Hey there, fellow GMAT test-takers!
Welcome to my GMAT debrief—think of it as a rant with some potentially useful info, meant for a good laugh while procrastinating on your own prep .
Exam Experience: The Good, the Bad, and the NoisyTest centre: I like to learn with a construction-grade headset to block out noise. The joke was on me—the test center was bustling like a bazaar in Istanbul. Pro tip: Bring a hoodie with a hood (if they let you). It’s like your own little fort of focus.
Fuel Up: Hydration is key, but not just water. I brought Powerade (no sugar) and dark chocolate. No crashes, just energy. Trust me, your brain will thank you.
The Pen Fiasco: Here’s where it gets funny. I thought we’d get sleek laminated tabs without squares. Nope! Pearson VUE gave me ones with squares—perfect for ticking A through E in verbal. But the pens? They barely wrote at all. I had to beg for new ones during the break. Thank the GMAT gods it happened during verbal, not DI or Quant, where you actually need to scribble.
Anxiety & Flow: The first few minutes were rough. I couldn’t chug water to calm down like I usually do (thanks, test rules). I got through it, though. During DI and Quant, I focused so intensely I forgot I was even in an exam. It felt like I was back at home crushing it.
Score Shocker: I expected a solid 695. I got 755. big man ting (read in jamaican accent)
Philosophy on GMAT: Learn the Test, Not Just the SubjectsGMAT isn’t just about being smart or good at math and verbal. It’s about learning how to take the test. No test perfectly measures your actual skills—it’s a game with its own rules. For me, mastering those rules—section order, break timing, question-skipping strategies, test pattern recognition—was key to my score. I fundamentally believe the GMAT is a very specific type of exam, but it’s not something you can’t learn by doing. Although there might be some truth that your intelligence influences your score (especially for verbal, since the Quant section is more about learned formulas), it’s definitely not an IQ test. What worked best for me was learning the TEST, not just the subjects. Yes, learning how to be mentally and physically ready, when to skip questions, different strategies for tackling sections first or last, when to take breaks, etc., ultimately made up half of my path to my score. That may vary for you, depending on your weaknesses with the exam content.
So, don’t think of the GMAT as an IQ test or some unbeatable monster. It’s a puzzle you can solve with practice and strategy.
Prep Materials and Techniques: Not All Prep Is Created Equal
Critical Reasoning (CR)
PowerScore: Solid for basics (inference, assumption, premise, conclusion). But it’s overkill for what CR really is—just reading and understanding what’s being said. I definitely felt more comfortable with the verbal section afterward, but it’s nothing groundbreaking that would make you score 85+ out of the blue. Looking back, it’s way too formalized for what CR is actually about.
FoxLSAT’s Logical Reasoning: Game-changer. I stumbled upon it thanks to moderators referencing it as solutions to some LSAT LR questions. Highly recommend if you want to feel more comfortable. What often doesn’t get mentioned enough is the consistency of sources you base your learning on. Sure, you might read an explanation by GMATNinja one time, then a
TTP instructor’s explanation another—everyone has different takes, and you’ll end up with a mishmash in your head about how to approach these questions consistently. Since Mr. Fox explains his reasoning (very humorously) for every question, you quickly get the gist of how to think effectively.
Reading Comprehension (RC)
No time for another book on “how to read” (lol). Instead, I watched three GMATNinja 1-hour videos on 2x speed, and that’s what you need to do. Then I went through a LOT of LSAT questions. In total, I think my RC question count was around 800–1,000—recommend 10/10. The learning curve is steep, but you’ll feel immense satisfaction once you start hitting 90% accuracy.
Quant
TTP (
Target Test Prep): Best thing ever. At least try their 5-day trial, and you’ll see. Don’t read it too thoroughly; just grasp the main concepts and jump straight into the chapter tests—they’ll teach you so much in such a short time, and you’ll see direct applicability in the actual GMAT. For me, the game-changers were rate and group matrices. Basically, they operationalize mathematical concepts you might already understand but give you simple ways to use techniques efficiently. Because, in reality, you might be great at math through intuition but will still make careless mistakes, especially if you take Quant as the last section under exam stress.
