770 (Q51 V44) with prior LSAT experience

I suspect that my experience is rather unique among GMAT takers since my background is different from most, but I thought I should still offer my insights to whomever finds himself in a similar situation, as well as some general advice to the general GMAT community.

When I was in undergrad, I thought of going to law school but ultimately decided against that option a couple of weeks before I took the LSAT in October 2010. Nevertheless, I had spent a good chunk of the summer before senior year studying for the LSAT, and therefore didn't do that poorly. The 163 score placed me near the 90th percentile, a decent achievement but nothing to brag about. With that said, I learned several crucial things from my LSAT experience which comfortably carried over to the GMAT:

1. Great training in logical reasoning. While I did not take a single logic or philosophy class in college, I bought a few logic books over the summer to supplement my LSAT study, and since I heard that logical reasoning was the easiest component of the LSAT to improve on, spent the majority of my study time sharpening my logical reasoning skills. As a result, out of the 51 logical reasoning questions on the actual test, I missed only 3. Thankfully, I did not lose the logical reasoning skills when it came time to study for the GMAT.

2. Great training in analytical writing. I was relieved when I learned how similar GMAT essay questions are to LSAT essay questions. I guess I had paid it forward...

3. Study the hardest questions. I attribute my success on LSAT logical reasoning to my focus on the toughest logical reasoning questions. I bought a collection of toughest logical reasoning questions from a test preparation company, took several pages with me everywhere, and did several questions at a time whenever I had time to kill. I was well aware that the official test would definitely have a few curve balls, and I wanted to be prepared to hit them, as a way to build up my confidence. I employed the same technique in my GMAT study, attempting quite a few of the 100 most difficult questions that members of this forum have gathered. This approach did me wonders.

4. Study real exam questions only. It is well known in the LSAT circle that the only questions you should practice are official, previously published ones. Unlike the GMAT, the LSAT has an abundance of official exam questions from previously administered exams. There is no better way to get acquainted with how exam makers think than to study how they have thought historically. For the GMAT, I ignored all exam questions made by test preparation companies, save for 2 practice tests by Manhattan GMAT and Veritas Prep and the drill questions in the Manhattan GMAT books. After learning the fundamentals from the Manhattan GMAT books, I practiced questions in the Official Guide and questions from the most difficult collections on this forum only.

5. Accuracy first, timing second. Another useful tip I learned from the LSAT community is to make sure you're able to answer questions without any time pressure before starting to time yourself. For the hardest questions I mentioned above, I did not hesitate to spend 15 minutes on one question if that was how long it would take me to be 100% confident about my answer. I knew that if I could answer any single question thrown at me, timing would be merely a matter of practice. Fundamentals should always come first. I employed the same principle in the GMAT study, and encourage everybody to do the same.

6. Overconfidence is poison. I actually took the LSAT twice; the first time, I was overconfident, got killed by the curve balls, and canceled my score in a panic. Never again. When I took my first GMATprep CAT, I got 760. I immediately decided to take a practice test from a different company to really understand where I stood. The 700 on Manhattan GMAT and 730 on Veritas Prep took me back to the ground. My focus continued unabated till the actual exam. The second GMATprep CAT gave me a 770. I was not overconfident walking into the exam room, and got a couple of curve balls as anticipated, but I missed. If given more time to dwell on them, I still would have missed. If I had been given more time to study though, I would have taken more GMATprep CAT's and practiced more questions from the Official Guide. I had less than 3 weeks to study for the test.

7. Improve on what's easier to improve on. As a former actuary, I knew I was not bad at math. The goal was set very early on to score perfectly on the quant section. I used the Manhattan GMAT math books to fill any mathematical knowledge gap and learn techniques that I figured I'd need after learning from the practice tests. My weaknesses were in properties of numbers, probability, and coordinates; therefore, I read the books on these topics and did drill practice questions that looked like I'd need to spend solid time on. Next up, sentence correction. There were very specific mistakes I made on the practice tests; otherwise I knew I was pretty solid on grammar. So I focused on fixing these holes and spent a lot of time on the Manhattan GMAT sentence correction book. I did not touch the reading comprehension book; I did not even have that book because it was missing from my Manhattan GMAT collection. I skimmed through the logical reasoning book to see if there was any kind of question not covered by the LSAT; turned out there was one kind, and it was not difficulty to study for.

8. Try to guess the correct answer before reading the choices. Analyzing each answer choice is a waste of time and mental energy, both of which are crucial for the GMAT.

I will add to the tips as I recall more. I took my test on April 6th 2016, and scored 51 on Quant, 44 on Verbal, 6 on AWA, and 8 on IR. I'd like to thank Manhattan GMAT for producing the helpful study materials, and both Manhattan GMAT and Veritas Prep for making good adaptive practice tests. I'd like to especially thank GMAT Club for the awesome collections of most difficult official questions and for recommending Manhattan GMAT and Veritas Prep.

Let me know if you have any questions!

-HiLine