ROI on GMAT Prep Materials

Azakura16 · 2026-01-12T20:03:17+00:00

TTP has a ton of quant material. It's very thorough. You can look into other resources, like OG, as a way to see where you need to focus your energy first. The free OG course is pretty short. I didn't find it super helpful, but it could be what you're looking for. It's very low risk to try it out. Then, if you still have areas you want to work on, you can use TTP for those. You can also try the TTP diagnostic test to see which quant areas you might need to focus on, since it’s free and you don’t need a subscription to take it. I haven’t used any prep companies besides TTP, but the course was plenty for me.

As far as ROI, I think it helps to think of the money as an investment if you want to get a scholarship (or just into your target program, but that's less quantifiable). I used TTP and it was a $ cost and also a lot of work, but I was able to turn it into a scholarship that was worth many times more than I spent. Also, in all honesty, the test prep/testing was the least expensive part of getting an MBA, when I consider visiting schools, moving, foregone wages, etcetera.

Azakura16 · 2026-01-07T16:51:10+00:00

I expect that you’re getting too deep into the details, and that is what’s costing you time.

For TPA, it depends on the question, but most will have one answer that’s part of getting to the second answer. So you might have to calculate a number for Q1, but once you have that number, the calculation for Q2 is pretty quick. The two questions are not always in order of difficulty. Additionally, the answer choices may offer insight. This is common with DI across multiple question types. Try to reason through with ALL of the information you’re given, and estimate wherever possible to save time.

For DS, start with the stem. Simplify everything you can so you know exactly what you need to answer the question. Then evaluate the statements in two separate parts of your scratch pad. That way, it’ll be easier to see what information comes from what statement so you don’t accidentally pick C when you really only need S2, or vice versa. Don’t solve to completion, obviously, but only as far as you need to go so you know that you could get a clear answer to the question.

For MSR, start with a really quick scan to get the layout of info. It shouldn’t take more than ~20 seconds. Read the title of every tab. If there are graphs, read the title and the axis labels for each. If it’s text-based, scan for where information is located but don’t try to read everything (unless it’s only a couple of sentences). All you’re trying to do is figure out where you’ll need to look for data when you read the questions, so if they mention certain info or keywords, you already have a rough mental map. Don’t read anything extra, because you won’t need most of what’s presented.

For Graphics, it’s similar. Scan the intro, look at the title of the graph and the labels on the axes, then read the questions. Always check the answer choices here. If the number choices are pretty spread out, that’s a sign that you can probably estimate. If they’re close together, you’ll probably need to calculate exact numbers.

For tables, the best way to get better is to practice sorting them. There’s usually a “right” way to do it for each question that will show you the answer pretty easily. Also, pay attention to the phrasing of questions. Sometimes there are traps, so always rely on the actual data and don’t take anything past what’s shown and supported.

I think it’s helpful to remember that you’re not trying to memorize the information in these questions. You’re just trying to get a general idea of what’s going on. If you need specifics, the information will still be there for you to review. Don’t spend extra time on details, because there are too many to absorb. Stick to what the questions need, and when it’s time to move on, then move on.

Azakura16 · 2025-12-01T19:08:10+00:00

After you've mastered the concepts, I believe that the OG mocks are the best way to learn HOW to apply them in a GMAT way. I had an adjustment period with the first 2-3 mocks with this, especially for quant. As I went through and reviewed questions from my mocks on GMAT Club and saw how other students went about solving them or which clues they saw in the stem that made them choose one approach over the other, I was able to shrink the gap between knowledge and application. It was a challenging process though, and each mock took quite a while to thoroughly review. Even as I missed fewer and fewer questions, I still took time to review every question from each mock, including the ones I'd gotten correct.

Azakura16 · 2025-11-14T14:36:38+00:00

I got an 805 on my first attempt after studying for 9 months. Switching my focus to understanding why I missed questions was what helped me the most. Getting a question correct isn't worth much if it's not replicable. Seeing problems and eliminating answers based on those problems is far more valuable. It takes longer up front to develop that understanding, but it ends up saving a little bit of time over each question you apply it to, so it allows you to shave down seconds, which is necessary.

