5 GMAT attempts: From 590 on classic to 655 on GMAT FOCUS

Question

Note: This is a report of my exam prep experience which may be useful to some people. It is broken into three key parts:

In-depth review of my full experience
Useful suggestions/reflections
Reviews of some sources that I used

The most useful part of the report is perhaps the end of my in-depth journey and part 2 on reflection, so if you are looking to skip my experience and jump straight to key lessons, feel free to go straight to it.

And if you feel like you may be in a similar situation as I have been, feel free to send me a message and I will do my best to help.

Hello everyone,

Just finished 8 months of grueling GMAT experience, so I wanted to share my journey as I faced many obstacles and perhaps some could find it encouraging.

Some background: I have recently finished a degree in finance at a leading EU university and have generally been pretty good at academics. Even though I struggled with the SAT during high school, I was very confident that the GMAT would be a relatively easy step in the Master's application process, especially since I received some advice from my mates and thought that my learning/academic skills were quite strong.

I could not have been more wrong, and this GMAT experience was perhaps one of the worst 8-month spans I have ever experienced. I started in August 2023 and finished my final attempt in April 2024. I took the exam the maximum 5 times and finished with a score of 655 on the FOCUS EDITION (710 classic equivalent).

My journey thankfully ended on a positive note, so I wanted to write a brief recap and hopefully help/encourage some people who are struggling with the exam.

1. In-depth journey/preparation overview:
I started my GMAT prep in August 2023. After speaking with a few friends who scored 700+, they made the exam seem manageable with a correct approach. Following their advice, I signed up with TTP to familiarize myself with the exam and work on the quant section; I also bought the OG guides and practice exams to supplement my prep. During August, I mostly spent time on TTP, which was an excellent intro to the exam, and I learned tons of useful quantitative skills.

In September, I started my work and put down the GMAT prep to focus entirely on the demanding job. Around the end of October, I restarted GMAT prep during my work aiming to take the test in December. For more details on this period feel free to read my earlier post here (https://gmatclub.com/forum/2-failed-gma ... l#p3320880). In summary, I focused entirely on practice and did not obsess about the exam. I was running through the OG guides and practice exams mostly over the weekend and did not truly diligently approach the prep process as my practice exams reflected an excellent score.

I took my first exam in December and received a 600 on the classic version of the GMAT. Thinking that the test experience was a fluke (as I did the exam at home with tons of noise distractions and pretty much no sleep due to test anxiety), I signed up with another GMAT to be taken in 5 days. After further squeezing what little energy I had left, I did the exam again and received a 590. I was completely devastated and exhausted from both GMAT and my internship.

This was a truly sobering moment that made me realize how serious GMAT is, how poor my preparation was, and what it takes to do better on the exam. At this stage, I was devastated but still had some confidence and positivity as I delved into my mistakes. (again, please refer to my previous post for core takeaways from this time.) These poor (in my view) attempts led to GMAT Club, and GMAT Ninja Videos, which made me completely rethink the GMAT. It was new work that I initially did not want to step into as I had 0 desire to make GMAT a longer part of my life. However, having watched some excellent videos, read some good posts on the forum, I gathered my strength and took on another preparation attempt.

I signed up for the exam at the end of January, which was the last time I could do the GMAT classic edition. Keep in mind at this stage, I have already missed several application deadlines and was under heavy pressure to write essays for uni applications, work and prep for the GMAT. All of this made it a difficult period. Moreover, I took a week and a half off work right before the test date to focus exclusively on the prep.

At this stage, I started working with a tutor and in the meantime worked through TTP quant and OG for verbal. I was feeling pretty good at the end of the prep period and was looking forward to finishing my GMAT journey. Looking back, during this stage I had a much better preparation, focusing on the GMAT peculiarities and how to score high. Practice exams were also going pretty well, and I was overall working a lot by dedicating all my time before/after/during work and weekends to prep for this attempt. As the test day got closer, I was studying until the very end and unfortunately also could not sleep the night before. The test went poorly as I scored 640 with a horrible quant score.

This was an all-time low. I lost my self-esteem and confidence. Many people experience these daunting emotions during the GMAT prep as you can read about on this forum. But you start to question everything! You question your mental ability, every single achievement that you have, your academic credentials, your mental state - everything. Somehow, this 3-hour exam puts a massive cross on everything you have leading up to this point. Or at least that is how it seems. In short, I was very disappointed as I knew I was better than how I did. In fact, I have done better with no prep at all. At this stage, the exam was in my head. Moreover, I had issues during the exam as there was literally construction at the testing center. GMAC did not do anything about this either, and it was at this stage I started to learn how much of a terrible organization GMAC is.

At this stage, I decided to move on with my applications and submit the current score, knowing that this pretty much cancels my graduate education dreams. However, confidence started to creep back as I began to convince myself again that something did indeed go wrong and that I could do significantly better and still rescue my applications. This time, I had to restart my preparation for the GMAT FOCUS.

