How I went from Low 400's to 740 in 7 months thanks to Ron from

Can you please refer the course you took with Ron to me? Please give me the link to it. Thanks

Hi!
Thanks for your debrief!Really motivating!
I would like to ask-how many cats you advise to do before the final exam?and how much practice on RC you did to make improvement?
Thanks!

740 = 50Q/41V/7IR/6AWA


This forum and Manhattan Prep, specifically Ron Purewal, has tremendously helped me out so I have decided to create an account to help others tackle this nasty exam. Backstory: I'm a slightly older candidate and took my first CAT in the late Spring through a free Economist CAT, which pegged me at low 400's. I don't even remember the breakdown because I was that horrified - something around twenties for verbal and low thirties for quant. To be fair, I didn't remember a triangle has 180 degrees or the definition of a right angle. However, I did somewhat remember my Algebra and I found word problems to be somewhat logical (although I still did poorly in them). I am a native, was a B student in High School, scored 1100's/1600 on the SATs, and a C student in college, where I majored in Social Sciences. In other words, I don't consider myself to be technical, particularly bright, OR gifted at standardized testing. I was WILLING to reprogram my brain and put in the hours though, despite working 50+ hours/week, keeping a girlfriend happy, and maintaining some resemblance of a social life.


I tried MGMAT, Veritas, GMAT Pill, Math Revolution, and Empower GMAT, but the only source I found to be overall helpful was MGMAT (especially the lectures from Thursdays with Ron). Empower GMAT really helped boost my DS, which was weighing down my quant score. Math Revolution is good if you want to brush up on the math and fully solve the problem. I didn't care so much for actually solving the problem because of obvious time constraints, but even its shortcut DS strategy wasn't really as effective as MGMAT's.


After scoring a low 400's on my CAT exam, I decided to start at the beginning with the Foundations of GMAT book by MGMAT. In late April/early May, I started reading the two basic foundations book in addition to all six books. This sucked up 2-3 months of my time, which I deeply regret. Looking back, I should have only studied the areas I was weak in and NOT spend so much time on probability/combinatorics/statistics/etc. I ended up getting a 50 on quant without even getting those really hard questions right. Empower GMAT did teach me that only certain problems count and getting really hard questions wrong won't hurt my score, which gave me confidence to drop the questions and reallocate the minutes elsewhere. I HIGHLY recommend the MGMAT books if you're just average or below average in any of the verbal categories or quant categories prior to really drilling down on the official questions (so you don't burn good material).


After reading through all the MGMAT books, I took a MGMAT cat and scored a 560 around a 38Q/28V. I got really motivated after seeing this huge improvement, but decided I needed to start using practice questions. Went through the entire Quant, Verbal, and Comprehensive Practice Questions in a 2015 OG Prep book, took an official CAT around late June and got a 680 (45Q/38V)! I decided to then go through 2016's OG Prep book questions and then took my second CAT at 730 (47Q/43V)! My CAT scores boosted so much from THURSDAYS WITH RON and reading his forum explanations. I swear by them. The lectures may seem long and dry, but he is the best at explaining the concepts and breaking down every single problem. I felt that other companies just try to teach you gimmicks and cheap shortcuts, but as we know, the GMAT makers aren't dumb, quickly learn of these strategies and reprogram the exam questions. Thus, the companies' strategies get outdated really quickly. I felt really good about my progress so booked an exam for early August. I had a month to kill so I decided to enroll in GMAT Pill since it was only $100. I went through all the modules, sat for the exam and my jaws dropped as I saw the 560 GMAT Score. Not only did GMAT Pill DROP my score a few hundred points, they also billed me for another month even though I tried cancelling on their website, sent them an email to inform them their technology was down, had a timestamped email, but they ignored my emails after one very polite exchange. Be careful of their material.


