I've greatly appreciated the help from the posts, so I wanted to give back and share my experience. Thank you all for the motivation and great info! I’ve been “lurking” around for a while trying to learn as much as I could, but unfortunately I didn’t have a whole lot of constructive advice I could offer. Although my 710 (47Q/41V) and 720 (48Q/41V) doesn't blow the doors off, I feel like this range represents a goal for many other candidates applying to top 20 schools. Why re-take a 710 and stop at a 720? I’m not sure whether it has any impact (very doubtful), but a 710 was slightly below my target schools’ averages and a 720 is slightly above. I had set out from the start with a goal of a 720+, so more realistically it was probably just to ease my ego and reach the mark I had set.
BACKGROUND
Undergrad in aerospace engineering, seven years work experience in nuclear reactor operations and networks/IT (program management, definitely not an IT guy). I've always been fairly good with numbers, but recent work experience has focused much more heavily on high-accuracy calculations than speed, which definitely my biggest challenge was getting a higher % with quant. Also, some of you guys out there are just wizards with math and that average is not easy to beat! I'm a native English speaker, but like many, any concept of parallelism and structure other than “yep, that sounds about right” had long been left behind prior to this experience.
STUDIES
In retrospect, my initial plan was sloppy. I started studying in January (4 months ago), roughly 2-3 hours a day using the full swath of
MGMAT books from a buddy who had passed them on. I confidently assumed I would destroy the quant and jumped almost immediately into
OG questions after reading the initial chapters of the guides. As you may have guessed, I was very wrong. This led to a terrible study plan my first time around - jumping around from book to book studying number properties one day, algebra the next, and geometry for 20 minutes whenever I felt like it. I was all over the place and I was exhausting my
OG questions. Despite having spreadsheets laid out with my day to day requirements, they were focused on completing X questions per day rather than learning the content. I had heard mixed advice on how to study for the exam - I chose the route that touted completing as many questions as possible. "Practice makes perfect" and all that. I started taking an
error log but kind of half-assed it.
I confidently assumed I would do decently the verbal and also jumped almost immediately into
OG questions after reading the initial chapters of the guides. Luckily for verbal, I wasn't too far off base. I studied the
MGMAT guides and the
Powerscore SC and CR guides, all of which were very helpful.
After my first test I cranked up the intensity to almost 6-8 hours a day. Luckily I've grown accustomed to focusing on numbers for absurdly long time periods, so I didn't get too drained. Put in the 8 hours at work, workout, study, study, study, then sleep. I still surfed and dived on the weekends but kept 5-6 hours on the books and computer. Need to let the brain recoup a little bit.
CATs
I started taking CATs a little too early and needed to purchase an extra exam pack so I didn't have total section repeats on the GMAT Prep. My initial CAT was a 670, and I peaked at a 730 before my first attempt at the real thing. Before my second GMAT I was consistently scoring 720s. Q ranged from 47-49 and V from 40-43. My GMATClub CATs were atrocious - I won't repeat the scores because, woof, but they certainly helped make everything else seem easier.
TESTS
Mid April: 710 (47Q/41V/5IR/6AWA)
Mid-week at 3pm. Despite studying and taking CATs at this time to practice, I was definitely gassed out by the end of the verbal. I wouldn't take the exam that late again.
Mid May: 720 (48Q/41V/7IR/?AWA)
Monday morning at 8am. I felt much sharper this time around, although this could have been a lack of anxiety from having gone through the process once already. The test went way smoother. I almost clicked submit several times and realized I had missed a constraint or another possibility. I had finally learned from my mistakes. Unfortunately I completely hosed myself on the last 10 verbal questions. Despite being absolutely OCD about timing, I found myself with 9 questions to go and only 8 minutes remaining. I had been looking at the clock and I’m not sure what had happened. Maybe I was just in a euphoric state from how I felt the section had been going up to that point (I guess it’s easier to feel good when you’re unknowingly spending 2+ mins a question…), but I essentially had to blast through the last 1/3 of the test. Bummer, as I think I could have pulled the score up a little bit, but it is what it is and is my own fault!
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
Quant
* Do the diagnostic test and serve myself a piece of humble pie. Realize this test will not come as easily as SATs did for me.
* Do the first 50 or so
OG problem sets (easy ones) to get a taste of what kind of questions the GMAT will ask.
