Long Run Journey - From 640 to 730

Hi everyone,

I jus got my GMAT Score today, and I can`t believe it: Overall 730, Q49, V40, IR7.

The first thing I have to say is thank you to all GMAT Club Community, you have been an incredible support during all my GMAT prep, both in the good and in the bad moments. Specially, Bunnuel, you`re the man, your approaches are incredible. You should be proud of yourself for all the people you have helped and changed their lives.

Now, the debrief of my GMAT joruney, even though it was not the "ideal" study plan, I hope my case would help somebody, as other success stories helped me:

I started to study the GMAT on January of 2017, first I used the Manhattan GMAT books alongside with the Official Guide and GMAT Prep Software. The official Guide is a must, and the Manhattan Guides are very helpful to GMAT beginners, as you get to deeply understand the basic concepts. Let me say that, maybe because I am an engineer, I found more helpful the Verbal Books than the Quant Books, anyway both of them worth it. My original plan was to study along 3 months and then take the Official GMAT. In February I was assigned by my company to an International Project in Saudi Arabia, where I am still living, so unfortunately I stopped my preparation for a month and postpone the test until end of May. Anyway, the materials I used didnt change. The results of my first attempt was 640 (Q42, V35), which I cancelled, quite disappointing since I planned to apply to top schools.

After accepting my deep disappointment, and knowing I would have 2 weeks of leave in my hometown just a month after my exam, I booked another GMAT appointment in my country (Spain) just 29 days after the first one. For this attempt I bought the GMAT Prep 1 and the additional exercises, also extremly recommendable if you need some extra practice materials. In this attempt my score was 680 (Q44, V39), in this case, I was happier that in the first attempt, but still doubtful whether that was my "final point" or I should make the last attempt, my overaall score wasn`t bad but it was quite unbalanced, you can find my post asking for some advice in te following link: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/confused-about-how-to-proceed-244597.html

After deciding I would go for another try, I put my head off the GMAT for around a month and a half. In this case, I purchased the Math Revolution Short Cut-51 and the e-Gmat courses, even though I only used the verbal one. The Math Revolution courses did wonders to me, it is a must if, like me, you are stucked on a high level but you are aiming a better course. On the one hand, you would go over the official materials again and on the other hand you would learn different approaches to the problems that will help you improve your accuracy. For the e-GMAT verbal course, I must say that even though it helped me keep up my verbal level, I expected better content on the course. I would say that the strongest part is the Sentence Correction and the weakest the Reading Comprehension one, to be honest, I found the questions quite different from the official ones. However, the texts are helpful to practice your reading strategy.


Finally, here are some general tips:
- Before using the Official Materials, make sure you have some basic knowledge of the contents of the exam, if not you`d be wating them.
- Read the explanations for every execrise you do, regardless you are right or wrong
- Time yourself when practicing, it will not only help you control the timing in the real exam but also make you be used to the "time pressure".
- Keep determined, perseverance and motivated. It is very important to keep in mind why you are taking the GMAT, I know it could get you bored or hopeless. Think
that this is a way to a bigger goal, a very rewarding one, an MBA. Try to look further and thing that this is a long race, don`t give up in the first "failure". This is a
challengin test, it is okay to take more time than others to achieve a high score. You are competing against "top" people. Practice make the master, believe me on this
one, I was desesperate at some point, wondering whether I would be able to reach the magical 700 level.

Last thing, I forgot to tell that the eGMAT course included the GMATClub Test. I owe them my Q49, once you reach the Q47 level try the tests. The questions are more difficut than the real GMAT ones, but this test will teach you to think like the GMAT and to be prepared for how it will try to trick you. The explanations of the exercises are also very helpful.

P.S.: SOrry for my English mistakes, I am not a native speaker and today I don`t care at all.

I hope somebody finds this post helpful, please, do not hesitate to ask me any doubt.

Best regards!