GMAT JOURNEY DONE!!!! - 620 ->720 (49Q, 39V)

Hey all. I wanted to reach out and thank every one on this amazing forum. Those who regularly post new questions, those who give super amazing in-depth breakdown of questions, and all those who share their journey thus far. As a big lurker on the forums, I don't think I could have improved my score without the resources of all those on this forum and wanted to share my experience as a thank you.

I previously made a post dubbed 'First Time Test Taker - New GMAT & Personal Experience/Journey So Far' going over my first time taking the GMAT and getting a score of 620 (39Q, 35V) (Sorry I can't post links yet, but you can go into my post history and see that post). As a follow-up to that first exam, I scheduled an exam a month later in June and got a rather sad score of 630 (42Q, 35V), despite having studied pretty hard throughout the month leading up to it. BUT! With that said, the GMAT is a test of perseverance more than anything and I'm glad I didn't give up. Here I am today, a bit over 3 months since my first time taking the GMAT with an end score of 720 (49Q, 39V)[!!!

I'm not going to go into detail about my background and initial preparations since you can read the in-depth details in my prior post. So back to the events since I initially took the exam to my score today!

After having taking the GMAT for the first time in late April right after the new format change, I was thoroughly sad and defeated with the results as the score was so beyond what I was expecting that I didn't know how to pick myself up. I took a day off from work, listened to music, and holed myself up in my room to regroup and think what I could have done to improve. I understand the feeling of being dejected but nonetheless this GMAT journey is one that we all have to embark on and I wasn't going to let a test stop me from pursuing my goals.

I read around the forum a bit to see what I could do to improve my very apparent weakness in Quant and as most posters have advised - GET THE GMAT CLUB QUANT TEST!! The GMAT Quant Test really tests your ability to think logically and understand GMAT type Quant questions. The tests go through a ton of potential GMAT Quant question setups with very amazing explanations from Bunuel and others on this forum. I ended up taking all 26 GMAT Club Quant Exams over a period of 2 months and saw my understanding improved drastically.

Then I looked to a routine to improve my verbal score and almost religiously, everyday I'd come onto the GMAT forums and go through 10 CR Questions, and 2 RC Passages to help keep my verbal skills keen while also working on improving it to better understand RCs and seeing how to effectively breakdown CR questions. This was actually a godsend for me as I realize how I was able to understand CR questions more thoroughly and know where to attack the premises/conclusions and how to scope out questions more quickly after practicing every day (I'm a do-er and learn by doing something rather than understand it conceptually so daily practices were the best thing for me to improve my Verbal skills)!

And lastly for the SC section, I'm actually decently confident in it as I got my ESRs for both of my prior exams and they were in the 41-42 range but just in case, I downloaded the GMAT Toolkit app on my iPhone and since I'm from New York and have to commute an hour each way to work, I spend my time on the subways going through SC passages!

My biggest takeaway on this journey so far is that persistence and perseverance are super key in improving your GMAT score. Each of us has our own strengths, weaknesses, and different capacity for learning, and being able to look into yourself and not get dejected after each 'bad' score on the exam is very crucial to maintaining a positive attitude about this. Sure, we'll mope and get upset the day we see a bad score, but don't let it keep you down. The GMAT is all about GRIT as you can clearly see that even after 2 sub-par scores of 620 and 630, I didn't let it keep me down and I'm sure many of you on here have experience this in your journey as well. My final takeaways:

1) Study base on a method that you learn best - Be it practicing and breaking down questions each day or trying to understand/hone in a conceptual skill. Do whichever suits your studying and learning habit.

2) Seek advice - Don't be afraid to reach out to others on the forum or if an explanation to a question doesn't seem quite right for you. Being able to bridge the gaps and improve your understanding will do wonders in getting you ready for the exam.

3) Persevere, persevere, persevere! DON'T GIVE UP! HARD WORK WILL PAY OFF!

Thanks everyone and wish you the best of luck!!! Now..time to start on applications!!!