GMAT Today 710 (Q 48, V39)

Hey Gmat forum users:

I just got my unfficial score today (7/16). I figured I owe it to the forum to detail my exerience. Please bear in mind i am not advocating you follow everything I did (most understand this I realize) and that I am officially operating a 50% brain capacity so I apologize if I get a little goofy.

My study plan

Kaplan Verbal Foundations
Kaplan Math Foundations

Both these books are great refreshers and although they do have a lot of weird errors in printing (some answers to questions that are never asked in the book) but it is clear what is an error and they do really refresh and build a foundation

Manhattan guides.

Everyone of these guides is valuable. The math ones were better than the verbal in my opinion. The advanced sections in the books and the online question banks are invaluable. The manhattan had questions that were truest to the gmat where some of the material i tried had pretty irrelevant questions

OG 12

This book must be used but as most in the forum advise do not use this first as it is invaluable way to track errors and discover strengths and weaknesses. I guess the only sports analogy I can think of is to use this first would be like to watch film of the team you are playing after you play the game instead of before it. Wow that was terrible but believe me it is better to use these resources near the middle to middle end of preparation

Error Log

Using an error log is important. I used an error log for the OG and it paid off to go back and redo what I got wrong. I cannot say I went back multiple times to the error log but I think of myself as a person with a strong memory so once I notated my errors once I knew where to focus. Some people may consult the log more than others but once you know, you know where to focus. On the manhattan, it already has an error log so you do not need to put a huge effort as all the data is saved.

Practice Exams
Gmat Prep (1) – 650
Manhattan (1) – 610
Manhattan (2) – 640
Gmat Prep (2) – 700

Again I found Manhattan the most relevant test. I also found the questions harder than the gmat prep and apparently harder than the actual gmat (710). I redid every question I got wrong on each test.

I had my exam at 8 am in the morning. I studied for 3 months. The week before I tried to do nothing but ended up studying anyway until Wednesday. I find I perform better with energy drinks as it energizes my mind. I finished all the sections with times left but I had to use the bathroom really bad, which is a draw back from energy drinks (I used 2 5 hour energy) as it speeds up everything . It is probably better not to force yourself to study hard during that week as there is such an expanse of material you prob won’t do a huge amount of good.
That plays into my next point, do not get completely caught up in one area. I became obsessed with SC. I focused on it for 3 weeks and then realized I was so concerned with it I was neglecting other areas and it only represents around 3/8ths (math at this point is questionable so please correct me) of the exam. The exam is in total so do not lose focus. This is a dangerous trap and one of the most important lessons I learned. Unless you are top 5% you will probably not master every section. I did not try to do every weird set out there of extra hard questions, I did not post questions on the forum, I basically just used Manhattan and OG but again I am not advocating ignoring the forum. Without the forum I prob would’ve used terrible material and not done as well. I am just saying this to let people know there are many ways to get a good score as most people post they do the 1000 sc, post every questions, and are very active in the forum. That undoubtedly can help but is not required.

Overall, this forum has been invaluable to me and I am thankful to the moderators for putting up extremely useful info. Good luck everyone and take what you will from my story as there is no guideline for a what works, this worked for me. Again I am not saying forum doesn’t work but some of the material out there may be overload and overdone, but evaluate for yourself. Thanks GMAT FORUM YOU WERE GREAT!