* Review the books. Read through all of them. If it is obnoxiously easy, scan through it quickly, but don't skip anything. Don't look at the first section about what an integer is and decide the entire book is below you. The GMAT tests very specific things; you can be a math wizard and come out very disappointed by the GMAT.
* Once you have key concepts down, find a way (the
OG spreadsheet that GMATClub offers is a great resource) to do the same TYPE (rate/distance, exponents, etc) of problems, over and over and over again until it's totally redundant and easy. If you spread out your time across different question types when you're learning, it's much easier to forget the methods. You make a silly error, review, learn, and forget.
**Doing a ton of the same type of problems in a row is probably what helped me out the most**. Etch the methods in your brain with continuous repetition then spend the last part of your preparations combining the different question types.
* Take the GMATClub CATs - they're a great resource, but in my experience - INCREDIBLY difficult compared to the vast majority of actual GMAT questions. Half the CATs I took I got <40Q on, so don't get crazy and prepare your application for DeVry if you bomb your first GMATClub CAT.
Verbal
* RC came fairly easily to me, but I would take brief notes on the topic, then answer the questions. I never once re-read my notes when answering the questions. However, writing them made me have to summarize what I had read in my own words, and thus ensured I understood what I was reading. I do the same thing with study guides - I learn from making them and then never look at them again. I know a lot of people who work like this, so maybe this can help.
* CR is all about the conclusion. Learn how to find it and 80% of CR questions will have an answer that jumps out at you. Learning how to figure out what was out of scope was the hardest part for me. People are hardwired to make assumptions and create causality "logically, if this happens, X could be a side effect" or "this COULD have caused Y to happen". If it doesn't say it in the prompt, it's not relevant. You need to forget everything you know about how the world works and focus on what you're given and how that applies to the MAIN POINT, or conclusion.
* SC was the "most fun" part of the GMAT for me, if such a thing exists. Learn the rules by reading the books - SC is the closest thing to quant on the verbal. Native speakers have the edge of being able to see if it "just sounds right" as well, which might help out if you're down to the last 2 choices.
* For all verbal, I would definitely make A B C D E columns on the top and cross them off. I found quant answers by finding the right answer (most of the time). I found verbal answers by eliminating the wrong answers.
Strategies and Other Tips
* The strategies I learned with EMPOWER GMAT were very helpful for my second attempt. There are certainly strategies that can help you with timing and answer elimination. I used EMPOWER GMAT the second time around based on recommendations on this forum. I had gone through all my previous study material and was a bit lost on where to go next. While I knew a decent amount of the material they covered, having the voice-over is invaluable for several reasons. If Rich can talk through a quant question slowly, step-by-step in 4 minutes and solve it two different ways, you can do it on test day in 2. Secondly, despite being super stubborn in my ways about doing things (not wanting to test answers, etc..), Rich and Max are relentless in getting you to try their methods. Which is good, because they work, and I needed the hounding (hounding in a good way of course - thanks EMPOWER).
* Write your # of questions and recommended times at the bottom of the page. I put ten quant answers on each page (I write super small) the notes on the bottom annotating how much time I should have left at a certain question. I did it every 5 questions (I'm a little neurotic about running out of time, and ironically I lost track on my 720 verbal and had to blast through the last 9 questions, go figure) i.e. "I should start question 6 with 65 minutes left." You don't to be exact, but it gives you a quick reference. If you start doing this on day one, you'll the times off the top of your head. Own the clock.
* Bring food and water that you're USED to eating/drinking. I don't drink caffeine or eat sweets, but I got a great tip somewhere that chocolate and Gatorade were the go-to's for keeping your mind sharp. And for most people they probably are. I was so spun up by the end of the verbal section on my first attempt that I could barely see straight. Stick to your normal diet.
One final piece I’d say is that the GMAT is different for everyone. In the nuclear field we had regular tests and I had some friendly rivalries with other buddies on who could outperform the others. We were always neck and neck for the high score. Both those guys took the GMAT last year. One walked in cold and got a 730, the other spent over a year and half a dozen attempts to land a 720. I fell somewhere in the middle. Don’t stress if you’re not reaching your mark, you can do it, it just might take more time and isn’t the only measure of how successful you can be. I know how easy it is to read the reviews from guys/gals that smoked the GMAT on the first time and think that you belong back at community college. When you’re having a tough time those can be the ones that stick out and you feel like the “different one”. You’ll get it; the GMAT hot shots will have difficulty with something else down the line that you’ll find easy. Keep pushing and best of luck to you all!