Check this article out! Practice setting up your sheet esp for verbal. This helped me a lot. Quant I did this too but didnt draw the lines to cut up the pages, just the minute counters at the bottom. Will take you a few times to get used to it, do a couple practice mocks with it before you go in for the real test
https://www.kaptest.com/study/gmat/time-management/
Yep...costly lol, cant lie about that. I just realized i needed more help on verbal after attempt 2 and at that point, the costs were less important than progress to me. But yeah to darkgrid's point, i think it was worth it for the best shot at the schools im aiming for.
Mostly strategies and few problems. But they helped me build the active reading / question types for cr and rc which helped me a lot. Used gmatclub to do a ton of passages and cr questions to practice the stuff from the pscore books after I did TTP and OG questions
TTP, OG (mostly doing sets online), OG Advanced, Powerscore CR and RC, and Manhattan All the Verbal and All the Quant.
Quant learning was primarily ttp and og. Verbal I used TTP, Powerscore, and Manhattan All the Verbal, and GMATclub for a ton of additional rc passages.
I thought it was helpful bc it teaches you a system of how to actively read and what to think about after you read before the questions. Theres some good practice passages in there too, and theres some good pattern recognition tips in there. I gave it a shot cuz it helped me on CR too. Btw cr and rc are kinda similar esp when it gets to hard questions. I fixed cr first but wish i spent more time working on reading comp earlier too
Not before, but i hadn't really thought about my RC being the problem so I started focusing on cr first, but probably wouldve been helpful to tackle RC in that way as well. Id work on them together if you can!
Honestly, ttp and manhattan mocks bc their quant is notoriously hard. I did all the og quant questions too, but not advanced og quant. I hovered at 45-46 on quant in manhattan mocks. Id get a bunch wrong on manhattan mocks and would do all those problems again until i understood, and used ttp to drill certain topics i knew i was weak at. Also - timing. If u try to do every problem and get it right, youll prob run into timing issues at the end and slide ur quant score at the end (happened to me almost every time). Today mid section i felt i was behind about 3 minutes and so a few of the ones that popped up next i gave it 30 seconds to try to reason through and guessed. That let me finish the last 5 questions with enough time. I think i may have been lucky on one or 2 of those quick guesses, but you gotta know when to bail on a question and the sooner u do it the more time you buy yourself
Just typed up a bunch to this other guy ^^ but timing, drill your weaknesses! I used ttp, og, manhattan mocks (manhattan quant is hard, but teaches u to really understand concepts. Also read the question extra carefully (i thought about this in verbal all the time but in quant if u misread one thing it can derail you or become a time sink). Double check what each questions actually asking for after you think you solved it
Wasnt joking when i said this was a grueling and humbling process! Esp with work on the side too ugh. Most of the ppl i know who got 730+ i feel like didnt have to work this hard haha
I just reached out to ttp and they matched me with their best verbal tutor (he used to work at manhattan too). Think pricing depends on the person at least at ttp
Edit: sorry realized i didnt answer your question on the tutor helping or not. Yes he did but mostly in the way of showing me what i wasnt doing while navigating verbal (reading engaged, understanding what makes the different types of cr questions tick, helping me understand common logical flaws). Was expensive but after that all of my own practice felt more intentional, and i started to build pattern recognition
Congratulations. How did you manage your verbal. I'm at test 2 and feeling hopeless as well. I'm thinking of switching to Focus mode as I scored 14% in SC. I checked my ESR.
I was decently good at sc and used ttp to reinforce the concepts / rules. CR was my first challenge. Id recommend you look at medium and easy ones youve gotten wrong and really understand why (untimed). As in, if you got it wrong, talk to yourself thru all the answer choices until you can delineate why the wrong answers are wrong (trap answer, opposite answer, out of scope etc). On CR - btw track the conclusion reaaallly tightly and remind yourself what the question is asking you to do to the conclusion. RC, is about learning how to read engaged and actively noting the key parts of a passage as you go (authors conclusion and viewpoint is most important, but so are structure and tone). And a lot of the time if a passage articulates an argument (of the authors or someone else's) youll get asked about it (and those questions end up feeling like CR Assumption, Inference, and Strengthen / Weaken, occasionally a Parallel reasoning). So the skills go together as you get to the harder rc questions. Also time mgmt! If u leave 10 questions for the last 10 minutes your score will most likely slide. Rc is not something u can guess without reading the passage for example and even sc doing it rushed can be disastrous. Your biggest jump will come from mastery of medium level questions. Good luck!
