770 after 120 hours of studying with TTP

So as the title suggests, yesterday I scored a 770 overall (51 Quant and 44 Verbal) after prepping for 120 hours. I started prepping last October (pretty late for B School applications) and went on reddit to see what resources successful people had used. I saw several posts of scores in the 760-790 range from people using Target Test Prep, and thought “good enough for me”.

I started and quickly learned an essential truth: knowing the material isn’t enough. Everyone on this site is smart enough that, given 10 minutes per question, you could probably solve the problem. You have 2 minutes instead, 30 questions in a row. You need to have strategies for each of these questions. You need to drill these questions and your weak areas consistently. I’m convinced that I wouldn’t have scored anywhere nearly as well with a live course or a book, because where TTP really worked best was the strategy guides for specific problems and the additional bells and whistles to ingrain the strategy into your head.

When you first start, the site will auto generate a calendar with “To Dos” based off your preferences. I didn’t always follow this calendar, but it was really helpful to have a baseline of “this is where I should be at right now” or “I need this many tasks done today (even if they’re not the recommended tasks)”. After most individual lessons (about a page) there is a mini 3-8 question comprehension quiz to test how well you really get what you’re reading as well as a couple sample questions. The best part about these questions is right away you get the answer and detailed explanations for each choice. I don’t have to flip to the back of the book every single time like I did with my ACT study guide, and I don’t have to listen to a lecturer waste my time explaining why a certain choice was wrong when it was obvious to me. 120 hours of active study time is a lot, and staying engaged during that time is important. There’s no question I was maximizing the amount of learning I was doing in my limited time.

The custom test generator was one of the best features for me. You can make custom exams of any length, with any combination of chapter material in difficulty. If I wanted to drill hard Geometry questions and easy + medium Parallelism questions, I could do that. There is a LOT more, but those were the features I found myself appreciating the most. Features like error trackers and flash cards I probably would have used more but honestly I got a score I was happy with a lot sooner than I was expecting.

3 days ago I took my only practice exam and scored a 770 (50 Quant, 45 Verbal), took a last minute tutoring session on Quantitative through TTP, and scored a 770 on the official exam yesterday. The tutoring session was particularly helpful because the practice tests don’t give an answer breakdown like TTP does, and my tutor quickly got me up to speed on the questions I missed. He also had similar questions on deck to solidify my understanding of those types of problems.

I can’t imagine doing another course, book, class, etc. and achieving better results, especially in that amount of time. I highly recommend Target Test Prep, and you can try it out for $1 to see if that format is right for you.

I was not paid to write this, I’m just very satisfied with my experience and results and was encouraged to post about my experience here.