The story of 750 (48Q, 44V): Studying for GMAT and learning about LIFE

Question

It took me 6 years and 5 attempts, but I finally did it!!!

To show the different approaches I had taken to prepare for the GMAT, I divided this post into three parts: 1. preparation for GMAT #1, #2, and #3; 2. preparation for GMAT #4; and 3. preparation for GMAT #5. Before I start, here is some background information about myself. I am a 28 years old Hungarian. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Management from Hungary, another one in Business Administration / Economics from the USA, and a Master’s degree in Corporate Environmental Management from Finland. I played tennis and ran cross country in DII; and I worked on campus and was also an important member of several student groups at my American university. I worked as an intern for the UN in Costa Rica for 6 and worked for a women’s soccer club in Finland as a fitness coach for 4 years and as a soccer coach for 2 years during my Master’s studies. I graduated a year ago and left the soccer club around the same time, and I have been unemployed ever since. 1. I took the GMAT the first time while I was still in college during my senior year during the Fall of 2009. I used only the Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT 2010 edition to prepare and took the two GMATPrep practice tests without the AWA. After my one month not so intensive preparation I got a 590. Early 2011, when I was completing my second semester as a Master’s student, I decided to give it another go. I prepared using the OGs (general, quantitative, and verbal guides) and taking each of the two free official practice tests two times. The preparation took about 4 months (Now, I would not call it a preparation). I got 640 (46Q and 32V). I decided right away to take the test again later that year. I had other things to do during that summer and my preparation was not adequate either. I used the same guides and same tests as during my last preparation. 5 months after my second test, in October 2011, I got a 610 (45Q and 28V). I failed to answer the last Verbal question because I thought there was not another one. I thought the world will end. So much trouble for nothing… 2. I applied to top US business schools and was rejected 3 times: in 2009, in 2011, and in 2014. This last time I finally realized how important an excellent GMAT score was for admittance into a top MBA program. I knew that I also lack relevant work experience. I was rejected from Stanford, Duke and UNC this spring, and I was not able to get even a job interview. Then, I decided to give GMAT another try. This time I did an extensive research to find the best way to prepare with a minimum budget. My goal was to get into the 700s. I found Magoosh and purchased their $99 plan. I used their 3-month study plan (it was the old plan; a new plan came out in July) for advanced students. You can find that plan on the Magoosh website, but basically it provided me with a detailed day to day 3-month schedule. This schedule was the key for me because it provided me with a guideline that helped me to stay on track with my preparation for 3 months. I used the Magoosh resources (flash cards, online question bank, instructional videos, blogs), the Manhattan practice tests, the 1-10 Manhattan guides, the 2015 OG, the 4 GMAC practice tests (I took them only once each), and I also purchased the Manhattan Advanced Quant book (it was not part of the Magoosh plan) to use during the last 4 weeks of my preparation. I made flashcards to learn certain concepts. I started writing a mistake log after 4 weeks of preparation. I called it “Miss Steak”.

