730 After Rollercoaster Practice Test Scores

Question

730 WOOOOOO! So excited about the score. What a grueling 4 hours that was - and a grueling 5 months of studying.

It was my first attempt and I got: IR7, Q49, V41

I made this post to share my score, because I'm too excited not to; but more importantly to share my crazy practice test scores throughout my studying process. I think it may be beneficial for someone who's bummed out about their practice test scores to see this...

Practice Tests  
   Platinum Q44, V33 630 (took this after completing all questions in official gmat guide and very briefly reviewing incorrect ones) 
  Kaplan Q44, V44 680 (took this after going through all manhattan books) 
  Manhattan 1 Q41, V36 640 (lower score... thought to self, okay maybe manhattan is just really hard? took this one about 2 months ago) 
  Manhattan 2 Q44, V40 700 (theeeeere we go; we're in super good shape. a little over a month and a half out!) 
  Manhattan 3 Q39, V37 630 (PAAAAANIC! was devastated after this one. started questioning my whole study process. looking back, I think I was just out of it/tired.) 
  Manhattan 4 Q48, V40 720 (WE BACK BABY - at this point I KNEW my recent 630 was fluke!) 
  Manhattan 5 Q40, V45 700 (okay, pretty happy with this. I'm taking a test every weekend at this point. feels good to get two 700+ scores back to back) 
  Manhattan 6 Q43, V37 660 (PAAAAANIC AGAAAIN! I just did not know what was going on when I saw this score) 
  Veritas Q43, V37 650 (devastated, again. just a few weeks to test day and feeling like all of my study time was a total waste...) 
  GMAT 1 Q47, V46 740 (OHHH S*%&! wtf?? I was STOKED after this. I'd read everywhere that the official gmat practice tests were closest to the real thing) 
  GMAT 2 Q47, V44 740 (WOOOOOOO! feeling good just a few days out from the real thing! How did I go from 650 to 740? Read on!)

So, like I said, I was crushed after that 650 a few weeks out. But, since I was only a few weeks out, I pressed on because I'd already invested SO much time in this. Looking back, I think your mental state going into the test is SO important. By mental state, I'm referring to how sharp and clear your mind feels on that day. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm feeling my sharpest, I'm a substantially different employee/studyer/test taker. I think a lot of the variance observed in my scores comes from this. Also, Manhattan's verbal is WACK sometimes, in my opinion.

Takeaways:  
Anyways - I think the most important key to my success was flashcards. I started making a flashcard for every question I got wrong on practice questions or practice exams. By the time the exam rolled around, I had a stack of flashcard about 4 inches high. I was able to get through 90% of them fairly quickly. My confidence grew as I realized that the ones I was cruising through were problems that I got wrong just a few weeks prior. The majority of my studying towards the end was just drilling and drilling my flashcards. Also, took off a few days of work to do some last minute studying and to make sure I was very well rested. Got up at 6am this morning so I wasn't groggy. Still was so anxious that I literally couldn't read the first quant problem when I first started the test, but it all worked out! Hopefully there are some folks out there who are going through the crazy practice score meltdown I went through. Don't lose hope! Just really study the ones you got wrong. Good luck everyone!

Also, thanks to all of you that post solutions in threads. Used those SO much.

bb · Answer

Congrats and thanks for posting your practice scores!
It is interesting how your scores fluctuated but mostly how your Q score was never really up. I see once it was 48 and once 46 but other times, you got Q44 or Q42 (this proves the general belief that MGMAT tests tend to score lower on the Quant)

ramblers · Answer

I've been writing interesting questions that I get write/wrong in my Moleskine along with other notes. I have no idea why it hadn't dawned on me to write them on flashcards until I read this post. I took 8 years of Latin. I've done the flashcard dance before. Duh.

I'm stopping at Target on the commute home from work. Thank you!

I'm stopping at Target on the commute home from work. Thank you!

mcdo · Answer

Awesome! Glad to hear I've inspired you. My approach to the flashcards was to work my way through all of the steps of the problem and identify where the hurdle was. Once I identified the hole in my understanding, I wrote that on a card and drilled it.

For example, if in a 3 step problem step #2 required that I was familiar with all of the Pythagorean triples, I would make a card with the triples, so that I could beat those into my brain. Now, any time I see anything that remotely resembles a right triangle, I think of those immediately.

mcdo · Answer

Thank you!

Regarding the Manhattan quant, I could be wrong about this, but I couldn't help but feel that a lot of the high level problems were far too lengthy. In a lot of cases, I would start off well, and would end up falling behind by a minute or two after spending too much time on a few high level problems that required too much time. Once I realized that I was behind, it would affect the rest of my exam because I would always be playing catch up. I didn't experience this same issue at all with the Official GMAT practice CATS, nor did I have any time issues on the actual exam. I'd be curious to hear if anyone else feels the same way about Manhattan.

adkikani · Answer

mcdo

Nice insights!
Wishing you all the best for your apps!

mcelroytutoring · Answer

Congrats on the awesome score!

I agree that some of the harder Manhattan Quant questions are way too long and wordy--another reason why it's better to stick to official GMAT questions whenever possible.

ramblers · Answer

Just curious - how many weeks/months from your first practice test to actual test day? Any idea of the total # of hours you put in?

Your average tests seem higher than mine, but I think your first one is further along in the overall process than me (I still haven't made it through all of a syllabus or through all of the OG questions yet.)

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