I had to relearn all of Ron's teachings, sat for an exam in early October and scored a 680 45Q/38V/7IR/6AWA. Signed up for Empower GMAT and Math Revolution, completed both courses, took another GMAT exam in early November and got 630 (45Q/33V/5IR). Empower GMAT is actually pretty good for quant and helped boost my DS, but their verbal section is incredibly weak and just repeats the answers from the back of an OG Prep book. At this point I was convinced that Ron and MGMAT was the way to go, shortcuts don't work, 1 month courses and promises don't work, nothing was going to beat hard work and truly grasping the material, logic, and concepts. I started reading every Ron Purewal explanation on forums, went through hundreds/thousands of OG Prep questions on GmatClub and finally scored my 740 in early December. Seriously, he is the best instructor I've encountered and I've used nearly every course's material.


Tips for Every Subject --

Quant

PS - Go through the MGMAT books for ANY subject you're not getting at least 9/10 questions correct on. Keeping a log will help. On the actual exam, a lot of times I didn't know how to solve the problem with an algebraic formula thus I started plugging in numbers starting with Answer C and worked my way up/down. If I couldn't figure out how to create the formula within 15-30 seconds, I would use Ron's method and begin plugging in the numbers. Reverse engineering. Organizing your notes is also crucial here. Generously use space, don't be conservative with the notes, just ask for another notepad when you run out. I realized I was making a lot of careless mistakes by doing math in my head because I was trying to save notepad space.

DS - Also used MGMAT's method with AD BCE and then eliminate easier option first. Empower GMAT's DS teaching also helped her - the guy Rich also says something along the lines "don't select an answer unless you can PROVE IT TO ME that there's only one solution, plug in numbers (don't forget 0, -1, -0.5 or +0.5), put the information on a pad." I also noticed a pattern with quant...as you get up in the quant scores, E appears to be a less favorable option. This is my observation and I have ZERO stats to back this up.

Verbal

CR - Ron again saved my bacon here. I followed his "if you can't explain the passage to an 10 year old boy, don't proceed to the answers. They'll be as good as random guesses." That one strategy alone brought me to a 95+ percentile CR. As you get up in CR scores, try POE by going through answer E to A first. I noticed they try to throw a lot of trap answers in Answer A to confuse us test takers. After all, once we read something, it's hard to unread it. By reading the trap answer first, it already messes with our logic and affects the outcome we select.

SC - Doing EVERY official OG Prep Software question on this forum through brute force helped me to hit 90+ percentile as well. For every question I got wrong, I also read Ron's explanation, which were almost always crystal clear and sensible. After a while, I just started noticing the patterns. Meaning becomes more crucial as you approach the harder questions.

RC - My weakest subject ended up being my strongest subject. Again, another Ron teaching - "DO NOT PICK AN ANSWER unless you can PROVE it to me that the passage says/means exactly this answer. Think of these test makers as a DIRTY SALESMAN, they try to SELL you WRONG answers that appear right. Reference back to the passage if you even have a 1% doubt, if time allows for it. I ended up getting 98% on reading when I was once at 30's. Also finish reading EVERY word of the ANSWER. I read the answer more carefully than understanding the actual passage, which helped my score. I also started doing POE from Answer E to Answer A, which helped as well. By the way, a lot of people say SC is the quickest way to improve. For me, RC was the best way to improve my Verbal score - here's why: On the actual exam, in the middle of the first ten questions, I guessed on two questions back to back and got worried, but then I got an RC passage with 4 questions, got every question correct...and then question 11-20 got really hard again. The ALGORITHM is so real that a strong OR weak RC skillset can save or kill you. By getting 4 RC questions correct in the first ten passages, I was on a much smoother path. I guess you can compare them to the Golden State Warriors with 3 pointers. 3 points can save the game, but can ruin you as well. Since they're that powerful, might as well work on this craft.

DO EVERY OFFICIAL OG SOFTWARE PREP QUESTION ON THIS FORUM. I almost made the mistake of spending a lot of time on the 85% difficulty verbal and quant questions on this forum. In the end, it was just an ego booster and a pride booster because on the actual exam, you don't need to get those right to get a "high" score. I supposed if someone is shooting for a 780-800, then sure, spend time studying those 85% difficulty questions. If one is shooting for a 700-760 though, I really don't think time should be allocated towards those areas. It would be better spend getting 100% of the 600-700 questions right first.

