760 GMAT -- thanks Jamie and Ron

[paraclete]

Hi all,

After 3.5 months of prep with the MGMAT and official GMAT materials, I took the test recently for the first time, and scored a 760 (48Q/46V). I am very happy with my score. It is the 2nd highest math score I've gotten, and the highest verbal. I only got a 6 on IR, which isn't great, but I'm not too worried about it since it's a new section (any instructors' opinions differ on this?). Before I go any further, let me state that I am a native English speaker, which is relevant to my verbal score.

Here is my practice exam history:

Fall 2012 (was out of school for 3 years at this point and was very rusty):
CAT1 Oct. 2012 (no prep): 530
CAT2 Oct. 2012: 590 (27Q/37V)
CAT3 Nov. 2012: 640 (40Q/37V)

NO STUDY OR PREP FROM NOVEMBER 2012-MAY 2013

May 2013
CAT4 May 2013 (little to no prep since Nov. 2012): 640 (40Q/37V)

NO STUDY OR PREP FROM MAY 2013-AUGUST 2013

Fall 2013

This is when I really committed to taking the test. I scheduled an exam and set aside time to study each morning. I woke up at 6 AM almost every day and studied for 2 hours, and also prepped during down time at work. I started studying in mid-August.

CAT 5 Sep. 2013: 730 (45Q/44V)
Note that I did not study verbal AT ALL during this period, but scored 97%. I had many repeat questions, but I thought my math was so much weaker, that I should dedicate all my time to math. Therefore, I practiced and studied only quant from here on out.

GMAT Prep 1 Sep. 2013 : 700 (47Q/40V)

GMAT Prep 2 Oct. 2013: 730 (47Q/44V)
I was baffled at this point. Despite only studying quant, my quant had not moved at all, but verbal went up a considerable amount. One theory is that all the intense studying and focus upped my endurance over those 4-5 weeks.

GMAT Prep 3 November 2013: 730 (49Q/41V)
Finally, my quant score went up. I had spoken to Jamie over the phone and watched several Thursdays with Ron sessions. Both of these things helped a lot.

Actual test: 760 (48Q/46V)

I took the day before the test entirely off. The day of the test, I did about 10-15 EASY quant problems in the hour before the test, which got me warmed up. I drank so much water before the test that I had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of my quant section!!! I lost about 2-3 minutes there and had to guess on the problem I was on because I was so frazzled.

Thanks to both Jamie and Ron: to Jamie, for her direct feedback and time during office hours, and to Ron, for running "Thursdays with Ron." Jamie is such a sweet woman and her advice was right on target. Ron, you have a funny sense of humor and I greatly enjoyed some of your comments during the Thursday sessions. You also have a great way of explaining things and removing the noise so students can see the most important aspects of a topic or problem.

So does that qualify as a Manhattan GMAT student going from a 530 to a 760? I think so, so thanks to the people that make MGMAT what it is, specifically Jamie and Ron in this situation.

My feedback for MGMAT:

1. The quant section of the MGMAT CATs is a bit off. I took a practice quant test a few days before my exam and score a 57%. This happened for a variety of reasons, but it was at least in part because of the design of the CATs. The algorithm you guys use is definitely different from the actual test. The problems are harder too. I would suggest you work on this so people can continue to confidently recommend your materials to others.

2. I also have to say that while the OG Archer solutions are great, the whole MGMAT system of categorizing OG problems in the archer is poor. There is too much manual work involved. I had to create my own excel file and manually go through OG12/OG13 overlaps to make sure I had all the unique problems. It took me several hours to do all of this, which I think should be taken care of by MGMAT for a $500-1,000 program. Also, the the OG archer is lacking crucial features. You should be able to clear all your answers from a certain time period, put in a set of questions you want to do and have it automatically navigate to them, and be able to view and select questions by category and difficulty level. While I'm no programmer, in my opinion this is basic and it is crazy that these things are not already part of the archer.

If I had to advise someone who was about to prep for the GMAT, I would say to buy the MGMAT books only, to create an excel file to track their problems, and use the OG Archer for answers only, rather than as a comprehensive answer tracker. I would also advise them to buy the GMAT Prep Pack 1 online, which was extremely helpful in the final 1.5 months of my preparation, as it includes 200 new quant questions and they are in the same format as the actual GMAT. I would also advise them that the CAT quant is not realistic, and should only be used for timing strategies. Therefore, I would recommend that they purchase the official GMAT Prep tests as well so they get enough practice tests in and get a real indicator of their scoring level.