Events & Promotions
|
|
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.
May 0808:00 AM PDT
-08:30 AM PDT
Join the special YouTube live-stream for selecting the winners of GMAT Club MBA Scholarships sponsored by Juno live. Watch who gets these coveted MBA scholarships offered by GMAT Club and Juno.
02 Aug 2025, 14:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
I took the GMAT in mid-June and thought I’d share my experience as a fairly recent data point for anyone considering taking the GMAT.
As background, I am two years out of school, working in investment banking / private equity, and considering going for an MBA in 2 years. I started preparing for the GMAT in March with the goal of taking the exam in June or July before starting a new job. I took the free GMAT practice exam and was initially very discouraged by scoring a 635 (~85th percentile) with a 78 (52nd percentile) in quantitative reasoning. I actually considered bailing on the effort as I recognized studying would require a lot of work and I was only interest in pursuing an MBA at a top tier school, which would require a 99th percentile score.
Based on other reviews and word of mouth, it seemed that Target Test Prep was generally regarded as a strong option, particularly for those needing focus on quantitative reasoning, like myself. I signed up in March for a three month subscription of the flexible self-study prep, and scheduled my GMAT for mid-June to give myself a timeline.
I started working through it as much as I could on evenings and during the week, probably averaging around 15 hours of prep per week. Studying for the GMAT is a long process, with many people taking several months and a few hundred hours to get a top tier score, which I knew going in. It was hard to stay patient and consistent at first because the GMAT covers a lot of material, and TTP is designed to be thorough, with review sections after every new chapter including review of the chapter you just completed and the entire coursework you've studied so far. Over time I realized how imperative it was to stay fresh on subjects I studied early on, since the studying process inevitably takes several months if you are working full-time like I was.
With hindsight, I think the balance and pacing of new material and review was good for moving forward effectively, and I was able to complete my studying in about 3 months while also working over 40 hours per week full-time. Based on my personal experience, I think that it is critical to study at least ~10 hours per week to make sure you are moving forward on learning new topics while also keeping the ones you’ve covered so far fresh in your mind. The longer your studying takes, the more time you will have to cumulatively spend on refreshing stale topics rather than learning new ones.
Once I completed the TTP curriculum, I then took several practice tests over the next few weeks before test day, in between which I’d go back and review areas and problem types that I identified as weaknesses. In this final stage of review I used a mix of TTP’s review tools, building custom questions in the subjects I was targeting, supplemented with practice problems in the official GMAT books. I considered taking practice exams before finishing the TTP curriculum but decided against it, since it didn't seem like it would be helpful to even see a score knowing there were full sections and question types I'd be unprepared for. While I was impatient, I guess I trusted that finishing TTP would get me where I needed to be, and that it made the most sense to see a practice score after completing the full thing. I wouldn't necessarily advise others against taking the practice exams while still working through TTP, but it seemed like a waste of time to me to even bother with a practice if I was not ready for it.
Once I was done with TTP, I took 6 practice exams, and overall I felt like the official practice exams were very representative of the real test. I scored the following on my practices:
Clearly there is some variation here from one exam to the next; one of the challenges with the GMAT is that it is a short enough test that even one or two questions per section that you are unprepared for can have an outsized impact on your score. This is why it’s critical to have such a well-rounded and thorough approach to preparation so that you can confidently field all question types, or else test day becomes more of a gamble, requiring some luck in question selection. I credit my 755 to studying so widely and deeply through a proven system.
On test day itself I felt well-prepared and confident. There were questions during the exam that were challenging, and I was very disciplined in bookmarking those that I was unconfident or stuck on, which I came back to at the end. pacing can be a real challenge, particularly in the quant section, so do not fall into the trap of spending many minutes on a likely futile question. Identify it quickly, bookmark it, pick your best guess for now, and come back at the end if time.
If you are not happy with your initial score and want more than a 20-30 point increase, I’d advise people to consider a course like TTP which has a well-developed, tested curriculum and structure, yet can be paced based on your lifestyle. It can cost a few hundred bucks upfront, but I’m pretty confident it saved me months of effort (and subsequent exam fees) by approaching my prep in an effective way and getting it done in 3 months.
