Long-time lurker here, making a post because this community as been helpful in my journey so I want to contribute my experience.
Background: I am in my mid-20s and work in asset management on the east coast. I am not a test taking god, I got around a 1900 SAT back how many ever years ago just for reference. I've seen past posts of insane scores where those same people indicated that they've been receiving these elite scores on other standardized tests. I felt it's important that I mention I am not one of those people. I had taken the GMAT while in college because a friend of mine needed it for his Master's program and I knew I wanted to eventually get an MBA, so we studied together. I studied for around a month a few hours a day, familiarized myself with the test, and received a 650.
Act One: With Covid and basically my entire area being shut down, I decided now was the time to start studying and put this test behind me, whether I decide to apply to business school this cycle or next. I started by buying the GMAT Official Guide 2020 Verbal and Quant books around April. This was helpful to re-familiarize myself with GMAT content and curriculum. There really isn't much reading in these books, it's more questions and answers than anything, but this was my starting point. I got through these 2 books in about a month. Then I had a
Manhattan Prep book on Advanced Quant laying around from the time I studied for the test back in college. I went through this as well, but honestly didn't feel like I got much out of it minus the 'testing smart numbers' strategy. I took a Mock Exam and received a 660/Q:44/V30-something (sorry don't remember and erased that score haha) and I knew this wasn't good enough for the schools I had been planning on applying to.
Act Two: After some honest self reflection and what I was willing to sacrifice for the test, I decided I would throw everything I had at it. This was around late May-Early June, and I was planning to apply this cycle beginning in September so I wanted to finish the test by mid-July so I could then focus on other parts of my application. I saw the reviews
Target Test Prep had on here and on GMAT Club and I decided to do the free trial to see if it was the real deal. I can assure you, it is the real deal and instantly I knew this was what I needed. I have been working from home during covid, so I would literally wake up 2 hours earlier and study TTP and then study once I was done with work for the day. On weekends, I pretty much studied the entire day minus a golf outing or boat day or two. I got through the first 3 weeks with relative ease but then toward the end started to get burned out. I still forced through because I was committed to my mid-July timeline, but I would recommend giving yourself ample time to get through TTP and to reinforce the concepts in your head.
TTP Quant - Because I felt I was strong in certain areas of quant, I would only take the tests for these sections and review my wrong answers and read those appropriate sections of that chapter related to the problem. However, for some tougher sections for me personally like Combinations and Permutations and Geometry for example, I went through the entire chapter. I feel that the approach TTP uses made me incredibly prepared, and I was comfortable with every question I would eventually see on mocks and the actual exam as a result of this preparation, whereas in the past I would simply guess on certain topics and more difficult questions.
TTP Verbal - Although still in pre-beta. I read through all the SC and CR chapters and did all the questions. CR in particular kicked my ass in the beginning, I would literally get 20%'s on the hard quizzes. But it forced me to reassess how I approached these questions and look for what the GMAT was looking for. I can attest that it was incredibly helpful for me personally to go through the entirety of these chapters and review every wrong answer.
Test Day Prep: I bought all the OG Mocks and started to do them. I took 5 and my scores are below, as you can see there was some deviation between my scores, which made me nervous leading up to test day. I would review all my wrong answers and re study those sections on TTP related to those topics. I also did OG verbal questions from the Q bank provided by the verbal guide book.
Mock 1: 750
Mock 2: 710
Mock 3: 760
Mock 4: 710
Mock 5: 750
Test Week: My test day was scheduled for saturday, I took my final mock the sunday before. I wasn't happy with my verbal which was a little suspect to me based on my Mock Exams. So I watched all the videos of GMAT Ninja on the GMAT Club youtube channel related to Verbal. I felt this was incredibly helpful as he would walk through his thinking and I found his approach of finding wrong answers then settling on a correct one to be really effective.
Test Day: I didn't study the night before and day of because I wanted to be fresh going into test day. I honestly felt the test was incredibly easy compared to the Mocks and I finished with alot of time to spare on each section. I don't know if this was a result of my prep or I got lucky or both, but I got the score I was looking for.
TLDR; Read GMAT Books and
Manhattan Prep Advanced Quant, didn't cut it. Dove into TTP with everything I had, got the score I wanted and am relieved to be moving on. I'll try to answer some questions if anyone is interested. Thanks to everyone who contributes to this community