760 Q50 V42- Beating Verbal and the Mental Game!

Longtime lurker- first time posting!
I am still in shock...highest verbal score I have ever received!

Took the GMAT for the first time last summer. Took 2 CATs- My first GMATPREP exam was 650 (Q48 V32 IR8). My actual GMAT score was 710 (Q50 V36 IR8 AWA6). I have a strong quant foundation and had plenty work to do on verbal (native speaker). I was pretty pleased with my 710 (although I knew I could do better in verbal) but I had a significant commitment in the fall, so I stopped studying. I don't recommend taking a long break between GMAT attempts (I took 6 months off), but it is possible to restart studying. It does not take long for the baseline skills to come back.

3.5 Months ago, I started studying again. I knew I could improve my verbal, so I went for it. I bought GMATPrep Exam Pack 1 for 2 fresh CAT's. RC was strong for me- I take a lot of notes and make a good map for every passage. Making that map prepares me for most questions. I did not spend much time on RC.

My extended score report indicated that I was weak on CR. I went very slowly through the Manhattan CR guide. I also did wrong answer analysis on every single problem in the OG (did 10 at a time, easiest to hardest). This worked really well and improved my accuracy. I mainly relied on the OG and the Verbal supplemental, but I did try some hard problems from the CR megathreads.

Sentence Correction was a beast of its own. I used the Manhattan SC guide, the Veritas Prep videos, resources from the SC board here at GMATclub, and Ron P's notes on sentence correction. I did wrong answer analysis on all of the OG problems as well (I did a mix of easy, medium, and hard questions every time). Towards the end of my prep schedule, my accuracy was lower and I realized that I was overthinking, I did not have a good strategy, and I was looking too much into the semantics and the grammar rules. I had to take a step back and focus on the meaning. I did drills to actually teach myself the MGMAT sentence correction method and learned to actually focus on meaning. My last 2 weeks I spent the majority of my time on sentence correction.

For quant, I have a strong foundation, so I did not spend too much time on quant prep. I would do sets of harder problems from the OG and train myself on the CAT's. I did wrong answer analysis to find any gaps in quant and addressed those. The two topics I had to improve on were rate problems (especially the ones with variables present) & probability w/ permutations & combinations.

The day after my last practice CAT (test week), I caught a really bad cold. Unfortunately my test week priorities switched from last minute preparation & review to getting healthy. I spent my nights drinking orange juice, reading over sentence correction notes, maybe doing a small set of problems, and sleeping a lot. The worst of the cold was over by Friday morning, but my ears were still popping a bit while I was taking the test.

I think the most important thing for me was to win the mental game. My biggest fear was to put in 3+ months of effort to only get a worse score. I shifted that thought to, "you literally have nothing to lose." I had to stop overthinking sentence correction. When I was in the test, I actually thought I was not doing well (yay adaptive tests!). I had to shut those thoughts down before and during the test. I decided to have fun with the test! The AWA is fun because you get to rip an argument to shreds. IR & Quant are like solving puzzles. Number properties questions are really fun! Verbal was where I had to work, but the reading passages can be interesting.

I treated test day as a special event (like a game day) instead of a normal day. I knew that I put in the work and the skills were there- I just needed to set myself up to peak on test day. The last 24 hours before I took the test I surrounded myself with positive influences- movies, music, and talking to friends/family. I was still getting a little nervous before going, but I found that the one thing that calmed me down the most was doing a warmup (PS 1-10 in the OG + mapping out a few AWA questions). I would have been happy with a 720 (with an improved verbal score). I was in shock when I saw my score. I believe that the positive mindset made a significant impact on my score. Now what do I do with my study time?

First CAT (April 2016)- 650 Q48 V32 IR8
First GMAT Score (June 2016)- 710 Q50 V36 IR8 AWA6

My practice test scores:
2/11 GMATPrep 1 (retake)- 710 Q49 V38
2/25 MGMAT 1- 700 Q47 V38
3/10 GMATPrep 3 (exam pack 1)- 730 Q49 V40
3/24 MGMAT 2- 680 Q47 V35
4/1 GMATPrep 4- 720 Q50 V37

4/8 GMAT (unofficial) 760 Q50 V42 IR8

Key Takeaways:
-Wrong answer analysis is a great drill for CR & SC
-Don't overthink SC, focus on meaning
-Positive mindset is key!

Resources: MGMAT Books, GMATClub forum, Veritas Prep SC Videos