Thank you everyone in the sub for all your support. You guys have no idea how much it meant to me.

Here is my study timeline and journey:

Sep 2025: Started studying for 1 month.
Oct 2025: Took an initial diagnostic mock to see where I stood and got 435
Nov 2025 – Jan 2026: Studied for 9 weeks using free resources (GMAT Club study plan) and hit 515.
Jan 2026: Realized I needed more structure and switched to paid resource
Jul 2026: 1st Attempt: 615.
Aug 2026: 2nd Attempt: 675.

I took a total of 4 weeks off along the way, and each week I studied for about 16-20 hours.

Background:
- 31F, East Asian, non-native English speaker.
- Attended domestic schools throughout my education (no international school background).

Key Takeaways & Tips

1. ⁠Don't waste time on unstructured free resources if English is not your first language. The GMAT is designed by humans, meaning it relies on specific structures, patterns, and logic. Guided study platforms provide a clear shortcut to understanding how questions are built rather than just guessing.
2. ⁠Use GMAT Club Study Plan strategically. The GMAT Club study plan is great, but it might be better suited for advanced prep or when you've exhausted primary learning materials. I integrated it toward the tail end of my study journey.
3. ⁠Marty Murray’s Streak Method is THE BOMB. Building target accuracy streaks was incredibly painful, but it guarantees real growth. Every time I hit a target streak, I felt like an absolute beast LOL
4. ⁠Develop genuine curiosity for Verbal passages. When practicing RC and CR, approach the text to learn, not just to finish. Before shifting my mindset, I used to feel relieved just getting to the end of a passage, which made me rush and miss critical details. Cultivating curiosity kept me engaged and dramatically improved my retention.
5. ⁠Don't let Data Insights intimidate you. When you see complex graphs or strange data formats in DI, stay calm. Remind yourself: If GMAC put this on the exam, it is solvable. Trust that you have the tools to unpack it step by step.

Finally, I just wanted to let y’all know that nothing is impossible 😭😭😭😭😭

Practiced only the official GMAT guide for each section+official mocks (1-4), no tuition/extra stuff beyond.

17 July 2026 - first official test 625 (78, 82/85/76 -- 93/88/23)

I think the poor performance was due to maybe even overtraining on the same problems creating shortcuts and biases + test setting drag. I recall for verbal somehow realizing I had 3 mins left for 4 questions on verbal, so whatever time management I did in practices didn't quite port to the real deal in the hot seat.

Did no review/prep for at least a week to kill the memoryness a bit and then reviewed selectively, with an emphasis on just timed drills specifically for verbal 9 question/15 mins bursts, just to build that little bit of cognitive 6th gear if ever needed again.

12 Aug 2026 - second official test 675 (94, 82,90,79 -- 93,100,46)

the CR score sucked because there was a glitch on the pc which didn't let me submit the final qn -- or rather i thought it submitted but it didn't

did nothing to prep since, maybe a light 1/2 hours every third day at most in reviewing past problems, and bought official mock 3 and mock 4 to practice the full monty to keep test time management in check

After mock3/4, the weekend prior to the test I observed and collated my verbal issues to understand why my test variance on verbal was massive. My mistakes were generalizing into this specific class under pressure:

Mistake: picking the option that was plausible about the topic rather than responsive to the argument. Four forms: familiar vocabulary treated as sourced; true-and-topical treated as relevant; causal arrow never reversed; right topic, wrong verb.
Fix: narrow the claim before reading options → source each option to a sentence → reverse the arrow if causal.

On the test day today on 1 Sep 2026, the whole morning prior all I did was repeat to myself and hope that I follow my rules based verbal elimination criterion well today:

"Say the conclusion in words. Narrow. Include who it's about. Causal conclusion? Say the reversed arrow. Then look for it among the choices. "Helpful to know" question? Yes/no fork. Can't state both branches → cut.

Then, per option, in this order 1. Point at the source. Name the sentence or the premise. Can't point → cut. 2. Does it touch the claim I just stated? True and topical isn't enough. Doesn't touch → cut. 3. Check the verb and the direction. Wrong action, wrong party, inflated quantifier → cut."

Today 1 Sep 2026, third official test 705 (98?, 82,90,83 -- 93,100,80+?)

scores will finalize and converge tmr I'm just sharing what I recall I saw the the moment the test ended, hence the question marks on the respective percentiles/score i don't perfectly remember. woohoo never gonna study for this test again and I can move on.

There's a steady stream of posts on this sub (and around the GMAT world) reporting test day scores significantly lower than scores on MBA,com official mocks, and people want to know why it happened. Sometimes it's anxiety or real underperformance compared to mock exams, but people frequently report lower than normal scores when they missed the same number of questions as on the official mocks. Those are the scores I want to explain here.