At this stage, my preparation was almost at its peak. I decided to focus almost entirely on quant (since I felt that my verbal skills were pretty good), and I had a better idea of which sources were worth it. I went back to the OG practice problems focusing on the upper (700 level) questions and went through the guides in the GMAT club from Banuel and KarishmaB. I really felt that after already almost 6 months of prep, my skills were coming together. I did not take time off work, but for a solid month, I was diligently practicing and practicing questions and learning new ways to approach GMAT questions. At this stage, I was doing practice exams pretty much 3 times per week and truly wanted to get as much done as possible. I did not focus as much on the data part of the GMAT Focus, hoping that these skills would come through quant and verbal prep. In summary, I went through most of Banuel’s Ultimate Quant Guide, did north of 8 practice exams and pretty much did all the OG quant questions. My practice exams were not going very well as I struggled to keep them consistent and my highest score was only 635. Moreover, I was very tired as I balanced this with the active and tiering tasks of writing an application essay. I also remember not having lots of confidence to score well.

Looking to optimize everything, I did the exam at the quiet apartment of my friend. The night before, I also could not sleep due to very high anxiety. I knew that this pretty much was the last time I could take the test and still make it useful for applications. The actual exam went horribly! I pretty much failed it.

This time, there was nothing left for me to even be upset about, but this further deteriorated me as a person. I knew that I could do better, and I made crucial errors on the test such as leaving questions unanswered on 2 sections.

Most importantly, this attempt showcased how horrible GMAC is. During the first few questions on the quant section of the exam, I got a super easy-level question! I quickly solved it, but the correct answer was nowhere to be found. I spent the next 3 minutes to figure it out and then just moved on. After the exam, I sent them an email and they admitted that THERE WAS NO CORRECT OPTION AS ONE OF THE ANSERS. I knew that because it was such a simple question. GMAC ADMITTED THAT THE OFFICIAL GMAT FOCUS HAD A QUESTION WITHOUT A CORRECT ANSWER AND DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT. THEY BASICALLY GHOSTED ME AS I TRIED TO ARGUE FOR A SCORE CHANGE, CANCELLATION OR REIMBURSEMENT. This really makes me hate the exam and upset with myself for still doing so poorly. This seemed to be the end of my GMAT journey as I and most people around me pretty much told me to finish. I truly felt horrible about myself, my applications and all the money that was spent on the GMAT prep, the official exam, and tutors. I was angry at GMAC for being a fraud of a company and at the universities that put so much emphasis on this wicked exam. I was sad that I wasted 7 months of my life and was at square 1 at the end of it with no master's admission in sight. And imagine how tired I have been at this stage. Moreover, I extended my internship so I was still working this whole time.

HOWEVER, I met with a friend of mine over dinner and he mentioned his similarly poor SAT experience. He suggested completely forgetting about the exam for some time, picking it up later and giving it another shot. I listened to his advice and took a full 3-4 weeks GMAT break to focus on work and applications. During this time, I gathered some motivation to spend another 350 dollars on the GMAT exam. This was a last-ditch effort.

After 4 GMAT-free weeks (I did not do any practice, did not think about it, absolutely nothing), I decided to take 1 week off work, and dedicate solely 1 week to just GMAT. ONLY 1 WEEK OF GMAT PREP AND THAT WOULD BE IT. This week would turn out to be the best time I have ever spent on GMAT prep. In only 7 days, I seemingly harnessed everything that I had been working on, implemented new strategies that I previously overlooked, and attained a new level of mastery. Here is what I did:

The first step was to dive back into the test (I thought that I had already forgotten many things about the exam but I was completely wrong). I did some OG practice questions and took the GMAT Focus official mock on day 2 to get a baseline score. (I got a 595 which was disappointing but completely fine considering this was a cold attempt.)
For the next 5 days, I focused exclusively on quant (as realistically this is by far the most important section for business schools and I was pretty comfortable with verbal). During these 5 days, I generally used the streaks method (find it on Reddit or Gmat club) where I selected a quant topic and broke down questions into 3 difficulties (easy, medium, and hard). I would do questions until I got 10 questions correct in a row. To do these practice sets, I signed up for the GMAT Club Quiz and selected all official and popular sources (GMAT Club questions, Manhattan Prep, Veritas Prep).
- I did this to familiarize myself again with types of quant questions and topics, while also working to get several questions correct in a row (essential for GMAT)
- I put tremendous emphasis on easy and medium-level questions (you have no excuses to get these wrong on the actual exam as it will ruin your score
- Like never before, I ran an in-depth analysis on the wrong question. I created a 3 step model
  - Step 1: Identify the type of error (ex: silly, calculation, lack of knowledge)
  - Step 2: Write about how you mechanically made this error (ex: My work was terribly messy and I lost myself in the calculations and did not pay attention to what the final answer should have been
  - Step 3: Identify how you will do better/fix the error (Ex: Going forward, I will keep my work extremely organized and when reading the questions, I will make a note and put a start near what answer I am trying to get (ex: speed in km per second)
On day 6, I took another mock and scored a 635, which was not great but an improvement.
On day 7, I did some very limited quant and verbal practice from 10 am to 5 pm. (with lunch break and other breaks in between). And then started to wind down around 8 pm after a workout
Every single day for the 7 days, I would start working on GMAT at 10 am and finish around 7 pm.
Every single day, I would get a workout in after the day of prep. (running on some days and workout on others)
I would listen to test affirmations during workouts and before sleeping and do some limited meditation
I wrote down in a journal why the GMAT exam does not matter, why I will be completely fine if I fail it again, why it does not affect who I am, and why it has no effect on my achievements
For Verbal, I did just 10 CR questions 3 out of the 7 days

