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GoldenOaks
Current Student
Joined: 15 Jun 2020
Last visit: 01 Oct 2021
Posts: 2
Given Kudos: 6
Location: United States (PA)
Schools: Tepper '23 (A)
GMAT 1: 670 Q44 V38
GPA: 3.32
07 Sep 2020, 13:47
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Hi Everyone,
I felt as if I owed this to the community. I have leveraged GMATClub for so many different aspects of the MBA process that I wanted to give back in some way. I'm writing today to share my GMAT experience with you and hopefully someone will benefit from this.
Prior to starting, I did a lot of research into which study materials were the best for GMAT prep. I started studying intently in January 2020. I came to the conclusion that I would prepare with Target Test Prep for the Quant section and E-GMAT for the Verbal section. Let's begin with the Quant section of the exam:
Quant: As I mentioned, I used Target Test Prep for the Quant section. TTP is a godsend. I highly suggest giving yourself ample time to go through each and every chapter within TTP quant. By doing this and following the the curriculum exactly as it is laid out, you are slowly but SURELY driving your quant score higher. My cold GMAT score was a 570(Q38/V30), so there was quite a bit of work I had to do to get a high quant score. After preparing with TTP for months, I was consistently scoring ~Q48 in the official GMAT mock exams. Unfortunately on my final test day, I fell a bit short and ended up with a Q44. However, TTP was still brilliantly set up and fed me the material in such a concise manner.
Verbal: Okay wow - most people just read the "Verbal" section title and felt anxious. Hopefully after reading this short piece you'll be relieved and actually excited to attack verbal on your test day. For one, I'm a terrible test taker, I never studied in High School (graduated in 2014) and barely did a damn thing to learn anything. I'm not a voracious reader by any means and frankly you don't need to be to score highly on the GMAT Verbal. Here is what you need to do: I prepared for 6 weeks with E-GMAT and probably another 6 weeks with TTP (TTP Verbal Beta wasn't released until ~April 2020).
E-GMAT has an excellent verbal curriculum for Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction. If you go through that thoroughly you will be pleased with your future results. The way E-GMAT explains how to break down Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction is truly a game changer when looking to score high in the verbal section. I highly recommend. Note; their critical reasoning was not very helpful in my opinion.
In additional to E-GMAT verbal, I also used TTP verbal from the time their beta was released until I took my test. Once again, TTP delivers in an unambiguous way. TTP sentence correction in my opinion is what helped me get my V38 on test day. On top of that, I consistently struggled with 700+ level critical reasoning questions until I went through the TTP CR chapters + tests. I really didn't start learning a new way to look at hard (700+ level) CR questions until I went through some of the sections tests at TTP. You will probably bomb the section but the most important learning comes from reading the paragraph again and understanding why each question was wrong/correct. You'll probably notice the tougher CR questions test extreme attention to detail and subtleties of the written paragraph.
Let's recap for verbal: E-GMAT for RC+SC. TTP for CR+SC (note; TTP RC is not yet available). I think TTP SC and E-GMAT SC complimented each other very well.
Integrated Reasoning: Most prep companies will probably advise against this strategy, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. I never studied for the Integrated Reasoning section - but I leveraged a useful tip that maybe you'll like. I found that while studying for Quant & Verbal, I was also indirectly studying for the IR section too. IR is literally just reading graphs and interpreting data in an efficient manner. I want to emphasize that each official mock I took I never scored below an IR6. Let's remember, the IR section has 12 questions and only 8 count. Something that worked wonders for me was that I immediately skipped a question every single time I took a GMAT mock or real exam. I always would randomly guess on one of the questions that had 3 different questions within in. This immediately bought me more time on the other questions.
Okay so some will say this isn't a great approach and if you're going for 8/8 it probably isn't. I was constantly going for 6/8 + and never scored below that. On test day, I scored an IR 7/8. 4 questions on the IR section aren't scored anyway so to me it only made sense to randomly guess on a long 3-part question to buy so much more time on the other multiple easier questions. In addition, you have a 1/3 chance that the question you just skipped isn't even counted.......
AWA (Essay): If you're taking the GMAT online, you can totally ignore this. I'm a terrible writer. Really easy to do well on this section. Google "Chineseburned AWA GMATclub" and read that template. You can't go wrong following that template. I took the GMAT twice. 1st time was in person and the second time was online. The first time in person I received an AWA of 4.5/6. I read the template 2 days before the exam and the day of the exam, I just refreshed on what the template looked like.
