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11 Nov 2025, 11:55
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First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to GMAT Club. I started every morning by solving a few problems on GMAT Club. I am thankful that such a great platform exists.
As requested by BB, I would like to share my experience of achieving a 705 score. Honestly, there was nothing particularly special about it. I think I was a bit lucky. I started studying at the end of July and took the test three times: in early October, late October, and early November.
1. Quant
I actually didn't need to study Quant much. I scored in the 98th, 100th, and 100th percentiles on my three attempts, but I still solved about 10-20 Official Guide problems daily just to maintain my sense for it.
2. Verbal
As a non-native speaker, I struggled not only with logic but also with the language itself. Sometimes, I would miss the entire question because I didn't know a single word in the passage, and I often thought, "I would do so well if this test was in my native language."
When an unknown word appeared, I would write down and memorize the verbs in a separate notebook, but I didn't bother organizing the nouns. In my experience, not knowing a noun rarely prevented me from understanding the entire passage, and truly difficult words usually had their definitions provided in the text.
I didn't apply any special formulas to solve problems; my goal was just to solve as many problems as possible. I focused mainly on the Official Guide. After studying for a while, there were many instances where I could predict what the test maker's answer would be before even looking at the options. I strongly recommend solving a massive number of problems.
In Reading Comprehension, my slow reading speed was a problem, and I still haven't completely overcome this. I consciously tried not to dwell too much on the details during the first reading, but I failed more often than not. I concluded that it was impossible for me to answer every single question and resigned myself to potentially missing the last 2~3 questions.
3. Data Insights (DI)
This was the section with the greatest fluctuation. My scores in the Official Mock tests varied wildly, from 40% to 100%. In the actual exams, I once scored in the 5x% range, and in my final attempt, I achieved 95%. For me, DI was a battle to reduce careless mistakes. I rarely failed to understand the problem itself, but errors like misreading the graph axes, failing to convert units correctly, or making calculation errors (I never used the calculator) significantly impacted my final score.
The biggest issue with the DI section is the lack of available practice problems. The Official Guide has fewer questions compared to other sections, and many non-official questions are not 'well-crafted.' Therefore, if you are new to GMAT prep, I recommend saving the Official Guide problems until later.
4. Other Tips
Mock Tests: In addition to the two free official mocks, I purchased two more. I also tried mock tests from various prep sites, but the quality and difficulty of the questions often differed significantly from the actual exam. I used them only as a practice tool to control my stress during the three-hour duration, rather than for predicting my score.
Error Log: My goal was to solve as many problems as possible and, every time I made a mistake, to practice so I wouldn't repeat the same error on the actual test. I created an error log for incorrect problems and reviewed it before the exam to prevent mistakes. I generalized the reasons for my mistakes in the log. For example:
If I missed a DI question because I thought the graph axis was an absolute value when it was a percentage, I wrote down: "Always check the units on the graph axes!"
After missing a question by confusing "cost per 2 people" with "cost per person," I wrote: "Pay attention to every 'per' in the text!"
Answering All Questions: As everyone else has emphasized, this cannot be stressed enough. I noticed a pattern where my score dropped significantly when I didn't mark the last few questions due to a lack of time. I realized that trying to solve one more problem when time was short, only to fail to mark the subsequent answers, resulted in a net loss. In the last 90 seconds, I gave up on solving and focused solely on marking every single remaining question.
The Strangeness of Difficulty: One strange observation concerns the test's difficulty. Both times I scored 705 (on a mock test and the actual exam), my feeling was that it was "the worst test I'd ever taken." The exams where I thought I did quite well resulted in lower scores, and my highest score came when I finished the test feeling completely devastated. I suppose this is the magic of the adaptive test, but I urge you not to give up until the very end, even if the first or second section feels a little disappointing.
As requested by BB, I would like to share my experience of achieving a 705 score. Honestly, there was nothing particularly special about it. I think I was a bit lucky. I started studying at the end of July and took the test three times: in early October, late October, and early November.
1. Quant
I actually didn't need to study Quant much. I scored in the 98th, 100th, and 100th percentiles on my three attempts, but I still solved about 10-20 Official Guide problems daily just to maintain my sense for it.