So overall, I did some good, targeted prep, maintained a healthy lifestyle and a good mental space. The night before the test, I unfortunately still could not sleep (in fact at 3 am I went to gmat website to try to reschedule the exam but couldn’t as it was already less than 24 hours before the exam) The test started horribly as I got the first question on the quant section (first section in my order) wrong. But I shook it off and changed it at the end. After finishing the exam, I was very happy to see a 655 on the screen.

At the end of the day, as happy as I am with the final result and perseverance through so many obstacles to take the exam 5 times, I am not sure how I feel about this time. It was filled with personal shortcomings, at times mismanaged preparation, and at times extremely unfair aspects that I could not control.

In conclusion, I have learned a ton from this experience and am very happy about the score. However, I still feel that the GMAT exam is terribly far from being a good exam and some change needs to happen to how schools view this poor exam. I could have stopped after my 4th attempt or even done poorly again during this 5th try, which all shows that GMAT should not be so critical in the application process.

2. Final thoughts/Suggestions:
These are just some final thoughts in no particular order. I suggest you read them to learn something from my experience with the GMAT and potentially use some suggestions.

If I had to do the exam again, I would try to find a time when GMAT is my sole focus for at least 1 - 2 months. Focusing on the exam during work or intense uni is doable but much more difficult
Please learn from other people's mistakes. I underestimated the exam and wish that I had discovered the GMAT Club earlier to learn more about the correct way to handle the exam
GMAC is a horrible company with no customer service. I would say they scam people considering how important this exam is. I literally had a question with no correct answer on my exam and did absolutely nothing about it
Doing well on the GMAT is to an extent an arbitrary process. I would say that depending on luck you could land in the 640 - 720 with no real difference in skills
RULES YOU MUST NEVER BREAK
- never leave a question unanswered
- No question is worth more than 2-3 minutes and I would only spend 3+ minutes on the question if I knew I was doing ok on time and I was very close to the correct answer
Quant section is more important than verbal for most business schools
For Verbal, I managed to consistently do pretty well and score 98th percentile because of a systemic approach and almost a flow state. Here is how I did it.
- For CR: Read the question first to identify the type. Read the stem TWICE. Think for a bit and answer the question, then go on. After you get decent at these, I really think this approach was everything for me. It simply allows you to maintain a good speed, get in the zone and do well on the section. For RC, I read the passage. And then simply work through the questions with the help of the passage - no special strategies just have to be ok in reading. FYI, I would say that my English is pretty good and I read sometimes.
Please focus on easy and medium-quant questions until you get them perfect. I cannot stress this enough!!!! Advanced questions may get you from the 90th to the 99th percentile but it is easy and mid questions will get you to the 90th percentile
Silly errors are often the biggest issue, so use the streaks method (https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-practic ... 56936.html) to get rid of them
GMAT prep does not need to cost lots of money!!! I cannot stress enough that the best resources are available on GMAT Club FREE OF CHARGE. Think Banuel Guides, GMAT Ninja Videos, GMAT testimonials, KarishmaB posts, etc
Yerbamate’s notes are comprehensive and excellent, but I only used them at the very end of my prep once I was comfortable with most aspects of the exam (https://gmatclub.com/forum/yerbamate202 ... 27623.html)
GMAT private tutors in my experience have been pretty much useless and work best if you are scoring very poorly. The thing is that if you already have basic math skills, a tutor can only really work on practice problems with you and you already have GMAT club which offers the best solution to any problem. So I think you can save your money here
OG materials and official practice tests are ESSENTIAL but I WOULD SAY THAT THEY ARE NOT ENOUGH. Especially for the Quent section, I would really recommend Manhattan prep because their problems are so damm difficult sometimes. And if you can do them well, you really should be able to do well on the actual GMAT
PLEASE PLEASE REMEMBER THAT IT MAY SEEM THAT GMAT IS IMPORTANT AND YOU MAY HAVE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS WHEN YOU FAIL, BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS JUST ONE FLAWED EXAM. IT DOES NOT DETERMINE YOUR VERBAL OR QUANT ABILITY, IT DOES NOT REFLECT YOUR ACADEMIC SKILLS, IT DOES NOT REFLECT YOUR PERSONAL CHARACTER, IT DOES NOT REFLECT YOUR FIT FOR GRADUATE EDUCATION.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR GMAT SCORE!!! PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN DOING THIS EXAM
GMAC is a pretty horrible company. They must do a better job of making things right, taking better control of the conditions at the testing centers and providing good customer service. It is a joke that this type of company is responsible for a test that matters so much in admissions. Simply because of this, we can degrade how important this test is
I think to do well on this exam you must be well-rested and healthy mentally. So I suggest doing sports, taking up meditation, spending time outside and in the sun, maybe listening to affirmations and doing other good things during your prep. GMAT requires great pattern recognition, attention and logical abilities which all require a sharp mind
GMAT Prep is actually a pretty cool experience if you get rid of the severe downsides. GMAT prep is almost like being in a boxing or MMA fight camp, and you can truly learn some really cool things, especially about quant topics and generally improve your mental abilities.
Some thoughts/quotes that kept me motivated:
- How you do everything is how you do anything: Think of this when doing your prep. Always try to stimulate a real exam environment and be extremely diligent on every question (both correct and wrong ones)
- Most people give up right before achieving success: something to keep you going and my example could be evidence of this
Try to read every quant question twice to see if you missed anything the first time
Double-check your answer with logic
if a question is way over your head, let it go. Especially for quant, getting a 700+ lvl question will not hurt you that much
Please take your time to understand how the GMAT algorithm works and work with it and not against it
If you see a hard question, tell yourself “This is GMAT, every single question can be solved I just relatively easily, I just need to find the way.” Take a step back and think again
For DS and PS quant qs, I would often write exactly what I need to find and in what units and put a star near it to always remember what the final answer should be (this is a trick that some questions utilize)
For DS, extract as much info from the stem as possible by literally writing things that can be implied from the question and start with the easier statement when evaluating choices (of could follow the basic DS strategy as well)
Keep an error tracker and often review your errors, do the Qs again
Utilize the GMAT club and the sources/functionalities it has to offer

