From 590 to 770 in 4 months... A rocky road with a marvelous finish!

Hello all,

Sorry for the long post, this was a long road and I feel like I have quite a bit to share, I will try to keep it organized! Also, feel free to post any questions or pm me, I'm pretty active on GMATClub so I'll try to respond ASAP! If you're just interested in the material I used and the takeaways, you can find the study material at the top and my takeaways at the bottom, just go ahead a skip my long-winded timeline .

I just got back from the test center and still a little bit in shock. I've dreamed about making a post like this since I joined GMATClub a couple of months ago. Although my 4-month journey to a 770 seems short, it felt like a lifetime. Hopefully, my journey can help some of you with your own journey. There were several points throughout the past couple of months where I wanted to throw in the towel and accept that I couldn't hit my target (730), but I am so glad I didn't. When I hit "next" after finishing my essay and the score popped up 770 (Q49 V46 IR8) I was elated, could barely hit the accept score button as my hands were shaking so much. I don't know what my AWA is yet, but I will update this post once I have it.

A tinge of disappointment here as I've hit Q50-Q51 on several mocks and was confident I would be able to do it again, but I really can't complain.

A bit of background... who is kelzo123?... I graduated with an engineering degree from a T15 engineering school, and while I thought this would help me succeed on the GMAT, it actually became one of my biggest hurdles. Engineers are a bit stubborn and can't accept that they don't know how to solve a problem (or maybe that's just me ). I currently work as an engineer for a global chemical company, working both on the supply chain side of the business as well as managing the global implementation of immersive technology (Virtual/Augmented Reality). Additionally, I also work for an early-stage start-up management consulting firm, helping lead business development in North America. I'm also a mentor in the Big Brother Big Sister program. As you may be able to tell, my free-time is not readily available and has not made studying easy.

Just in case some just want the quick and dirty summary of my study materials here you go:

Materials used:
Veritas Prep Advanced Course with Anthony Ritz - (honestly the biggest boost to my score was from this class)
Veritas Prep exams - I found these to be relatively on par with the official GMAT
Target Test Prep - During my final weeks, I enjoyed the TTP platform while focusing and drilling weak areas.
OG2020 - An absolute must, the only way to learn what real GMAT questions look like
Official Mock Exams - Like most have stated in the past WAIT to use these until you're concrete in your foundations. Don't waste these too early in your prep, you'll regret it (I did)
GMATClub Quant Mock's - If you're trying to push to Q48+ this is your key.. Seriously... These are an amazing resource, USE THEM!
GMATNinja's Youtube Videos- Seriously.. Without GMATNinja, I'd be stuck in the low 700's. His videos and explanations are the reason I had the foundation to hit a V46
GMATClubs Question of the Day - While not an "extensive" resource, the daily questions helped keep my edge through the several months of study.
Manhatten Sentence Correction Guide - Like most others have suggested, read this front to back until it really settles.

Official GMAT 1 (June 2020) - 670 (Q48 V34 IR8 AWA6)
Official Online GMAT 1 (July 2020) - 710 (Q48 V40 IR8)
Official GMAT 2 (August 2020) - 770 (Q49 V46 IR8 AWA tbd)

The Journey Begins

So my journey actually started almost a year ago this month. I decided I wanted to get my MBA and started looking at what it would take to get into the schools I was interested in. I took a practice test (one of the free official mocks.. silly me) and scored a 590 (Q42 V31)... Wow, the scores I saw at my target schools hovered around 710-730, how in the world would was I supposed to increase my score by 100+ points? I was especially let down as I thought my engineering background would help me with Quant, turns out I haven't touched this type of math in years.... All that being said, the passion for business school temporarily died as I was promoted at work and the new responsibilities took most of my time, so I put off GMAT prep for the time being.

Fast forward to May of this year, something just struck a chord with me and I firmed up my decision to pursue an MBA. I took another official mock (once again, not a good idea.. I was no where near ready to blow through these tests) and scored a 600 (43Q 30V) which confirmed my lack of fundamentals, so I went to the books. I remember seeing this post from eternaloptimist about his 780 with only 30 days of study.. I thought to myself, if he could do it, why not me? I ordered the OG2020 guide and immediately devoted any and all free time I had to studying. From the aforementioned post, I saw that he completed the OG guide in 8 days, so I thought to myself, I can do that!! HUGE MISTAKE. While that worked wonders for him, I required much more training in my fundamentals. All this left me with was a flawed understanding of how to solve GMAT questions and a waste of countless hours over 8 days. The reason I mention this is just a warning to others that you need to make your prep your own. I won't be taking your GMAT, you will... You need to find what works for you and do it. I was silly thinking that I could read someone else's post and emulate what they did to achieve their score. Especially when their story is one of the best stories on Gmatclub.

I can not emphasize this enough.. MAKE SURE you are at least pretty solid in your fundamentals BEFORE you start blasting through all of the official GMAT material. I can't even count how many hours I wasted running through practice problems without any solid foundation. I took another Mock exam (once again following that old post like a guide) and received a 650 (Q45 V34).. A slight improvement, but I still felt like I had no idea what I was doing. It was at this point I realized I needed help, serious help. With my prior time commitments, I needed help building my fundamentals in a targeted and structured manner.

This is when I started the Veritas Prep Advanced course, initially, I was worried that I was not "Advanced" and thus this class may outpace me. But after discussing with Veritas, this class seemed perfect. I'll try not to be a salesman for Veritas, but this class and Anthony Ritz specifically were an absolute game-changer. Anthony loves the GMAT and loves to see others succeed. His "matter-of-fact" attitude and (pretty great) sense of humor helped make GMAT study exciting. Even after my class was over, Anthony would still answer my questions through email. This class was worth every dollar.

