680 (V28) to 740(V40) in 30 days - Nailed Verbal

Post my attempt at GMAT on July 1, 2013, I was disheartened as I got 680 (Q51 V28) - a score that was extremely skewed in one direction. For some initial days, I was under in a state of shock and dilemma to leave altogether my MBA plans or go with this score.

However, by July 11, 2013 I made up my mind to give GMAT again as I did goof-up in my earlier attempt - I used about 20 minutes on a single RC leaving me with no choice but to guess on last 5-6 verbal questions, and I always felt that those guesses took my score down.

Preparation:

Getting a good score in Quant, I did not study that section except for revising the incorrect questions, I faced during my Mock GMAT tests. In addition, I knew that my CR is a strength and I do reasonably well in RC, if I am able to focus appropriately in the test. Sentence Correction was the biggest problem area for me, although I had completed MGMAT Sentence Correction guide numerous times.

Verbal - Sentence Correction
To attack sentence correction I forgot all the question banks I had in my computer and just started reading basics again from Wren and Martin, post that I took a risk of buying the e-GMAT course. Although there were testimonials, mentioning significant improvements, I always took those with a pinch of salt and always took them as a marketing tactic. However, being depressed with my score, I took a risk of buying the course. And to my surprise, it was my best investment ever - although people might argue that the overall course content is similar to any other book - I would assume that nobody would create additional grammar rules to increase their course content over an above the ones required in GMAT. Primarily I did three data sources for my entire SC preparation

• e-GMAT Course
• OG Sentence Correction Section - Analysed each and every question and all the options, whether correct or incorrect from gmatclub and other sources
• OG Verbal Review 2 - Saw the Youtube videos uploaded by e-GMAT

Personally, I believe these three sources were far more than sufficient for even me, who was extremely weak in SC. In addition, I always referred back to Wren and Martin to clear some of my grammar concepts.

Mock Tests
Apart from SC, I was not good in timing strategy as I only gave 3 mock tests before my earlier attempt at GMAT. So, I started giving Kaplan Tests - the ones that come with GMAT Premier book. By my 5th mock test, my speed increased overall to a level, where I was able to complete Quant section within 70 minutes and the Verbal section within the stipulated time.

GMAT-Day:

As I started with the test, i had some stomach ache happening, irritating me to the core. As I started with AWA, which was fairly direct, I completely the section well within the time frame.

Post that in the IR section, I completed the section in about 22 minutes which was much faster than what I generally able to do. The confidence of completing IR well before time gave me a lot of confidence and surprisingly my stomach ache also vanished with it.

Quant
As I started with the Quant section, I solved 10 straight questions that I completed in under 6 minutes and on the 11th question, I got stuck for about 5 minutes and post that, keeping a stone on heart, I guessed it. Overall, I was able to complete the entire Quant section without any further guesses with 17 minutes remaining on the clock.

Yes it was amusing for myself, and I used the additional time into writing all the notes and some of the idioms for my Verbal section. I invested about 6-7 minutes into it and then clicked for the break (now I think, I should have used that 6-7 minutes as well).

Verbal
Post the break when I came back, I was surprised to see a new scratch pad on my desk and my 1 minute counter for the instruction screen had started. I quickly asked the invigilator to bring back my old scratch pad, which she did and I just started with the Verbal section.

As I started I got a difficult SC question to start with, whcih I took about 2-3 minutes to solve. Post that, my speed increased seeing some easy CR questions back to back and then a RC that was fairly easy to understand. Surprisingly my concentration was 10x times my average concentration I used to have during my earlier mocks. I was feeling very good about reading English. All the while I got 4 RCs and I understood all of them in just one read for each of them. As I was on 37 question I saw 15 minutes remaining on the clock, which literally gave me goosebumps. This was something highly not expected from me, so I continued solving the last 5 questions and I was done with 10 minutes on the clock. I took some minutes just thinking about the score on the last question. The last question was a SC question on subjunctive mood with an inserted modifier - this question increased my confidence level as I believed this to be a tough question and so I assumed that I have faired well on the test.

As time passed, I clicked the answer and filled out the additional questions required - the one those come at the end of the test. As I got the report score screen, I shivered and kept on saying 720 in my mind - but when I saw 740 on the screen, I had a big smile on my face. I was literally on top of the world seeing 40 in verbal, though I was not very happy with my quant score of 50.

As I came outside, I got the printout of my score, and the invigilator smiled and handed me the scorecard.

For any questions on preparation for SC, feel free to ask here.

Hi.. congrats on your great score. How did you go about Quant? You said you got Q51 in your first take too. Can you please share how did you approach Quant and share some tips for someone like me who is very weak in Quant (I scored Q44 in my first take).
And, Congrats again on the superb score.

So you finished the egmat course for SC within 30 days??? Usually how much time did you give on an average to different sections in those 30 days. Am assuming you covered all basics and were more focused on strategy during the second attempt. And you had amazing timing grasp since you were able to save so much time. Good job mate and good luck with your applications

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

Congrats on your score!
Did you only do Kaplan Mocks for second round?
Timing in verbal is my weak area.
Were the SC - meaning based?

Thanks
Any tips for CR and RC? How many RC did you get?

Congratulations on the great score. Some great takeaways in there.

1, Timing mock tests to 65 minutes once you plateau out on the score.
2, Building Stamina using the 1 hr crams for Verbal


Btw could you post your mock scores just to get a feel?

Congrats on a great score..i have a question with respect to the strategy with Verbal

considering that Verbal was not your strength how did you calm your nerves/got that confidence before you hit the start test of the verbal section, what did you do in the break between the quant and the verbal section. The reason im asking this is that i tend to freak out thinking what will happen in the verbal section since i know it is not my strength ..how did you come out of that frame of mind ?

Thanks!.

I would like to add, dont time it to 65 minutes if you hit plateau but time it 65 minutes just to increase you speed - i did the same as I was not able to complete the paper well within the time-limits.