730 GMAT (Q49, V41), Used Target Test Prep and Took 1 mock exam

I want to give the team at Target Test Prep a shoutout for getting me through the GMAT. I'm planning on applying to business school in like two weeks here (hahah) for round 3, so wish me luck.

It seems most posts only get read if they're scoring a 770, but hopefully someone sees my lousy 730 and gets some helpful advice.

Prep:
I used Target Test Prep and took one mock test last week (740, Q47/V45). I maybe should have probably taken more, but I felt like it was representative of how I wanted to do and gave me an idea that I needed to focus a couple days on inequalities, triangles, and sentence correction tenses. Also needed to guess a little quicker on 1-2 questions I had no idea on.

Features I liked about TTP:
- The material is excellent for quant and verbal, both quality and quantity. I got through <80% of the total questions and probably didn't even need to do that many. With exception of some tougher/denser reading comp, you will see a range more difficult than the actual GMAT.

- Course layout: I liked the way the course is laid out. There's error trackers, you can make custom tests, and I've noticed that in quant, logic/problem solving questions like factorials/ roots are at the beginning, and memorize heavy things like combinations/geometry are at the end. I heavily used the custom test creator to focus on questions I've missed in the past.

- Blogs / advice: I strongly recommend following Scotts advice to a tee. Particularly their methodology of not trying to answer questions in a certain amount of time. I hardly cared about the timer during my entire prep, and I'd consistently have questions, both verbal & quant, I solved in like 7 to 10 minutes. The last two weeks of my prep I used a TTP feature to create custom exams where I'd rework problems I spent over 2 minutes on just to dial in timing. But Scott was right - slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I hardly paid attention to the timer during the real thing until the last five minutes, which actually saves some time and stress in itself. I think Scott may be a hippy or something, but his advice on handling test anxiety actually worked

- Answer explanations: There's something that TTP does which is extremely helpful: For wrong answers, they tell you why you might have picked that answer and then state the rule. For example, for SC, I was confused when it was okay for "which", "-ing", "that", "who", "when" to modify the preceding clause. I answered many of these incorrectly, but TTP would explain why it was wrong, helping me understand the rules of how to use each of these. Also, they would give multiple explanations for why some answers were wrong. This is especially helpful because 1 question could help you review multiple topics. Scott from TTP recommends going through each SC and identifying why each answer choice is wrong.

- On demand: The team at TTP is always very responsive. A couple times I thought I was proud and thought I caught mistakes on questions, but just turned out I was wrong hahah. I'd send screenshots, ask questions, and someone was always available within a short time to get back to me. When youre frustrated about questions you've gotten wrong and can't figure out why, this help invaluable.


Before the test:
- I get some anxiety before big tests, and the GMAT was no exception. Scott from TTP mentions the best way to conquer test anxiety is through preparation, and honestly this is great advice. Whenever I'd get nervous, I just remember how much I prepared and that I could hack away at nearly every GMAT problems, at least well enough to get me a 730. Even during the exam I'd visualize myself as a low and dirty big game hunter in Jumanji hacking through the questions like it's the African bush. After going through TTP, there's literally nothing more I could do more to prepare, so there wasn't much of a reason to be nervous.


During the test:
I started with quant and didn't know the first question, but eliminated some answers and moved on. Scotts advice is to not overinvest time in the first questions, so I stayed on course. Overall, I didn't feel great, but I don't think the GMAT is set up to make you feel great because you're pretty much always going to miss a lot of questions, it just should be the tough ones ; ). I didn't feel like I saw a quant questions TTP hadn't prepared me for. My only limit was really who quickly I could solve it.

Verbal, especially reading comp was a struggle on the actual. My upstairs neighbors started banging on the piano/synthesizer and starting celebrating St Pattys day too soon, so it was hard to concentrate. I got a 41 on the real thing vs my mock which was a 45, so I could probably do better, but it's good enough. The only recommendation here is that TTP needs to increase the difficulty of their reading comp passages some - I had some fairly nuanced passages. Same with sentence correction, which I had been really solid on taking TTP. Take all of this with a grain of salt, because my neighbors were playing that annoying Snow Patrol "If I just Lay Here" song while working through some long sentence corrections.

Overall
Standardized exams are overrated and are a means to an end. If you're starting your prep, remember that and don't make a big deal about it. This forum overstates the stress/ anxiety of taking the gmat and it's 1 part in like 10 parts of an MBA application. I could probably take the gmat again and get a 650, maybe again and get a 750. I really think visualizing myself as a well prepared hacker slicing through jungle and mutilating questions is the difference that made sure I could get over any test-taking anxiety and get my final score. Miss the first question? Hack. Miss maybe the second? Idgaf hack through it. Guess on this one and eliminate answers? Hack.

Also, TTP is all you need. I don't think you need any other additional crap like the OG, GMAT club questions, or a New York Times subscription. Honestly I didn't even read TTP's idiom guide or formula sheet Scott wants you to read/memorize. You'll have a good idea going though the course, based on accuracy and timing, how you're doing. I set my goal to 740, hit my accuracy goals throughout the course, got a 740 on a mock, then took the real thing at got a 730 with my neighbors partying so TTP is a pretty accurate indicator.

I hope this helps, and wish me luck on business school applications. Don't make too much out of the gmat and just get it done.