Now its my turn: 770!

Question

Just finished the GMAT and got a 770 (Q50, V46). Very happy with that. Not sure about the AWA score, but I'm sure I did fine thanks to chineseburned's AWA Guide (which is Gold, by the way. Thanks for that)

So I took the GMAT fresh out of university about a year and a half ago. All I did was go through the OG11 and took 2 GMATPrep tests (got 720 and 750). My goal was to get 700+ and I thought it
would be no problem. Come test day, I f*cked up bad, ran out of time and only got a 680. I was crushed.

I came back with a vengeance. Lack or preparation screwed me the first time so I was going to give myself plenty of time to study. I started about 8 months ago, but I work 90+ hours a week and rarely have time to study, so the long period of time allowed me to pace myself. Here's what I studied (in order):

OG11 (essential)
Kaplan 800 (decent)
OG Verbal (again essential)
Manhattan SC (very good)
GMATclub Tests (everyone should do these. DO EVERY TEST! Yes I know there are a lot, but they are by far the best resource for those looking to get a top score) https://gmatclub.com/wiki/tests
Manhattan SC online question bank
MGMAT CATs (good, but scores shown are 50-100 point lower than what you will get. Quant is super hard, and verbal will score you a good 10 points below the actual GMAT, Great for helping to get your timing in check)
GMAT Prep CATs (essential. Did each one twice, and got the exact same score on all of them. By far the best indicator of your score - nothing else comes close. DO EACH TEST 2-3 TIMES!)

Here are my test scores:

GMAT Club tests (I did all of them. As you can see I did very poorly on plenty. Don't get discouraged. I did super sh*tty on quite a few and still banged out a Q50):
m01 26 37 70.3% 1m 56s 11676 59.3%
m02 29 37 78.4% 2m 00s 12014 72.5%
m03 23 37 62.2% 2m 01s 12116 44.8%
m04 26 37 70.3% 2m 00s 12083 61.8%
m05 27 37 73.0% 2m 01s 12127 75.4%
m06 30 36 83.3% 2m 03s 12372 89.7%
m07 23 37 62.2% 2m 01s 12156 38.1%
m08 28 37 75.7% 1m 59s 11903 86.4%
m09 31 37 83.8% 1m 56s 11609 96.3%
m10 29 37 78.4% 2m 01s 12149 83.8%
m11 30 37 81.1% 2m 00s 12079 83.3%
m12 28 37 75.7% 2m 01s 12159 83.3%
m13 25 37 67.6% 2m 01s 12159 44.0%
m14 25 36 69.4% 2m 03s 12372 72.7%
m15 20 37 54.0% 2m 01s 12134 33.3%
m16 27 37 73.0% 2m 01s 12159 61.5%
m17 27 37 73.0% 2m 00s 12054 31.3%
m18 26 37 70.3% 2m 01s 12127 53.3%
m19 31 37 83.8% 2m 01s 12105 76.5%
m20 33 37 89.2% 1m 59s 11928 64.7%
m21 26 37 70.3% 2m 01s 12128 69.2%
m22 28 37 75.7% 2m 01s 12158 57.1%
m23 30 36 83.3% 2m 00s 12057 83.3%
m24 31 37 83.8% 0m 39s 3941 93.3%
m25 26 37 70.3% 1m 46s 10644 60.9%
v01 32 41 78.0% 1m 43s 10332 94.0%
v02 27 41 65.8% 1m 32s 9283 53.7%
v03 34 40 85.0% 1m 31s 9128 91.7%
v04 31 41 75.6% 1m 39s 9932 77.8%
v05 26 41 63.4% 1m 39s 9913 83.3%
v06 37 41 90.2% 1m 30s 9051 0.0%

MGMAT CATs (as you can see MGMATs are poor indicator of scores):
MGMAT1: 44 36 660
MGMAT2: 45 37 680
MGMAT3: 47 35 680
MGMAT4: 48 39 710
MGMAT5: 50 35 700
MGMAT6: 51 42 760

GMAT Prep CATs:
GMATPrep1: 50 47 770
GMATPrep2: 49 47 770
GMATPrep1 retake: 49 46 770
GMATPrep2 retake: 50 44 770

Actual GMAT:
50 46 770

I'd like to thank GMATClub for all the help. It's a fantastic resource and I couldn't have gotten this score without it.

