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29 Sep 2021, 14:16
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Hi all! gmatclub has been a huge help to me so I thought I’d contribute by providing a write up on the preparation I did before receiving a score of 770 last week.
Background:
Native English speaker. I just finished undergrad in June with a degree in economics and accounting and a minor in philosophy. I’m an avid reader and I spend a significant amount of time reading analytic philosophy, so I began studying with the expectation that verbal would be my natural strong suit.
As you’ll hear, I spent most of my time studying while still in undergrad and while living with 11 other housemates (including 4 who lived in my room). The library was closed due to COVID, so I mostly studied on the couch surrounded by my friends, which made the studying process much much less efficient than it should have been.
Practice test 1:
I took Veritas Prep’s free practice test before starting any studying way back on 2/20/21 as a diagnostic. Score: Q41 V39 Total: 650.
This was highly encouraging as I knew that I missed many problems I could have gotten right with just a little studying and practice. I was extremely rusty on my quant work (didn’t know triangle side ratios, permutation/combination rules, basic number property tricks, etc.). Immediately after the test I ordered the Manhattan Prep book set (which I don’t recommend, we’ll get to that later), and started skimming through the areas I felt weak in.
Early Studying:
I focused almost all of my studying on learning basic quant concepts and practicing sentence correction. Much of this just meant doing 10 question SC problem sets in the OG and thoroughly reviewing my misses. To learn quant, I skimmed the Manhattan Prep GMAT Content Review guide and underlined/bookmarked sections I found helpful.
Important: during this time, I went on a roughly one month long skiing road trip and drove around 3,500 miles with a few buddies of mine. Much of the quant skimming took place in the backseat of a car, as I didn’t really have other time to study while skiing most days/catching up on pre recorded zoom lectures in the evenings/drinking and hanging with friends during the nights. I strongly recommend against this approach for pretty much everyone, as I ended up half-learning many of the concepts and had to go back and revisit ideas later on. 3,500 miles leaves you with a lot of road time, so I just thought reading a bit would be better than nothing.
Right when I got back I tried to take a Manhattan Prep test but pretty much quit halfway through as there was a lot of noise in the room I was in and I felt the increased difficulty (which I expected from reading write ups) was lowering my confidence for the real thing. A week later I went to a coffee shop and took my first official practice.
3/25/21 Official Practice 1 Q48 V46 750
Honestly I didn’t have a goal score in mind but was very happy to see a 750. I scheduled my first real test for the end of May and spent the next few months reading and rereading the Manhattan Prep quant stuff, doing practice problems in the OG and studying my mistakes, and taking the rest of the official practice tests.
Here are the rest of the official practice test scores from that period:
4/14/21 Official Practice 2 Q49 V47 770
5/20/21 Official Practice 3 Q49 V45 760
5/23/21 Official Practice 4 Q50 V48 780
5/24/21 Official Practice 5 Q48 V47 760
Test Day:
My test was scheduled for 4pm at a test center roughly an hour drive away. I woke up and had a big breakfast, read for a while, ran around 10 miles, showered, had a small snack and headed to the test center. I drank pre workout before the run and also had a Yerba Mate on the drive to the center and I think as a result I was overly caffeinated. Definitely showed up in the center a little bit jittery.
Test 1:
5/27/21
Order: Q, V, IR/AWA
The quant section seemed significantly harder than the practice tests, and I ended up very crunched on time. I had around 90 seconds left for the last three questions and basically had to skim them and make educated guesses. I felt pretty anxious after spending too long on the first few questions and it definitely affected my focus.
After my first break the jitters were out and I felt much more relaxed and focused. Verbal section seemed fine, very similar to the practice tests. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if I didn’t miss any.
Score: Q47 V46 750
I think I had set my expectations a bit too high after scoring 770 and 780 on practice tests and while I was happy with the score overall, I felt like I could do a bit better, especially since I knew that feeling anxious at the beginning affected my focus. I decided I’d sit with the score for a while and possibly retake the test around September if I felt another shot was worth it.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago:
Okay so basically, I kinda forgot about the whole GMAT thing for the most part between the time I took it in May and mid September. I went to Vegas, graduated, backpacked Europe for 7 weeks (and spent 100% of my savings), moved into a new apartment, started a new relationship, read a few books, etc, etc.
