I decided to take the GMAT in late October 2013 with the aim of taking it on January 31st. I signed up for Kaplan On Demand given my upcoming work schedule and the holidays I took my first diagnostic the first week of November and got a 480. I was shocked and honestly pretty discouraged. But after talking to friends and they all assured me they were in a similar boat when they first started. The first go around I just watched the lessons did the practice questions, rinsed and repeated. I think I completed every module and supplementary module possible. After a few weeks of studying I took my first practice test and improved to a 580, pretty encouraged I kept on the same path. Next practice test got a 600. Then studied more, did more practice tests and was consistently getting in the 640 range. In talking to my friends they had all mentioned they were in a similar situation and ended up faring much better on the actual test. So by test day...Feb 6th, I went in and took the test. It was like an out of body experience, I could feel myself losing concentration and it was not a good experience - which was definitely reflected in my score....620. The first thing I did when I got one was sign up to take it again....March 10th. From the actual exam, I knew exactly what I had to do. I took the weekend off (plus a few more days), did a little research and stumbled upon GMAT pill. I was weary of spending an additional $400 on course materials, but I figured it's worth a try....Kaplan seemed to be lacking some things I needed and GMAT pill had a money back gaurantee, so I signed up. I knew I didn't need to study that much more, so over the next 3 weeks of so I really focused on areas I need to improve on (Quant - number properties, algebra; Verbal - sentence correction and reading comprehension). I did the required studying, took some practice tests - honestly my scores didn't change much from before. On test, I knew what to expect....went through the first 2 sections feeling good, got to quant it didn't go terribly, finally seemed to breeze through verbal. When I got my score, I was in SHOCK.....wow....it really did pay off. I think my biggest piece of advice is believe in yourself, it's a test that can be mastered by anyone with practicing in the right way. If I was being honest, I wouldve been okay with anything over 650...I didn't think 700 was achievable, but it is...just find the course that works for you.