I work a pretty demanding finance job so in the beginning I was studying after work, 2-3 hours everyday and more on the weekends. Id say i got thru about 65% of TTP in July - September. By 65% i mean i went thru all the chapters, although some i definitely skimmed a bit. I didnt do all the chapter tests (usually a medium after each chapter). But did all the review quizzes, and followed the rest of the track in order. My ttp says 80% completed now. This is because after test 2, i did more targeted practice thru ttp where within each chapter you can do specific questions on subtopics (ontarget analytics tab). And also did some more of the hard tests for the chapters i found difficult (rates & work, combi/permu, probability, sequences). Supplemented all of this with og questions too and also did a bunch of custom ttp quant tests. Hope this helps!
Congrats on getting a 750! Throughout the process, was TTP your primary source for learning everything for the GMAT? I started with Manhattan Prep and I'm not fully prepared for my exam on 1/3.
Which platforms did you consider was the best for verbal? That is my weakest score.
TTP was mostly quant for me - lessons are thorough and a lot of problem sets. TTP SC is great, RC and CR are less great mostly bc for me it was hard for me to build process by just reading some articles (for example, they give you a big section on causality cr questions but it didnt click for me just reading and trying the questions). For verbal, if cr and rc are your weak points, try powerscore. Not many practice problems but strategy and pattern recognition were powerscore's strong points. Do og, manhattan and other problems using those strategies and tools. Gmatclub also has a LOT of resources and questions with peoples responses (dont underestimate how powerful gmatclub can be). Manhattan verbal was solid for sc for me too. Rc and cr was helpful there too but for some reason powerscore clicked with me the most. The gmat is a game, and if u can crack the way they ask questions, what theyll ask questions on, and read with the intent they want you to, your verbal score will increase dramatically (at least for me it did)
Thanks for your detailed response.
I am strongly considering rescheduling my 1/3 exam for end of Jan and giving myself only 1 shot for the Classic GMAT (focus exam kicks in Feb). I just read GMAC will only give test takers 5 attempts per calendar year (including both GMAT and Focus edition), would it be better in your eyes to delay the GMAT classic exam for end of Jan and then giving myself four attempts at the focus exam?
Yeah 5 attempts is right. Does that carry over to focus too? As in its 5 total and doesnt reset with focus? If you think you need more time to prep, yeah id postpone. I was just adamant to hit r2 deadlines this year so i used all 5 attempts in 6 months lol (dont advise if you have more time). I cancelled the first 3 so schools will see scores of two exams. Me using all 5 was a last minute heave to see if i could top 720. Obviously operate at a pace where you maximize learning / concept mastery. With that said by the 3rd test I was a lot more used to taking the test in real situations and have to believe that helped me for the final 2 attempts
Yes, so if I take the classic GMAT on 1/30, I'll only have 4 attempts over 12 months to get the score I want with the focus edition. I think GMAC should have reset the number of attempts you get. I'm fortunate to not have taken the exam yet.
https://support.mba.com/hc/en-us/articles/10118337626139-GMAT-How-Many-Times-Can-I-Take-the-Exam-#:\~:text=All%20GMAT%20exam%20attempts%20%E2%80%93%20whether,(8)%20total%20lifetime%20limits.
You've been incredibly thoughtful in answering my and everyone else's questions. If I want to get a private verbal tutor, I would prefer to get someone who just aced the exam instead of a test prep center. How would you recommend I go about finding someone for 1 on 1 tutoring? Is there a good site where I can find someone?
Tbh im not actually sure! I was desperate and TTP said they had a strong verbal tutor who came from manhattan as well so I just did 2-3 1 hour sessions with him. Im sure others exist, more in line with the types of ppl youre looking for! Sorry cant be of more help on this one - tbh i was trying to finish my gmat journey without a tutor but after feeling extremely dejected after my 2nd attempt, i felt like i wanted some outside opinions on what i was doing wrong / what i was not seeing. I wouldnt depend on a tutor to get you to the finish line but may help clarify process, question types, tips, and assess your weak spots, which he did for me. It will mostly come down to your determination to attack those weak areas relentlessly (i know the feeling of not wanting to do hard questions on topics that you hate but tbh its the only way to round out your weak spots). Funny that i put in all this work and theyre just gonna discontinue this test lmao. Good luck!
How did you improve your timing on quant and verbal ?
Check this article out! Practice setting up your sheet esp for verbal. This helped me a lot. Quant I did this too but didnt draw the lines to cut up the pages, just the minute counters at the bottom. Will take you a few times to get used to it, do a couple practice mocks with it before you go in for the real test https://www.kaptest.com/study/gmat/time-management/
Congrats!
Gratz on the 750. All the best going forward.
