Hi everyone! I wanted to share my GMAT journey over the past couple of months. I started my prep in late June and took the exam in late August. During these two months I was not in school or working, so I spent around 40 hours per week studying. I chose to use
Target Test Prep to help structure my time and make sure that I was fully prepared by test day. My TTP analytics say that I spent 265 hours on the course (I did the entire self-study course for 685+), and I spent a lot of additional time using the Official Guide.
Some of the reasons I chose to use TTP include the calendar view, thorough content, chapter tests, and
error log. I used the calendar view to ensure that I would finish the entire course by test day, breaking down what and how much I needed to study on any given day. This eased my worries about testing in only 2 months. I also appreciated how detailed the content was because I had not studied most of the quant concepts in multiple years. The chapter tests helped me reinforce my knowledge and work on my timing. Lastly, the
error log highlighted where I was making repeated mistakes and needed to change my approach. One of these errors was careless math mistakes, which I fixed by working through every problem with arithmetic accuracy in mind.
I didn't take any practice tests or think about my score until I was at the end of the course, which was 1.5 weeks before my exam. In the final 1.5 weeks, I took all 6 mocks and re-took mock #1. I don't recommend taking mocks so close to the planned exam because if I was not scoring as high as I wanted, I would not have had time to fix those problems. However, I likely didn't have too many issues because I was diagnosing my mistakes as I studied through TTP and OG practice questions. My mocks ranged from 645-745, including three 695's. On my first mock I scored a 645, likely because I didn't finish 2 DI questions and had various mistakes in quant. I continued to struggle with DI timing but got better at forcing myself to guess, so my DI on exam day was in line with my average from mocks. My strength in the mocks was verbal, but I struggled a bit more on exam day. My quant peaked on exam day, which was a nice surprise.
Overall, test day only felt slightly more intense than any other day of my prep and I approached each section with a calm confidence. This helped me earn a 695 (Q87, V85, D82).