After this class, I took several Veritas mocks, each hovering around the 700 range, I felt prepared and scheduled an official exam.

Exam 1

My first exam was in person, I didn't feel very nervous as I thought I was completely prepared. I was confident I would be walking out with a 700+ and ready to be done studying and move on to completing my college applications. So you can imagine my shock and awe when 670 (Q48 V34) flashed across the screen. I was dumbfounded at how I bombed my verbal. After some reflection, it made complete sense, I rarely focused on Verbal as I'm a native English speaker and thought to myself "that should be enough". Well lo' and behold, I'm also an engineer and haven't gone through an English class since Freshman year of college.

Unfortunately, this is where I hit a major roadblock, I was so burnt out from the over a month and a half of relentless study (probably 150 hours worth of study over a 1 month period) and so let down from my score that I couldn't even look at GMAT material for almost 2 weeks.

Reflection and Test 2

After my first test, I needed to take a hard look at how I'd been studying. Even with the great structure that Veritas helped promote, I didn't translate that to my own study and instead focused on just doing as many practice problems that I could. I also never kept an error log as I just didn't think it would have benefitted me, I'm not sure if this would have helped me in the long run, but looking back I think it would have.

As I planned on applying Round 1, I knew I needed to work fast to improve my score. I set up an online GMAT for late July and started my "self-prep" for my second exam. This is when I discovered GMATNinja and his youtube videos. Truly a gamechanger and a resource everyone looking to improve their verbal score should use. THANK YOU Charles!!

Unfortunately by the time my second exam rolled around, I still wasn't where I needed to be and scored a 710 (Q48 V40). I was glad to see my Verbal above 40 but still felt like I wasn't where I needed to be.

The final push

Okay sorry, this post is WAY longer than I meant for it to be so I'll wrap this up.

I felt semi-confident I could get into my target schools with a 710, but also felt like it wasn't representative of my academic ability. Additionally, I'm hoping for some form of a scholarship and knew chances of that happening with a 710 may be slim. So I scheduled an exam for the 25th of August, 1 week before Tuck's Early Admissions deadline and set out to beat this next GMAT.

It was at this time I completed the Target Test Prep trial and fell in love. I wish this was something I found much earlier on in my studies. I loved the way each section is broken down and how the program flows from topic to topic. As I was on a time crunch I mainly focused on completing 1 or 2 medium quizzes for each topic, followed by the hard ones. Any topic which I couldn't consistently score 80%+ I would read the entire chapter on. After I completed the study guide, I actually felt like I had a true grasp on my Quant topics. TTP has started adding Verbal to their platform, but I can't comment on it as I did not use it. I would honestly suggest this as a great starting point for those new to GMAT study.

Unfortunately by this point I had exhausted all Veritas mock exams and all official exams, so I reset both and used those for practice. I was scoring around 750, but had repeat questions so I figured my actual score would be around 750.

Day of the exam

I went into this exam much more relaxed than the others, I knew I had a decent score in my 710 and that this score wasn't life or death. I think this mentality really helped me stay calm and keep my head on straight.

I started with Quant and got off to a bit of a shaky start. I think I was around question 7 when I was hit with a geometry question that was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, I think I actually came up with the right answer but burned 5 minutes doing so (stubbornness kills you on this test). The questions didn't seem to get any easier, this may have been the hardest Quant test I've seen. I ended up having to rush my last 3 questions as I was running out of time, I think this may have been what dropped me from a 50 to a 49, I guess we'll see when the ESR comes out. As I moved onto Verbal, I was surprised at how prepared I felt. Each question made sense and I felt like I was easily picking apart CR traps. I was lucky that my RC articles were actually very interesting, one of which I wish I could continue reading. SC gave me the most difficulty (as usual) but looking at my V46, I guess I did okay!

IR and AWA were both relatively simple. Once again I may have lucked out that my AWA was actually semi-related to something I'm dealing with at work, so my answer (I think) was on point.

When my score flashed on the screen I was in disbelief. 770... It took a second before I saw something I never thought I would see 99 Percentile... It was a dream come true... I nearly lost my voice yelling in the car on the way home...

Final takeaways

My path to a 770 was a road from hell and could have been so much easier if I had just taken a structured approach. The GMAT is not like other tests you may have taken in school, it requires a different approach for everyone. Every time I came on GMATClub, I would read these stories and think to myself, "oh! I just need to do what they did, that's how Ill improve". But I never stopped and looked at myself to see how I actually learn. Everyone is different and you need to find what works for you. But most importantly, you need to solidify your fundamentals. If you think you've exhausted the GMAT prep book and there's nothing left to learn from it, I guarantee you that you're wrong.

Something interesting that helped me... So this will not be for everyone (and no I'm not going to post the video). But something that helped me was actually recording myself taking a practice exam. I spoke through my exam, enunciating my thought process. When I rewatched the video, I gained a perspective on how I actually take tests. This helped me slow my brain down, as I noticed I would just let it run at 100 mph throughout the test... Once again this may not be for everyone, but it worked for me..

Sorry for this monster of a post, not sure if it will help anyone, but I just wanted to share my experience

Special Thanks to the following, without whom my I don't think I would have been able to do it
bb - without GMATClub there is 0 chance I would have had the motivation, or the resources to continue through my prep! Thank you!!
GMATNinja - As I stated above, you break down verbal in a way that no longer feels like I need to "memorizing grammar rules", you helped me truly understand how to beat the verbal section.
Bunuel - Your explanations helped break down some of the more complex topics in a simple and easy to learn way
ScottTargetTestPrep - Your platform really gave me that push I needed in the last month to solidify my thought process and ensure I drilled my weak areas. I only wish I knew about it sooner!!