760 Debrief

Hi everybody! I have been a lurker on this forum for about two months but have never really participated. I took the GMAT this Saturday and scored a 760 with a 49 in quant and a 47 in verbal. In the beginning what really helped me was reading the posts of everybody in the 700 club who detailed their study materials, practice test scores, and study timeline. Therefore, I will attempt to do the same below.

Study Materials (In order of usage)

Kaplan Premiere (Good for starting out)
Kaplan 800
Manhattan GMAT Books - All math and sentence correction (Highly recommend these)
Official Guide 11th ed. (Highly Recommend)
OG Verbal and Math Supplements (Highly Recommend)

Practice Test Scores

8/20 - Kaplan CAT1 - 560 (This score really freaked me out at first, but then read on this forum that Kaplan's scores were deflated significantly. However, the score did serve as a wake up call.)
9/9/07 - GMAT Prep 1 - 690 Q 44 V 40
9/15/07 - MGMAT 1 - 690 Q 42 V 41
9/16/07 - MGMAT 2 - 690 Q 45 V 39
9/22/07 - MGMAT 3 - 690 Q 45 V 38
9/23/07 - GMAT Prep 2 - 760 Q 49 V 45
10/8/07 - MGMAT 4 - 670 Q 40 V 41
10/13/07 - GMAT Prep 1 (Reinstall) - 740 Q45 V 47
10/14/07 - MGMAT 5 - 740 Q47 V 45
10/21/07 - GMAT Prep 2 (Reinstall) - 760 Q 49 V 44
10/25/07 - MGMAT 6 - 740 Q 47 V 45

Study Routine

I started studying about two months ago by going over the two Kaplan books. They were good to start out with, but after reading several posts on this forum I came to realize that the "must haves" were the official guide and quant/verbal supplements. In addition, several people were pretty high on the Manhattan GMAT series so I purchased these online. These were extremely useful for me, as I hadn't really utilized algebra, geometry, or number property knowledge since high school. The MGMAT series really starts with the basics and read like a text book, so these were instrumental in my preparation for the quant section. I read through these after using the Kaplan books, and immediately after finishing these books I finished the quant section of the OG 11th edition. I then turned my attention to the verbal section, and utilized MGMAT's sentence correction book for most of my prep. Once I finished the book, I completed the verbal section of the OG 11th edition and verbal supplement. This took me up to the final week before the test, which left me with the quant supplement book to finish. I completed this two days prior to the test, and for the remainder of my study time I did the first 100 questions of the SC 1000 set.

Advice

- You have to put in the hours to do well on this test. I'm sure there are some brainiacs out there who can take this test after a couple of weeks of study and score over 750, but I am definitely not one of them. I don't have the engineering background that a lot of the 50+ quant scorers have, so I had to start with the basics. Overall, I probably put well in excess of 125 hours of study into this test (including time for practice tests). Towards the end of my preparation, I had to wake up at 5 am during workdays to do two hours of studying before work and then put in another two hours when I got home from work in order to get through all of the prep material I wanted to before the test. Of course, everyone's studying needs are different, but this is what I had to do in order to score well.
- Take the full practice tests, which include the essay portion. For each of my practice tests, I completed both AWAs. This is essential for building your stamina for the actual exam.
- Utilize the GMAT Prep practice tests. These are the closest thing to the actual exam, so it is imperative you do at least one of them to get a sense for the real thing.
- If you do use the MGMAT practice tests, do not use the pause function. The MGMAT tests are harder than the real thing, but this is great practice for "picking your battles." If I came to a quant question that I could instantly tell would take me ten minutes to do, I simply guessed, which would save time for other questions down the road. This is great practice for the real test.