680 to a 670 in 4 Months, 670 to a 740 in 31 Days...

Hey Guys,
I wanted to write this post to provide some much needed motivation to those who are studying hard right now, maybe trying to make their goal score in time for Round 2. This is especially for those who feel like they took the test once and could do better, and even more for those that are also bad at quant. Let me hit all the basics of a "good post" before I let my emotions get the best of me.

For the record, I do not believe in hiring a consultant and I do not believe in taking a course. Trust no one but yourself with your own success!

Books Used (In order of acquisition):
Kaplan GMAT Premiere 2014
Manhattan GMAT Quant Guide 2014
Aristotle Sentence Correction Grail

Other Material:
Kaplan Practice CATs
Manhattan GMAT Practice CATs
GMATPrep
GMAT Prep Exam Pack 1
GMATPrep Question Pack 1

Test Scores:
Kaplan
Diagnostic: 580 (08JUN2014)
Test 2: 680 (12JUL2014)
Test 3: 640 (02AUG2014)
Test 4: 690 (03AUG2014)

Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Test 1: 600 (09AUG2014) – After taking one of these tests I realized that they were so far off from the real thing that they could only be used for studying, not as a realistic gage of GMAT score. I took all of the Quant Sections of all Manhattan GMAT tests and it helped me immensely (because they are significantly more difficult than the real thing).

GMAT Prep
Default Test 1: 680 (19JUL2014)
Default Test 2: 710 (25AUG2014)
Default Retake 1: 710 (30AUG2014)
Exam Pack 1 Test 1: 690 (13SEP2014)
Exam Pack 1 Test 2: 710 (30SEP2014)

Real Thing
Test 1: 670 (O7SEP2014) – Very frustrating (10 points lower than my first CAT score two months before)
Test 2: 740 (08OCT2014) – Extremely motivating.

Length of Study: Approx. 4 months.

I am a former Naval Officer who has been working as an engineer for about a year at a biotech start-up. I graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering (3.0 GPA). With a low GPA, I determined early that in order to have something to offer as a business school candidate, I would need an outstanding GMAT score. I set my goal score at 760.

Off the block (if you exclude my diagnostic) I was scoring around a 670-680 average. This was pretty good and certainly a 760 was in reach, however I tended to have an extremely high verbal score (92-97%) and a low quantitative (45-55%). Hard to swallow for an engineer…By the time I had taken a few practice CATs I knew I had to bolster my Quant, which is when I purchased the Manhattan GMAT books. I devoted about 75% of my time to Quant and 25% to verbal all the way up to my first exam. This included studying the Manhattan guides primarily and doing full practice CATs to gage my improvement. Although I felt like I was getting better at Quant, I scored a 670 with a 41 in Quant. I was not happy with this score.

After talking to my wife, we decided that I would go all in and reschedule for 31 days later, the minimum time allowed between tests, in an effort to still have time to apply 1st round to most of my schools. I put my head down and studied ONLY quant, with maybe a total of two hours on verbal for the entire month.

My strategy was this: Do a set of questions, review them, learn how to solve those that I missed, repeat.

It was during this month that I used up the remainder of my CATs from MGMAT taking only the Quant section. I also bought Exam Pack 1 and Question Pack 1 from GMAT Prep and tried and retried only the Quant Section multiple times. Took the test again today, scored a 740 with a 48 Quant and a 42 Verbal. Needless to say, I was elated.

My opinionated advice:

There is no secret strategy. Identify what you are weak in and study only that. If you are weak in everything, you will need to study longer. Study to do well on the GMAT, not to learn every math or verbal concept you forgot in high school. Do this by practicing GMAT questions, reviewing what you missed, and learning how to solve that question in the future.

MGMAT is a great tool, but not accurate for those who are bad at math. Use MGMAT especially to bolster your quantitative side, if you get used to those questions then the actual GMAT will seem significantly easier. Use GMAT Prep to get a feel for how you are improving in your quant score on the actual GMAT.

Do a brief, basic overview of all Math concepts in the beginning then put away the books. Every time you answer a question wrong, then learn how to solve it correctly, you increase your Quant score. Do practice questions often, under time, and review the answers thoroughly (GMAT Club has all the answers). If you just can’t understand the solution, try to memorize it. I answered and reviewed 1000 questions in this way.

I drink about four cups of coffee a day at work and am constantly running around wired. It helps me at work but on a test it causes me to “go into the black”, meaning I stare at a problem and have no idea what it’s asking because I can’t focus. I limited myself to one cup of coffee on test days and actually felt like I hadn’t drank enough coffee during my highest scoring exam. Understand the effect coffee has on you and reduce your intake if necessary.

Shoot for the moon and hit the stars. I set a goal of 760, which was extremely high, but I ended up doing very well even though I did not achieve that goal. Set you expectations high and then honestly push to achieve your goal, even if you fail you will turn out alright.

Have a backup plan. This first time I took the test I was very stressed out because I felt like it my entire future was riding on one test. I think this is why I did so poorly the first time. The second time I took it I had already told myself that I would simply study more and take it again if I didn’t like my score. I was able to stay very calm throughout the test with this mentality. For me, psychology during a test like this makes a huge difference.

I am very appreciative of all the motivation this website provided me while I was studying. Many a night when studying became too much I would look for inspirational GMAT stories and they always helped me put the axe back to the grindstone. I hope that you guys get something from my story. Thanks.