From 380 to 700 in 14 weeks

Hi everyone,

i decided (rather spontaneously)at the beginning of October that it was time to apply to business school. I knew getting a good GMAT score would be a major obstacle - I heard how hard it is but decided to give it a shot. Proper GMAT study materials are hard to access in the country where I am based, so after some browsing online, I signed up for the MAGOOSH course. That was the only prep I used.

I am a non-native speaker, but I went to high school in an English-speaking country. I read a lot in English, which helped me a lot. I never studied English as foreign language in school and I don't know any grammar rules. This is the truth.

My math skills were abysmal. And by abysmal I mean mental hindrance level. I didn't know how to do the simplest of operations. I barely passed the lowest level math in school and absolutely hated the subject. To say math is challenging for me, is to say nothing. It used to make me want to throw up.

On my first practice test I scored 380.

Nevertheless, I carried on. My study schedule was intense - I would do at least 3-4 hours study on weekdays and up to 10 on weekends. I never missed a day, even when I traveled. I downloaded some great apps - Manhattan GMAT app is very good and so is Magoosh flashcard apps, so I would use them on my way to and from work. At first, I covered all the math basics with Magoosh video lessons. I can't emphasize how much this course has helped me. It starts from the very bottom and builds up, so even a hopeless case like me can understand.

Having completed all the math lessons, I took a second practice test in the end of November and scored 540. I knew I covered all the basics so it was just a question of applying them. So I solved every problem on Magoosh, sometimes multiple times. I made sure I thoroughly understood every solution, thankfully the video explanations were there. I wrote everything in the notebook and made separate sheets with all the stuff I needed to memorize - formulas, exponents, common ratios on decimal form etc.

Sometime around December I started scoring in low 600s on practice tests. Overall, I would say I took about 11 throughout my practice. In December also, I started solving problems posted on this forum. It has been absolutely invaluable, so big thank you to all of you! It was also around the time I started doing more sentence correction problems, since it was my weak area in verbal.

Finally, around early February I started scoring around 670-710.

Finally, I went to the test center to take the test. I barely slept the night before, I was so nervous! The test center was horrible - noisy and everyone looked completely freaked out. Nothing can prepare you for that - I saw a young man actually crying! I had to take a bathroom break in the middle of the AWA and got screamed at by the attendant! I am pretty good at essays, so I thought I could afford to lose 3 minutes.

Integrated Reasoning was extremely hard. I barely had time to finish and guessed about 4 questions. Magoosh IR questions were easy in comparison.

Now on to Quant, my most feared part. I had questions that seemed so easy I got completely freaked out that I was failing. Moreover, I finished TWENTY minutes before the time. I lingered on the last 4 questions on purpose. but I had about 20 extra minutes left altogether I would say. I still don't know how it happened, as it never did in my practice tests. None of the concepts I feared so much got tested, such as Permutations.

I had the same situation in Verbal - I was on 32nd question with still about 20 minutes left! It happened before on practice tests that I would finish before the time was up but never by that much.

Inside, I sort of gave up. I thought I was getting easy questions because I am failing completely. Imagine when I saw 700 on the screen (Q41, V44). I literally couldn't believe my eyes.

This is probably not an amazing score for most of you, but for me it seems incredible that I was able to improve so much. I no longer fear math and (OMG!) I thought GMAT prep was actually FUN (sometimes) with all the quizzes.

I don't want it to seem like an Ad for MAGOOSH, so I will say - I didn't think their lessons on Verbal were that great. I know how hard it is to improve Verbal and I don't think Magoosh can help you with it all that much.

Well, that's about it. I am very happy with the score, as it is just what I needed. Final message - if I did it, so can anyone. Hard work always pays off.