MGMAT live online 9 weeks saved me

To start, my GMAT journey was a relatively long one. I graduated from college early, summa cum laude, PBK and thought the GMAT would be a walk in the park.. a quick month of study and off to that 700. NOPE.

I took a practice test blind from the official GMAT website and scored a 500. I thought the world ended. I bought the official guide books and started doing my research into prep courses. Another month of self study and i scored a 520. Clearly this wasn't going very well.

After my research, MGMAT came up with the best reviews... for good reason. I decided to do the live online because I worked during the week and didnt want to jump back in the car on the weekends to commute to class.

The course is excellent... For 3 hours, every sunday, Birdwell and a rotating second teacher would literally walk myself and the other students through official guide problems, break them down into their cores, and show not only HOW to tackle every question type but WHAT each question type is really trying to test. All of a sudden, i saw the quant patterns on DS. I saw what CR questions were really asking. Now, match the weekly break down with a good 15 hours of self study a week based on a study guide the MGMAT folks worked up. Plus the 12 guide books which you should read cover to cover as they helped me tackle question types i had been clueless on only weeks earlier.

I only took 2 CATS during my course (which were 560 and 600) so i saw improvement but i was getting really nervous. My goal was always 680.

I started to take the other four CATS, the two official GMAT CATs and repeat all the OG qs and the official GMAC question pack. I set a test date for end of July and my course had ended mid june. So with 6 weeks, I needed to increase 100 points. I was not convinced it was possible. BUT all those tricks MGMAT taught in the course (not to mention how to tackle timing issues, pacing and nerves on test date), ended up becoming muscle memory on the CATS.

With one week to go, I stopped looking at all GMAT related stuff and just cleared my head. I went into the test center and cruised through the test... MGMAT (and their CATs) OVER PREPARED me. The test was certainly hard, but the Quant seemed easy to handle, the verbal seemed very approachable. I held my breath as i hit "see scores" and a 710 popped up.

I will say this, that score would not have been possible without MGMAT!