MBA,com says that the official mocks use the same scoring algorithm as the real test, and I have no reason to doubt the truth of that claim. But what the mocks don't have is the adaptive question selection algorithm that the real test uses. I know this from years of looking over clients' mock results and from running many of my own "experiments" on the official mocks. When you miss an early, easy question on the real exam, you are punished for it with a string of relatively easy questions. Quant seems to do this to a greater degree than the other sections, perhaps because there is only one type of question on quant. Verbal may not reduce your RC difficuly just because you miss one or two CR, and vice versa. For DI the wide variety of question types could be mitigating the effect even more. But quant is a monster that depends massively on how far you can make it into the section without a miss.

That is all. Happy to answer any related questions!

Disappointing test yesterday: 615 (Q84, V77, DI81).

I put in about 9 months of prep, studying roughly 30 hrs/week and exhausted all the OG material and tests. In mocks I consistently scored 700+, sometimes as high as 755. The actual test felt tougher than the mocks, and I was racing against time in every section. I think I panicked at the start, but nerves settled after the first 3 questions in each section.

Section breakdown:

**•** Quant: 3 wrong  
**•** Verbal: 6 wrong, plus I missed the last question. I had selected an option but didn’t hit submit since I had only 5 seconds left, I assumed GMAT would still count it, but it got marked unanswered instead. How many points could that one unsubmitted verbal answer have cost me?  
**•** DI: 8 wrong, with the last 4 consecutive wrong

In verbal, I just couldn’t follow what the long RC passages were saying and kept getting lost. I’ve gone through every bit of OG material, GMAT Club tests, and free tests from other platforms too.

I’m planning to retake it in a month. How should I start this time, and what material or strategy could help me take my score past 705?

Would really appreciate some guidance 🙏

Can you please help me understand how I can improve my score and how many months of preparation I would need to aim for a score of 685–695? I’ve attached my current scores in the following order: Quant, Verbal, and DI.

I have been using the TTP 4 month package about 15 days now and it feels like a very lengthy schedule. 596 lessons for quant and verbal don't seem to be aligned that much especially CR

what's your suggestions should I continue. I want to have my score by mid October.

​

Last night i took my second G-mat exam after a lot of preparation and I'm veryyyy disappointed in my self...i have been preparing a lot from last two months and i could only achieve the above score....

To apply for the colleges i want to get in i have to have the score till end of this month and iam planning on 655+

Is it possible??? Iam very very scared.....😭😭😭I am going registrar for 25th of this month

Can i anyone please give me tips to improve...

Verbal is where I am lacking the mosttttt.....can anyone please suggest me good strategy!!

please i need all the help i can have!!!

10th 80%

12th 90.8%

Captain and vice captain in school therefore responsible for sports day,cultural day and many school events

College 8.52 cgpa with recent 9 SGPA

Just started my 3 rd year

Have been a part of college events and clubs in each semester

AIESEC and other community member

Either I can apply this year with my 575 score or I switch to gre and apply in 2027

I have been preparing for the GMAT exam since 2022. I prepared for the classic edition and wrote the exam in 2023 scoring a 670. That time I had completed all the source materials from GMAC.

After that I started my preparation for the focus edition since start of 2026, my mock scores were as follows:

22-Feb-2026
Test 1
DI 79
Q 77
V 82
595

01-Mar-2026
Test 2
DI 68
Q 79
V 82
535

22-Mar-2026
Test 3
DI 78
Q 81
V 82
615

19-Jul-2026
Retake Test 1
DI 75
Q 83
V 81
595

26-Jul-2026
Test 4 (fresh)
DI 77
Q 80
V 80
585

02-Aug-2026
Retake Test 2
DI 85
Q 86
V 82
695

09-Aug-2026
Test 5 (fresh)
DI 80
Q 82
V 82
635

16-Aug-2026
Retake Test 3
DI 80
Q 89
V 80
665

22-Aug-2026
Retake Test 4
DI 80
Q 84
V 82
645

29-Aug-2026
Test 6 (fresh)
DI 77
Q 89
V 83
665

31-Aug-2026
THE REAL THING
DI 74
Q 80
V 84
575

I was really shocked with my final score. I didn’t have any test anxiety. I felt confident and calm. I was able to answer all questions within the time limit.

I really dont know what happened. I suspect that the GMAC practice question bank hasn’t changed much since I started studying for GMAT. My scores might have been inflated due to the practice I had done previously.

At this point, I have run out of material and might mostly conclude my GMAT preparations. It has been really disappointing considering the effort I put into it.

I have been studying for the gmat for about a year now and I’m STRUGGLING to get to a 645. My quant ranges from 66 to 80, verbal in the mid 80s, and data insights in low to mid 70s. I’ve really been studying every day but I just don’t understand why. Any tips?