I wrote two notebooks full of mistakes during my preparation. It really helped me with the review, especially at the end of my preparation. It also gave me a chance to go over my mistakes by writing them down. It helped me to study. I stayed on schedule most of the time, but some days I could not finish everything, so I had extra for other days. I also started reading the Economist daily during the last half of my preparation, and used a cool app called Elevate to train my brain. The plan was for 12 weeks (including a review week at the end), and I started it May 13, 2015 and scheduled my exam to be at August 11, 2015. I had 13 weeks to prepares, so I was able to go on a 2-week holiday, during which I completed only a 1 week workload. I took the practice tests every week on the same day of the week (Tuesday) and same time of the day (1:15pm) as my real test was going to take place in August. I ran and did my core workout routine every single day, and went to the gym 3 times per week to do weight training. I spent about 4-6 hours a day, 6 times a week studying for the GMAT. Unfortunately, I did not get rid of my bad habit of staying up late and not having a day to day timetable. I should have slept more. I also did not read enough and did not eat healthy enough. However, I did complete the plan and got a 680 (49Q and 33V). I felt good about my score because I had completed a 3-month schedule probably the first time in my life and I was not defeated by the GMAT the first time in my life. However, I did expect to get a better score. It turned out that I messed up the Reading Comprehension. Here are my practice test results: 05/08/2015: Manhattan Prep #1 – 630 (4.5 Integrated Reasoning, 44 Quantitative, 33 Verbal) 06/01/2015: Manhattan Prep #2 – 620 (4.43IR, 41Q, 34V) 06/10/2015: Manhattan Prep #3 – 630 (2.4IR, 40Q, 36V) 06/17/2015: Manhattan Prep #4 – 650 (5.62IR, 44Q, 35V) 06/23/2015: Manhattan Prep #5 – 720 (3.87IR, 44Q, 45V) 06/29/2015: Manhattan Prep #6 – 650 (4.43IR, 43Q, 36V) 07/12/2015: GMATPrep #1 – 720 (8IR, 48Q, 41V) – Detailed scores: 47PS, 49DS, 44CR, 34RC, and 42SC (default exam pack) 07/20/2015: GMATPrep #2 – 690 (8IR, 47Q, 37V) – Detailed scores: 46PS, 48DS, 36CR, 35RC, and 40SC (exam pack 1) 07/28/2015: GMATPrep #3 – 710 (6IR, 49Q, 38V) – Detailed scores: 50PS, 47DS, 40CR, 51RC, and 32SC (exam pack 1) 08/04/2015: GMATPrep #4 – 680 (5IR, 47Q, 35V) – Detailed scores: 48PS, 46DS, 36CR, 31RC, and 39SC (default exam pack) Actual test: 08/11/2015: 680 (7IR, 49Q, 33V) – Detailed scores: 46PS, 50DS, 41CR, 19RC, 44SC The Manhattan tests mimic the verbal part of the real GMAT pretty well; however, the questions in the quantitative part involve time consuming calculations and are harder than in the real test. My #5 Manhattan verbal score was elevated because the question bank was running out of hard question. However, the Manhattan tests were good practice overall. The GMATPrep tests were very accurate to predict my actual score. However, I felt that my second test (the 1st in the exam pack 1) could have been better, but there were not hard enough questions since I made only a few mistakes overall. I ended up with my lowest GMATPrep practice score on the actual test. I did pretty well on the actual test, but somehow I really, really, really messed up the RC… 3. Let’s do this thing one more time. Fortunately, Magoosh had come out with a new 3-month study plan for advanced students in July, so I could continue my preparation with a new plan and quite many new questions, even tough, I already had answered most of the questions I answered during this final 3-month. This new study plan is also available at the Magoosh website, and it is for students who can already get to a high 600s score and want to get into the top 700s. This time I spent about 6-8 hours a day, 6 times a week studying for the GMAT. I decided to come up with a daily timetable to better organize my time. I scheduled my actual test to be at 9:00am because I felt that it was better to wake up early, run and do my core workout, study, have a lunch break, study some more, go to the weight room, and study some more before dinner. I woke up 6am and went to bed at 10pm almost every single day. Finally, I got enough sleep after so many years of neglecting it! I ate fruit and salad at least once almost every day. My breakfast was high in carbs and protein, same for my lunch, and I ate salad for dinner. I only ate out a couple times each month during the weekends. I still ran, worked out, and stretched every single day, and went to the weight room 3 times per week. This time I started my preparation on Monday (Last time I started on Wednesday because the actual test was on Tuesday, so to have exactly 13 weeks to prepare), even if my actual exam was going to be on Tuesday again, but I scheduled my practice exams for Saturday mornings at 9am (I also had some practice exams on Tuesdays because I added some extra to the Magoosh plan). I found it better to do most of the work during weekdays and take the exam during the weekend. I reviewed the exam on Saturdays and/or Sundays. I was never behind with my schedule! I also decided to do some extra practice tests since I had done all of the Manhattan and GMATPrep ones before. I chose Veritas practice test and I incorporated them into my Magoosh schedule. I was taking 2 tests per week for 4 weeks. I started with the Manhattan tests at the end of Week 5. This time I took one GMATPrep test about 1/3 into my preparation to see how I was progressing, then I finished the rest of the Manhattan tests, and took the last 3 remaining GMATPrep tests during my last 3 weeks of preparation. I took the last one on the last Saturday before my actual test. Even if this new Magoosh schedule is for students who could already score comfortably in the 600s, I do not think I could have used it without the older schedule that I completed before this one. This new schedule does not use the Manhattan 1-10 guides, which were essential for me to get familiar with every single GMAT concept following a 4 year break from GMAT, so you would have to be very good (almost at 700 level) in my opinion to get the maximum out of this plan. I did use the Manhattan guides for reviews during my last week of preparation. This plan also included the use of an LSAT prep book that included 10 retired LSAT tests. I can thank my awesome CR and RC scores for the CR and RC sections of the LSAT practice tests. They are a lot harder than GMAT CR and RC, so they made the real test feel like a breeze. I used the 2016 OG and Verbal and Quantitative guides, so I did have some new questions to answer. I did all of the Magoosh questions again. I also had two new mistake log notebooks. One of them was titled “Mist-Ache”.

