From mid 600 twice to 760

So last week I scored 760 (Q47 V47) on my GMAT and wanted to share a few things:

I took the GMAT twice before and scored in the mid 600s: first time i ran out of time on Q and had to randomly click through 7 questions, second time same thing happened to me but in V section (11 questions). Second exam showed to me that my V wasn't as good as I thought.

I then took a year long break and started studying again since I knew I could get higher score.

I used MGMAT books and also signed up for Magoosh. I also bought the new OG2016 books and MGMAT Advanced Quant book.

Quick materials review:

I used MGMAT to review quant concepts, but I didn't do any problems from MGMAT guides, as I found them too hard compared to GMAC questions.
MGMAT Advanced Quant: i found it was not very useful for me, it repeated a lot of the things from the regular MGMAT books and addressed a few very difficult problems, and I didn't think it would be worth the effort to spend a lot of time on those.

I did all the questions from Magoosh , and I found Magoosh videos quite good: they explain difficult Q and V concepts very well. I found Mahoosh Quant comparable in difficulty to GMAC, but the way the questions are worded is just not the same in subtle ways.
Magoosh Verbal: RC is too hard and I found a few CR and SC problems too ambiguous for my liking. Magoosh Verbal videos on the other hand are extremely helpful and do a very good job explaining things such as "because of" vs. "due to" etc. (I am not a native speaker)


Studying:

After doing Magoosh questions (I like that they were online so I didn't have to be at home to do them) I decided to stick only to OG questions. There are minor differences in the way the questions are written in MGMAT / Magoosh, and that put me off from using unofficial questions. There are enough questions in the OG to learn all you need. I kept track of the questions I got wrong on an excel sheet and reviewed them after.

The biggest breakthrough for V for me came from subscribing to The Economist: the way the articles are written, the language, the structure - all are just like the RC passages. And the articles are quite good as well so I'm glad I got into reading it and will continue to do so.

I did all MGMAT practice exams, but I didn't give too much importance to the scores (they were all high 600s). MGMAT CATs are way too hard, i could not finish Quant on time most of the times. I always did AWA and IR as well and always in the morning at the same time as I would take the real test.

I bought GMAT Prep exam pack 1 for the extra 2 exams and I did one in the very beginning, one in the middle, and the other 2 just before the real test, just to get my timing down and get attuned to the real GMAT test. I used GMAT Write for the last 2 GMAT prep tests to score my AWA. I did all the OG IR problems as well (there's only 50). I usually skipped 1 or 2 to make sure I finish on time though, because I always found that they stuck the easy questions at the very end of IR (was not the case on the actual test though).

I also bought GMAC question pack (there's a coupon online for discount if you look) at the very end of my prep, so I only did maybe 50 questions. I then stopped since I got 730 on the last GMAT Prep and i didn't need any more wrong answers / different question types to throw me off my game before the real test. However, I wish I had bought the question pack sooner and did those questions instead of / in combination with Magoosh questions.

Glad I'm done, I was a bit disappointed in my Q score, but the percentiles these days for Quant are just insane, and there's no way i'm retaking this test (47/51 is close to max score and is an excellent score in my opinion). Now on to the hard part, actually getting into a business school.

Cliffs:
Get GMATPrep Question pack and exam pack and OG16 and stick to OG questions
Magoosh videos are great for Q and V explanations
Read reputable publications to get ready for RC

So last week I scored 760 (Q47 V47) on my GMAT and wanted to share a few things:

I took the GMAT twice before and scored in the mid 600s: first time i ran out of time on Q and had to randomly click through 7 questions, second time same thing happened to me but in V section (11 questions). Second exam showed to me that my V wasn't as good as I thought.

I then took a year long break and started studying again since I knew I could get higher score.
I used MGMAT books and also signed up for Magoosh. I also bought the new OG2016 books and MGMAT Advanced Quant book.[/list]

Quick materials review:

• I used MGMAT to review quant concepts, but I didn't do any problems from MGMAT guides, as I found them too hard compared to GMAC questions.
  MGMAT Advanced Quant: i found it was not very useful for me, it repeated a lot of the things from the regular MGMAT books and addressed a few very difficult problems, and I didn't think it would be worth the effort to spend a lot of time on those.
  
• I did all the questions from Magoosh, and I found their videos quite good: they explain difficult Q and V concepts very well.
  
• Quant: I found Quant comparable in difficulty to GMAC, but the way the questions are worded is just not the same in subtle ways.
• Verbal: RC is too hard and I found a few CR and SC problems too ambiguous for my liking. The Verbal videos on the other hand are extremely helpful and do a very good job explaining things such as "because of" vs. "due to" etc. (I am not a native speaker)

Studying:

• After doing Magoosh questions (I like that they were online so I didn't have to be at home to do them) I decided to stick only to OG questions. There are minor differences in the way the questions are written in MGMAT / Magoosh, and that put me off from using unofficial questions. There are enough questions in the OG to learn all you need. I kept track of the questions I got wrong on an excel sheet and reviewed them after.
  
• The biggest breakthrough for V for me came from subscribing to The Economist: the way the articles are written, the language, the structure - all are just like the RC passages. And the articles are quite good as well so I'm glad I got into reading it and will continue to do so.
  
