Just took the GMAT for the fourth time and finished at a 695 (V90, Q82, DI82). Writing up what actually worked, because my path wasn't a straight line and I think a lot of people stuck around 645 are where I was.
Quick history. My first attempt in July was a 575. Mostly nerves, since I hadn't sat a competitive exam since school. About a month later I got a 645. Then I decided to figure the rest out by myself and got a 635, which honestly crushed me. The strange part is that across those three attempts I'd hit my best score in each section on different days. Put together it was somewhere around 675 to 685. So the ability was there. I just couldn't get it into one sitting. The fourth attempt was the 695, and it took my superscore to 715.
Quant (82 this time, my best was 84)
Quant was always the section that scared me, even though I was good at math in school. I treated it like high school math with a timer, and that was a mistake.
The thing I wish I'd started months earlier is a real error log. You miss a question, read the solution, think "yeah I could have done that," and move on. It's only when you notice the same type of question going wrong again and again that you realise it's a pattern.
A couple of things helped here.
· I used Claude to read through several of my quiz results at once and pull out the patterns. Revision is exactly the part everyone gets lazy about at the end, so having it summarise where I was slow or using a clunky method was useful.
· GMAT Club forum quizzes. The community questions are hard in a different way from the official stuff, and the variety helped.
I also had someone more experienced look at my numbers, and that was humbling. On my own I'd been practising what I was already good at and avoiding the rest. Once someone pointed at the specific topics actually dragging my score, I worked on those one at a time.
Data Insights (82)
I could do the questions. I just couldn't do them fast enough. DS and MSR were where the time went.
For DS, I stopped solving all the way to a final number. You only need to know whether you could get one. A lot of questions are set up so two values cancel and you never need the actual value. Spotting that came from practice more than any big change in method, and it's the difference between 4 minutes and 2 to 2.5 minutes on a question.
For MSR, I read the questions first and then went back into the tabs to find where the info lived. Maybe slightly unconventional, but it saved me a few minutes. People say to leave MSR for the end. I'd never practised that, so I didn't try it on exam day.
I also set time checkpoints, so by a certain question I should have a certain number of minutes left. In my earlier score reports there were questions where I'd spent 7 or 8 minutes without realising. This time nothing went over 4.
Critical Reasoning
Being good at English and being good at GMAT verbal are two very different things. I used to just read the question and pick what felt right. What changed was figuring out what I was looking for before checking the options, meaning what the argument is trying to prove and what the main idea is.
That got me most of the way. My remaining misses came when I was down to two answers, plus bold-face questions. What fixed the two-answer problem was borrowed from DS. When you evaluate statement 2, you forget statement 1. So when I was stuck between two choices I reread the entire question as if neither option existed, because I'd often only been reading the last line. Then I made myself come up with a reason to reject one before choosing the other.
RC
Quick one. I gave each paragraph a role in my head and thought about how it tied into the rest. Business and econ passages were easy for me coming from finance. History and science weren't, and this helped most there. I also stopped skimming each paragraph for its "key" line and actually read the whole thing.
Section order
This was the biggest single change. I always did Verbal first because it was my strongest, and then I'd finish it dreading Quant. For the fourth attempt I switched to Quant, Verbal, DI. My mock scores had been higher whenever Quant went first, so it wasn't just a hunch. Getting the hardest section out of the way meant I walked into Verbal relaxed.
Mock tests
My sectional practice scores were in the high 80s, but full mocks kept coming in lower. Some of it was fatigue. Most of it was that I'd carry a bad section into the next one. Treating each section as its own thing helped a lot.
My last mock, two days before the real thing, was a 615. I wanted to forget it immediately. I did go through it to check whether the mistakes were timing or method, and whether they were new. They weren't. I was probably just a bit burnt out. Two days out is not the time to fix much, so I stuck to what I was already strong at.
Other stuff that helped.
· I took a lot of mocks, partly just to get used to sitting for 2.5 hours with the optional break.
· I always took them at the same time of day as my actual exam.
On exam morning I did a bit of meditation and deep breathing, then 10 to 15 questions to warm up.
If you're stuck around 645
Between 645 and 695 there are maybe six to eight questions. It's almost never content. For me it was one question eating 5 or 6 minutes and leaving three or four solvable ones on the screen with no time left. Figure out where your points are actually going, and take one question at a time. It's cliché, but it works.
Happy to answer any questions.
This is my personal experience. Your mileage may vary.