After months of prep and beginning my official mocks:
Cold score from a mock (January 2020): 570 (Q38/V30)
April 4th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 1: 620 (Q45/V31)
April 18th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 2: 610 (Q41/V33)
June 13th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 3: 690 (Q48/V37)
July 11th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 4: 690 (Q48/V37)
July 24th 2020 - OFFICIAL GMAT: 640(Q41/V37)
September 1st 2020 - OFFICIAL GMAT: 670 (Q44/V38/IR7)
Additional note: After I finished all chapters from TTP on quant and all verbal chapters from TTP + E-GMAT, I practiced questions using the OG 2019 guide. I have read before that some people feel the questions from the mock exams are not similar to the official test. In my opinion, the Official GMAT mocks are nearly identical to what I experienced on test day both in-person and the online GMAT.
So that about wraps it up. I write this to emphasize that you really need to spend less than 5 hours total on AWA + IR combined. Taking your official GMAT mocks will be plenty when preparing for IR. I want you all to have the most efficient studying process while saving the most amount of your money. If I can score in the high 600s, you most certainly can too. Thanks to GMATClub for being the place to google most of my answer explanations on some official mock questions. Side note for people planning potential total study time; I stopped studying from May 1st to May 20th so maybe you could shorten this duration by 3 weeks?
Well, if nothing else, I'll be happy if one person reading this finds it useful. Maybe in a few months you too will go from a person making random google searches, such as "Best GMAT prep materials", to a contributing member with only one post lol. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
I felt as if I owed this to the community. I have leveraged GMATClub for so many different aspects of the MBA process that I wanted to give back in some way. I'm writing today to share my GMAT experience with you and hopefully someone will benefit from this.
Prior to starting, I did a lot of research into which study materials were the best for GMAT prep. I started studying intently in January 2020. I came to the conclusion that I would prepare with Target Test Prep for the Quant section and E-GMAT for the Verbal section. Let's begin with the Quant section of the exam:
Quant: As I mentioned, I used Target Test Prep for the Quant section. TTP is a godsend. I highly suggest giving yourself ample time to go through each and every chapter within TTP quant. By doing this and following the the curriculum exactly as it is laid out, you are slowly but SURELY driving your quant score higher. My cold GMAT score was a 570(Q38/V30), so there was quite a bit of work I had to do to get a high quant score. After preparing with TTP for months, I was consistently scoring ~Q48 in the official GMAT mock exams. Unfortunately on my final test day, I fell a bit short and ended up with a Q44. However, TTP was still brilliantly set up and fed me the material in such a concise manner.
Verbal: Okay wow - most people just read the "Verbal" section title and felt anxious. Hopefully after reading this short piece you'll be relieved and actually excited to attack verbal on your test day. For one, I'm a terrible test taker, I never studied in High School (graduated in 2014) and barely did a damn thing to learn anything. I'm not a voracious reader by any means and frankly you don't need to be to score highly on the GMAT Verbal. Here is what you need to do: I prepared for 6 weeks with E-GMAT and probably another 6 weeks with TTP (TTP Verbal Beta wasn't released until ~April 2020).
E-GMAT has an excellent verbal curriculum for Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction. If you go through that thoroughly you will be pleased with your future results. The way E-GMAT explains how to break down Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction is truly a game changer when looking to score high in the verbal section. I highly recommend. Note; their critical reasoning was not very helpful in my opinion.
In additional to E-GMAT verbal, I also used TTP verbal from the time their beta was released until I took my test. Once again, TTP delivers in an unambiguous way. TTP sentence correction in my opinion is what helped me get my V38 on test day. On top of that, I consistently struggled with 700+ level critical reasoning questions until I went through the TTP CR chapters + tests. I really didn't start learning a new way to look at hard (700+ level) CR questions until I went through some of the sections tests at TTP. You will probably bomb the section but the most important learning comes from reading the paragraph again and understanding why each question was wrong/correct. You'll probably notice the tougher CR questions test extreme attention to detail and subtleties of the written paragraph.
Let's recap for verbal: E-GMAT for RC+SC. TTP for CR+SC (note; TTP RC is not yet available). I think TTP SC and E-GMAT SC complimented each other very well.
Integrated Reasoning: Most prep companies will probably advise against this strategy, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. I never studied for the Integrated Reasoning section - but I leveraged a useful tip that maybe you'll like. I found that while studying for Quant & Verbal, I was also indirectly studying for the IR section too. IR is literally just reading graphs and interpreting data in an efficient manner. I want to emphasize that each official mock I took I never scored below an IR6. Let's remember, the IR section has 12 questions and only 8 count. Something that worked wonders for me was that I immediately skipped a question every single time I took a GMAT mock or real exam. I always would randomly guess on one of the questions that had 3 different questions within in. This immediately bought me more time on the other questions.
