Retaking after 5+ years. Hoping for 750, Last 3 weeks of Study

Question

Starting this for my own discipline and as something to look back on if the test doesn't go the way that I hope. I first sat the GMAT 5 years ago and scored 750 (Q50, V41). I will be looking to score at least the same and hopefully higher this time around but I know that will be tough. From how I experienced it previously I estimate that my scores probably have a 20ish+- variation around what my ability is so I know that nothing is guaranteed no matter how well I have prepared.

I have been studying a couple of weeks now and I am using Manhattan books, GMAT Q, V & official guides along with the GMAT Club tests & question banks. I feel that Manhattan tests & GMAT Club tests have far harder Q questions than the real thing but they are good for practicing concepts. I only use official guide questions for verbal as I think the harder verbal questions in non-official material can often be misleading, confusing and sometimes not even correct.

So far I have taken the two free practice tests from the official website and scored 760 & 770 respectively. I am very cautious in considering them as a realistic indicator of my ability as I feel that subconsciously I remember some of the questions from my preparation 5 years ago. This week I will be taking practice exam 3 which I have never taken before. I feel like that will be the first true indicator on where I stand. If I can get 750+ on the 3rd practice test I will book the exam as soon as possible. Otherwise I will work on some week areas and go again with test 4 and so on.

In terms of Quant, I probably need to really deep dive into the 700+ questions and particularly Number Properties, Geometry and Statistics over the next couple of weeks.

For Verbal my strengths are definitely RC & CR. SC I have practiced more than anything else but I will usually get a couple of questions wrong, I got 46V (3 questions wrong, all SC) in my last practice test so I feel like I have made improvements but again I think that I might remembered some of the questions from 5 years ago.

My timetable for the next couple of weeks is what I have been doing for the couple of weeks prior to this and it seems to be something that I can manage.

5am-8.20am - Study
8-6.45 - Work
7-8.30 Gym
8.45 - Housework, some TV etc.
10- bed

I had been giving myself Sundays off to relax and allowing a few beers on Friday & Saturday nights but I thing for the next couple of weekends I will focus on studying about 8 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday and give up any drinking. I will try to log here how my study has gone and what I feel I still need to work on.

Tomorrow I will try to go into some hard Geometry and Statistic questions. I will also try to knock out 25 SC questions to keep it fresh in my mind.

Marger · Answer

Last couple of days I have managed to get a decent amount done. I have been working on refining statistics. Probably not 100% where I want to be on it yet. I will sit prep number 3 either tomorrow or Friday. I just want to review and improve on some geometry and work rate questions before I dive in. Verbal I am feeling very confident in but the real test will be when I go through my first blind mock.

Did a GMAT club quant test and got 48, again I think some of these questions are much harder than the actual exam so I am reasonably happy with that. It reaffirmed that there are certain areas that I am far more comfortable with than others so I think I have a pretty clear path on what I need to cover over the next couple of weeks to get my desired score.

Marger · Answer

Did exam prep 3 mock this morning and got 780 Q51 V46. I am obviously happy with the result but I have 100% seen some of the questions before whether that was on here or somewhere else.

I got 2 questions wrong on the Quant portion, one of which I accidentally submitted the wrong answer by having clicked the wrong box so I am very happy with that. I still definitely need some work on Time/Rate/Work and to continue working on hard probability and geometry questions.

I got 3 questions wrong on verbal. 2 in RC which is surprising as usually all of my mistakes in verbal come from sentence correction. I will have to dig a bit deeper into the questions as I can see both my answer and the actual answer fitting at the moment which is a bit worrying as I wish it was just a stupid mistake that I could fix easily.

Time-wise I finished verbal with about 15 mins to spare and Quant I had 4 mins on the last question which I used all 4 as it was a little bit tricky so I wanted to be sure before I finished.

I know that I am scoring very well in these practice tests but i can't help feeling they are skewed to the top end of my range given that some of the questions seem familiar. I am also not 100% confident in a lot of my answers, there are a lot of questions where I think that I have the right answer rather than knowing it. My plan for the next couple of days is to go heavy on the areas of quant that I discussed previously for Friday and Saturday. I will also in some sentence correction and make sure I understand where I went wrong in RC.

I hope to take prep exam 4 on Sunday. Still holding off on booking the test until I am more confident that these are my true scores.

Marger · Answer

I booked the exam for March 15th. Studying is going pretty well. I still think that there are a couple of weaknesses that I have to focus on over the next 10 days. I think by the time that I sit the exam I will be as prepared as I possibly can be for the verbal and prepared enough in the the quant to get a 51.

On Sunday did the Official Practice number 4. Again I got 770, this time Q51 V45. I finished the quant with about 20 mins to spare. I got 2 wrong through stupid mistakes. I am really hoping that those stupid mistakes don't happen during the actual exam given how focused I will be. Verbal I got 3 questions wrong, 2 CR & 1 RC, I think this is really me going for an answer without fully eliminating the other options, this may be a timing issue as I was kind of pressed in this section. Very happy to get all the SC correct.

Hopefully the next 10 days will look like the following. I have been getting up around 4am during the week and doing 3 hoursish of study so I will continue that. Weekend I will try to get 8 hours in.

Wednesday - 4 Hours in the Morning ( I have 263 Questions remaining in the OG Guide so aiming for 85 per day over the next three days this week)
Thursday - 4 Hours (OG Guide)
Friday - 4 Hours (OG Guide)

Saturday Morning - This is going to be my only 100% dry run using Official Practice test 5. I hope to replicate test day conditions as closely as possible. 
Wake at 6am try to do a 20 min relatively light workout before, drive to my office (Similar distance to the test center), have a protein bar and a quarter can of red bull. Go through the OG and do 3 questions PS, DS, CR, RC & SC. I plan to do Verbal first as I sometimes struggle to focus on the RC section when I am tired. I will eat an apple and protein bar at the break along with another quarter of a red bull along with some water and go into the rest. 
Saturday Afternoon - Review the past 5 mocks and OG questions ensuring I know exactly what I got wrong and why

Sunday Morning - Quant study - Focusing on Geometry, Stats & Time/Rate
Sunday Afternoon - Verbal - as much as I can

Monday - AWA - I have to go over it at some point, first time around I only went over it for an hour or two and got 6 so I am expecting the same
Tuesday - Practice Qs - as many as possible
Wednesday - Official Practice Number 6
Thursday (I will work from home and can probably get about 8 hours in) - Make sure I have all formulas 100% down and then whatever else I feel needs work 
Friday - Test day repeat the prior Saturday but for real

At the moment I would say that my goal is 770. I understand that this will be tough and certainly require luck but, given my practice scores and how I feel prep has gone in general, I would be lying if I said that I wouldn't be disappointed with anything less than that.

Marger · Answer

Had a disaster of a weekend. Went to do my second last mock on Saturday in the exact same format as my actual exam will be. I had a little bit of a sore throat but didn't think much of is. Completed the mock but really really struggled with Quant on the second half, felt like I had no focus. I got 770 only getting one question wrong in Verbal but 7 wrong in Quant. By Saturday night I pretty much knew that I had strep throat. Couldn't do any study on Sunday as my energy levels were gone. Couldn't go to the doctor until this morning who confirmed that I had strep and put me on antibiotics. Definitely a bit of a disaster as I will still be on antibiotics Friday when I sit the exam. I am now thinking of delaying taking the test for a week or so until I get over this. Pretty disappointing as this came out of nowhere. I will try to put in a few hours now and then tomorrow fully on whether I will delay or not.

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Retaking after 5+ years. Hoping for >750, Last 3 weeks of Study

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