I watched all of the Verbal Magoosh videos, but I did not have time to watch all of the quantitative videos. I used my old flashcards and made some new ones. I also purchased the extra 400 GMATPrep questions to get some extra practice, and did all of the 494 GMATPrep questions (94 questions are included with the two free CATs) on the software that you can download during 3 intensive weeks at the beginning of the second half of my preparation. This new Magoosh plan also tells you to read at least 30 minutes per day, so I read over an hour at least 5 times per week: Economist, Scientific American, National Geographic, and Time (Time was my pleasure reading, but the other three were very useful). I believe it also helped me with my weakness: RC. I practiced with the app, Elevate, again but this time I did it every day, focusing on the reading exercises. I paid for the Pro version ($6 per month if I remember well). It is a very cool app to train your brain and improve your reading, writing and math skills. However, the biggest change I made during my last preparation was in my mindset. Thanks to a book. When I was reading blog posts on the forums, I came across somebody who scored 800 on the GMAT and he has read the book titled The Power of Now. I did not finish reading the book, but I progressed far enough to change my perspective on life. I started being more present and stopped carrying the burden of my past and worrying about the future; therefore, I found happiness. I learned to silence my mind distracting me from my present tasks, to forgive myself and others, to accept the past, to really see the world around me, to stop trying to predict the future, and to be in a positive state of mind. The meditation practices really helped me to open my eyes to the world around me, and they also helped me to stay present during my preparation and the actual test. I also took better care of my body by going to the spa most Sundays to go to the Sauna (get rid of the toxins), to relax under the massage jets (release muscle tension), and to get better in staying in a 7 Celsius “warm”

tub (2 minutes stay became too easy after a few weeks, so I did water running for a minute instead

). Going from the hot water to the cold and back helps to improve the health of your cardiovascular system. Please, consult with your physician if you decide to do it because the sudden drop of temperature can be dangerous even if you are used to it! However, it is very popular in Finland to go to the sauna and then run to the icy lake to freshen up.

I have been recovering from an Achilles tendon injury, which happened at the very beginning of 2013. However, now I am able to run 40 miles per week and have been running daily for over 200 days!

I had my longest run in years late Sunday afternoon, two days before the test, and I ran 12 miles in less than 100 minutes. GMAT preparation is not just about sitting and studying! Being physically fit will lower your base heartrate, helping you to remain calm during certain situations. When I started my GMAT journey 6 years ago, both my Dad and my mentor, who was a father to me (I lived with his family during my stay in the US and he was also my academic adviser during my undergrad studies), were alive. My Dad passed away unexpectedly exactly 5 years ago, and my mentor died in a car crash 18 months ago. They did not live long enough to see me get my Master’s degree or achieve my GMAT goal. Therefore, this GMAT preparation was not only about mental, but also about physical and emotional preparation (Did you notice the idiom?

). The Power of Now helped me with the last one, exercising helped me with the middle one, and Magoosh helped me with the first one. I took every single one of the practice tests under real test like conditions (except an Economist GMAT exam, which was for an online competition as it did not include the IR and AWA). It is very important to have an exam routine! My exam routine: - 6am 30 minutes run (I never drink coffee, but running does the trick for me) - 7am protein rich breakfast (Fuel for your brain) - 8am dog walking (the test center was about 30-minute walk from my hotel, so I practiced for getting there too) -9am GMAT time: I drank a cup of water (approx. 0.25L, 1/4 of the content of my liter water bottle) before the exam, and before I began the AWA I did a short breathing routine to calm myself and silence my mind (I also did this when I noticed that I was losing focus between questions); during the first break I ate an organic protein bar with almonds and dark chocolate, drank a cup of water again, used the restroom (not just for the obvious, but also for doing jumping-jacks to get the blood flowing in my body), and did the breathing routine before I started the Quant; during the second break I ate 30 grams of raisins and drank the cup of water, did the same bathroom routine, and did the same breathing routine before the Verbal began. I was able to do the same routine at the actual tests. In August, I wore crocs, shorts and t-shirts; in November, I wore running shoes, shorts and t-shirts. I was prepared with training pants and a hoodie in my backpack, but I did not need them in the test center. I remember when I dressed up nicely for my 3rd GMAT exam 4 years ago. Don’t do it!!! Be as comfortable as possible!!! The day before yesterday, everybody else was dressed up nicely, but my goal was not to dress to impress… I also walked constantly during the breaks again to keep the blood flowing in my body. It might have seemed that I was very nervous.

