|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
28 Jul 2025, 09:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi everyone!
After taking my GMAT Focus one week ago and improving from a 525 to a 675 score, I believe my experience can help those striving to improve their scores by more than 100 points. Particularly, those who will have time to fully commit to studying because they are in between jobs, just out of college, or in a similar situation.
My Background
I’m a Business Management undergrad from Spain who finished his degree two years ago and had been working at a consulting firm ever since. In April 2025, I left my job because I had secured a new position as a Business Analyst at an MBB firm. The recruiting team suggested I prepare for the GMAT during this period between jobs, as the GMAT exam requires extensive study and it’s hard to put in the hours while working.
Finding the Best Prep Course
Before committing to any prep course, I asked friends who had taken the GMAT to see what they recommended. The answers were all similar: if you aren’t disciplined and need someone to push you, go to an in-person prep center. However, if you are disciplined and organized, Target Test Prep is the best course you can take. In my case, I’m quite disciplined, so I went with the latter, and I couldn’t agree more with their recommendation. Target Test Prep is the best prep platform I’ve ever used, and I encourage everyone thinking of taking the GMAT to go with them. The combination of TTP and disciplined study is a guarantee of success.
First Practice Exam
Once I chose Target Test Prep, the first thing I did was take one of the free GMAT exams offered by MBA website to see where I stood. I had no idea what the exam was like and was starting completely from scratch. I scored a 525 (Q73, V81, D74), or 38th percentile (Q 22nd, V 67th, D 42nd). I clearly had a lot to improve. But after reviewing the exam, I realized there was plenty of room for growth, since when answering untimed, I could figure out most answers—it just took me five minutes instead of two.
First Month of Study
I began studying on May 19, doing 9 hours per day from Monday to Thursday, 7 hours on Fridays, and taking weekends off. Since I had a clear schedule, I set my TTP to schedule mode instead of mission configuration and followed the plan as it came. (In month two, I’ll explain how I slightly adjusted it to improve productivity, but when starting from scratch, I strongly suggest following TTP’s schedule.) In this setup, I had approximately two Quant lessons for every Verbal one and didn’t yet touch the DI section. I was taking all my chapter tests without worrying about pacing and scoring above the accuracy benchmarks TTP had set, so I knew I was on the right path.
Second Practice Test
After three weeks of studying (about 130 hours), I took the second free practice test and scored a 565, with clear improvement in Verbal (86th percentile) and slight improvements in Quant and DI.
At first, I was disappointed with the Quant results, but after reviewing my mistakes, four findings stood out:
To give some context, I hadn’t yet studied Rate Problems, Word Problems, or Unit Conversion in Quant, which are very important on the GMAT. In Verbal, I had covered Spot the Assumption, Strengthen & Weaken the Argument, and Solve the Paradox.
After these tests, I took a week off to relax and reflect on how to adjust my study approach.
What I decided to do was:
During the second month, I followed TTP’s plan and saw how the initial weeks were paying off. The first chapters focused on number properties, algebra, fractions, roots, and exponents. Once you start combining all that with word problems and others, results improve significantly.
Third Practice Test
After two weeks with this new approach (around 86 more study hours), I took another practice test (MBA website Practice Test 3) and saw significant improvement. I scored a 615, maintaining an 86th percentile in Verbal and improving in Quant and DI.
Since I was in a bit of a hurry—I had a trip on July 18—I decided to speed up and cover as many Quant chapters as I could in one week.
Last Week of Study
That week, I continued following TTP’s schedule, but I didn’t take all the tests. I only did one for each difficulty level (easy, medium, hard) per chapter, and if I scored above the recommended accuracy, I moved to the next one. After that week, I took the fourth practice test.
Fourth Practice Test
The results kept improving. I scored a 645, with all sections (Verbal, Quant, DI) above the 80th percentile. I decided I was ready to take the exam. If the results weren’t good enough, I’d retake it in August.
For the next few days, I used TTP’s custom test feature to create full-length practice exams and worked on pacing. I booked my GMAT Focus exam for July 18.
Exam Day
I took the exam at home. Here are some tips if you plan to do the same:
For context: in Quant I made three mistakes and landed in the 70th percentile; in Verbal, two mistakes and 97th percentile; in DI, five mistakes and 96th percentile. Clearly, the GMAT algorithm did its work—probably penalizing harder mistakes in Quant and DI.
Still, the lesson is clear: don’t stress about whether you're answering everything correctly. The difficulty of each question plays a big role in your final score.
I’m very happy with my 675 score, but I know I could have done better. If I had completed all TTP chapters and tests, I likely would have scored even higher.
Takeaways / Recommendations
After taking my GMAT Focus one week ago and improving from a 525 to a 675 score, I believe my experience can help those striving to improve their scores by more than 100 points. Particularly, those who will have time to fully commit to studying because they are in between jobs, just out of college, or in a similar situation.
My Background
I’m a Business Management undergrad from Spain who finished his degree two years ago and had been working at a consulting firm ever since. In April 2025, I left my job because I had secured a new position as a Business Analyst at an MBB firm. The recruiting team suggested I prepare for the GMAT during this period between jobs, as the GMAT exam requires extensive study and it’s hard to put in the hours while working.
