My Opinionated and Somewhat Chaotic Debrief [760 Q50 V42]

Voted as one of the Best GMAT Debriefs of 2021 Find more amazing debriefs in our Best Debriefs Collection

I have so many regrets. If I could go back and slap past-me in the face, I definitely would. If you’ve decided to read this, hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

Mistake 1: Reading ABOUT the GMAT instead of LEARNING HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS on the GMAT
If you’re reading this on reddit/G-club when you only have two weeks left until you GMAT test date, STOP READING. Stop over-analyzing the test. Constantly asking questions like “what-if I get a V43 and a Q50 but an IR4” or “what if I get a V51 but a Q40” just wastes your time. Focus on your actual studies and play the “What if…” game after your test.

Mistake 2: Thinking you can’t improve
This test is 100% crackable. With enough blood, sweat, and tears, you can improve. I definitely didn’t think so at first. I got a 720 on my first official site mock, and a month later I was still at a 720. Don’t give-up. It’s quite common to see a dip in performance in the beginning before seeing an improvement. Assimilating new information and test techniques takes time. If you doubt this, just scroll through the THOUSANDS of debriefs. I promise that you are not the one person in the entire world who can’t improve your GMAT score.

Mistake 3: Starting your studies late
Start studying as early as you can! I had no idea how much work the GMAT requires. I figured that I did decently well on the SAT and ACT without much studying, so I should do well on the GMAT without much studying, too. WRONG! First, the GMAT is significantly harder. Second, I had not been in school for years. My math brain had more cobwebs than neurons when I started studying for the GMAT. START EARLY.

You will be competing against other students who will study extremely hard for the GMAT. If you aren’t willing to put in the work, it will show. For better or worse, the GMAT is less a measure of raw intelligence and more a measure of raw force of will (If you don’t believe me, look at the hundreds of 200+ point gain debriefs. Every one of those students was rewarded for their hard work).

I studied two months before getting a 760. For the first month, I studied for 1-2 hours a day, 6 days a week. At the end of that first month, I was still getting the same scores on practice exams.

During the second month, I took three weeks off work to study. I poured 8-14 hours a day, 7 days a week into studying. In total, I probably studied another 300 hours that month, bringing my total to ~350 hours. By the end, I was consistently scoring 760-780 [Q50+ V42+] on official site mocks. Although my methods worked, I would highly recommend against cramming! It is hard to read, internalize, and apply new information for 8+ hours a day. I was so burnt-out by the end. Also, it is incredibly un-fun. Please, please, please start studying early!

Mistake 3.5: Stopping your studies early
You should strongly consider re-taking the GMAT if you haven’t put in several hundred quality study hours. Yes, that’s true even if you have a 700+ score! Your chances of getting into a good MBA program only go up with a higher score. Unless you need to shift your focus from the GMAT to writing your actual school applications, you should keep studying for the GMAT. Most folks don’t hit their max possible score until they have studied for hundreds of hours!

Mistake 4: Comparing yourself to others
Let me start by saying, if you can harness your competitive nature and use that to drive your studies, do it! While that may not be the healthiest motivation, it will get the job done. However, my main point here is to say that so much of what is posted on these various GMAT forums is somewhere between minorly misleading and patently false. For example, that guy who claims he got a Q51 on three different Manhattan Prep mock tests, but a Q40 on the test? Yeah, there’s no way he’s telling the full story. Either he paused his mock tests/added extra time, or had an aneurism during the real test. Regardless, something is missing, and if you use his half-foot “yardstick” to measure yourself, you will come away with the wrong conclusions. Similarly, don’t trust the gal who keeps scoring 540s despite studying for months between each test. Her idea of studying might not be very effective. Or she might be exaggerating how hard she works. Take everything you read on these forums with a huge grain of salt (except for my debrief, this thing is gold!) and don’t get down on yourself. I am sure you working your butt-off, and that, in and of itself, is plenty to be proud of.

Mistake 5: Trusting non-mba official site practice test scores
The only website with accurate practice test scores is mba dot com. This fits my own experiences when comparing my actual test scores to my scores on various test-prep company tests. There is also a wealth of anecdotal data saying the same. You should strongly consider buying additional tests after using the first two free ones.

Mistake 6: Not using TTP for Quant
Use TTP for Quant. I’d like to kiss everyone who works for TTP right on the lips.

Mistake 7: Ignoring Verbal
Verbal is weighted more heavily than quant is. It’s something like a 55% Verbal, 45% Quant split. In many cases, you can get the most bang for you buck out of studying verbal. Try to at least spend 1 hour on verbal for every 2 on Quant! TTP has decent Verbal help too!

/////////////

edit 1:
How I studied for the GMAT:

ORIENTATION PHASE
=>Step 1: Brief (<1 week) review of overall structure of GMAT (familiarization with types of questions, timing, etc.)
=>Step 2: mba dot com official practice exam (to gauge my starting point)

LEARNING PHASE
=>Step 1: Read chapter, create flashcards, and complete all example questions without time constraint (This helps ensure full understanding! Do not introduce a time limit while you are learning! I spent 10-20 minutes on some problems, especially in verbal, just to make sure I understood all aspects.)
=>Step 2: Minimum one medium and one hard chapter tests (if I was weak in an area, I did extra tests)
=>Step 3: Review/redo all wrong answers/guesses/3+ minute answers
=>Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 for every single chapter, in order! I alternated with verbal chapters, as well.
(note: Working up to 14 hours a day, sometimes I could only get through one chapter, but most days I could get through more. Understanding the content is much more important than rushing through it.)

PRACTICE PHASE
=>Step 1: Use TTP's analytics and your own observations to identify your weakest areas
=>Step 2a: Create TTP custom practice quizzes targeting weak areas. I would do sets of 5 medium and hard problems timed, then review my answers. If I had to guess on a question, I would return to it and work out the solution un-timed before reviewing the solution
=>Step 2b: Review chapters/notes/flashcards pertaining to weak areas
=>Step 3: After addressing all weak areas, take another mba dot com practice test
=>Step 4: Review/redo missed problems/guesses/3+ minute answers on practice test
=>Step 5: Continue custom practice quizzes targeting weak areas
=>Step 6: Repeat steps 1-5 until mba dot com practice test scores consistently exceed target score. (Don't waste the mba dot com tests. I would only take a practice test if I was sure that I had invested significant effort on improving.)

By the end of my studies, I had completed the following:
(1) Every verbal and quant lesson on TTP
(2) TTP Quant: 31% of all medium problems, 33% of all hard problems
(3) TTP Verbal: All SC medium and hard, 17% of CR medium and hard

In addition to these TTP resources, I used questions from the Official Guide and a few LSAT CR questions. I did ~50% of the OG's medium and hard quant, and ~50% of the OG's medium and hard SC. I used explanations on Gclub for these questions. In my experience, TTP's practice verbal questions were quite good and identified the topics in which I was weakest. However, the OG verbal questions were the best match for real test questions. Make sure your studies include a healthy amount of OG verbal!!

Given more time, I would have spent much more effort on CR and RC. I am a native speaker and avid reader, so I could score relatively well on verbal without significant work. My practice verbal scores ranged from 42-45. With more time and effort, I'm sure I could have improved to 45+ on verbal.

/////////////

edit 2:
ESR


Q


V