Data Insights (DI)
TTP was good, but not as good as GMAT Official Guide (OG) questions—just do them last after RC, CR, and Quant, and you should be fine. Don’t expect high accuracy; the exams are, in my opinion, a bit intense. This was especially true for me because I couldn’t focus in the last week of training for the GMAT—due to exhaustion and because it was very boring.
General Advice
DO THE MOCK EXAMS. Do every mock exam you can get your hands on. It’s not just about knowledge but also about getting familiar with applying it in the exam itself. Verbal sections from non-official sources aren’t reliable— imo don’t trust them, skip them entirely. For Quant and Data, it’s similar content, maybe phrased differently—guess what? It doesn’t matter. Of course, the official GMAT mocks are the best; buy them, please. Also, don’t make the mistake I see others make by only doing 6 and calling it done. That’s wasting 10 mocks right there. Here’s why—if you don’t look at the solutions, you won’t know which questions you got wrong. So, you won’t internalize them as mistakes to watch out for later. Don’t check solutions until you’ve finished all mocks from official prep. If you do it this way, the mocks will still accurately measure your performance. The GMAT PREP are very accurate score-wise. Nothing will be exactly like the exam—the exam includes some tricky questions, so you’ll make mistakes you wouldn’t in mocks—but the scoring accounts for that. I did 11 official mock exams, plus one from
Experts Global and one from GMAT Club. If you’re itching to buy something, get mock exams. Do as many as possible to assess your performance, find your rhythm, etc. The last thing you want is to waste time on verbal questions you won’t solve, lose minutes for the ones you might, and end up with 2 minutes left for 3 questions. Same for Quant and DI. IT’S A HUGE PART OF THE PREP.
For God’s sake, give yourself plenty of time to prepare. I did it in 1.5 months, spending an average of 6 hours a day—totaling 270 hours. I’d recommend at least 250+ hours of work before you book the exam.
Mock Score Progression
| Mock # | Date | Total Score | D Score (Wrong, Unanswered) | Q Score (Wrong, Unanswered) | V Score (Wrong, Unanswered) |
|---|
| Mock 1 | 2/2 | 555 | 86 (2, 0) | 73 (0, 4) | 74 (4, 3) |
| Mock 2 | 2/16 | 665 | 84 (3, 0) | 87 (1, 0) | 78 (3, 2) |
| Mock 3 | 2/16 | 655 | 77 (5, 1) | 88 (1, 0) | 82 (2, 1) |
| Mock 4 | 3/4 | 725 | 84 (2, 0) | 88 (1, 0) | 86 (5, 0) |
| Mock 5 | 3/6 | 725 | 88 (1, 0) | 87 (1, 0) | 83 (6, 0) |
| Mock 6 | 3/7 | 715 | 86 (2, 0) | 86 (2, 0) | 85 (3, 0) |
| Retake Mock 1 | 3/10 | 755 | 87 (1, 0) | 90 (0, 0) | 85 (2, 0) |
| Retake Mock 2 | 3/12 | 755 | 90 (0, 0) | 87 (1, 0) | 85 (2, 0) |
| Retake Mock 3 | 3/13 | 715 | 84 (5, 0) | 90 (0, 0) | 83 (6, 0) |
| Retake Mock 4 | 3/13 | 695 | 84 (5, 0) | 90 (0, 0) | 80 (8, 0) |
| Retake Mock 5 | 3/14 | 735 | 81 (5, 0) | 90 (0, 0) | 89 (1, 0) |
My Sections:
Quant: 88
Verbal: 87
Data: 88
Thanks to the mods and creators for keeping our lives easier. Much love <3
Special thanks to:
bb for this forum,
Bunuel for Quant questions,
Sajjad1994 for LSAT RC questions <3,
GMATNinja for your magic videos and guidance!
Lastly, study harder before you study smarter.
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