GMAT Focus 805

Watch Julia's video debrief on YouTube
 

I don't usually do things like this. I'm way more of a lurker. I made this profile two days ago, even though I've benefitted from this forum as a tool to figure out why I got questions on the practice tests wrong. However, I took my first official GMAT last Wednesday and managed to get a perfect score. Also, I've been studying for the GMAT since July of last year, and it's taken up a lot of my free time and energy, which I suddenly have available again, so I might as well lay out my experience in case it's helpful for anyone else. 

I pretty exclusively used Target Test Prep, aside from the question review mentioned above. I started mid-July. I didn't really know how long I would need to prepare, as I work a lot and I have limited free time. As any good citizen of the internet does when searching for product reviews, I went to Reddit to find what programs people recommended, and TTP came up a lot. Positive (and less positive) reviews mostly talked about how thorough TTP's program is. I'm anxious and I like to overprepare for things, so that sounded great to me. I had a vague notion of preparing for a couple of months left over from my erstwhile undergrad days. That's clearly not what happened. I ended up spending about 9 months prepping, and I logged about 500 official prep hours.

Here's what I liked about TTP:
1. It is crazy thorough - Every chapter has review tests in three difficulty levels, and many have multiple review tests in each level. 
2. Difficulty - There were lots of very challenging questions. I often felt I understood concepts well, but when asked to apply them to harder questions, it was a whole other deal. This was one of the most helpful things for my prep. A lot of the concepts that I was tested over aren't necessarily difficult, but seeing how to get from the question to the answer (in the allotted time) will absolutely make or break the experience.
3. The lesson structure- This turned out to be a much bigger plus than I expected. If I had a minute while waiting at the doctor's office, or in between customers, or before my partner got home, I could tackle a lesson or two. They're broken down, bite-sized concepts, followed by specific questions to apply the concepts. Being able to make a little progress when I had time, instead of having to carve out whole blocks of time every day, fit into the life I live a lot better.
4. I liked their vibe- This will be personal preference to a degree, but I liked the TTP team's overall vibe. They give off the impression that they know what they're doing and they want to be doing it. I just wanted a slightly dry, no nonsense, coven of math wizards to run me back through a review course of most of high school, and these people answered the call. Even when I had questions that weren't about the course exactly (applying for accommodation), it was TTP's Scott (on Reddit) that answered those questions as well. I appreciate dealing with people who are dedicated to their craft.

A note on my accommodation, and a quick note about the TTP study plan layout (which I recommend following): TTP recommends not stressing early on about the time that you take to answer questions, but instead focusing on building a strong foundation of the knowledge and knowing that you'll get faster with practice. That was true. At the end of the study plan, they have you take the 6 official GMAT tests that are available to purchase on the MBA website, and I took one per weekend for 6 weeks. TTP's website is nice, well laid out, decent on mobile, overall pretty user friendly. The GMAT Focus is very Windows 95. It's not nearly as user-friendly. It also does this fun thing where, after every question, it pops up a box that makes you confirm that you are ready to submit your answer and move to the next question. The TTP tests aren't clunky in that way, and the first time I took a practice test, it threw me all the way off. I wasn't doing super bad on my time up until that point, but the extra seconds dealing with that popup every time takes, and the way it felt generally disruptive to me added a lot of stress. I ended up applying for an accommodation for time and a half pretty quickly after my first practice test, because it's recommended that you give the GMAC 30ish days to get a decision back to you, and you can't schedule your test until you're approved for the accommodation or it doesn't count. I got my decision back in like 5 days, so I was lucky. I pushed my time and a half to the limit on quant in every. single. practice exam. In the actual exam, I ended up having about 2 minutes left on DI, 5 minutes left on Verbal, and like 15+ minutes left on Quant. My actual test score was higher than any practice test and less stressful than any practice test (even though the kid in the testing cubical next to mine sounded like they were coming down with consumption, and I would recommend earplugs).

TTP does mention to take care of yourself while you're studying, get enough sleep, get enough exercise, anything that makes you feel your best. They especially recommend to take it easy the last week before the test, eat a good breakfast the morning of, get there early. I made myself do 10 minute meditations before bed every night for the last two weeks before my exam, because even though they can be frustrating in the moment, they do force me to calm down. The day of, I woke up 15 minutes earlier than I usually do so I would have time to do a bit of yoga and a quick meditation before I went to the test center, and I do think that helped. Also, some of it was luck, because there were almost zero questions that covered the topics I have the most trouble with, and even with infinity preparation, the topics covered are still incredibly broad and some will be easier for you than others. Good luck!



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