That was not the case. My goal based on my practice tests was to get at least 740. I was expecting my Quant to be 50 or 51 (maybe 51 was too high of an expectation) and my Verbal to be between 40 and 45, inclusively. I got 750!!! First, I saw my Quant score: 48, and I was disappointed by it because it was lower than my quant at my previous test 3 months before and at any of my last 4 GMATPrep practice tests. However, the 44 verbal and 750 overall scores seemed like an excellent result. Still, I am a bit disappointed, but since I predicted that my score would have been 780 in the very best case, 750 is right on target (the GMAT has a 30-point margin of error) and I have no right to feel bad about my score. Here are my practice test results: 08/22/2015: VeritasPrep #1 – 650 (5IR, 46Q, 33V) 08/25/2015: VeritasPrep #2 – 620 (6IR, 43Q, 32V) 08/29/2015: VeritasPrep #3 – 680 (6IR, 47Q, 36V) 09/01/2015: VeritasPrep #4 – 650 (8IR, 45Q, 35V) 09/05/2015: VeritasPrep #5 – 680 (8IR, 47Q, 36V) 09/08/2015: VeritasPrep #6 – 690 (7IR, 50Q, 35V) 09/12/2015: VeritasPrep #7 – 650 (8IR, 46Q, 34V) 09/15/2015: GMATPrep #1 Retake – 750 (8IR, 50Q, 41V) – Detailed scores: 50PS, 50DS, 38CR, 42RC, 44SC. (default exam pack) 09/19/2015: Manhattan Prep #1 Retake – 680 (5.2IR, 46Q, 37V) 09/26/2015: Manhattan Prep #2 Retake – 690 (4.43IR, 46Q, 38V) 10/03/2015: Manhattan Prep #3 Retake – 690 (3.1IR, 46Q, 38V) 10/10/2015: Manhattan Prep #4 Retake – 740 (5.06IR, 47Q, 45V) 10/11/2015: Economist Brightest Mind MBA Scholarship Contest – 720 (No IR or AWA) 10/17/2015: Manhattan Prep #5 Retake – 720 (5.34IR, 47Q, 41V) 10/24/2015: Manhattan Prep #6 Retake – 740 (4.43IR, 47Q, 44V) 10/31/2015: GMATPrep #2 Retake – 760 (7IR, 50Q, 42V) – Detailed scores: 50PS, 51DS, 48CR, 38RC, 40SC (exam pack 1) 11/07/2015: GMATPrep #3 Retake – 750 (8IR, 50Q, 41V) – Detailed scores: 50PS, 50DS, 42CR, 41RC, 39SC (exam pack 1) 11/14/2015: GMATPrep #4 Retake – 750 (8IR, 50Q, 41V) – Detailed scores: 50PS, 50DS, 41CR, 35RC, 44SC (default exam pack) Actual test: 11/17/2015: 750 (7IR, 48Q, 44V) – Detailed scores: 48PS, 49DS, 44CR, 51RC, 46SC The Veritas practice tests were good for practice because I had to work with so many practice tests and questions that I had already done. However, I would not recommend for anybody to take 30 tests, including the two actual tests, in 6 months to prepare for the GMAT. However, the extra practice did help me with my timing at the actual tests. It was perfect. I took the other 10 tests again, but there were 3 months between my first and retakes, so I do not think that being familiar with the questions was the reason for the higher score during my last attempts. I remembered seeing some of the questions before, but I never remembered the solutions. However, it could be a problem if you retake them too soon. I recommend taking each test twice because you will see some new questions during your second attempt. The 1st CAT in the GMATPrep exam pack 1 had again a bit too easy questions because I had only 2 Quant and 5 Verbal mistakes, and still did not get a higher score. However, the GMATPrep Cats predicted very well my actual test result, again. All four types of tests that I took are different, and they serve different purposes. The Manhattan Prep tests are especially good for Quant because they are quite hard. The Veritas tests are good if you need some new questions and new tests to practice. The Economist test was good to win a scholarship (results in December

