770 (Q49/V48/IR8/AWA6) debrief - practice scores, resources, and tips

I took the GMAT in July for the second time and scored a 770. I relied on this site during my studying for tips and motivation, so I thought I would share a few things that helped me along the way...

1) Timeline & Scores:

I took the GMAT twice, first at the end of May, and then again in July. My first time I scored a 730--a solid score, I know, but I was not super pleased with my quant score (47), and I thought with a little bit of studying I could boost my verbal score (44) as well.

I studied consistently (4x/week for 1-2 hrs, one longer session on the weekend) for about two months before my first attempt. I then took a break for a couple of weeks, followed by studying again for another 4 weeks (with a slightly lighter study schedule) before my second try. Those first two months I studied almost exclusively quant; for the second go around I split my study time pretty evenly between quant and verbal.

Here are the practice scores, as best as I can remember:

MGMAT1: 660 (first try, before any studying)
MGMAT2: 690
GMAT Prep1: 720
MGMAT3: 710
GMAT Prep2: 740 (week before test 1)
Real test #1: 730 (Q47, V44, IR8, ACA6)
MGMAT Prep4: 740
GMAT Prep1 retake: 720 (took this on a weeknight, and rushed...)
GMAT Prep2 retake: 760 (week before test 2)
Real test #2: 770 (Q49, V48, IR8, ACA6)

Notes on practice tests:
-I don’t remember the splits on all the practice tests, but I almost always did worse (2-3 points lower) on the MGMAT quant section than the GMAT Prep quant sections, which accounted for the difference in the scores between those two test types.
-I also found that MGMAT IR questions were a little too hard—on all of my GMAT Prep practice tests, and on both real exams, I got an 8 on IR without a problem. The first two times I did the IR section on a MGMAT practice test, I got something like a 5 or a 6. I didn’t even do the IR sections on my last two MGAMT prep test, as for me the advantages of taking a ‘full’ test were not enough to make up for finishing that section under-confident.
-I found the MGMAT verbal section to be pretty predictive of my actual verbal scores, but some of the questions were a little weird, especially the critical reasoning ones.

2) Study resources:

Manhattan GMAT:

I used all of the MGMAT quant books. I spent the first few weeks just working through the subject books in order, re-learning formulas and doing all of the practice questions. Any formula I didn't remember well, I marked, and then went back and made a flash card for it and looked it up in other resources (e.g. Magoosh, Khan Academy) to make sure I really understood it. At the end of my studying I turned to the MGMAT advanced quant book--I found it helpful in that it had lots of test taking strategies and tips, but I really didn't have enough time to do all of the practice problems or get all that much out of the book. Overall, as many others have said, I found the MGMAT quant books to be the most helpful resource for learning the material. The actual math problems, however, whether in the practices tests or online quizzes, were harder than most of the OG problems. For my second round of studying I stuck to the OG problems for quant practice.

The only verbal-specific resource I used with the Manhattan SC book. This book was definitely worth it. I was pretty strong on verbal to begin with, but this book helped me nail sentence correction, which I think was a big part of the 4-point improvement on verbal between test 1 and test 2. As with the quant books, any concept or idiom I didn't know cold I flagged, made flash cards, and looked up in Magoosh or just online to make sure it really stuck.

Magoosh:

Magoosh was a great resource for self study. Their video library covers every possible topic, and is organized so you can just watch one five-minute video to brush up on a specific formula, or go through a whole series of videos to re-learn an entire topic area. As I noted above, I used Magoosh primarily as a tool to shore up my knowledge on shaky quant topics. Through the course of my studying, I watched probably half of the videos on the Magoosh site, some more than once. I also used Magoosh for practice questions—I really liked how customizable the practice sessions were, and that each question has a video and written explanation, so it’s very easy to review what you did wrong.

Khan Academy:

Khan Academy is an underutilized resource for GMAT studying, in my opinion. Obviously Khan academy has way more content than you need for the GMAT quant sections (some way too easy, some too hard), but there are tons of video lessons and practice problems on things that are covered on the GMAT quant. I’d highly recommend that anyone who feels, like I did, that they had been away from math for way too long to remember geometry formulas or combinatorics, sign up for Khan academy.

OG2016, OG Math, OG Verbal:

I did most of the medium and hard practice problems in each of these books. I started in about 1/2-2/3 of the way through the problems in each section. I repeated any problems I got wrong the first time until I got them right.

3) Tips:

-Familiarize yourself with the basics, then make and use a study plan:

When I first started studying, I jumped right into an ‘advanced study plan’, which had me doing questions from the Manhattan GMAT advanced quant book in week one. I quickly realized that as I hadn’t taken a math class in 8 years, and I didn’t even remember how to use FOIL confidently, I needed to take a step back and re-learn some material before stressing over difficult practice problems. So, I took a few weeks just to work through the Manhattan quant books (with a goal of getting through two books and all practice questions a week), and then sat down again and made a plan for my last 5 weeks that was more realistic based on my actual skill level (this is why I didn’t touch the advanced quant book again until I was studying for my second exam).