My hand is starting to hurt, but please feel free to ask me ANYTHING. I promise I'll respond. This forum has provided me with so many great resources. I thank everyone who contributes so very much.

740 = 50Q/41V/7IR/6AWA


This forum and Manhattan Prep, specifically Ron Purewal, has tremendously helped me out so I have decided to create an account to help others tackle this nasty exam. Backstory: I'm a slightly older candidate and took my first CAT in the late Spring through a free Economist CAT, which pegged me at low 400's. I don't even remember the breakdown because I was that horrified - something around twenties for verbal and low thirties for quant. To be fair, I didn't remember a triangle has 180 degrees or the definition of a right angle. However, I did somewhat remember my Algebra and I found word problems to be somewhat logical (although I still did poorly in them). I am a native, was a B student in High School, scored 1100's/1600 on the SATs, and a C student in college, where I majored in Social Sciences. In other words, I don't consider myself to be technical, particularly bright, OR gifted at standardized testing. I was WILLING to reprogram my brain and put in the hours though, despite working 50+ hours/week, keeping a girlfriend happy, and maintaining some resemblance of a social life.


I tried MGMAT, Veritas, GMAT Pill, Math Revolution, and Empower GMAT, but the only source I found to be overall helpful was MGMAT (especially the lectures from Thursdays with Ron). Empower GMAT really helped boost my DS, which was weighing down my quant score. Math Revolution is good if you want to brush up on the math and fully solve the problem. I didn't care so much for actually solving the problem because of obvious time constraints, but even its shortcut DS strategy wasn't really as effective as MGMAT's.


After scoring a low 400's on my CAT exam, I decided to start at the beginning with the Foundations of GMAT book by MGMAT. In late April/early May, I started reading the two basic foundations book in addition to all six books. This sucked up 2-3 months of my time, which I deeply regret. Looking back, I should have only studied the areas I was weak in and NOT spend so much time on probability/combinatorics/statistics/etc. I ended up getting a 50 on quant without even getting those really hard questions right. Empower GMAT did teach me that only certain problems count and getting really hard questions wrong won't hurt my score, which gave me confidence to drop the questions and reallocate the minutes elsewhere. I HIGHLY recommend the MGMAT books if you're just average or below average in any of the verbal categories or quant categories prior to really drilling down on the official questions (so you don't burn good material).


After reading through all the MGMAT books, I took a MGMAT cat and scored a 560 around a 38Q/28V. I got really motivated after seeing this huge improvement, but decided I needed to start using practice questions. Went through the entire Quant, Verbal, and Comprehensive Practice Questions in a 2015 OG Prep book, took an official CAT around late June and got a 680 (45Q/38V)! I decided to then go through 2016's OG Prep book questions and then took my second CAT at 730 (47Q/43V)! My CAT scores boosted so much from THURSDAYS WITH RON and reading his forum explanations. I swear by them. The lectures may seem long and dry, but he is the best at explaining the concepts and breaking down every single problem. I felt that other companies just try to teach you gimmicks and cheap shortcuts, but as we know, the GMAT makers aren't dumb, quickly learn of these strategies and reprogram the exam questions. Thus, the companies' strategies get outdated really quickly. I felt really good about my progress so booked an exam for early August. I had a month to kill so I decided to enroll in GMAT Pill since it was only $100. I went through all the modules, sat for the exam and my jaws dropped as I saw the 560 GMAT Score. Not only did GMAT Pill DROP my score a few hundred points, they also billed me for another month even though I tried cancelling on their website, sent them an email to inform them their technology was down, had a timestamped email, but they ignored my emails after one very polite exchange. Be careful of their material.


I had to relearn all of Ron's teachings, sat for an exam in early October and scored a 680 45Q/38V/7IR/6AWA. Signed up for Empower GMAT and Math Revolution, completed both courses, took another GMAT exam in early November and got 630 (45Q/33V/5IR). Empower GMAT is actually pretty good for quant and helped boost my DS, but their verbal section is incredibly weak and just repeats the answers from the back of an OG Prep book. At this point I was convinced that Ron and MGMAT was the way to go, shortcuts don't work, 1 month courses and promises don't work, nothing was going to beat hard work and truly grasping the material, logic, and concepts. I started reading every Ron Purewal explanation on forums, went through hundreds/thousands of OG Prep questions on GmatClub and finally scored my 740 in early December. Seriously, he is the best instructor I've encountered and I've used nearly every course's material.