As for b-school, with my background it's not really worth it for me to not go to a top school. So I'm considering Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, and Stanford. Anyone who has been accepted, any advice?

Thanks! Good luck everyone

CrushTheGMAT · Answer

Sorry I forgot to add my words of advice.

I believe a 700+ score is doable by every single person. All that matters is how bad you want it and how hard you are willing to work for it. Every single person has the tools to get a 700+ score.

ugimba · Answer

you really crushed the gmat. awesome score. unbelievable verbal score. good luck with your applications.

tenaman10 · Answer

WOW !! Fantastic score .
Reading different debreifs i got a impression that Quant is getting tougher day by day .. CrushTheGMAT  What is your take on it

CrushTheGMAT · Answer

The Quant didn't seem too bad. No permutation questions, and the only probability questions were in DS. Definitely not as tough as the quant on MGMAT CATs.

I knew I was doing well in quant because the questions were quite tough. There was a rates question that was 10x harder than anything I've seen in the GMATclub tests, so I could tell I was in the ~Q50 range. After I read the question, I considered wasting no time on it and just guessing randomly, but I'm too stubborn so I spent a few minutes on it and got nowhere. Luckily I budgeted my time well throughout and finished the section with a minute to spare. Other than that, quant was quite similar to GMATprep.

FN · Answer

I agree i didnt feel quant was hard at all, there were a few probablilty qs in DS and one combinatrics for me..

i guess if you score lower than 45 you see harder problems..

i mean the math was real simple i am shocked why i scored so low..

i too had a very tough PS question about rates.. some pumps...pumping water at different rates..was just too much reading in the question..

billyjeans · Answer

Amazing score! Congrats!

prasun84 · Answer

Crushthegmat,
what would your advice be to someone looking to improve verbal score from mid-30's to mid-40's?

subarao · Answer

Awesome score CrushTheGmat. How about SC section? Was it harder than the OG-11? And how about the Reading Comprehension?
Please give some information about above.

CrushTheGMAT · Answer

Just got my AWA score. Got a 6! Thanks again to Chineseburned's AWA guide. This helped me boost my score from 4 to 6. I only had to study the guide for about an hour or two to get the top score.

As for the verbal, that was always a struggle for me. The other time I took the GMAT I scored in the 30's on verbal. Quant always came fairly easy to me so this time around I made sure my Quant was in the 50 range to make up for my poor verbal. Turns out that it didn't have to, because I even impressed myself with the verbal score that I got. Here's what I did to boost my verbal score:

The SC and RC were both quite similar to GMATPrep. If you want more practice, do each GMAT prep 3 times - you'll see plenty of different questions each time. For SC, I used the Manhattan guide and I also used Manhattan's online SC bank, which was helpful and quite challenging. Didn't do much else for the RC besides the OG11 and OG verbal. I found that the 6 MGMAT CATs combined with the 4 GMATpreps I did got my RC and CR in good enough shape for the actual test.

Drinking a red bull 2 hours before the test was also essential. Don't underestimate the power of caffeine.

bhatiagp · Answer

Brilliant! 770 is awesome..

Im repeating my GMAT as well.. Do you need to pay to access the MGMAT Sentence Correction Q's online ?

How did you work on the CR.

CrushTheGMAT · Answer

Yes, I paid for the Manhattan SC question bank and the 6 MGMAT CATs. Well worth the cost.

I worked on CR using the OG11, OG verbal, the MGMAT CATs and GMATprep CATs. Those materials were good enough for me.

cheeseburst · Answer

Congrats CrushtheGmat !
Commendable performance.

sjpre10 · Answer

Great post.. thanks for sharing your ideas

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