). The GMATPrep tests are good to predict your actual test scores and to practice with the real test algorithm. Overall, I did better than expected in Quant and worse than expected in Verbal 3 months ago. Now, I did worse than expected in Quant and at the top end of what I had expected in Verbal. I improved from 640 to 750 in 6 months. I studied about 1000 hours, spent about $1500 for GMAT preparation (material, test fees, travel expense to get to the test, and hotel expenses), and I answered about 10000 questions. I wanted to do everything I could, so that I would have no regrets after the test. However, 6 months is a very long time, and it is not for everyone. Was it overkill? I do not think so. I enjoyed what I was doing and how I was transforming my life, so time flew by very fast. I had only 5 days off between my 4th GMAT exam and starting my last preparation, but it was enough for me. It worked for me and I hope that you can get something out of my experience that will help you with your journey. Don’t give up! I failed several times in my life, but most of the time my failure was not only my fault. The first 3 times I studied for GMAT, I was preparing to fail because I did not study the right way. Now, I did what was right for me and what was necessary to get a top score. If you failed before, there is a chance that you did not have the right approach to begin with. Don’t regard GMAT as your enemy! That is how I approached it for 4 out 5 times. I wanted to beat it, but I was beating myself. I thought that it was just a stupid test and a way to get into business school. This time, I realized that the concepts behind GMAT are actually very useful not just in business school but also in life (idiom again

). GMAT became my teammate, and instead of counting the days till the exam and waiting to be over with it once and for all, I enjoyed what I was doing. I beat my old self, not GMAT. I think I could have done a little bit better, but it is very rare that somebody has a perfect GMAT experience (even an 800 with 6AWA and 8IR can have some mistakes

). I was even thinking about retaking the exam in December because of my “low” Quant score, – I know, how stupid is that??? – but I would not improve my score by more than 30 points with my current knowledge. Maybe, in the distant future, I will go for a perfect score just for fun, but I achieved my goal and I am happy with my score. Now, I need some work experience because I do not think what I have is enough for Stanford.

I hope this debrief was helpful by providing detailed information about my 6-year GMAT journey, even if this text is almost as long as my preparation was!

If you have any question, please let me know! Cheers, Andras Update: my score is official and my AWA is 6.0.

michaelyb · Answer

AndrasP

Congratulation on the great score! Could you give some advice towards RC? Is there a specific approach you used, such as skimming?
Besides, how would you approach the CR within RC, for instance when it´s a weaken/strengthen question from a passage?

Thank you and congratulations again!

AndrasP · Answer

Dear michaelyb

Thank you for the kind words!

RC was a tricky one for me. It was probably the trickiest of all. I cannot say that I saw many CR type RC questions, other than INFERENCE ones. This type shows up very often when you face harder questions. With this question type, the most common mistakes I made were "one word off", "opposite answer", or "answer choice already stated in the passage". Every single word matters in the answer choices because one word difference can make or brake you. It also important to pay attention to the question because sometimes I answered the opposite of what was asked. Also, if the answer choice is already stated almost word to word in the passage, that is not the correct answer.

My RC strategy was to read the text carefully within 2-3 minutes, then read the questions stem, locate the information source in the text, come up with an approximate answer in my head, and finally eliminate the wrong answers. I did not use skimming. I read the the text as I would read something for pleasure. I was interested in what I was reading and excited to learn something new about a familiar or unfamiliar topic. At first, being interested in native Americans' water rights was not automatic for me, but I found a positive attitude toward RC and it helped me a lot.

I did practice skimming and speed-reading with Elevate (an app). The LSAT reading part helped me a lot as well because it has very long passages with many questions and not much time. I was at about 80% accuracy with LSAT (both RC and CR), so I was confident that I could deal with the GMAT better than during my previous test. I also heard that I should practice active reading while reading the Economist or other magazines, and I also focused on the tone of the author and the roles of the paragraphs. However, the tone is usually very neutral with Economist.

I hope you find my answer helpful!

I wish you the best for your GMAT journey!

