC and CR. RC is the easiest to master in my opinion, as I quickly got the hang of it. That being said, I scored the following on my second attempt:

720
Q49
V39
IR 6

I was kinda shocked by the drop in Q score and IR score, a real shame since I felt really good about the essay. There was a couple things I realized that also threw me off:
This time, the math and IR seemed A LOT harder. I got a bunch of really tough questions that required abstract thinking...for example , DS interest questions where the statements only give you the ratio of principal and ratio or rates and asks if you can determine a definite answer for one of the principals...a lot of questions of this nature that eat up tons of time if you actually try to use numbers and hash the problem out. The IR was also insane with several odd questions I had absolutely no idea how to solve. I should also note I ran out of time on verbal and left the last question blank, a huge no-no on the GMAT. It was an SC question I had 1 minute 15s to solve but none of the answer choices seemed to work- I was panicking, lost track of time, and left the question blank in a pure deer-caught-in-the-headlights moment. All in all, I was dissapointed with the 720 since I had done much better on the practice tests and my Q had gone down. I went home and immediately signed up for another go at the GMAT.

For my third attempt, I kept in touch with my tutor and continued to further strengthen CR and SC. I browsed these forums a lot and looked over tons of OG Guide questions. Overall however, I didn't study as intensely for my third try. I actually watched way more TV, and relaxed a lot versus my other attempts.

Today when I took the GMAT, I felt I just had to put this test in its place. I probably put in over 1000 hrs of dedicated studying and I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.

The IR this time around felt nice and easy again. All the questions were rather easy except for the multi source reasoning which made no sense but accounted for only 3 questions; MSR is the bain of my existence, absolutely the most aggravating question type on the entire GMAT. I felt good about the IR overall.

The math started off ridiculously hard. Usually the first question is not that hard, but this time I had a lot of trouble right out the gate. Took me three min to just solve the first question. As such, I did not feel too thrilled. Overall, the questions actually seemed to get a bit easier, making me wonder whether I was bombing this test. There were some abstract type questions but they were a lot easier than the ones I had seen previously. There were a few questions I just completely guessed on, but somehow got to question 35 with 14 min remaining so I leisurely answered the last 3 and made sure they were right.

The verbal had a few maddeningly touch CR questions, and a few SC questions I also had no idea how to answer. I answered a good 10 questions on verbal with low confidence. There was also an extremely difficult RC passage requiring math, I mean come on GMAT why do you have to make us do math on verbal?! I still felt more confident about verbal this time though, as I saw a lot of questions where I likely would have picked the trap answer had I not brushed up on SC. Still, a 770 was very surprising and now I'm just happy to be able to focus on the actual application process!

Here is what I would most definitely recommend!!

-1) Do as many CATs as you can, and keep track of what errors you're making. Overtime, you'll just develop a sense of what you're good at and what you're not. For example, probability was my biggest weakness starting out, but was my favorite question type to see later on cuz I had studied it so much.

2) Definitely get a good sense of how time, rate, and distance relate to each other on a fundamental level- this applies to ratios, work rate problems, and many many other question types GMAT loves. Getting a good sense of how common variables seen on the exam relate to each other under different circumstances will help you nail alot of those 700 level+ DS questions.

3) I highly recommend downloading manhattan prep and veritas prep free apps. They are both free, and helped me out immensely. Manhattan app has in app purchases to unlock more questions, and I ended up purchasing all of them. I recommens manhattan prep tutoring especially if you have trouble with verbal. Both apps are amazing for boosting Q score, and because it's right on your phone you can practice anytime anywhere. The veritas questions on the free app are incredibly difficult- the SC and Quant questions are ridiculous. The sheer difficulty of the questions you see in these apps will help you a lot in terms of understanding the concepts behind them.

4) Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. My high school soccer coach always used to say that and it definitely applies here. Glossing over answers and getting a cursory understanding of why a question is wrong or right will not help you confidently make decisions on the test. Really get to know why you make certain mistakes, and why the correct answer is correct. In doing so, you will begin to develop a sense of how the GMAT makers think, allowing you to spot correct choices.

5) Don't get nervous on test day. Keep your cool and have confidence in your abilities. My second test wasn't up to par because I was overstressing it, concernes too much about the score and this and that. Relax, you're there, about to take the test, studying can't help you now, just gotta go in guns blazing. Focus on the question at hand, and you will do your best.

I wish everyone success in their GMAT journey, definitely was a doozy!



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