560 - 670 - 710 I owe it to a lot of people

Hi clubbers,

I dont know whether it is an acheivement or a mere reward for the amount of hard work that I have put in, but what I surely know is that I am a much relieved man now. It all started in 2006 with GRE, yes that's true. I was not sure whether I wanted an MBA or MS finance at that time. But finally I dropped the idea of MS and concentrated for GMAT.

560 in 2007

Not knowing what are the best preparation materials, I started with Kaplan Premier program. Then moved on to 1000 series and then to Officical guide 11th edition. My weakness was verbal, especially RC. After 3-4 months of preparation I gave the GMAT. I fancied about anyhthing around 650 but 560 came as a shocker. I was so humiliated that I lied everybody, including my girlfriend that I got 640 But, I was sure that I can bounce back and can achieve a score of ~650 in the next attempt. I know how difficult those next 5-6 months for me. But I knew I can get my target score.

GMAT : 560 (Q48, V20) AWA : 4.0

670 in 2008

This time I concentrated on verbal. I did OG thoroughly and then picked up OG verbal and Math separate books. But still RC continued to hunt me. I also took manhattan GMAT CATs. I gave GMAT and ended with 670. Frankly speaking, I was happy at that moment. At least it was better than what I lied. I started applying to B schools with a score of 670. But I felt that people are not respecting the score 670. I am not talking about applying to top 15 b schools but even for the lower ranked schools, I felt that my score is not sufficient. I dropped the plan to apply in November 2008 and decided that I have to score at least 700. By any means !!!!

GMAT: 670 (Q48, V34) AWA: 4.0

710 in 2009

I had to kill RC this time. I realized that most of the mistakes in RC were because I wasn't understanding the passage well. I was following the strategy of writing few words and phrases from the passage while reading it. But I found that this strategy not only wastes time but also does not make me understand anything. Therefore, what ever I was answering was getting wrong. I didnot like the idea of skimming the passage. Then, I started to read the entire passage every time and started making a mental map of it. By doing this startered to understand the passage structure well and while answering the questions, I could always refer back to the passage. I also startered doing passages posted on the GMAT club forum. I think this guy Nitya's line " 3 passages a day- keeps the fear away" motivated me to do RCs everyday. Also, I ordered Manhattan SC guide and read it thoroughly. I did around 20 GMAT club challenges.

Finally I saw, this time I was getting better scores in full length CATs and felt confident about the test. I also foudnd that out of all the tests that I gave, in 9 tests I scored 710. I gave GMAT after preparing for about 6 months and finally got an ever important >700 figure.

GMAT : 710 (Q49, V 38)

Materials used:

OG 11th, 12th
OG Verbal and quant books
Manhattan SC guide, CATs and question banks
kaplan 800
800score maths
GMAT club challenges and what ever materials I could find on this forum

CATs:

MGMAT Free: 730
MGMAT 1 :710
MGMAT 2 :710
MGMAT 3 :710
MGMAT 4 :710
MGMAT 5 :710
MGMAT 6 : 760
MGMAT 1 (repeat) : 770

KAPLAN Online (Free): 680
Knewton GMAT online (Free) : 690

Power Prep 1 : 710
Power Prep 2: 710
Gmat prep 1: 710
Gmat prep 2: 710
Gmat Prer 1(Repeat) : 760
Gmat prep 1 (Repeat) : 700
Gmat Prer 2(Repeat) : 760

So, for the test takers I have only one suggestion, you will get what you really want from the bottom of your heart. Donot fancy what you will get.

In the end, thanks to every gmat club members, Manhattan GMAT and yes, my girlfriend (who now knows what ever I did but still happy that I got a 700)