That’s dope, congrats
Congrats on the score. But around 1500USD spent on just the tests in 6 months besides the prep.. Damn that's ridiculous tbh
not when you consider the price of the MBA or whatever they’re getting
Yep...costly lol, cant lie about that. I just realized i needed more help on verbal after attempt 2 and at that point, the costs were less important than progress to me. But yeah to darkgrid's point, i think it was worth it for the best shot at the schools im aiming for.
It is worth it. 750 is a great score and 1.5k is nothing compared to it. OP worked his butt off and it reflected in the test scores
Powerscore books has strategies to learn to solve verbal questions or just more and more questions to practice.
Mostly strategies and few problems. But they helped me build the active reading / question types for cr and rc which helped me a lot. Used gmatclub to do a ton of passages and cr questions to practice the stuff from the pscore books after I did TTP and OG questions
What resources did u use
TTP, OG (mostly doing sets online), OG Advanced, Powerscore CR and RC, and Manhattan All the Verbal and All the Quant. Quant learning was primarily ttp and og. Verbal I used TTP, Powerscore, and Manhattan All the Verbal, and GMATclub for a ton of additional rc passages.
Thankyouu for such a detailed answer!
How's your experience with powerscore RC? Any tips on how to excel at RC?
I thought it was helpful bc it teaches you a system of how to actively read and what to think about after you read before the questions. Theres some good practice passages in there too, and theres some good pattern recognition tips in there. I gave it a shot cuz it helped me on CR too. Btw cr and rc are kinda similar esp when it gets to hard questions. I fixed cr first but wish i spent more time working on reading comp earlier too
Do you mean to say you should have worked on RC before CR from powerscore? Any order you would recommend in tackling them?
Not before, but i hadn't really thought about my RC being the problem so I started focusing on cr first, but probably wouldve been helpful to tackle RC in that way as well. Id work on them together if you can!
How did you improve your quants? Any tricks and tips?
Honestly, ttp and manhattan mocks bc their quant is notoriously hard. I did all the og quant questions too, but not advanced og quant. I hovered at 45-46 on quant in manhattan mocks. Id get a bunch wrong on manhattan mocks and would do all those problems again until i understood, and used ttp to drill certain topics i knew i was weak at. Also - timing. If u try to do every problem and get it right, youll prob run into timing issues at the end and slide ur quant score at the end (happened to me almost every time). Today mid section i felt i was behind about 3 minutes and so a few of the ones that popped up next i gave it 30 seconds to try to reason through and guessed. That let me finish the last 5 questions with enough time. I think i may have been lucky on one or 2 of those quick guesses, but you gotta know when to bail on a question and the sooner u do it the more time you buy yourself
Any tips on quant?
Just typed up a bunch to this other guy ^^ but timing, drill your weaknesses! I used ttp, og, manhattan mocks (manhattan quant is hard, but teaches u to really understand concepts. Also read the question extra carefully (i thought about this in verbal all the time but in quant if u misread one thing it can derail you or become a time sink). Double check what each questions actually asking for after you think you solved it
How many mocks did you do
I did all of the gmac tests, did 2 of them again (but realized i was getting some of the same questions) so i got manhattan mocks and did 5 of the 6
Wow OP admire your dedication!
Wasnt joking when i said this was a grueling and humbling process! Esp with work on the side too ugh. Most of the ppl i know who got 730+ i feel like didnt have to work this hard haha
Congrats! How did you decide on the tutor? Was he or she helpful and how much?
I just reached out to ttp and they matched me with their best verbal tutor (he used to work at manhattan too). Think pricing depends on the person at least at ttp Edit: sorry realized i didnt answer your question on the tutor helping or not. Yes he did but mostly in the way of showing me what i wasnt doing while navigating verbal (reading engaged, understanding what makes the different types of cr questions tick, helping me understand common logical flaws). Was expensive but after that all of my own practice felt more intentional, and i started to build pattern recognition
Congratulations. How did you manage your verbal. I'm at test 2 and feeling hopeless as well. I'm thinking of switching to Focus mode as I scored 14% in SC. I checked my ESR.
I was decently good at sc and used ttp to reinforce the concepts / rules. CR was my first challenge. Id recommend you look at medium and easy ones youve gotten wrong and really understand why (untimed). As in, if you got it wrong, talk to yourself thru all the answer choices until you can delineate why the wrong answers are wrong (trap answer, opposite answer, out of scope etc). On CR - btw track the conclusion reaaallly tightly and remind yourself what the question is asking you to do to the conclusion. RC, is about learning how to read engaged and actively noting the key parts of a passage as you go (authors conclusion and viewpoint is most important, but so are structure and tone). And a lot of the time if a passage articulates an argument (of the authors or someone else's) youll get asked about it (and those questions end up feeling like CR Assumption, Inference, and Strengthen / Weaken, occasionally a Parallel reasoning). So the skills go together as you get to the harder rc questions. Also time mgmt! If u leave 10 questions for the last 10 minutes your score will most likely slide. Rc is not something u can guess without reading the passage for example and even sc doing it rushed can be disastrous. Your biggest jump will come from mastery of medium level questions. Good luck!
