GMAT Journey, from 590 to 680.

Hi all,

I'm trying to keep this as succinct and entertaining as possible, but quite a few things happened with many setbacks. However, given how many hours I spent on this forum without a single post, I feel it is very much time to change it.

Quick info about me:
- German, 3 years older than the typical MBA student
- Computer science bachelor at a very unknown German uni, management engineering master at a highly regarded Italian technical Uni
- 2 years Big 4 advisory (after bachelor) and currently boutique management consulting with industry focus


2018
It started in August 2018 when my MBA plans took shape. I still wasn't sure whether or not it represents the right next step and there was this big question mark GMAT. Further, I just finished my post grad studies and started to work in an entire industry. Anyhow, this is about the GMAT.

I checked the forum reviews and decided to focus on quant as I considered this to be my biggest weakness. I decided to go with math revolution as it received very good feedbacks and it wasnt too crazy expensive (I won't get into too much details with all the courses I took since I plan to write reviews for all of them).

Plan was to study 3 weeks full time and then 2-3 weekends before taking the test. Long story short, I finished the math basics after 1 1/2 weeks and realized how much additional effort it actually is. GMAT got postponed to the next year.

2019

1. Attempt - May
My first mistake was that I didnt continue after my 3 weeks study in August but I decided to pick it up in Feb/March. Busy with work I started in April which left me 1 month to study. Again, I took 3 weeks and studied the Math revolution materials + I subscribed to e-gmats verbal part. I took my first mock test after week 1 and scored 580. What a bummer, reading through this forum, it seemed clear to me that a 700 is the score to target and I was quite a bit away from it. I continued and finished the entire course 2-3 days before test day. I took the second free mock test, 480!!! Not exactly the score you want 2 days before your scheduled test. I decided to take the test anyways just for the matter of experience. I scored surprisingly high in quant with a Q45 but scored low in verbal, resulting in a 590 score.

2nd Attempt - August
I figured I have reached a great understanding of the quant concepts but need to polish my verbal skills. I purchased the empowerGMAT course and took another 2 1/2 weeks off. I started studying some weeks before my vacation with an hour in the morning and half sat & sun. I'm in consulting and I regular work crazy hours which is why I did not feel I could invest more time next to work. Focus was on verbal but I invested roughly 1/3 in quant too to ensure I reach my previous level. Next setback, 550, my sub scores were even lower than before I started studying in both categories. However, I know that score was below my capabilities and it didnt help that I got sick before test day as well as did not sleep well the night before which certainly impacted my score as well. In addition, there was still time, applications just have opened and I realized I will still be able to apply in R1 at most schools when I retake the GMAT in September.

3rd Attempt - September
Time to chance my approach. I have some friends at MBB, so I asked them how are they going to prepare. My new approach did not include online courses, but I purchased the online question bank + quant review. Further I purchased the veritas tests and official test 3 & 4 from MBA.com. Again, I took 2 1/2 weeks off and I just continued studying. This time even harder, 1hr each morning and I dedicated my entire weekends to it. No social life, only work and study. It was also during that time I realised the true power of this forum and I was using it more regularly in my studies (I'll talk about it below). One issue remained, my scores in the tests did not improve. I never came close to the Q45 I scored in April, while Verbal was acceptable and varied between 34-36. With only 2 days before test day, I decided it would be best to postpone to November and apply to R2. I continued with my huge study effort, no social life no nothing, only GMAT and work.
I took the official tests and my score improved, I came closer to Q40 and I realized my Verbal skills have reached a decent level. In test 3 & 4, each time verbal was above 40 (also showing that in terms of quality of the verbal questions, none of the inofficial test reaches GMAC level). But quant remained an issue and veritas brutally showed me how low my quant skills actually are. I reduced my target score to 650. Given that I did not consider US programs + the fact that I'm European and my CV is actually quite strong I saw my threshold to reach around the 70. quartile overall. Test day came, I finish my AWA and what do I see on my screen: 610. F*#ck, I scored a 40 in verbal but somehow managed to get a 33 in quant. Even in my first mock I scored a 35. WTF. Despite being below my threshold, since my verbal and IR score were very high, I decided to accept the score.

A heavy party weekend followed after months without a social life. In the following week I made the decision to continue. I knew I can do better (I've already have proven it before) and I had already invested so much into this (not only effort, but also money), I wanted to risk it another time.

2020

4th Attempt - January
By now, I knew how the test works. I pretty much knew my strengths and weaknesses and I decided to punctually work on my quant skills while regularly answering some SC questions to keep my verbal understanding focused. Again I took 3 weeks off, I purchased the remaining two official tests and I started using target test prep (spoiler: hands down, that's the course that changed everything). I retook test 3 & 4 and achieved inflated super high scores (740 and 750). At the same time I roughly answered 100-200 questions on the TTP course per day. In official test #5 I scored a 650. Finally, my quant improved with a q44. That gave me confidence, two days before test day I did test #6, again 650, again q44. I invested a bit more on verbal the remaining 2 days since in both tests it was a "only" 36. Test day came, again I finished AWA and there it was the next button. NEXT and with pleasure I saw a sweet 680 on the screen, 82. quartile. That's the score I need.

Final remarks
I have some lessons learned to share, first of all, never give up. This period was very rough for me. Studying for the GMAT can be very exhaustive, physically but especially mentally. I questioned myself, my intellect and career ambitions. I am sure many of those who read this have been through the same (or going through it right now) and I can only say, don't let the gmat impact you that much. This is especially true when you see how many in this forum complain about a low 700 score. But we sometimes forget to understand how great a 500 or a 600 already is. In addition, there are so many factors that play a role, incl. luck, the education you experienced before, situation of the moon and what else. However, a good preparation increases your chances of success, so here are my key factors that helped me.

1. Leverage this forum
Seriously, this forum is awesome. Be it the experts or the community. I made the biggest jumps through these measures:
- QUANT: Whenever I got stick on a certain type of question, I looked it up on the forum. there is a good chance Bunuel has not only given an answer, but posted several similar questions to practice. Sooo valuable, and if not, use the practice bank and search for the type of questions to get this weakness out of the way. Further, after some time you realise who are the expert that explain in a way you can understand. In my case and for quant it was Scott from TTP, his explanations were always clear and written in a way that you don't need a doctor in math to understand it.
- VERBAL: GMATNinja, you are my true hero. Improvements in verbal are often more difficult and I really struggled to understand most of the other experts' or users' explanations. There were grammar rules used that I have never heard of and "clearly" wrong errors were not so clear to me. Charles teaching style is not only genius but fun. The online videos (you can find them on youtube as well) are pure gold and I'm confident to say just by watching the videos my score improved by 2-5 points.

2. Find the type of support you need
I took several courses, all of them are highly rated here and I am certain they are all worth the money. In the end, only test target prep worked for me. How can someone figure out what is the best course for him/her? As described above, after using this forum for some time I had a list of experts that I found really helpful. This can be a good proxy for their course materials and for instance, if you read one of the answers from the e-gmat experts and you say "wow that makes so much sense, I got it", then perhaps this is the course for you. Further, take tests every now and then to see whether you are improving but keep the official ones for the end.

3. Be positive
I figured, I scored so high in Verbal because I knew I was good in it and on the other side, I scored low in quant because I knew about my weakness in quant which reduced my confidence heavily. In my last test, I knew that I have improved in quant and that I am able to reach a higher score. If you really believe it you will answer the questions way more confidently and quicker.

Lastly, keep it up guys. Great forum, great community. I keep you guys posted about my MBA adventure.