Tips for Every Subject --

Quant

PS - Go through the MGMAT books for ANY subject you're not getting at least 9/10 questions correct on. Keeping a log will help. On the actual exam, a lot of times I didn't know how to solve the problem with an algebraic formula thus I started plugging in numbers starting with Answer C and worked my way up/down. If I couldn't figure out how to create the formula within 15-30 seconds, I would use Ron's method and begin plugging in the numbers. Reverse engineering. Organizing your notes is also crucial here. Generously use space, don't be conservative with the notes, just ask for another notepad when you run out. I realized I was making a lot of careless mistakes by doing math in my head because I was trying to save notepad space.

DS - Also used MGMAT's method with AD BCE and then eliminate easier option first. Empower GMAT's DS teaching also helped her - the guy Rich also says something along the lines "don't select an answer unless you can PROVE IT TO ME that there's only one solution, plug in numbers (don't forget 0, -1, -0.5 or +0.5), put the information on a pad." I also noticed a pattern with quant...as you get up in the quant scores, E appears to be a less favorable option. This is my observation and I have ZERO stats to back this up.

Verbal

CR - Ron again saved my bacon here. I followed his "if you can't explain the passage to an 10 year old boy, don't proceed to the answers. They'll be as good as random guesses." That one strategy alone brought me to a 95+ percentile CR. As you get up in CR scores, try POE by going through answer E to A first. I noticed they try to throw a lot of trap answers in Answer A to confuse us test takers. After all, once we read something, it's hard to unread it. By reading the trap answer first, it already messes with our logic and affects the outcome we select.

SC - Doing EVERY official OG Prep Software question on this forum through brute force helped me to hit 90+ percentile as well. For every question I got wrong, I also read Ron's explanation, which were almost always crystal clear and sensible. After a while, I just started noticing the patterns. Meaning becomes more crucial as you approach the harder questions.

RC - My weakest subject ended up being my strongest subject. Again, another Ron teaching - "DO NOT PICK AN ANSWER unless you can PROVE it to me that the passage says/means exactly this answer. Think of these test makers as a DIRTY SALESMAN, they try to SELL you WRONG answers that appear right. Reference back to the passage if you even have a 1% doubt, if time allows for it. I ended up getting 98% on reading when I was once at 30's. Also finish reading EVERY word of the ANSWER. I read the answer more carefully than understanding the actual passage, which helped my score. I also started doing POE from Answer E to Answer A, which helped as well. By the way, a lot of people say SC is the quickest way to improve. For me, RC was the best way to improve my Verbal score - here's why: On the actual exam, in the middle of the first ten questions, I guessed on two questions back to back and got worried, but then I got an RC passage with 4 questions, got every question correct...and then question 11-20 got really hard again. The ALGORITHM is so real that a strong OR weak RC skillset can save or kill you. By getting 4 RC questions correct in the first ten passages, I was on a much smoother path. I guess you can compare them to the Golden State Warriors with 3 pointers. 3 points can save the game, but can ruin you as well. Since they're that powerful, might as well work on this craft.

DO EVERY OFFICIAL OG SOFTWARE PREP QUESTION ON THIS FORUM. I almost made the mistake of spending a lot of time on the 85% difficulty verbal and quant questions on this forum. In the end, it was just an ego booster and a pride booster because on the actual exam, you don't need to get those right to get a "high" score. I supposed if someone is shooting for a 780-800, then sure, spend time studying those 85% difficulty questions. If one is shooting for a 700-760 though, I really don't think time should be allocated towards those areas. It would be better spend getting 100% of the 600-700 questions right first.

My hand is starting to hurt, but please feel free to ask me ANYTHING. I promise I'll respond. This forum has provided me with so many great resources. I thank everyone who contributes so very much.

Ron is the man. I wish that I would have discovered him earlier in my prep.