A few weeks ago (around mid September) I realized that my mind just felt way clearer and more focused than it did back in spring when I was studying. The whole time I was prepping I was also taking a full load of classes, living (and studying) in a house with my 11 best friends, smoking weed and/or drinking pretty much every night, leading two different finance/consulting focused school organizations, not sleeping much, etc etc. Recently I’ve been eating healthier, exercising more, not drinking as much, and overall just feeling way sharper. Without studying at all I took official practice number 6 and got:
9/17/21 Official Practice 6 Q51 V49 790
In all honesty the whole thing just felt kind of… easy? I finished with 15 minutes left on the verbal section and had no trouble finishing the quant in time either. Only missed one question in each section.
I immediately scheduled an official test for the next available slot at the nearest testing sight, which was just 6 days out. In those 6 days I signed up for the $1 five day trial at TTP and did around a total of 2 or 3 hours of quant review, mostly on combination, permutation and probability topics.
Test day:
The test was at 8am, which I was a bit worried about since I had typically been waking up around 9am. On test day I woke up at 6, had a light breakfast and a coffee, went for a short walk and showered and then took an uber over. Going into the test I felt very very relaxed, no stress at all.
The quant section also seemed harder than the practice tests but not by as much as my first real test. I paced myself well and finished right on time.
The verbal section seemed very normal. Score:
Q50 V47 770
General advice:
Just from an initial impression from the 5 day trial, TTP seems like the way to go. Concepts seemed so so so much clearer to me after studying on TTP than they did after reading the Manhattan Prep review stuff.
The MGMAT tests are just too hard and I think the damage they’ll do to your confidence might outweigh the benefit you’ll get from practicing harder tests.
Study in an area where you can actually focus and don’t do what I did and waste time studying in places where you’re not absorbing information.
IMPORTANT: Don’t underestimate the importance of your health if you’re aiming to perform your best. I tested 20 points better after not studying for three months just because my mind was sharper thanks to more sleep and less alcohol/weed/things to worry about.
If you’re not planning to take the test for a long time (like at least 6 months to a year), I’d do some light prep by spending more time reading tougher content. Like I mentioned, I spend a decent amount of time reading analytic philosophy and as a result the RC and CR questions always seemed easy. This won’t be the case for everyone but it certainly will help.
Don’t drink too much caffeine before the test.
Happy to answer any questions/provide help in any way I can. Cheers.
Background:
Native English speaker. I just finished undergrad in June with a degree in economics and accounting and a minor in philosophy. I’m an avid reader and I spend a significant amount of time reading analytic philosophy, so I began studying with the expectation that verbal would be my natural strong suit.
As you’ll hear, I spent most of my time studying while still in undergrad and while living with 11 other housemates (including 4 who lived in my room). The library was closed due to COVID, so I mostly studied on the couch surrounded by my friends, which made the studying process much much less efficient than it should have been.
Practice test 1:
I took Veritas Prep’s free practice test before starting any studying way back on 2/20/21 as a diagnostic. Score: Q41 V39 Total: 650.
This was highly encouraging as I knew that I missed many problems I could have gotten right with just a little studying and practice. I was extremely rusty on my quant work (didn’t know triangle side ratios, permutation/combination rules, basic number property tricks, etc.). Immediately after the test I ordered the Manhattan Prep book set (which I don’t recommend, we’ll get to that later), and started skimming through the areas I felt weak in.
Early Studying:
I focused almost all of my studying on learning basic quant concepts and practicing sentence correction. Much of this just meant doing 10 question SC problem sets in the OG and thoroughly reviewing my misses. To learn quant, I skimmed the Manhattan Prep GMAT Content Review guide and underlined/bookmarked sections I found helpful.
Important: during this time, I went on a roughly one month long skiing road trip and drove around 3,500 miles with a few buddies of mine. Much of the quant skimming took place in the backseat of a car, as I didn’t really have other time to study while skiing most days/catching up on pre recorded zoom lectures in the evenings/drinking and hanging with friends during the nights. I strongly recommend against this approach for pretty much everyone, as I ended up half-learning many of the concepts and had to go back and revisit ideas later on. 3,500 miles leaves you with a lot of road time, so I just thought reading a bit would be better than nothing.
Right when I got back I tried to take a Manhattan Prep test but pretty much quit halfway through as there was a lot of noise in the room I was in and I felt the increased difficulty (which I expected from reading write ups) was lowering my confidence for the real thing. A week later I went to a coffee shop and took my first official practice.
3/25/21 Official Practice 1 Q48 V46 750
Honestly I didn’t have a goal score in mind but was very happy to see a 750. I scheduled my first real test for the end of May and spent the next few months reading and rereading the Manhattan Prep quant stuff, doing practice problems in the OG and studying my mistakes, and taking the rest of the official practice tests.