As background, I am two years out of school, working in investment banking / private equity, and considering going for an MBA in 2 years. I started preparing for the GMAT in March with the goal of taking the exam in June or July before starting a new job. I took the free GMAT practice exam and was initially very discouraged by scoring a 635 (~85th percentile) with a 78 (52nd percentile) in quantitative reasoning. I actually considered bailing on the effort as I recognized studying would require a lot of work and I was only interest in pursuing an MBA at a top tier school, which would require a 99th percentile score.
Based on other reviews and word of mouth, it seemed that Target Test Prep was generally regarded as a strong option, particularly for those needing focus on quantitative reasoning, like myself. I signed up in March for a three month subscription of the flexible self-study prep, and scheduled my GMAT for mid-June to give myself a timeline.
I started working through it as much as I could on evenings and during the week, probably averaging around 15 hours of prep per week. Studying for the GMAT is a long process, with many people taking several months and a few hundred hours to get a top tier score, which I knew going in. It was hard to stay patient and consistent at first because the GMAT covers a lot of material, and TTP is designed to be thorough, with review sections after every new chapter including review of the chapter you just completed and the entire coursework you've studied so far. Over time I realized how imperative it was to stay fresh on subjects I studied early on, since the studying process inevitably takes several months if you are working full-time like I was.
With hindsight, I think the balance and pacing of new material and review was good for moving forward effectively, and I was able to complete my studying in about 3 months while also working over 40 hours per week full-time. Based on my personal experience, I think that it is critical to study at least ~10 hours per week to make sure you are moving forward on learning new topics while also keeping the ones you’ve covered so far fresh in your mind. The longer your studying takes, the more time you will have to cumulatively spend on refreshing stale topics rather than learning new ones.
Once I completed the TTP curriculum, I then took several practice tests over the next few weeks before test day, in between which I’d go back and review areas and problem types that I identified as weaknesses. In this final stage of review I used a mix of TTP’s review tools, building custom questions in the subjects I was targeting, supplemented with practice problems in the official GMAT books. I considered taking practice exams before finishing the TTP curriculum but decided against it, since it didn't seem like it would be helpful to even see a score knowing there were full sections and question types I'd be unprepared for. While I was impatient, I guess I trusted that finishing TTP would get me where I needed to be, and that it made the most sense to see a practice score after completing the full thing. I wouldn't necessarily advise others against taking the practice exams while still working through TTP, but it seemed like a waste of time to me to even bother with a practice if I was not ready for it.
Once I was done with TTP, I took 6 practice exams, and overall I felt like the official practice exams were very representative of the real test. I scored the following on my practices:
- 635 (my first practice exam before any studying)
- 715 (right after finishing TTP)
- 705 (this and following exams were each done with few days between them while I reviewed any error areas)
- 745
- 765
- 725
- 705
Clearly there is some variation here from one exam to the next; one of the challenges with the GMAT is that it is a short enough test that even one or two questions per section that you are unprepared for can have an outsized impact on your score. This is why it’s critical to have such a well-rounded and thorough approach to preparation so that you can confidently field all question types, or else test day becomes more of a gamble, requiring some luck in question selection. I credit my 755 to studying so widely and deeply through a proven system.
On test day itself I felt well-prepared and confident. There were questions during the exam that were challenging, and I was very disciplined in bookmarking those that I was unconfident or stuck on, which I came back to at the end. pacing can be a real challenge, particularly in the quant section, so do not fall into the trap of spending many minutes on a likely futile question. Identify it quickly, bookmark it, pick your best guess for now, and come back at the end if time.
If you are not happy with your initial score and want more than a 20-30 point increase, I’d advise people to consider a course like TTP which has a well-developed, tested curriculum and structure, yet can be paced based on your lifestyle. It can cost a few hundred bucks upfront, but I’m pretty confident it saved me months of effort (and subsequent exam fees) by approaching my prep in an effective way and getting it done in 3 months.
avigoesforMBA
Joined: 21 May 2024
Last visit: 07 May 2026
Posts: 60
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 27
Location: India
Schools: Sloan (MIT)
GMAT Focus 1: 655 Q79 V87 DI82 
GMAT Focus 2: 665 Q82 V85 DI82
Products:
03 Aug 2025, 09:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulation! This is an absolute fantastic score. I had some questions on how to leverage TTP
gmat755j