Cheers,
Andras

I hope you find my answer helpful! I wish you the best for your GMAT journey! Cheers, Andras

michaelyb · Answer

AndrasP Thank you so much for your time and consideration! It´s actually impressive to hear you say it was the trickiest part for you, yet you were able to pull a 51 on the ESR.

Good luck on your applications!

AndrasP · Answer

michaelyb Well, I did get a 19 for RC 3 months ago according to the ESR.

Now, I had a good "verbal" day, but getting all of the RC questions right is very rare and not necessary for an excellent verbal score. I forgot to mention that I have not been writing down much during RC since my previous GMAT exam. I used to write down quite a lot, but I found it to be a distraction. The LSAT RC has 4 longer than long passages with 7 questions each and the time limit is 35 minutes, so I stopped taking notes. During GMATprep practice tests and the actual test, I only took notes when there was something complicated (logical relationship between two passages or some causation).

Nadiuska · Answer

Love it!!!

Thank you for sharing. This encourages me to keep going. I've been in this forney since February 2015 and still not there yet, but will get there.

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Every set-back, is a set-up, for a comeback. It's great to see that all your hard work and determination paid off in the end. Wish you all the best on your future endeavors!

sairam595 · Answer

Congracts Andras...

AndrasP · Answer

I am glad my post was helpful for you Nadiuska ! Keep up the good work and you will get there!

Thank you GMATPILLBILL for your nice words! Thank you smartguy595 !

Kingluis · Answer

AndrasP, thanks for your inspiring post. As I embarked on my fifth attempt, I'll try to take what applies to me.

AndrasP · Answer

Kingluis

I am glad I could help!

Good luck on your exam!!!!!

LatTinSF · Answer

Andras congratulations! Can you please tell me how you incorporated the 1-10 Manhattan guides books in your Magoosh schedule? I am going to start studying for the GMAT again using Magoosh and wan to make sure I have the correct studying schedule. Thank you for taking the time to share your journey and for motivating me to continue on this long journey. Will appreciate your response.

Once again,

Thank you,

Mirna

Once again,

Thank you,

Mirna

AndrasP · Answer

LatTinSF

Thank you Mirna for your kind words!!! I am happy that my story has helped you to keep going!

The Manhattan guides were essential for me as I studied "0" for the GMAT between October, 2011 and May, 2015. My knowledge was a bit rusty, but these guides helped me to build a foundation for my GMAT prep. When I started preparing for the GMAT again this year, I was probably at the low or mid 600s. The old 3-month Magoosh plan was perfect for me because it included the Manhattan guides. So if you are at about that level, I would recommend that you use that plan instead of the newer one. I felt that the old plan included more concepts and less practice than the new one. The old plan also took probably about 50% less time per day for me than the new one. If you lack the concepts (or just studied them a while ago and a bit unsure about them) and do not have much time to study, use the old plan.

The new 3-month plan assumes that you already know and comfortable applying what is included in the Manhattan guides. In my opinion, you already have to be scoring in the high 600s to get the most out of this plan. This plan does not include the Manhattan guides. I only reviewed the guides during the last week of my GMAT prep because I already went through them during my first 3 months of study. This new plan has hard core LSAT practices for CR and RC, and it also includes the Manhattan Advanced Quant book, which is a great resource to get a high Quant score. That is the reason why I included it even in my old 3-month Magoosh plan.

You have to figure out where you stand. Take a GMATprep practice test. If you get a score close to 700 and you did not guess on many questions, go with the new plan. You can still use the Manhattan guides by following how the old plan includes them (how they are divided among the days), and go through them at the beginning of the new 3-month plan or even before you start the new 3-month plan (max two weeks should be enough if you do not do any other GMAT prep). Also, review them during the last week of the plan to refresh the concepts before the exam.

If your recent practice score is closer to 600 than 700, go with the old plan. In this case, the guides are already included in the plan.

If you make a mistake on the actual GMAT and you do not get the score you want (as I did...), you will have a chance to improve by going through the new plan. If you start with the new plan, you won't have that chance because the old plan prepares you for a lower level. Of course, it is the worst case scenario.

I hope my answer helps!

If you have any more question, please let me know!

Best,
Andras

If you make a mistake on the actual GMAT and you do not get the score you want (as I did...), you will have a chance to improve by going through the new plan. If you start with the new plan, you won't have that chance because the old plan prepares you for a lower level. Of course, it is the worst case scenario.

I hope my answer helps! If you have any more question, please let me know! Best, Andras

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