Hi there,
Wanted to share my story hope it inspires some of you although it's a journey and probably I would be writing gmat 1 more time.
Last year I gave GMAT after studying for 4 weeks and scoring a dismal 630 (49Q 27V 5.5 AWA 4 IR).
I took help from
manhattan books did all 8 of them in 4 weeks and gave my gmat.
I was shocked as hoped to score more but thereafter got involved with work and travel so gmat was completely off my target.
Then in June 2016 1 year after my previous gmat I decided to give the GMAT again in August.
Length of study - Total I gave 7 weeks of study to do GMAT.
I took off from work for 4 weeks knew very well my weak area was verbal enrolled in
egmat verbal online prep.
Started my prep from mid June but took a 2 week break to write another certification. Then came back to gmat prep.
Material Used - Manhattan Books,
egmat verbal online course
I relied totally on
egmat for concepts practiced the questions from
OG and
OG verbal and
OG quant.
I practiced 120 odd questions from
egmat scholranaium.
I loved
egmat but thought I didn't make full use of the course as I think I devoted less time or had less time as I had to write gmat by 12 August as had to concentrate on a project at office.
I relied for explanations on
mgmat site and gmat club- especially Ron from
mgmat , all the experts on gmatclub - on their explanations on cr and sc.
I also signed up for
gmat club tests which came with my
egmat subscription but just took 3-4 of them. I think this also shows my mistake which was not giving exams and doing practice.
Exams given for prep - I gave just 3 mocks.
Scored
Gmatprep1:49Q 38V:720(2 questions on Verbal I had already seen)
Gmatprep2:49Q 32V:680
Gmatprep5:49Q 35V:700(1 day prior to exam)
On real exam got-
49Q 35V:700 6 AWA 5 IR
I was consistent on all the exams that I gave - this being probably the lone bright side.
Background information (education, employment, etc.) - I have 11 years work ex in from R&D to BPM to financial analytics working for an iBank on tech side in India.
Words of Advice
Things you wish you knewI wish I had gone through Ron's video on Vimeo and probably done some more practice on Quant - could have targeted for 51. I should have gone through a few gmat experiences of people before starting my prep - could have directed my prep better.
Things you have learnedPatience is key - I did less questions but analyzed a lot. I think I probably would have done less that 1000 Qs and relied only on official sources for practice.
I was not the
error log kinds(probably was lazy here or underscored its importance) but probably for 750+ I would have to keep log of all my
error log.
Things you wasted your time onNone actually I didn't have much luxury.
Finally, your test experienceTest experience was great - never felt any pressure - I think this was because I followed the mantra given by various experts -
- gave my GMAT prep tests at the same time,
- honored the breaks of exactly 8 mins and
- stayed in my room when I was giving mocks - in the exam I kinda had a walk just saying to myself the exam is perfect till now its just 1 more section. Keeping focused is the key. Thought the RC passages were tough really tough but I kinda kept on telling myself - keep cool. Timing wise didn't feel the pressure.
I was always pushing myself - yes verbal is interesting - lets learn from the passage.
I think I'll probably write the gmat again target 760+ - but I'll probably apply this year with 700 score as my work ex of 11 years is on the higher side.
Next time - if I don't end up in my target school - hope not
- would finish all scholranaium questions and practice all
gmat club tests.
Best of luck to everyone.
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