Best resources to study algebra from. I have strong fundamentals but struggling with tricks and all used for solving hard questions. The material my coaching provides for the same is almost useless. Any recommendations for the same?

Can anyone help me with access to mba.com mocks.
I have already exhausted the 2 free mocks. And it is quite expensive for me to purchase the rest mocks.
Someone who has recently attempted gmat and no longer needs them, i can actually attempt the mocks there. I’ll be really grateful.
Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I am currently in the process of giving my GMAT exam and I need more mocks to prep. I currently cannot spend 10-12k on the mocks package. I wanted to know if any of you are done with your GMAT and have the mocks with you that you don’t want anymore? Thanks!

I went to give my exam at Pearson center, Delhi today but they told me there’s a global outage affecting 60% of test centers and they will be unable to conduct the exam today. They asked me to reschedule post 4th September.
Anyone else faced this issue? Worried as I need to apply for ISB R1 deadline

Also will I be eligible to receive any compensation apart from the free rescheduling ofc?

I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

I tried re-scheduling the exam and my money got deducted but payment status was failed. They said I can schedule new appointment and they will refund me for the exam fee and deduct re-scheduling fee manually. It happened since Dec 2025 when I first reach out to customer service. After multiple calls and emails we settled the result in end of Feb 2026. Now it has been 5 months of waiting and multiple follow ups and still no money movement whatsoever.

During the exam, I got technical issues like I need to change pens cause they're not working even though I tried all of them prior to starting the exam. Also, the bookmarks didn't show up at the end of the session. I contacted them and they said they will let me schedule new one in half price with 10 bucks to support my international call fee. I have to call some number with the link they attached. Guess what? The link shows the page doesn't exist. After multiple of emails I replied to counter that I should receive a new free exam without taking into 5 times per year count and ask for the number to reschedule. They don't reply me anymore. Do they expect that customers have to except whatever result they thought it's reasonable?

The most frustrating part is that they're juggling my cases between GMAC and Pearson Vue. I have to follow up the cases though different channels and both of them are very hard to follow up. I paid for a lot of international call fee and wasted sooo much my time to follow up. My stakes on that round are high I don't wanna go through details. They should keep in mind that it means a lot to test takers and these exams are valuable for us. The test even cost USD250. What triggers me to write down these things on Reddit is that Pearson Vue asked me why I just called after so many months. Like hello? Ma'am? I was speechless. and that they will contact via email again, and if they don't, I have to call them again.

I don't even know how many more emails and calls it would take to finally resolve the issues. Thank you for the space to vent. If you have any suggestion of how to escalate or resolve the issues more quickly, please let me know. I'm so tired of them.

I was on the last question and I double clicked by mistake and the screen with the score just passed, and l couldn't see the score. Now what do I do. How will I know my score? Official report comes in a few days right? I'll have to wait till then to see how I fared? I feel so stupid!!!

First year BBA STUDENT NMIMS MUMBAI want to start studying for GMAT please LMK from scratch subjects best uni and best time to start preparing. Good foundation of quants was an IPMAT aspirant

First year BBA student want to start for GMAT please help me out from scratch subjects and best uni and best time to start studying have a good foundation in quants was an IPMAT ASPIRANT

Can anyone help me with a book which I can use for Practice Questions for GMAT Quant since my work is on laptop - I want to reduce my screen time while studying, and I don’t want to go with the official Gmat guide.

Background :

- Decent grasp of English as a language. Math is good but forgot many concepts, DI is completely unknown, many answers were guesses

- Started proper prep mid August

- Planning to finish syllabus by October 15-20

- Planning to give exam November 8-12

- First blind mock (free paper #1) Verbal : 82 points

Question :

I'm currently going through the GMATwhiz course. As you can see my quant section was the weakest so I started with dedicated prep for that (I know math but have forgotten many concepts) but slowly moving towards mixing in verbal.

I've seen mixed opinions of the GMATwhiz verbal prep here. I was thinking of using GMAT Ninja videos instead to prepare for verbal and simultaneously solve all quizzes and OG questions using GMATwhiz.

Is this a good strategy?

From my research GMAT Ninja combined with regular practice should get me there considering my baseline is decent (according to chatgpt). At the same time, I don't feel comfortable using just a single mock exam as a measure of my skill as there's always a possibility for lucky guesses and I only have 2 months so don't want to take any chances.

Quants and DI I feel seem very well explained in GMATwhiz itself but any inputs from past students would be very appreciated!

Thank you :)

​

Just finished an intensive prep phase and took my first mock, but scored much lower than expected. During review, I could solve most of the questions I missed fairly comfortably, but under timed conditions I struggled particularly with hard/lengthy questions. Overspent time and it snowballed into later questions. For those who were already done with prep, did your first few mocks start low and then improve significantly? Would love to hear your mock score progression.