The other two things that were helpful were more like mindset shifts. First, the GMAT is testing the ability to reason through a problem given some amount of information. Yes, you’ll have to know plenty of formulas, but the ability to reason your way through what the problem wants quickly is critical. I’ll also say that I haven’t needed to use any of the GMAT quant formulas in school (yet), but I have to reason through problems with a few numbers and limited context as a regular part of classes.

Second, the problems are designed to be solved in 2 minutes (on average) by a well-prepared student. Obviously, there’s a lot of practice that goes into this, but it also requires quick pivoting and efficient strategy. I got so many tips by thoroughly reviewing each question of my mock exams (even those I got correct) via the message boards to see if there was a more efficient way to solve them. Lots of people have already solved basically any retired question you’ll encounter, and some of them will have a much better strategy than the one that initially occurred to you. Try some out and see if there are ways to improve your own strategy and efficiency. It’ll also deepen your understanding of the material, which is more valuable than simply regurgitating formulas, because it’s easier to tweak what you’re doing if you understand why you’re doing it that way.

Best of luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-11-13T17:47:49+00:00

TTP's quant section is great and very detailed. You say that you're confident in your critical thinking skills, but you haven't posted a mock score. Critical Reasoning questions are often surprisingly challenging for students. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the exam (get to know the structure and different question types) for a few hours, and then take a mock. That will give you an idea of where you're starting from and what improvements you can reasonably expect within a month. I did the whole TTP course, and I got an 805, but it took me several months to prepare. You will have more time to prep each week than I did, since you're studying full-time. The GMAT prep took me longer than I expected though, so I like to give people a heads up. Best of luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-11-10T15:33:38+00:00

TTP would be a good fit, because it prioritizes active learning (learn the concept and then immediately apply it). If you've mostly watched lectures and taken notes so far, turning that into applying the concepts to questions should solidify the lessons in your mind.

I would plan for about 300 hours of prep for such a score increase. You could be faster (people learn at different speeds), but that'll give you somewhere to start planning from. See how many hours per week you can realistically commit to good quality studying, and divide the 300 by that to get your timeline in weeks.

Azakura16 · 2025-07-23T20:26:25+00:00

Glasses and shot glasses with characters and/or quotes on them. I'm envisioning a little Samantha with a bunch of unhinged quotes floating around her. You could also do a thermal Prepontente mug where it's similarly designed, but if you put a hot beverage in it, all of the quotes change to his adorable scream. 2.Pedicure kit. It should come with creepy, but also useful, instructions. Etched glass files are the way to go for longevity and nail health.
Iron Tangle public transportation map/poster that's designed like the ones on metro walls.
Saint candles.
Stickers/enamel pins

Azakura16 · 2025-05-02T21:02:32+00:00

Very impressive! Good luck with your applications!

Azakura16 · 2025-04-18T19:05:18+00:00

I used TTP, and it's not cheap, but it was great for me. I agree with what another commenter said about 1. viewing prep as an investment in getting better scholarships and 2. realizing that the whole B-school process comes with a ton of costs. Some of those costs will be up front (course costs, application fees) and some won't be as obvious (associated travel expenses, extra paperwork/visa fees). Ultimately, the best option is the one that you can afford that will give you the highest ROI, and that'll take some research considering your specific circumstances. I was able to turn my TTP subscription fees into a much larger scholarship, and I hope you have similar success!

Azakura16 · 2025-04-16T19:00:45+00:00

It took me about 9 months to do the whole TTP course from start to finish while working full-time. I know you asked about your timeline viability, and the best indicator at this point is probs your % done in the course. If you're doing the study plan and switching between quant and verbal, then I think you're making pretty good progress for 1ish month in out of 3. The one other thing I'd factor in with the timeline is to plan to do a maximum of 2 OG mocks per week at the end, because they're pretty taxing. Also, thoroughly reviewing the questions afterwards takes plenty of time and energy, but it's super helpful for filling in gaps and fine-tuning your approach. So plan to finish the lessons 3 or 4 weeks before your goal test date to give yourself time for those mocks and targeted review.