Reviews:
TTP
Pros:

An excellent source that has worked for many people but not so much for me
The easiest way to get into GMAT prep is they perfectly outline everything in a simple and clear manner
Great and responsive support team

Cons:

Takes a long time to finish (although this is not a massive disadvantage)
The biggest issue for me was that the questions lacked some similarities to the actual GMAT. I found TTP’s question to be a bit more straightforward which is likely designed to get you to directly practice the relevant topics. Don't get me wrong, TTP has hard questions, I just think it is a different type of difficulty.

Conclusion:

This source is recommended by many, and I think that this is a great starting point and could certainly be the sole source for your prep. For recommendation is to perhaps start with TTP and once you have a decent grasp on most concepts, I would implement other sources

OG questions
Pros:

Essential for prep no question about it

Cons:

Especially for quant, it is simply not enough. I have no idea how people who only use OG score well on GMAT.

Conclusion:

Definitely get the OG questions, but use other sources.

Manhattan Prep/Kaplan

I only purchased the classic GMAT CATs and did questions on the GMAT Club

Pros:

An excellent source to practice difficult GMAT questions and I found them to mirror very well the type of difficulty of the actual GMAT

Conclusion:

Certainly recommend and perhaps I would check out their prep books if I did the prep all over again

GMAT Club Quiz Subscription
Pros:

Pretty inexpensive way to get access to hundreds of GMAT questions from different sources
Excellent interface and functionalities

Cons:

You could technically get all of those questions for free, but I think the price is worth the organized

Conclusion:

recommend once you are at a mature stage of prep focus on particular topics and generally get lots of practice

GMAT695 · Answer

Congratulations!! Peristence pays off, and you've proved it. All the best!!

ashutosh_73 · Answer

One hell of a journey  And122  Amazing! Congratulations. 
How many wrongs did you get in the individual sections?

And122 · Answer

Thanks a lot, and here is the mistakes breakdown of the 655 attempt:

Quant: 3
Verbal: 4
DI: 8

Henry14 · Answer

What an achievement, truly inspirational

jack5397 · Answer

Congratulations  And122  on the amazing score. Your experience shows great commitment and hard work. This debrief will be a motivation for many students.

Thanks for sharing.

harshhtag · Answer

Congratulations bro on your wonderful journey. All the best for your applications.

	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

5 GMAT attempts: From 590 on classic to 655 on GMAT FOCUS

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards