How I got a 750 (Q49, V42) on the GMAT.

Background
I am a married father of 2 kids and I am in the military. I grew up in an African country and went to college there as well, graduating with a GPA of 3.74/4.00. I decided to take the GMAT in the Fall of 2015 but it was not until March 2016 that I started studying for the test. Because of the nature of my job, that is being constantly out in the field where study conditions are abysmal and usually working late nights and early mornings - as early as 5 am- whenever I was back at home, I knew that I needed a lot of time to study and immerse myself in it before I could take the test. I did not want to waste money taking tests I was not prepared for. So, I gave myself a year to study.

I split my studying into 4 stages:
1) knowing and understanding all the concepts that the GMAT tests;
2) applying the concepts by practicing GMAT questions;
3) gaining mastery by using specialized prep material and practicing 700 Level questions
4) taking full-length practice tests to include AWA and IR.


Materials that I used for Stage 1: knowing the concepts
1. Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides to include the Foundations of GMAT Math and Verbal: this is the singular best introduction to GMAT concepts but in my opinion, it is not enough.
2. GMATPrepnow by Brent Hanneson: He has tons of free videos on Youtube. I would listen to this while I drove in my car. He has mastered the art of simplifying the GMAT material
3. Total GMAT Math by Jeff Sackmann

Materials that I used for Stage 2: applying the concepts
1. Official Guide 2017
2. Quant Review for Official Guides 2017
3. Verbal Review for Official Guides 2017
4. GMATClub Forum Questions: ( now you have to be careful here so that you don't go crazy as there are a lot of questions. So I decided to solve and understand 50 questions per concept and mostly choose questions from reputable test prep companies)

Materials for Stage 3: Gaining Mastery
1. Powerscore CR Bible: the most important thing I learned from Powerscore is that once you identify the conclusion, your job is half done.
2. Question Pack 1 (494 Questions): while the official guide is good, this is better. If you really want to help yourself, invest in this
3. GMATClub Forums (700 Level Questions): I tried to master and mirror Bunuel's problem-solving skills.
4. GMATClub Tests: I only used the quant tests and I never did take the full-length tests. I was more interested in solving the questions and understanding how Bunuel arrived at his solutions so easily. Bunuel has quantitative eloquence and if you really want to score high in GMAT Quant, try and read everything he has solved on the GMATClub.

Materials for Stage 4: Practice Tests
1. GMATPrep Software Exams 1 and 2
2. Exam Pack 1 and 2

I think the best practice tests are the GMAT's tests. After finishing a test. I would reset and the software would spit out new questions. Some of the questions were repeated and my scores were no longer accurate but I just wanted access to the questions. I did this for about 4 times for each test and I made sure to review over and over again those I got wrong and even some that I got right because there is a tendency to forget how you solved some questions.

These were my scores:
GMATPrep Exam 1 : 710 (March 4, 2017)
GMATPrep Exam 2 : 690 (March 27,2017)
GMATPrep Exam 3 : 730 (April 16, 2017)
GMATPrep Exam 4 : 690 (April 21,2017)

Needless to say, I was very discouraged with the 690 scores and I had to persuade myself to keep on practicing, reviewing and mastering the aspects of the tests that I found challenging.
I decided to stop taking the practice tests because it was too close to my test date and I did not want to be discouraged if I scored below my target range of 730-760. Because of that I never used Exam Pack 2; I still have it unopened. One thing I learned from taking the practice test is that your GMAT Score bounces within a certain range and the score you get on a certain day is dependent on factors such as chance and mental preparedness.

Study Schedule
Because of my work schedule, I knew I would have to study for awhile before I was ready to take the test. The disadvantage with this strategy was that the longer I studied, the more prone I was to forget the materials that I first learned. So to fight this, I became adept at note-taking and constantly reviewing the study materials.
So this was my study plan:
Monday to Fridays, 2 hours minimum daily and usually from 3 am to 5 am.
Saturdays and Sundays, 6 hours minimum. 4 am to 8 am before my family woke up and 2 hours later in the day depending on how things turned up.

I still had to be there for my family. Just because I was studying did not mean I stopped being a father or husband, but my family also made a lot of sacrifices to accommodate my study schedule. Now I must tell you that although this was what I tried to achieve, it didn't always work out as I planned. There were times when I did not study for a long time like when I traveled out of the country for 3 weeks, or when I had my second child and I couldn't study for a full month or the 3 times I was out in the field. But I always resumed my studies with a vengeance.

Things I learned
1. The GMAT has a finite number of concepts that it tests but an infinite way of testing these concepts, so the only way to answer these questions in the shortest time possible is to develop a sense of pattern recognition and this is only possible by only immersing yourself in the test preparation. Practice, practice, and practice. Understanding the concepts is not enough, you have to apply these concepts through practice questions, over and over and over again. They have to become a part of you.
2. I decided later during my preparations to stop using third party questions and tests for my verbal prep because I realized that the GMAT has a unique way of writing their verbal questions that other prep companies have failed to replicate. I continued using third party tests and questions for quant.
3. Note-taking is very important. I never knew how valuable this was until the final hours of my study when I started going through all of my notes and the concepts just came alive in my mind. It gave me a certain mental calm. I did not go into the test hall feeling empty and this prevented anxiety.
4. Brent Hannesson's gmatprepnow is fantastic. If there is one resource you want to use for GMAT preparation, then use this. Nobody will teach you permutation, combinations, and probability better than he taught me. He essentially boiled everything down to counting. Like I said earlier, he has mastered the art of simplifying GMAT material.
5. Read the review of the Official Guide by mcelroytutoring. It did fantastic things for me.
6. Finally, pick a concept and hammer it till you know it dead cold. Stop jumping around without mastering the concepts.
7. For Sentence Correction, I would solve like 70 questions at a go, identify my mistakes and start solving all over again. After awhile, I recognized the patterns and common traps. For RC, immerse yourself in the passage, understand it, love it, let it be the most important thing in the world to you at that moment and then go onto the questions. There are times I would spend 5 mins to understand a passage and then answer the questions in less than 30-35 seconds each. It was eventually more efficient than having to bounce between the questions and passage. CR was the toughest challenge for me in the verbal section but again, review, review, and review because it is all about understanding the concepts, understanding your errors and pattern recognition.


Test Day
I scheduled the test 24 hours before I took it because I just got tired of studying and angry at the 690 score I got some days earlier. I figured that I wouldn't get smarter between now and another 7 days and I wanted to find out where I stood. I broke the rule of resting before testing; I didn't sleep for more than 3 hours the night prior to the test because I wanted to review everything I had invested time in studying. I was worked late and also had to take my daughter to a program in her school so I stayed up till 1 am and I woke up 4 am. I drove 90 mins to the test center, began my test at 8 am, took a quick break after every section to use the bathroom and drink water.

I finished and saw my scores: Q 49, V 42 and IR 6. Total 750 (98 percentile). Official Score came out today and I scored 5 on AWA.
I was more relieved than happy in the first few seconds because it meant that I could sleep well that night.