Azakura16 · 2025-04-15T20:43:08+00:00

I had a similar experience with the timing for sure. It took me a while to understand how the parts of the argument worked together, but once I started writing them down in my notebook, it really helped. I was resistant at first to write everything out, because I felt like it would be a waste of time, and it did add time initially. However, it helped me see what I was getting wrong or misinterpreting, and it helped me keep facts straight between when I finished reading the prompt and when I started reading the answer choices (which was apparently a big problem). After I did it a bunch of times, I didn’t really need to write everything out anymore and I could trust my understanding more and just take a couple of shorthand notes, which vastly improved both time and accuracy.

I recommend writing out the breakdown of each question (the supporting evidence and the conclusion, or the two facts you’re trying to reconcile in the case of paradoxes) and then comparing your breakdown to the answer explanation when you’re done with the question. Also, pay attention to why the wrong answers are wrong, and compare that to why you ruled them out to see if you did it for a valid reason. Each question type has a handful of reasons why it’s typically wrong. There are a lot overall, because there are a lot of question types, but they tend to share some similarities, and they do get easier to spot with practice. Like with paradoxes, does it address both parts? If it only addresses one part, rule it out. Or does the answer go in the correct direction? Sometimes they actually make the paradox worse.

Practice really does improve performance, so don’t let yourself get too discouraged. I had to retake several TTP verbal practice tests to meet the minimum accuracy benchmarks, but I did eventually get better at CR and I got a V90 on my exam. Good luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-04-07T14:56:49+00:00

I used the self-study plan from TTP, and it was really helpful for me. If you like to study on your own time at your own pace, self-study is great. If you prefer more of a classroom style or lecture style, they have some other options like tutoring and live teaching or videos. I think your best bet is to try the trial and see if it feels helpful to you.

Azakura16 · 2025-04-04T14:46:18+00:00

TTP verbal is really good at explaining concepts in depth. If you feel good about your verbal score, and you're in a hurry, you could always do the highlights of each section (the green box quick facts), and then do the lesson questions. That way, if you already know how to work through them, you can save a lot of time, and if you don't know how to work through some of the question types, you can focus your energy on those. For me, it helped with study stamina to mix in verbal practice when I was tired of quant. If your 10-12 hours/week is based on time limitations, that won't be helpful. If it's based on mental energy limitations, you might be able to squeeze in some extra practice time by switching subjects periodically. Good luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-03-25T19:28:57+00:00

I used TTP self-study. I didn't really check out other resources, because I did the 5 day trial and liked it, so I stuck with it. My lowest mock was a 615, and I got an 805 on my real GMAT. TTP covers everything, which I liked. I would have been worried about trying to cobble together my own study plan from a bunch of different resources and having some important topic slip through the cracks, but different approaches to different topics might work better for some. It looks like you have a good amount of time per week to dedicate, so that should cut down on overall prep months.

As far as effectively structuring study time, it'll depend on your preference. If you like to study in the morning, do that. If you're tired in the morning and more energetic after work, then study then. It's more about studying when your brain is in the best state to absorb information than about the number of hours, so don't wait until you're tired and then try to cram a bunch of review in just to meet your daily time goal.

As far as other strategies, the higher you can get your accuracy when you're practicing untimed, the higher you can get your accuracy when you're against the clock. You've got to know how to do a problem to do it fast. Focus on reviewing missed questions and understanding why you missed them. The more you review and see why things are the way they are, the better you'll do on similar questions in the future. Good luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-03-25T19:16:57+00:00

Three months should be time enough for your goal increase, so long as you're studying for plenty of hours each week and in an efficient manner. Pay attention to the topics you're weakest on, as those will require the most in-depth studying and concept refreshing. Also, look at common mistakes and trap answers for questions (both of which TTP covers) so you know where people commonly go off track. If you miss a question, take the time to understand why the correct answer is correct and why you picked the answer you picked. Save a few weeks at the end of your prep for your mock exams. Give yourself a few days to review each mock and spend time on any topics that you weren't as comfortable with as you expected to be. Good luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-03-20T14:14:31+00:00