Finding the Best Prep Course
Before committing to any prep course, I asked friends who had taken the GMAT to see what they recommended. The answers were all similar: if you aren’t disciplined and need someone to push you, go to an in-person prep center. However, if you are disciplined and organized, Target Test Prep is the best course you can take. In my case, I’m quite disciplined, so I went with the latter, and I couldn’t agree more with their recommendation. Target Test Prep is the best prep platform I’ve ever used, and I encourage everyone thinking of taking the GMAT to go with them. The combination of TTP and disciplined study is a guarantee of success.
First Practice Exam
Once I chose Target Test Prep, the first thing I did was take one of the free GMAT exams offered by MBA website to see where I stood. I had no idea what the exam was like and was starting completely from scratch. I scored a 525 (Q73, V81, D74), or 38th percentile (Q 22nd, V 67th, D 42nd). I clearly had a lot to improve. But after reviewing the exam, I realized there was plenty of room for growth, since when answering untimed, I could figure out most answers—it just took me five minutes instead of two.
First Month of Study
I began studying on May 19, doing 9 hours per day from Monday to Thursday, 7 hours on Fridays, and taking weekends off. Since I had a clear schedule, I set my TTP to schedule mode instead of mission configuration and followed the plan as it came. (In month two, I’ll explain how I slightly adjusted it to improve productivity, but when starting from scratch, I strongly suggest following TTP’s schedule.) In this setup, I had approximately two Quant lessons for every Verbal one and didn’t yet touch the DI section. I was taking all my chapter tests without worrying about pacing and scoring above the accuracy benchmarks TTP had set, so I knew I was on the right path.
Second Practice Test
After three weeks of studying (about 130 hours), I took the second free practice test and scored a 565, with clear improvement in Verbal (86th percentile) and slight improvements in Quant and DI.
At first, I was disappointed with the Quant results, but after reviewing my mistakes, four findings stood out:
- I had trouble pacing through the questions (which didn’t worry me, since I hadn’t practiced pacing yet).
- Many questions I missed were from chapters I hadn’t studied.
- I was making many careless mistakes.
I was forgetting some concepts I had already studied.
To give some context, I hadn’t yet studied Rate Problems, Word Problems, or Unit Conversion in Quant, which are very important on the GMAT. In Verbal, I had covered Spot the Assumption, Strengthen & Weaken the Argument, and Solve the Paradox.
After these tests, I took a week off to relax and reflect on how to adjust my study approach.
What I decided to do was:
- Change the TTP schedule to focus purely on Quant
- Start working on pacing (TTP recommended this too)
- Pay more attention to reading the question to reduce careless mistakes
- Create flashcards for forgotten concepts and review them daily for 15 minutes
During the second month, I followed TTP’s plan and saw how the initial weeks were paying off. The first chapters focused on number properties, algebra, fractions, roots, and exponents. Once you start combining all that with word problems and others, results improve significantly.
Third Practice Test
After two weeks with this new approach (around 86 more study hours), I took another practice test (MBA website Practice Test 3) and saw significant improvement. I scored a 615, maintaining an 86th percentile in Verbal and improving in Quant and DI.
Since I was in a bit of a hurry—I had a trip on July 18—I decided to speed up and cover as many Quant chapters as I could in one week.
Last Week of Study
That week, I continued following TTP’s schedule, but I didn’t take all the tests. I only did one for each difficulty level (easy, medium, hard) per chapter, and if I scored above the recommended accuracy, I moved to the next one. After that week, I took the fourth practice test.
Fourth Practice Test
The results kept improving. I scored a 645, with all sections (Verbal, Quant, DI) above the 80th percentile. I decided I was ready to take the exam. If the results weren’t good enough, I’d retake it in August.
For the next few days, I used TTP’s custom test feature to create full-length practice exams and worked on pacing. I booked my GMAT Focus exam for July 18.
Exam Day
I took the exam at home. Here are some tips if you plan to do the same:
- Download the secure browser in advance. If using a Mac, go to settings and allow screen sharing in Respondus.
- Connect 15 minutes early in case of issues.
- Empty all your shelves and cupboards. The proctors are very strict.
- Stay calm during the proctor’s checks. It took one hour in my case.
For context: in Quant I made three mistakes and landed in the 70th percentile; in Verbal, two mistakes and 97th percentile; in DI, five mistakes and 96th percentile. Clearly, the GMAT algorithm did its work—probably penalizing harder mistakes in Quant and DI.
Still, the lesson is clear: don’t stress about whether you're answering everything correctly. The difficulty of each question plays a big role in your final score.
I’m very happy with my 675 score, but I know I could have done better. If I had completed all TTP chapters and tests, I likely would have scored even higher.
Takeaways / Recommendations
- The GMAT requires disciplined study (in my case, over 260 hours), so put in the work.
- TTP is a great prep course. I strongly recommend it. Its strengths include:
- Customizable pacing to fit any schedule
- A logically structured curriculum with clear explanations
- A question bank that mirrors the real exam
- Tools to create personalized practice tests
- Analytics to track progress and target weaknesses
- Follow TTP’s plan. Everything is ordered for a reason. Don’t panic if early results aren’t great.
- After significant practice, evaluate your performance and adjust your strategy if needed.
- On exam day, stay calm and be ready for technical issues. Getting some questions wrong does not mean you’ll get a bad score!
Paattaa
Joined: 24 Jul 2025
Last visit: 04 Jan 2026
Posts: 29
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 4
Location: India
Schools: ISB '26 INSEAD Aug '26 HEC Sept '26
GMAT Focus 1: 645 Q85 V81 DI80 
28 Jul 2025, 23:14
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations!! This is great!
