775 GMAT Focus Debrief

Watch Hank's Video Debrief on YouTube
YouTube Link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/redirect.php?id=3kqlihf69b


Score
I took the test in late November at a testing center. It was my first attempt at either the GMAT Classic or Focus. This was my scoring breakdown, in the order I took the test:
775 Overall (100th percentile)
90Q (100th percentile)
85DI (99th percentile)
90V(100th percentile)

I took my ten minute break after DI. I chose to take the test in this order because I was least confident in Quant and most confident in Verbal. I didn't want to spend the entire test thinking about what was coming in Quant. I took my break after DI because Quant and DI make me think in very similar ways. I wanted to group them together, take time to collect myself, then flip the switch for Verbal. That worked wonderfully, possibly at the expense of a few points in DI.

I got every question right in both the Quant and the Verbal sections, and missed two questions in Data Insights (a Multi-Source reasoning on #5 and a Two-Part analysis on #14). In Quant I reviewed four questions but didn't change any, in DI I reviewed four questions in nine seconds and didn't change any (I was furiously searching for #5 as I knew I missed it but was running out of time and hadn't marked it... definitely remember to mark anything you're not certain about!!!), and in Verbal I reviewed three questions and changed one from incorrect to correct. I was relieved and a little surprised that after initially getting a question wrong then later changing it I was still able to get a perfect score.

Study Plan Overview and Thoughts

I studied for six weeks leading up to the test. I only used GMAC official test prep materials + furiously googling of "problem + gmatclub" for in-depth analysis when I got a question wrong and didn't understand the answer. I started off strong, procrastinated in the middle, then crammed in the week leading up to the exam. It's hard to say I regret anything when I got far above my target score, but a more consistent and measured approach would have yielded a lot less stress. Easily the best decision I made was delaying my test by two weeks when I realized I wasn't ready four days before the test. The cost to move the test is less than the cost of taking it again!

I also wish I understood the scoring algorithm when I was studying. I think understanding the quirks of the test is even more important than understanding the concepts behind the material. For that reason a practice test heavy approach taught me a lot and I recommend taking as many official practice tests as possible to everyone, but I wish I'd known the jump from 84DI to 90DI had the same impact as 84Q to 90Q despite that only increasing DI percentile by 1 while Q percentile goes up by 10 or more.

Exactly How I Studied

I got the Official Starter Kit six weeks before the exam and took Practice Exam 1 blind, scoring 655 (78Q, 84DI, 86V). After that I completed everything in the starter kit (readings, practice questions, diagnostics) over the course of a week, then took PE2 and scored 665 (78Q, 85DI, 86V). The reading had helped me better understand some key concepts and differentiate between types of problems, but hadn't made a significant impact on my score. I decided after that initial review of concepts my time would be best spent on practicing problems, so I bought the Official Guide with Online Question Bank to focus on practice problems. I decided on the official guide because at the time no one had taken the Focus Edition, so I hoped the official guides would be most representative of the test. That ended up being a great call: I didn't feel blindsided by a single question on the test.

Over the next month I did every single quant practice problem - 228 in total - then re-did all the ones I missed until I'd gotten them all right. Then I bought Practice Exams 3-6 and took PE3 four days before the test and scored 705 (81Q, 87DI, 87V). In retrospect, I wish I'd more evenly spread out how often I took practice tests. I also wish I'd taken seriously the claim that the official practice exams are designed to be taken twice each. The ability to take the test TWELVE times before ever stepping into a test center just by paying for Exams 3-6 is, imo, incredible. It was awesome to break through to the 700s and the 98th percentile through PE3, but I immediately discovered weaknesses in my quant question timing in the test environment that didn't come through in the day to day studying. I worked hard to solve those problems in the four days I had before the test and got up to 90Q, but that journey would've been much easier if I'd noticed these weaknesses earlier. This is also a great reminder of how important it is to mimic the test environment as much as possible when studying, and especially when taking a practice exam. I spent the rest of the day reviewing all the questions from this exam.

Three days before the test I took PE4 and scored 745 (86Q, 89DI, 86V). I once again reviewed all the questions and took time to understand all the ones I missed. The day before the test I took PE5 & PE6 and scored 695 (84Q, 84DI, 86V) & 735 (86Q, 84DI, 90V) respectively. Between two tests and reviewing all the questions, this was a full day. I ended the day by reviewing questions from all six practice exams.

I only focused on studying the DI and V sections in that final week through practice exam questions and reviews. For Verbal, it was enough. For Data Insights, I wish I'd spent a bit more time focused on it. If I'd taken practice exams more consistently throughout studying, I think I would've realized that was an area of weakness I could improve.

Test Day and Final Thoughts

I got a bunch of sleep the night before the test. The day of the test I reviewed the quant sections of all my practice exams then went about my normal routine but made sure to eat healthy and stay hydrated. I got to the test center early and wore comfortable clothing. I think I outperformed my mocks for two reasons:

1) Going into the test I was more focused and intentional than I had been during practice. My entire day was focused around the test and feeling rested and mentally sharp for the exam.
2) Taking six practice exams all in true test conditions (no pauses, no breaks except the official one) really prepared me for the test environment. Taking the test felt natural and I was really used to the timing and pacing, which kept me from panicking. This was probably the single most important aspect of my studying and planning.

The result was my first ever perfect Quant score, which I attribute to a lot of focus and of course a little luck. I finished the quant section with plenty of time and felt a rush of adrenaline at how confident I was. That's where I think I made my biggest mistake - I ended the section early and jumped right into DI. I should have taken a minute to collect myself before clicking submit on the Quant section and then the full minute you're allowed before jumping into DI.

I quickly felt a bit of whiplash and fatigue and started on the wrong foot in DI, which led to me taking a long time just to read #5 and eventually rushing and missing it. I think missing a question early in the section led to three or four of the points to be deducted. I know the Two-Part analysis question I missed was squarely in the Hard category - but I think #5 was easy. The other time I missed two questions in DI was when I got my 87DI. My 84DI scores were the result of three or four misses and my 89DI had just one miss. I've also since heard the test might be section adaptive, and getting the 90Q may have resulted in harder DI questions to start. I can't say definitively, but it's possible starting on the back foot in DI was a combination of no mental break + harder than expected questions.

Either way, I was able to recover by not panicking when I fell behind in pacing and staying focused on each question one at a time. By the back half of the test I felt back on track and made the right call by guessing on #14 once I'd been on it three minutes and didn't know the answer. I missed it, but gave myself enough time to get the last six right. That was a great trade-off.

After DI I took my break and re-oriented myself for Verbal, which to me is a totally different type of test. There were three questions that I didn't know the first time through - I was able to narrow it down to two options, marked the questions for review, and guessed. I finished the section with five minutes to go and gave myself 90 seconds to review each question. On Verbal, I found that re-reading the question after a break from it when I'm only considering a couple options usually makes it much clearer. I only took about 20 seconds each for me to realize I'd guessed two of them right and one of them wrong.

Overall, I was shocked and excited about my score, which I think was a mix of great week of preparation and luck coming the right way on one or two questions in each section. I hope this post is helpful to understanding the exam and one route of prep! I'm excited to say I'm now offering GMAT Tutoring through McElroy Tutoring and am happy to answer any questions about study plans, practice questions, concepts, or anything else!­­­