6/23/18 - Official GMAT #1 - 580 - Q44 - V26
10/1/18 - Official GMAT #2 - 670 - Q45 - V37I owe my
90 point increase entirely to EMPOWERgmat.
I took the GMAT for the first time on June 23rd, 2018 and scored a 580 (Q44 V26). Obviously, I cancelled my score immediately. I prepared for the GMAT for about 4 weeks and I was not diligent with it so, I should not have been shocked at my 580. Here are the materials I used to prepare for my first official GMAT exam:
-
Manhattan Prep Books
- Official GMAT Guide
That is all I used and honestly, I just read through a few of the
Manhattan Prep Quant books and took some notes. I didn't do any prep for the Verbal section. I just read through some GMATClub tips and tricks, which didn't actually help - hence, the V26. I did not take the exam seriously and my results proved it. If you want to do better than 80% of GMAT test takers, then take the test seriously. All I did was some
OG practice problems but I never kept an
error log. I just quickly reviewed my incorrect answers and I didn't figure out how to NOT make the same mistakes again.
I took the month of July off from studying as I decided what my new approach would be. I knew I learned best through instructional videos. I don't like in-class instruction and I wanted it to be self-paced. Another big thing is PRICE. The GMAT exam is expensive enough, I didn't want to spend $1000 on a class - that's outrageous and unnecessary. Then I found
EMPOWERgmat. I did there trial period and I knew within a few minutes that this was the class for me. You pay $99 a month so if you can finish the whole online course in one month then you save money!
It took me two months to complete the entire Score Booster EMPOWERgmat course. I started studying on August 1st, 2018 and my GMAT retake was scheduled for October 1st, 2018. I do work full time and I honestly wasn't as diligent as I could have been. Had I studied more consistently (as opposed to just utilizing my weekends) I could have gotten a 700+. Rich and Max's videos were amazing and they teach you everything you need to know. They taught me that the "trap" answers that always got me are actually
punishment answers because I was doing something wrong. They also told me I can SKIP certain questions. I was shocked by that and I found it difficult in the beginning to skip hard/time consuming questions. Once I started skipping 3-4 questions in both Quant and 2-3 in Verbal, my practice scores shot up to 690. Now, given my goal sore of 650, I didn't focus as much on the Quant section because I was always within a range of 44-46, which was fine for me. What I needed to focus on was the Verbal section and the strategies for solving each type of problem. The strategies I learned from EMPOWERgmat were critical in improving my verbal score
11 points! Only in the one week before my exam did I do official GMAT questions outside of those presented in the EMPOWERgmat course. So, as I said, if you put in more practice than I did, you can get a 700+ with the strategies taught to you by EMPOWERgmat.
I've recommended EMPOWERgmat to all my friends and colleagues who are preparing for the GMAT. I never expected to see a 90 point increase in my GMAT score, but I did and it's all thanks to the great team at EMPOWERgmat!
If you're debating between all the different online course options for GMAT prep, don't look elsewhere - go with EMPOWERgmat. I compared them all, I did the trial periods but EMPOWERgmat was my favorite and it will be yours too.
Good luck and happy studies!
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03 Oct 2018, 06:24