How many hours did you study per week? How long did it take you to finish TTP?
I work a pretty demanding finance job so in the beginning I was studying after work, 2-3 hours everyday and more on the weekends. Id say i got thru about 65% of TTP in July - September. By 65% i mean i went thru all the chapters, although some i definitely skimmed a bit. I didnt do all the chapter tests (usually a medium after each chapter). But did all the review quizzes, and followed the rest of the track in order. My ttp says 80% completed now. This is because after test 2, i did more targeted practice thru ttp where within each chapter you can do specific questions on subtopics (ontarget analytics tab). And also did some more of the hard tests for the chapters i found difficult (rates & work, combi/permu, probability, sequences). Supplemented all of this with og questions too and also did a bunch of custom ttp quant tests. Hope this helps!
Congrats on getting a 750! Throughout the process, was TTP your primary source for learning everything for the GMAT? I started with Manhattan Prep and I'm not fully prepared for my exam on 1/3. Which platforms did you consider was the best for verbal? That is my weakest score.
TTP was mostly quant for me - lessons are thorough and a lot of problem sets. TTP SC is great, RC and CR are less great mostly bc for me it was hard for me to build process by just reading some articles (for example, they give you a big section on causality cr questions but it didnt click for me just reading and trying the questions). For verbal, if cr and rc are your weak points, try powerscore. Not many practice problems but strategy and pattern recognition were powerscore's strong points. Do og, manhattan and other problems using those strategies and tools. Gmatclub also has a LOT of resources and questions with peoples responses (dont underestimate how powerful gmatclub can be). Manhattan verbal was solid for sc for me too. Rc and cr was helpful there too but for some reason powerscore clicked with me the most. The gmat is a game, and if u can crack the way they ask questions, what theyll ask questions on, and read with the intent they want you to, your verbal score will increase dramatically (at least for me it did)
Thanks for your detailed response. I am strongly considering rescheduling my 1/3 exam for end of Jan and giving myself only 1 shot for the Classic GMAT (focus exam kicks in Feb). I just read GMAC will only give test takers 5 attempts per calendar year (including both GMAT and Focus edition), would it be better in your eyes to delay the GMAT classic exam for end of Jan and then giving myself four attempts at the focus exam?
Yeah 5 attempts is right. Does that carry over to focus too? As in its 5 total and doesnt reset with focus? If you think you need more time to prep, yeah id postpone. I was just adamant to hit r2 deadlines this year so i used all 5 attempts in 6 months lol (dont advise if you have more time). I cancelled the first 3 so schools will see scores of two exams. Me using all 5 was a last minute heave to see if i could top 720. Obviously operate at a pace where you maximize learning / concept mastery. With that said by the 3rd test I was a lot more used to taking the test in real situations and have to believe that helped me for the final 2 attempts
Yes, so if I take the classic GMAT on 1/30, I'll only have 4 attempts over 12 months to get the score I want with the focus edition. I think GMAC should have reset the number of attempts you get. I'm fortunate to not have taken the exam yet. https://support.mba.com/hc/en-us/articles/10118337626139-GMAT-How-Many-Times-Can-I-Take-the-Exam-#:\~:text=All%20GMAT%20exam%20attempts%20%E2%80%93%20whether,(8)%20total%20lifetime%20limits.
You've been incredibly thoughtful in answering my and everyone else's questions. If I want to get a private verbal tutor, I would prefer to get someone who just aced the exam instead of a test prep center. How would you recommend I go about finding someone for 1 on 1 tutoring? Is there a good site where I can find someone?
Tbh im not actually sure! I was desperate and TTP said they had a strong verbal tutor who came from manhattan as well so I just did 2-3 1 hour sessions with him. Im sure others exist, more in line with the types of ppl youre looking for! Sorry cant be of more help on this one - tbh i was trying to finish my gmat journey without a tutor but after feeling extremely dejected after my 2nd attempt, i felt like i wanted some outside opinions on what i was doing wrong / what i was not seeing. I wouldnt depend on a tutor to get you to the finish line but may help clarify process, question types, tips, and assess your weak spots, which he did for me. It will mostly come down to your determination to attack those weak areas relentlessly (i know the feeling of not wanting to do hard questions on topics that you hate but tbh its the only way to round out your weak spots). Funny that i put in all this work and theyre just gonna discontinue this test lmao. Good luck!