I’m a longtime lurker on here. My high score on the GMAT has had a massive impact on my life and trajectory. Now that I am coming to the end of my admissions cycle I wanted to give something back to the community.
Short summary:
I’m an American white male with an solid, but unremarkable career background in risk consulting and insurance. I went to a middle of the road state school. Given my overrepresented background I knew that in order to stand out in admissions I would need a strong GMAT score. I was recently admitted to a top 10/15 school with full scholarship, and I’m waiting to hear back from 2 M7 schools.
——My GMAT journey and advice:
—First attempts:
I first took the GMAT over 5 years ago for admission into a part time Master’s in Accounting program. I had always done fairly well on standardized tests(but not 770 well), and I spent very little time preparing when I took it the first time. I think I just did some practice in
the official guide. My first prep test was a 620. My official score after this limited studying was a 640, which was more than I needed for the Masters.
—Fast forward 5 years
I had advanced in my career, but wanted something more/different, and decided that if I wanted to do an MBA it was probably now or never. My first step was figuring out how to prep for the GMAT. I started in May 2018 after much procrastination. I did not want to pay for a live prep course, but I knew I needed something structured so I subscribed to the Veritas Orion prep course.
I went through the entire Orion program, and took an official test and got a 690 (44Q, 41V). The program has feedback mechanisms that make you feel like you are improving. In reality, the program only scratches the surface. If you want to get a top score, I do NOT recommend Veritas Orion. It does not go in depth enough. I probably spent 50+ hours or so on this program.
After this I was disappointed, especially in my Quant score. I had always done fairly well in math and a roughly 50th percentile Quant was much lower than what I felt my ability is. On the Verbal I did well, roughly 93rd percentile. However, I recommend getting the enhanced score report, as this will help pinpoint weak areas. On review of that, I had a perfect logical reasoning(LR) score, a strong, but not perfect Reading Comprehension(CR) score, and relatively weaker sentence correction(SC) score.
This brings me to my first big tip: REFLECTION. This is the number one factor for improving to a top score. I reflected upon my 690 attempt and realized I needed the most work in Quant and sentence correction. Focusing on your weak areas will get you the most improvement the most quickly. After that I did almost zero general Verbal prep. I focused my prep 85% on quant and 15% percent on sentence correction with almost no other prep on RC and LR.
—Making a comeback:
I canceled Veritas and looked for the best Quant program. The best quant program is
Target Test Prep. It is the best because it forces you to really work. The entire program takes 180 hours. If you are really serious about improving and have the time, you should do the entire program. I did not have time, I only had 2 months, so I ended up probably putting in about 100-120 hours in the program. I have a busy job so yes, this meant I was studying on weekends, during a beach vacation, and late at night after work. If you are serious about this, that is what it takes. If I had done the 180 hours and not skipped over sections I probably would have gotten the 51Q and a 780. The program is that good. I don’t regret not putting in that time because my girlfriend would have probably killed me, but I recommend you start early and just do it. It is worth it.
What makes this program great is that it hits at my other two principals of getting a top score.
— REPETITION
— Quant/sentence correction CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
Let me unpack that a bit. Watching lectures on the treadmill will not get you a 770. I know because I tried that. You need to dive and practice. You need to see hundreds of different questions types so you get surprised as little as possible on the real exam. I did over 1500 practice questions using
Target Test Prep. It forces you to hit every type. Some questions on my real exam we’re almost identical to the practice questions. You need REPETITION. When you get questions wrong you need to REFLECT! You need to review every single wrong answer. This is where think some people get hung up. It is hard to go back through something when you feel like you have already finished it. It is also innately hard to sift back through your failures (missed questions). It is necessary. This is how I got better.
Regarding CONTENT KNOWLEDGE— if you are an American you are not sufficiently educated to do well on the Quant section. Maybe if you are an engineer but probably not even then. You are competing against people from other countries who have superior Quant skills on a deeper level than you because their education system focuses on it and requires it in order for them to be successful.
Target test prep will get you there.
For sentence correction, all I did was flip through the Manhattan book a couple times and I went through 200-300 practice questions from the Veritas free question bank(download app on your phone). This was a nice break when I was tired from Quant and I ended up getting a 99th percentile sentence correction score.
Other prep—
Otherwise I just took an official GMAT every two weeks or so and reviewed answers. I didn’t even use all 6 of the available official tests. My last practice 2 weeks before was a 760. They had gradually increased each time.
Test day-
Relax. Get some sleep and hit the gym. Use
the official guide online to hit 10-20 practice questions. They have 90 free ones. The purpose of this is just to get your brain functioning, not to prep.
Get yourself in the zone. Chew gum before(shown to temporarily enhance brain function), drink your normal amount of caffeine, and put on a playlist that gets you energized. I recommend Thunderstruck by AC/DC.
If you don’t get the score you want, don’t be afraid to take it again. There is some luck in any one score.
Summary:
I think if I had prepped a little for RC (especially summarize the passage type questions) and finished the
Target test prep course I could have pushed for a 790-800 with a little luck. I recommend starting as early as possible so that you can give it your all. Focus on the three key areas and you’ll do great.
1. Repetition
2. Reflection
3. Quant/SC content knowledge
If anyone has any questions on the GMAT or MBA application process(which is a whole different beast), I’m happy to help.
Posted from my mobile device 
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Updated on: 18 Mar 2019, 06:23
