715 GMAT focus - lessons learned and tips

715 on the focus on the first attempt (84Q / 88V / 84DI)

What helped was being unemployed. Still, I tried to keep a manageable routine of 3 hours of studying per day, every day. Working backwards this allowed me to complete the TTP course in 2 months (actually ended up taking 3 months).

Here are some of the things that I did or learned along the way:

  1. You will very likely need more time than you budget. If you think studying for the GMAT will take you 4 months, it will likely take you 5 or 6 months. Life gets in the way.
  2. Use the scratch paper strategy (dividing the page into 4). More on #3.
  3. The Data Insights section is really testing your time management capabilities. It's also the section that's most forgiving of mistakes (I got 5 / 20 wrong, including 2 of the first 3). I used the scratch paper strategy that I chanced upon in a YouTube video which helped bring my DI score from the ~80 range to the high 80s.
  4. As someone with a STEM major and a strong background in math, I wish I had spent less time going through all of TTP's lessons and tests on the quant section. This would have helped me take the test earlier without impacting my score. Scott may disagree ;)
  5. Create a plan for the lead-up to test day. I had a goal of 20+ hard questions every day (GMAT Club) and a series of YouTube videos to watch a week out from the test. Watching these gave me a sense of control and confidence on test day.
  6. Focus on doing your best, without caring about the test outcome. What helped me was thinking about how I'd react if I got a great test score vs. a poor one. This calmed me down because I gauged that my reaction to a poor test score would be to just try again.
  7. Try to emulate the test day environment as much as possible with your practice tests. This included doing the practice tests at the same time of day, eating the same breakfast and snacks that I'd eat on test day, etc. This gave me a sense of control on test day.

Happy to answer any questions. Let me know.

And... wish me luck for R3 applications!