2. Verbal
As a non-native speaker, I struggled not only with logic but also with the language itself. Sometimes, I would miss the entire question because I didn't know a single word in the passage, and I often thought, "I would do so well if this test was in my native language."
When an unknown word appeared, I would write down and memorize the verbs in a separate notebook, but I didn't bother organizing the nouns. In my experience, not knowing a noun rarely prevented me from understanding the entire passage, and truly difficult words usually had their definitions provided in the text.
I didn't apply any special formulas to solve problems; my goal was just to solve as many problems as possible. I focused mainly on the Official Guide. After studying for a while, there were many instances where I could predict what the test maker's answer would be before even looking at the options. I strongly recommend solving a massive number of problems.
In Reading Comprehension, my slow reading speed was a problem, and I still haven't completely overcome this. I consciously tried not to dwell too much on the details during the first reading, but I failed more often than not. I concluded that it was impossible for me to answer every single question and resigned myself to potentially missing the last 2~3 questions.
3. Data Insights (DI)
This was the section with the greatest fluctuation. My scores in the Official Mock tests varied wildly, from 40% to 100%. In the actual exams, I once scored in the 5x% range, and in my final attempt, I achieved 95%. For me, DI was a battle to reduce careless mistakes. I rarely failed to understand the problem itself, but errors like misreading the graph axes, failing to convert units correctly, or making calculation errors (I never used the calculator) significantly impacted my final score.
The biggest issue with the DI section is the lack of available practice problems. The Official Guide has fewer questions compared to other sections, and many non-official questions are not 'well-crafted.' Therefore, if you are new to GMAT prep, I recommend saving the Official Guide problems until later.
4. Other Tips
Mock Tests: In addition to the two free official mocks, I purchased two more. I also tried mock tests from various prep sites, but the quality and difficulty of the questions often differed significantly from the actual exam. I used them only as a practice tool to control my stress during the three-hour duration, rather than for predicting my score.
Error Log: My goal was to solve as many problems as possible and, every time I made a mistake, to practice so I wouldn't repeat the same error on the actual test. I created an error log for incorrect problems and reviewed it before the exam to prevent mistakes. I generalized the reasons for my mistakes in the log. For example:
If I missed a DI question because I thought the graph axis was an absolute value when it was a percentage, I wrote down: "Always check the units on the graph axes!"
After missing a question by confusing "cost per 2 people" with "cost per person," I wrote: "Pay attention to every 'per' in the text!"
Answering All Questions: As everyone else has emphasized, this cannot be stressed enough. I noticed a pattern where my score dropped significantly when I didn't mark the last few questions due to a lack of time. I realized that trying to solve one more problem when time was short, only to fail to mark the subsequent answers, resulted in a net loss. In the last 90 seconds, I gave up on solving and focused solely on marking every single remaining question.
The Strangeness of Difficulty: One strange observation concerns the test's difficulty. Both times I scored 705 (on a mock test and the actual exam), my feeling was that it was "the worst test I'd ever taken." The exams where I thought I did quite well resulted in lower scores, and my highest score came when I finished the test feeling completely devastated. I suppose this is the magic of the adaptive test, but I urge you not to give up until the very end, even if the first or second section feels a little disappointing.
Congratulations ButterPepper and thank you so much for sharing your debrief!
Pretty insane to hear you had such big fluctuation in your Official Mock scores for Data Insights - that seems to be a point of concern and a question for many test-takers. Any idea why? You were not too serious about the practice tests or some other reason? Also, did you see any fluctuations in PS or Verbal?
Fantastic score. I know you mentioned that did not feel it was a worthwhile story but I think this is really really helpful! Thank you for putting this together and sharing on GMAT Club!
Pretty insane to hear you had such big fluctuation in your Official Mock scores for Data Insights - that seems to be a point of concern and a question for many test-takers. Any idea why? You were not too serious about the practice tests or some other reason? Also, did you see any fluctuations in PS or Verbal?
Fantastic score. I know you mentioned that did not feel it was a worthwhile story but I think this is really really helpful! Thank you for putting this together and sharing on GMAT Club!
12 Nov 2025, 07:04
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Congrats on the 705!! I wish you all the best with your applications.