• I did all MGMAT practice exams, but I didn't give too much importance to the scores (they were all high 600s). MGMAT CATs are way too hard, i could not finish Quant on time most of the times. I always did AWA and IR as well and always in the morning at the same time as I would take the real test.
  
• I bought GMAT Prep exam pack 1 for the extra 2 exams and I did one in the very beginning, one in the middle, and the other 2 just before the real test, just to get my timing down and get attuned to the real GMAT test. I used GMAT Write for the last 2 GMAT prep tests to score my AWA. I did all the OG IR problems as well (there's only 50). I usually skipped 1 or 2 to make sure I finish on time though, because I always found that they stuck the easy questions at the very end of IR (was not the case on the actual test though).
  
• I also bought GMAC question pack (there's a coupon online for discount if you look) at the very end of my prep, so I only did maybe 50 questions. I then stopped since I got 730 on the last GMAT Prep and i didn't need any more wrong answers / different question types to throw me off my game before the real test. However, I wish I had bought the question pack sooner and did those questions instead of / in combination with Magoosh questions.

Glad I'm done, I was a bit disappointed in my Q score, but the percentiles these days for Quant are just insane, and there's no way i'm retaking this test (47/51 is close to max score and is an excellent score in my opinion). Now on to the hard part, actually getting into a business school.

Cliffs:

Get GMATPrep Question pack and exam pack and OG16 and stick to OG questions
Magoosh videos are great for Q and V explanations
Read reputable publications to get ready for RC

So last week I scored 760 (Q47 V47) on my GMAT and wanted to share a few things:

I took the GMAT twice before and scored in the mid 600s: first time i ran out of time on Q and had to randomly click through 7 questions, second time same thing happened to me but in V section (11 questions). Second exam showed to me that my V wasn't as good as I thought.

I then took a year long break and started studying again since I knew I could get higher score.
I used MGMAT books and also signed up for Magoosh. I also bought the new OG2016 books and MGMAT Advanced Quant book.[/list]

Quick materials review:

• I used MGMAT to review quant concepts, but I didn't do any problems from MGMAT guides, as I found them too hard compared to GMAC questions.
  MGMAT Advanced Quant: i found it was not very useful for me, it repeated a lot of the things from the regular MGMAT books and addressed a few very difficult problems, and I didn't think it would be worth the effort to spend a lot of time on those.
  
• I did all the questions from Magoosh, and I found their videos quite good: they explain difficult Q and V concepts very well.
  
• Quant: I found Quant comparable in difficulty to GMAC, but the way the questions are worded is just not the same in subtle ways.
• Verbal: RC is too hard and I found a few CR and SC problems too ambiguous for my liking. The Verbal videos on the other hand are extremely helpful and do a very good job explaining things such as "because of" vs. "due to" etc. (I am not a native speaker)

Studying:

• After doing Magoosh questions (I like that they were online so I didn't have to be at home to do them) I decided to stick only to OG questions. There are minor differences in the way the questions are written in MGMAT / Magoosh, and that put me off from using unofficial questions. There are enough questions in the OG to learn all you need. I kept track of the questions I got wrong on an excel sheet and reviewed them after.
  
• The biggest breakthrough for V for me came from subscribing to The Economist: the way the articles are written, the language, the structure - all are just like the RC passages. And the articles are quite good as well so I'm glad I got into reading it and will continue to do so.
  
• I did all MGMAT practice exams, but I didn't give too much importance to the scores (they were all high 600s). MGMAT CATs are way too hard, i could not finish Quant on time most of the times. I always did AWA and IR as well and always in the morning at the same time as I would take the real test.
  
• I bought GMAT Prep exam pack 1 for the extra 2 exams and I did one in the very beginning, one in the middle, and the other 2 just before the real test, just to get my timing down and get attuned to the real GMAT test. I used GMAT Write for the last 2 GMAT prep tests to score my AWA. I did all the OG IR problems as well (there's only 50). I usually skipped 1 or 2 to make sure I finish on time though, because I always found that they stuck the easy questions at the very end of IR (was not the case on the actual test though).
  
• I also bought GMAC question pack (there's a coupon online for discount if you look) at the very end of my prep, so I only did maybe 50 questions. I then stopped since I got 730 on the last GMAT Prep and i didn't need any more wrong answers / different question types to throw me off my game before the real test. However, I wish I had bought the question pack sooner and did those questions instead of / in combination with Magoosh questions.

Glad I'm done, I was a bit disappointed in my Q score, but the percentiles these days for Quant are just insane, and there's no way i'm retaking this test (47/51 is close to max score and is an excellent score in my opinion). Now on to the hard part, actually getting into a business school.

Cliffs:

Get GMATPrep Question pack and exam pack and OG16 and stick to OG questions
Magoosh videos are great for Q and V explanations
Read reputable publications to get ready for RC

Glad I'm done, I was a bit disappointed in my Q score, but the percentiles these days for Quant are just insane, and there's no way i'm retaking this test (47/51 is close to max score and is an excellent score in my opinion). Now on to the hard part, actually getting into a business school.