From 600 (?) to 710 in almost a month

Hello guys,

I took the GMAT on 26 July and scored a 710 (V38, Q49) and a 7 in IR. AWA results will be available within 20 days, as usual.

Although this score is very good, there are plenty of folks in this forum who have scored much better and have very useful tactics and approaches to suggest. My main point will be something else, as my little GMAT journey was not what I would call straightforward.

Background

First, I am not a native English speaker. I hold a degree in engineering with a good, above-average GPA and as a result, I may say I have strong quantitative skills. Even though I read many texts in English, from newspapers to books, and I have the Proficiency of Cambridge, (it has been 10 years since then but I want to point out that I have studied English language to some depth), verbal skills are not my biggest advantage.

Journey vol.1

I started preparing for the GMAT on January. I enrolled in a course in my country that lasted for 8 weeks, with 3 hours of quant and verbal each, every week. The course also included eight Lab Tests. The lessons were great, the professors very good and professional, the material was very well structured and everything was going great. I had my schedule every week, followed it faithfully and studied with a lot of pleasure. After a month, I took my first Test and scored a 650, which was a good one and motivated me for a bigger progress. As the course was going on, I looked for other materials, as I was getting obsessed with the test, wanting to prepare in the best way available. That is when I run into this forum and started digging into its topics. I found various useful tips on material and I went on to obtain the Manhattan GMAT Guides, along with the extra Advanced Quant Guide, and the PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible. I cannot say that they added something new to the strategies and approaches I had already been taught, but I must say that each one of them is top in its category. The first five guides of Manhattan are necessary for the Quant section and along with the Advanced Quant are the perfect combination. Furthermore, the Manhattan guides for Reading and Sentence Correction and the Critical Reasoning Bible from Powerscore include very efficient ways of dealing with the Verbal thing. I was doing supplementary work with Official Guide too, which is also a must. You already know that, everybody tells so, but I have to say it again.
As the preparation was going on, I started scoring 670’s and 690’s, but never crossed the 700 barrier. Although I was working on my weak parts, I did not see any improvement from a point and on. The courses have finished, I had not practiced my IR and AWA and I was feeling stuck in that score. Which is not a bad one of course, but I had invested a lot of time and I wanted to score above 700. As a result, I decided to extend my preparation.
Unfortunately, for some personal reasons I lost all my motivation and desire to study and I completely quitted from the preparation in the mid of March. I just closed every single guide and I put all of the material in the shelves. I was studying every day from two to four hours and from one day to another GMAT just was not in my schedule and in my targets generally.

Journey vol.2

A long time has passed, when I decided to restart my preparation. First things first, so I took the GMAC prep test 1, in order to evaluate my current ability and scored a 640. I was surprised, as the date was June 4, almost 3 months after I stopped my first preparation. This gave me confidence and from the next day, I started studying again. I went through the MGMAT guides first and reviewed all of the strategies from the course I attended. Then, I decided to purchase the MGMAT online CATS and use them as an evaluation tool of my weaknesses and strengths. These CATS come with very detailed assessment analysis, which is very helpful in targeting your study. I was feeling quite good with my study, so I took the first CAT (which is free) on 27 July. And it was a shock for me. My score was 600 and a kick in the ass, although MGMAT is known for its more difficult test than the official exam. This was the hardest part for me, as I did not want to spend all of my summer studying and did not see any improvement after 20 days of studying. In the heart of the summer, I was spending most of my free time studying, the weather was getting hotter and hotter and I was not improving at all. I was really about to quit once more and start again in September.
Despite all of the frustration I was feeling, I thought about all the hours I have spent, both the first time and now and I told to myself “You cannot let it go again”. I was sure that there is a way to improve and I that I can make it and I changed my approach again. I put more hours into studying, but the thing is that they were productive hours. I squeezed the best out of Manhattan Advanced Quant and PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible. I had almost 300 questions from the Official Guide unanswered and ordered the Verbal and Quantitative Reviews for more practice and familiarity with the original material. I took MGMAT CAT 2 in 5 July and scored a 700. That was it, I knew I was in the right way and I had to keep it going like this. Although I scored lower than that in the other 4 MGMAT CATS, I was gaining confidence and getting better from the review. I booked my appointment for 26 July and I kept on with my schedule. I have to mention here that I didn’t really practice my IR, except in some CAT’s, and I didn’t practice my AWA at all.

Test Day

Test Day was the best day of the whole thing. I arrived at the test center at 13:00 and after all the necessary procedures, I entered the room. I chose to take the Verbal part first, Quantitative, IR and AWA later. I was not sure if I would take the IR and definitely was not aiming to take the AWA. I just wanted to stay focused on the first two and if I would be in the mood after that, I would take the IR. The overall test experience was very good, as I did not feel like having an exam and was not just the least stressed or anxious. Everything went well with the first two parts, so I decided to take the IR and AWA parts too.

Below are the CATS I took during my practice, with the scores and the dates, as well the final one.

Date CAT Score V Q IR
6/4 GMAT Prep 1 640 33 46
6/27 MGMAT 1 600 26 47 6.6
7/5 MGMAT 2 700 40 44 5.9
7/8 MGMAT 3 680 36 46 3.8
7/10 MGMAT 4 640 31 47 8
7/17 MGMAT 5 670 36 45 6.6
7/20 Kaplan 710 38 49
7/22 MGMAT 6 670 37 44
7/23 GMAT Prep 2 720 38 49
6/24 GMAT Prep 3 740 41 49 4
7/25 GMAT Prep 4 750 41 50 8
7/26 GMAT Exam 710 38 49 7

Finale

Learn your weaknesses and work on them. Always remember that Verbal plays the more dominant role in your score. I would like to have mastered my quant performance and have avoided careless mistakes, but with the time I had it was wiser to work more on improving my verbal skills.
A common advice is not to take a CAT just one or two days before the examination. In my case, I took 10 CATs in one month and 3 during the last 3 days. Especially, the last 3 of them, which were from the official site of the GMAC, have helped me to get in procedure that when I took the exam it was feeling like a routine for me. Just another day of practice, so simple. Along with the confidence I gained with my scoring, perhaps a little bit boosted, in the last days, I walked into the examination and enjoyed it without being stressed.
Guides from any prep source will give you efficient strategies to cope with GMAT problems. For practice, no resource can match the Official material. Stick to it, review your mistakes and you will see your score rise.
Lastly, do not let yourself down. Whatever your target is, you can achieve it. Use your time wisely, sleep a little less if you have too and with patience and consistency everything will come as you want.