Okay so some will say this isn't a great approach and if you're going for 8/8 it probably isn't. I was constantly going for 6/8 + and never scored below that. On test day, I scored an IR 7/8. 4 questions on the IR section aren't scored anyway so to me it only made sense to randomly guess on a long 3-part question to buy so much more time on the other multiple easier questions. In addition, you have a 1/3 chance that the question you just skipped isn't even counted.......
AWA (Essay): If you're taking the GMAT online, you can totally ignore this. I'm a terrible writer. Really easy to do well on this section. Google "Chineseburned AWA GMATclub" and read that template. You can't go wrong following that template. I took the GMAT twice. 1st time was in person and the second time was online. The first time in person I received an AWA of 4.5/6. I read the template 2 days before the exam and the day of the exam, I just refreshed on what the template looked like.
After months of prep and beginning my official mocks:
Cold score from a mock (January 2020): 570 (Q38/V30)
April 4th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 1: 620 (Q45/V31)
April 18th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 2: 610 (Q41/V33)
June 13th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 3: 690 (Q48/V37)
July 11th 2020 - Official GMAT mock 4: 690 (Q48/V37)
July 24th 2020 - OFFICIAL GMAT: 640(Q41/V37)
September 1st 2020 - OFFICIAL GMAT: 670 (Q44/V38/IR7)
Additional note: After I finished all chapters from TTP on quant and all verbal chapters from TTP + E-GMAT, I practiced questions using the OG 2019 guide. I have read before that some people feel the questions from the mock exams are not similar to the official test. In my opinion, the Official GMAT mocks are nearly identical to what I experienced on test day both in-person and the online GMAT.
So that about wraps it up. I write this to emphasize that you really need to spend less than 5 hours total on AWA + IR combined. Taking your official GMAT mocks will be plenty when preparing for IR. I want you all to have the most efficient studying process while saving the most amount of your money. If I can score in the high 600s, you most certainly can too. Thanks to GMATClub for being the place to google most of my answer explanations on some official mock questions. Side note for people planning potential total study time; I stopped studying from May 1st to May 20th so maybe you could shorten this duration by 3 weeks?
Well, if nothing else, I'll be happy if one person reading this finds it useful. Maybe in a few months you too will go from a person making random google searches, such as "Best GMAT prep materials", to a contributing member with only one post lol. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
SohGMAT2020
Joined: 04 May 2020
Last visit: 22 Nov 2025
Posts: 239
Given Kudos: 83
Location: Canada
Concentration: Finance, General Management
Schools: ISB '21 Ivey '21 Rotman '22 CBS '23 Harvard '23 HEC Montreal XLRI
GMAT 1: 700 Q49 V35 (Online)
GPA: 3.42
Products:
Schools: ISB '21 Ivey '21 Rotman '22 CBS '23 Harvard '23 HEC Montreal XLRI
GMAT 1: 700 Q49 V35 (Online)
Posts: 239
08 Sep 2020, 08:21
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Congratulations GoldenOaks
TheUltimateWinner
Joined: 23 Feb 2015
Last visit: 17 May 2026
Posts: 2,465
Given Kudos: 1,990
Concentration: Finance, Technology
Schools: Harvard '24 Judge '23 LBS '24 McCombs '24 Mendoza Tepper '24 Ross '24 Cox Marshall '24 Fisher Kelley '24 Jones McDonough '24 Owen '24 Terry BU Simon '24 Katz GWU Mason Babson Gabelli Foster '24 Goizueta '24 Scheller Stern '23 CBS '23 Booth '23 Haas '25 Wharton '25 Stanford '26 Johnson'23 Fuqua '23 Kellogg '23 Kenan-Flagler'23 INSEAD Aug 22 intake Olin '23 Said '23 Sloan '23 Carey Arizona "22 Yale '23 UC Davis Madison '23 Anderson '23 Carroll Carlson '23 Darden '23
Schools: Harvard '24 Judge '23 LBS '24 McCombs '24 Mendoza Tepper '24 Ross '24 Cox Marshall '24 Fisher Kelley '24 Jones McDonough '24 Owen '24 Terry BU Simon '24 Katz GWU Mason Babson Gabelli Foster '24 Goizueta '24 Scheller Stern '23 CBS '23 Booth '23 Haas '25 Wharton '25 Stanford '26 Johnson'23 Fuqua '23 Kellogg '23 Kenan-Flagler'23 INSEAD Aug 22 intake Olin '23 Said '23 Sloan '23 Carey Arizona "22 Yale '23 UC Davis Madison '23 Anderson '23 Carroll Carlson '23 Darden '23
Posts: 2,465
08 Sep 2020, 08:51
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Congrats for your score. All the best for the application process.