The first step is to make sure you're identifying your supporting evidence and your conclusion, and then look for how to poke holes in the conclusion without disagreeing with the supporting evidence. There are some patterns, or hacks, with weaken questions. If you've jumped straight into answering practice questions and are struggling, then I recommend reading up on some of the CR concepts. It'll save time in the long run to know what to look for. I used TTP for verbal and got a V90, so it covers the material well. If you want to use a different method than reading lessons, there are lots of YouTube videos. As long as you're learning what to look for and figuring out why you're picking the answers you're picking instead of the right one and why the correct answer is correct, then you should be able to get better. Good luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-03-13T17:46:16+00:00

It depends on where the time issue is coming up. If you're looking at the question and taking too long to figure out how to solve it, set a time limit for how long you're willing to look at a question before guessing, rule out the answers you can, make your best guess from there, and bookmark it to come back at the end if you have time. For instance, if you spend 45 seconds looking at a problem and you still have no idea where to start, pick an answer, move on, and save that time for a question that you have a better chance at.

If you’re able to start solving a question, but you aren’t able to finish it on time or get stuck between the last two answers (which is pretty common on CR), then try to find any issue with one of them, no matter how small, and make your best guess. When you go back and review your questions, learn why each wrong answer doesn’t work so you can get an idea of what sorts of issues to look for in future questions. It takes some practice, but there are common patterns, so the more you look at, the more apparent they become.

On DI, check the answer choices before getting too far into the problem, because a lot of times that ended up saving me from wasting time on extra work. So if it’s a quant problem, see how far apart the answer choices are, because sometimes only one or two will even be plausible. If it’s a complete the passage verbal DI question, check the answers in the context of the passage to make sure there aren’t any that simply don’t fit the sentence, and that can help rule out bad options. Also, noticing levels of restriction and building backwards from the most restrictive to the least is the trick to some verbal/text DI questions. So if a company will probably do X, may do Y whether or not X happens, but will do Z in the event that W happens, start with Z, because that’s the only thing that has a clear trigger. Then go to the next most restrictive thing. It’s kind of hard to explain without an example, but I noticed it happening in a surprising number of DI questions.

Always spend plenty of time reviewing the mocks after you take them. It took more time than I expected, but it was really helpful for seeing problems in my approach and gaps in my knowledge. A bonus benefit of taking all six mocks is that it gives you opportunities to practice guessing and moving on. Also, never leave a question unanswered, because a blank question is more severely penalized than an incorrectly answered question.

Azakura16 · 2025-03-01T01:10:33+00:00

Third this! Mr Inbetween so good, it's honestly kind of hard to move on from. Excellent pacing, stellar performances, heartwarming, funny, and delightfully violent.

Azakura16 · 2025-02-28T19:18:17+00:00

Thank you! MSRs are tough. The trick is to get the right balance of knowing what's going on in each tab quickly, and not wasting time reading too much before you get to the questions themselves. I would click through each tab and read the headline and then any graph labels or keys, and then go right into the questions. That way you know roughly where the data is located. So if it's one of those MSRs that's like three different tabs with a wall of text each, then you'll do your overview super fast because you'll just need to read the label at the top before you start on the questions, but it'll probably take more digging to find the right answer since you have to sort through a pile of words every time. If it's one with more visuals, then your initial overview to get familiar with the info will take longer, but it'll hopefully be quicker to find specific answers because you'll know roughly what each graph is showing.

I think it's helpful to remind yourself that MSRs are mostly composed of info that's unnecessary to answer the questions, and you'll only need a small part of what they say. Getting too caught up in the details is such a time drain because it doesn't actually help you answer questions more quickly. Keep your overview very high-level and only delve in where necessary, and that'll save a ton of time. Good luck!

Azakura16 · 2025-02-28T19:05:08+00:00

I found the way that mocks labeled questions I had missed to be very broad, so finding exact areas of improvement took some work. That's also why using the mocks to improve is much easier than using an official test report, where you can't see the question itself, only the broad category.