Here are the rest of the official practice test scores from that period:
4/14/21 Official Practice 2 Q49 V47 770
5/20/21 Official Practice 3 Q49 V45 760
5/23/21 Official Practice 4 Q50 V48 780
5/24/21 Official Practice 5 Q48 V47 760
Test Day:
My test was scheduled for 4pm at a test center roughly an hour drive away. I woke up and had a big breakfast, read for a while, ran around 10 miles, showered, had a small snack and headed to the test center. I drank pre workout before the run and also had a Yerba Mate on the drive to the center and I think as a result I was overly caffeinated. Definitely showed up in the center a little bit jittery.
Test 1:
5/27/21
Order: Q, V, IR/AWA
The quant section seemed significantly harder than the practice tests, and I ended up very crunched on time. I had around 90 seconds left for the last three questions and basically had to skim them and make educated guesses. I felt pretty anxious after spending too long on the first few questions and it definitely affected my focus.
After my first break the jitters were out and I felt much more relaxed and focused. Verbal section seemed fine, very similar to the practice tests. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if I didn’t miss any.
Score: Q47 V46 750
I think I had set my expectations a bit too high after scoring 770 and 780 on practice tests and while I was happy with the score overall, I felt like I could do a bit better, especially since I knew that feeling anxious at the beginning affected my focus. I decided I’d sit with the score for a while and possibly retake the test around September if I felt another shot was worth it.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago:
Okay so basically, I kinda forgot about the whole GMAT thing for the most part between the time I took it in May and mid September. I went to Vegas, graduated, backpacked Europe for 7 weeks (and spent 100% of my savings), moved into a new apartment, started a new relationship, read a few books, etc, etc.
A few weeks ago (around mid September) I realized that my mind just felt way clearer and more focused than it did back in spring when I was studying. The whole time I was prepping I was also taking a full load of classes, living (and studying) in a house with my 11 best friends, smoking weed and/or drinking pretty much every night, leading two different finance/consulting focused school organizations, not sleeping much, etc etc. Recently I’ve been eating healthier, exercising more, not drinking as much, and overall just feeling way sharper. Without studying at all I took official practice number 6 and got:
9/17/21 Official Practice 6 Q51 V49 790
In all honesty the whole thing just felt kind of… easy? I finished with 15 minutes left on the verbal section and had no trouble finishing the quant in time either. Only missed one question in each section.
I immediately scheduled an official test for the next available slot at the nearest testing sight, which was just 6 days out. In those 6 days I signed up for the $1 five day trial at TTP and did around a total of 2 or 3 hours of quant review, mostly on combination, permutation and probability topics.
Test day:
The test was at 8am, which I was a bit worried about since I had typically been waking up around 9am. On test day I woke up at 6, had a light breakfast and a coffee, went for a short walk and showered and then took an uber over. Going into the test I felt very very relaxed, no stress at all.
The quant section also seemed harder than the practice tests but not by as much as my first real test. I paced myself well and finished right on time.
The verbal section seemed very normal. Score:
Q50 V47 770
General advice:
Just from an initial impression from the 5 day trial, TTP seems like the way to go. Concepts seemed so so so much clearer to me after studying on TTP than they did after reading the Manhattan Prep review stuff.
The MGMAT tests are just too hard and I think the damage they’ll do to your confidence might outweigh the benefit you’ll get from practicing harder tests.
Study in an area where you can actually focus and don’t do what I did and waste time studying in places where you’re not absorbing information.
IMPORTANT: Don’t underestimate the importance of your health if you’re aiming to perform your best. I tested 20 points better after not studying for three months just because my mind was sharper thanks to more sleep and less alcohol/weed/things to worry about.
If you’re not planning to take the test for a long time (like at least 6 months to a year), I’d do some light prep by spending more time reading tougher content. Like I mentioned, I spend a decent amount of time reading analytic philosophy and as a result the RC and CR questions always seemed easy. This won’t be the case for everyone but it certainly will help.
Don’t drink too much caffeine before the test.
Happy to answer any questions/provide help in any way I can. Cheers.
29 Sep 2021, 14:21
Kudos
Bookmarks
Wow! Awesome debrief! 👍👍👍
Congratulations on the score!
Are you applying this season?
PS. Would you be interested in doing a YouTube debrief potentially? Something along these lines with one of the moderators? https://youtu.be/U69BTder8lc
Posted from my mobile device
Congratulations on the score!
Are you applying this season?
PS. Would you be interested in doing a YouTube debrief potentially? Something along these lines with one of the moderators? https://youtu.be/U69BTder8lc
Posted from my mobile device
29 Sep 2021, 19:15
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congrats on a great score!! I'm thrilled to hear, that just in 5 days, you got so much from TTP.
