My 710 GMAT Score: A Six-Time Test Taker’s Hard-Won Victory
October 2020 GMAT 710 V35 Q51 (Seven-Week Intensive Course) Experience
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Test Scores
- Tests 1-2: Cancelled (July 2018, October 2018)
- Tests 3-5: Cancelled (August 2019, November 2019, March 2020)
- Online Test: 650 Q50 V27 IR: 7 (July 7, 2020)
- Test 6: 710 Q51 V35 AWA: 4 IR: 6 (September 28, 2020)
Background and Preparation Information
Academic Background: National Chengchi University, Economics
Preparation Time: March 2018 – October 2018; August 2019 – September 2020 (approximately 1.5 years, excluding the period spent preparing for IELTS)
Preparation Materials: A2 Training Course + Dustin’s Terminator Season 7
Foreword
Before graduating from university, I was undecided between studying abroad or starting work. However, I figured my GMAT score would be valid for five years, so I decided to take it before starting my career. I enrolled in the A2 GMAT course in my final semester. The reason I chose A2 GMAT back then was simply that many of my peers were either self-studying or attending this course. I didn’t spend much time comparing options, and in hindsight, I feel very fortunate to have participated in the A2 GMAT training course and Dustin’s Terminator course!
Early Struggles (Tests 1-5)
Tests 1-2
After enrolling in the March and April training classes in 2018, I received a job offer for a contract position I really liked in May. However, I didn’t balance work and study effectively. I didn’t thoroughly review and summarize the OG Verbal questions, and I skimmed through the class materials, hoping to get by with shortcuts. The result? I ended up with a very disappointing performance.
Military Service + Tests 3-5
After my contract ended, I immediately went into military service. Upon my discharge, I took a trip abroad and returned in August, deciding it was time to start fresh. I re-listened to the training course lectures and consulted with both A2 and Dustin. I realized my approach to summarizing questions was like playing in a corner:
- SC: I spent all my time on familiar concepts like parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and redundancy, thinking the questions were easy and that summarizing wasn’t very useful.
- CR: I memorized many techniques for cause-and-effect without effect, and no cause-no effect scenarios. However, during the actual test, I couldn’t grasp the question’s premise or stance and would jump straight to the answer choices, often getting lost and unable to escape the options.
- RC: This was the most serious issue. My accuracy was highly inconsistent. Sometimes I’d get all four questions wrong on a passage and had no idea how to review. I mindlessly drew logic maps as taught by A2, without truly understanding the passage’s flow. At times, I’d be completely confused by the content and make superficial summaries, which was clearly just going through the motions.
The biggest bottleneck in these three tests was: my reading comprehension was truly lacking! Even if I was familiar with SC and CR question types, or if the RC passage topic was something I knew well, I would panic under pressure during the actual test and be unable to absorb the meaning. As a result, none of the strategies taught in the A2 course were effective, which was a real shame.
Terminator Course + Online Test
Before my fifth test (March 2020), I noticed Dustin was recruiting for Terminator Season 7. Worried that I wouldn’t be able to register if I waited until after the test, and knowing spots would fill up fast (the test date coincided with the registration day), I privately messaged Dustin before the exam. I decided that if I didn’t achieve my target score in this attempt, I would enroll in the Terminator’s intensive training. Thus, I began the rigorous six-month Terminator course training in April 2020.
I would broadly categorize Dustin’s Terminator course into three main areas:
- Reading Comprehension: Low, medium, and high-difficulty reading exercises, along with reinforcement for challenging and obscure reading materials.
- Grasping Question Types:
- SC: Absolute correctness (grammar, logic) vs. Relative correctness (clarity, conciseness) vs. Hierarchy of pseudo-test points.
- CR: Premise, stance, logical chain, and predictive training.
- RC: Summarizing the core meaning of each paragraph in a single sentence to extract the essential idea.
- Test Strategy: Standard problem-solving process, solidifying the answering procedure, time management, training for endurance with difficult questions, and implementing a loss-cutting mechanism.
Frankly, all three of these were crucial concepts that A2, Dustin, and Kory tried to impart during the training course. However, in the early stages of preparation, I hadn’t clearly understood the test’s direction and spent a lot of time focusing on points 2 and 3, neglecting the most important and fundamental aspect – point 1. Therefore, I would summarize: The Terminator course helped me re-prioritize the core skill of reading comprehension, enabling me to fully utilize all the answering strategies and techniques taught in the training course during the actual exam, thereby maximizing my target score within the limited time.
Switching to IELTS Preparation + Final Test (Test 6)
However, after completing three months of the intensive Terminator course, I took an online test and only scored 650. I had been preparing for the GMAT for nearly a year since my military discharge, and with the application season approaching, I felt stuck in this GMAT quagmire. Therefore, after the online test, I consulted with Dustin via Slack, expressing my desire to focus on my application materials and IELTS for a while, and then make one final push in September. I believe this shift in focus was crucial for me. In hindsight, for multi-test takers like myself, temporarily shifting goals before advancing can alleviate psychological pressure and prevent underperformance.
During the two months of July and August after the online test, I dedicated about an hour each day to reading comprehension practice and maintained my touch with low-volume OG practice (5 SC questions, 1-3 CR questions, 1 RC passage). The day after receiving my IELTS score on September 7th, I made a resolute decision to give the GMAT one last try in the final three weeks. Fortunately, I successfully parted ways with the GMAT, which had been a persistent challenge, on September 28th!
Summary of Experience
This post leans more towards preparation mindset and my emotional journey. I believe that as long as students diligently follow the content taught by A2, Kory, Dustin, and KH, they can definitely achieve a satisfactory score on this exam. However, students often misjudge the order of priorities during preparation, trying to rely on shortcuts or tricks, which ultimately leads to disappointment.
Therefore, I want to convey the importance of fundamental skills through this experience, so that future test-takers can effectively utilize the resources provided by A2 GMAT and achieve success on their GMAT journey!
Finally, I’d like to share a message from Dustin to the Terminator class students, concluding my experience:
Hello everyone! I’m B from Terminator S7. Yesterday (September 28th), my score finally came out: 710 (Q51 V35). Before joining the Terminator course in April this year, I had taken five tests, with my highest score being 620. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been part of the A2 GMAT training course and Dustin’s Terminator program! This is a place filled with fellow students who are even more accomplished than us but are willing to help each other, along with great teachers.
Every successful test-taker has undoubtedly gone through challenging experiences, and their success stories aren’t easily replicated. Before reaching our goals, we might doubt ourselves, or even question if the exam is unfairly difficult. That’s okay, because every test-taker has worked hard on their journey. As long as we persevere, our final scores will prove that we are all capable of overcoming these challenges!
However, there’s one thing we absolutely should not doubt: reading comprehension. Dustin and A2 often emphasize its importance in class. If you’re in the Terminator course, you’re even luckier because Dustin insists on daily reading practice (even on the test day and the day before).
Although I only prepared for three weeks for this final attempt, it was built upon nearly six months of consistent 1-2 hour daily reading practice from April 10th until the test day. This allowed me to effectively apply everything I learned in class during the exam. Fortunately, I improved from V22 to V35 and successfully conquered the GMAT. This isn’t a success story that’s hard to replicate; it’s the foundation that everyone can achieve through hard work. If you continue this practice, it will undoubtedly help you not only in the GMAT and IELTS but also in your future studies abroad, allowing you to progress more steadily and confidently.
Wishing everyone success in conquering the GMAT soon! Keep going!