-Keep an error log:

All of the study resources basically say that you learn more from studying how you got the problem right or wrong than by doing the problem itself. This wasn’t totally true for me—I think I just don’t have the attention span or something to dig into a problem I’ve already completed. Probably for that reason, I definitely underestimated the usefulness of an error log at first. But it was a game changer when I did start to use one. While I didn’t go back through and do all of the problems I got wrong a second time or anything, I went back every few days and reviewed areas in which I had gotten more than a couple of problems wrong. The error log made that much easier to do.

I also took the error log for the OG and adapted it for the OG2016 Math and OG2016 verbal supplemental books (just by taking 20 min to change the answer key). I would suggest that someone do this for the 2016 books.

-The more practice problems in your study plan, the better, but also make time for concept review:

I took time at the beginning to re-learn material, but once I buckled down and made a plan, it mostly consisted of doing A LOT of practice problems. I did mix in ‘concept review’ sessions once or twice a week, though, where I went back and looked up formulas I didn’t remember in the Manhattan GMAT books, or watched a few videos on Magoosh on areas in which I had gotten some problems wrong.

-Once you have your resources and plan, don’t switch it up too much:

In the last week or two of studying, I was tempted to sign up for free trials of other study materials (Economist, veritas). I probably wasted a couple of days of studying trying out new resources, because that late in the game, learning different techniques for solving the same problems was actually more distracting than it was helpful. This isn’t to say that those resources aren’t any good, but all resources are a little different in their approach, so once you’ve chosen how you’re going to learn the material, and what resources you’re going to use, you should stick to that plan, and trust in it.

-Don't spend too much time on IR or AWA :

At the beginning of my studying, I took a couple of days to watch the Magoosh videos on IR and AWA, to make sure I understood what these sections were testing, and what types of questions to expect. After that, my only real practice with these sections was through the practice exams, and even then, I only did the IR and writing portions about half the time*. I think that practicing for the verbal and quant sections will get you the skills you need to excel in IR and writing, and after that you just need to practice just enough to know what types of questions to expect.

*I did some writing every time, but almost never a full essay. I was pretty confident in my actual writing ability, so on the practice tests I usually just took 10 min during the AWA section to outline the essay, and to practice picking out assumptions and critiques and organizing them quickly.

-Drill the basics:

I made flashcards for anything I was shaky on as I studied, and reviewed these flashcards at least every couple of days. These flashcards covered a bunch of different things: key multiples and factorials to know, decimal to fraction conversions, combinatorics formulas, geometry rules, grammar rules, and common idioms. There really are a set of things you should just know cold, and I found that drilling myself on these things constantly was the best way to make sure simple calculations didn’t trip me up on test day.

The Magoosh flashcards were very helpful for this as well—I clicked through those for 10-15 min a couple of times a week as well.

-Consider using computer/kindle study resources:

A couple of reasons for this: 1) kindle versions of most of the study books are way cheaper, and 2) you’ll be taking the test on a computer, so it’s good to get used to seeing the problems on a screen.

I didn’t use kindle books for all of my study resources—notably, I bought hard copies of all of the MGMAT quant books (I wanted to highlight and write in the books as I went), but I bought kindle versions of the OG books. This made it much easier to carry my study materials with me, and I got used to not being able to write all over the practice problems as I did them.

-Have a good plan for test day:

Test day (and the day before, for that matter), do whatever you need to do to get in a good headspace. For me, that meant stopping heavy studying a couple of days before the test (but still doing a few easy problems and flashcards up until the day of), having a big dinner the night before, and going to bed super early. Both times, I took the test in the afternoon, so in the morning I worked out, had a long lazy breakfast, did a few flashcards, and then go to the testing center very early. I even had my boyfriend drive me to the testing center so I could just relax, and not worry about navigating to a place I had never been before.

Add’l tips during the test:
*use the extra ‘direction/prep’ before starting each section to set up your booklet. For example, during the few minutes you have to scroll through the initial directions, I outlined my essay (just writing TS: ; Assumption 1: ; Assumption 2: ; Strengthening points: ; Conclusion: ). During the minute I had before starting the verbal section, I drew out an answer grid across half a page.
*when in doubt, get a new booklet. If I had measured my space better, I probably could have used just one booklet. But the first time I took the test, I used too much space for the math, and only had one page left for verbal. That probably would have been fine, but I got a new booklet anyway, just so booklet space was one less thing to stress about.
*Shake it off after each section. Walk around, go to the bathroom, eat your snack. You don’t have to use the full 8 minutes if you don’t need it, but take whatever time you do need to move on from whatever just happened in the last section and get yourself in a good headspace for the next one.