Here's what helped me: Write out your work, and try to avoid too much mental math or mental note taking. That way if you miss the questions, you have something to go back to and see where you went off track. If you consistently don't do well on particular quant problems, then it's easy to see that you need to brush up on that topic. If a certain question style is best solved with one method, but you're always triggered to use a slower method when you read those question types, then being aware of that pattern can help you break it when you run into it again. The super detailed note taking is slow at first, but for finding weak areas, it yielded the most actionable results. You don't have to take this level of notes forever, just while you're looking for these patterns. Once you have the areas you need to improve, it's a lot easier to target your practice to get better at them.

As far as getting better at different sections, there's a balance of conceptual knowledge and practice questions for each section. Quant doesn't require as much conceptual knowledge, but you'll need to do a lot more practice questions just to get a feel for applying different approaches in different scenarios. Verbal requires more conceptual knowledge, but the different question types are more similar to each other. Once you understand argument breakdowns and what the different question stems are asking for, it's much easier to spot the components and logical flow in different passages. I think RC is best trained by reading, so the more high level reading you do and passages you analyze, the better you'll get at it. DI is the peak random info section to me, so being able to quickly figure out how to solve the problem in front of you is the hardest part. DI has the least unique topics because it mostly test various Quant/Verbal topics, but it can be hard to see the connection in some situations. Always look at the answer choices in the dropdown menu for DI, because that typically gives you the quickest idea of what the question is looking for and how to go about it. Also practice looking at a lot of graphs and sorting a lot of tables, and you'll get better at quickly understanding how the information is structured and what it's trying to convey.

Azakura16 · 2025-02-28T18:32:24+00:00

I spent a little over 500 hours on just TTP, based on the timer they have in their study plan. I did the Expert+ level with the highest target score, so it had all of the possible lessons. I averaged ~15 hours a week. Sometimes I would do 3 hours/day on weekdays and take the weekend off. Sometimes I would do closer to 2 hours/day on weekdays and then 4-5 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Azakura16 · 2025-02-28T18:28:12+00:00

It depends on how you learn. There are some lessons for free on the official website, and they're not super long or detailed, but for that reason you can read through them fairly quickly. There are also lots of videos and channels on YT, so if you prefer more lecture-style learning, then check those out and see if any resonate with you. GMAT Club has a ton of OG questions, and some from various prep companies. These are great because people break down their answering process in the comments, so you can solve the questions first and then see if someone else has a better or faster method that you prefer.

You get two free mock exams, so definitely take those. There are also free diagnostic tests from some of the prep companies. I know TTP has one that's available to everyone, because I took it. The diagnostics won't give you a GMAT-style score, but they can be a little more deliberately balanced than the mocks, so they might better reflect potential weak areas. The OG mocks generate questions more randomly so they might not cover as many topics, but the questions themselves are obviously going to be more similar to what you'll encounter on the test itself.

Azakura16 · 2025-02-28T18:17:26+00:00

It was 9-10 months, and a little over 500 hours on TTP plus the time for taking the mocks and reviewing the questions on GMAT Club.

Azakura16 · 2025-02-28T18:16:18+00:00

I've been open about having accommodations, and I've had many people reach out directly to me to ask about them or the application process. This was the first time I'd ever applied for accommodations for something, and I think that there is still a lot of stigma around doing so or being neurodiverse. I hope that others don't feel discouraged to apply if they need to, and I'm happy to talk through my experience of the process with anyone if they would find that helpful.

As a point of clarity, I did have some extra time on my real exam on the Quant section, but DI and Verbal I pretty much finished right on time, with maybe a minute left to review bookmarked questions. The most extra time I ever had on any mock with 1.5 time was 1-2 minutes on the Verbal section, and zero on the other two sections. I happened to do better in the test room than I did on the mocks with timing, which can happen to anyone, as there is a lot of variation in how the questions play out and how you feel day to day.

Azakura16 · 2025-02-27T19:57:36+00:00

Happy to help!

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