760 (Q51, V42)

I took the GMAT today and scored 760 (Q51, V42).

Credit for Q score goes to both me and to GMAT club challenges as well. I took all 25 of them and realized today how much improvement had happened. I saved about 7 minutes in Q section and did not need to guess any of them (Might have done some wrong still). When I started taking challenges, I used to find it difficult to finish in time or to do them all correct.

--------------------Debrief-------------------------

I am 29 y/o, married, have one kid and another other one is on the way so that was a motivation to finish taking GMAT fast . I am planning to start application process next year.

I took the decision to take GMAT in Mid July, so had about 7 weeks to study. My preparation was more of a crash course rather than a long planned effort, but summarizing here whatever I did:

Materials Used
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Common to Q and V

1) OG11
2) GMATCLUB forums
3) MANHATTAN GMAT forums

Verbal

1) OG Verbal supplement - Did most of the questions
2) Manhattan SC - Cover to cover many times
3) Powerscore CR - Cover to cover
4) Princeton Verbal - Some studies
5) Kaplan verbal - Some studies

Quant

1) GMAT club challenges
2) Manhattan quant books
3) GMAT club study - There is some good material here, I am not getting the link, may be due to changes in site
4) OG quant supplement
5) MGAMT tests - Very good for quant

Studies-

I studied everyday after work, and at night, and took 7 days off before the exam. Exam was on my mind all the time when I wasn't sleeping. As far as time of study is concerned, I studied till I had to sleep, which was 2:00 or 3:00 AM at times, both for office days and off days. Other than this, I believed in luck which I think everybody must do.

For quant, other than studying, I did challenges (about 925 q), OG (about 300 Q), GMATprep, MGAMT tests and 1 powerprep. Other than OG11, first thing I found was GMATclub and subscribed to challeneges with a plan that I will do all of them twice before the exam, but I could finish them only once. I did review and analyze all the wrong questions till I figured out why and how my answer is wrong(also tried to prove sometimes that the official answer is incorrect, which never was).

Also, there are some practice questions both for Q and V, other than MGMAT CAT, that you can buy from MGMAT, they are good for practice.

Manhattan GMAT tests were good for quant. I messed up the first one (could not finish in time). Did the second one using PAUSE and RESTART functionality to get an idea of question format and difficulty. In MGMAT 3,4,5, and 6 timed tests, I did 3-4 mistakes on average and 2 in one of them.

For verbal , it was GMATCLUB forums, OG , Manhattan SC and Powerscore CR.

Powerscore CR is really good and a must study for CR if your CR is not already great. Book does not recommend that one should read it in short time but I studied here and there for about 15 days and then studied cover to cover in a day. Whatever time you can, spend with this book and the book is going to prove it's worth when you take GAMT.

I can definitely help anyone willing to improve Quant, but for verbal I can only suggest to believe yourself .

here are my practice test scores :

GMATprep : 3 weeks before : 750 and 760
MGMAT:
CAT1 : 600 (Q39, V34) - Aug 2
CAT2 : 570 (Q34,V34) - Aug 04
CAT3 : 440 (Q51, V04) - Aug 8, Q only, Pause and restart
CAT4 : 750 (Q51, V41) - Aug 18 - 3 mistakes in Q
CAT5 : 700 (Q51, V35) - Aug 30 - 5 mistakes in Q
CAT 6: 730 (Q51, V39) - Sep 1 - 2 mistakes in Q

(Compare the scores with my challenge practice schedule in other post. As challenges became more and frequent in my schedule, Q scores on MGAMT went higher).

POWERPREP a day before test : 790 (Q50, V51). (Q 1 mistake)

Test day:
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Woke up, had couple of cups (huge) of tea. Did not eat much, some milk, home made bread and banana. Washed face in the breaks, stretched - all mostly read in this forum or I would not have gotten up from my seat before I finish the test.

I believe I will be luck enough to write another debrief about my admission experience. Till then moving to another forum called "B-School Admissions".