After 8 months of preparation and studying hard for GMAT ,I have finally earned my right to post in this exclusive forum.
First I want to say sorry for Bunuel.
I am sorry Bunuel.When I was taking GMAT for the first time I tried to get kudos in a shortcut manner.I was eager to do every possible problem and did some moral mistakes. For anyone who are thinking of getting kudos by cheating the system to get
gmat club tests,please don't do it.I was angry at the time when you deactivated my account.later I understood and I felt ashamed.
Now , here's my story.
I started my preparation all charged up in feb. Here's my back ground. I was in my final year of graduation in feb.I wanted to complete GMAT then itself, so that I would have some time to prepare my profile by the time actual application process starts.
First Attempt My prep started in feb. I knew that my strength was quant and that I was weak in verbal. But being an effective procrastinator that I am, I wanted to do quant first and read verbal later.I completed quant by mid-march. I started verbal immediately after that. I enrolled into Manhattan Review(not
Manhattan GMAT) in my area. It was good at the beginning. I accept that it is a good coaching center.They help you get into the prep process very effectively. They motivate you.But after attending the coaching for 1 month I didnot find any difference either in my approach or in my marks in verbal. Then I came to notice GMAT club. I read a few debriefs and understood what books to be bought to study for the verbal part.
For SC:-
MGMAT SC , for beginners this is wonderful book to get started .It will show you the way in the GMAT world. Later I will tell you how not to read this book and what mistakes I made during my preparation
For CR:- Power Score CR Bible.It's aptly named.
For RC:-
MGMAT RC , Though it was not that helpful,it got me started towards RC.
Now I read these books for quite some time.Then around may(sorry I am a little bad with dates) I understood that without fixing a date for the actual gmat , my preparation will go on forever. I booked my date for June 10th. In the last month before the exam I took the
MGMAT tests. No matter how much I read verbal, I flat lined at 34. here are my scores.
MGMAT 1 - 610 v 27
MGMAT 2- 690 v 33
MGMAT 3 - 710 V 35
MGMAT 4 - 700 V 35
GMAT Prep - 710 V 34
On the day of the exam, I took a bottle of glucose water with me to drink between the breaks. I completed AWA, IR and Quant portions without a hitch. I was quite happy not knowing whats going to come next. I drank some glucose , went to bathroom and came back to take the verbal part. It was going quite well until 25th question when my bladder was bursting .You have to know with that air conditioning , tension and my relatively less capacity to hold bladder I stood no chance to complete the test with peace of mind.I controlled it until 35th question but I understood that I can hold no longer. I quickly skipped through all the questions and completed the exam . I got 700 Q 50 V 34. Absolutely disappointed with the mistakes I did, I collected my unofficial score report.
Here are the mistakes I did in my first attempt.1. Never go into GMAT without a lot of practice. I just
read the SC,CR and RC principles without caring to practice them systematically in the mock exams.Remember, you have to not only use the rules while practicing but you must also use them in the actual exam. The exam will try to take you away.It will try to make you tense,so that you will forget the approach you
have to use. It will try to force you to use your
natural approach.
2. Many guys in this forum told the approach they used to beat the fatigue during the exam. But, for students like me with relatively less capacity to hold it, my advice is to not drink anything .But this wont work without enough practice. You got to have a lot of practice (at least 7 to 8 tests) without any supplements.
I took a month off after the first attempt. I understood the mistakes I did. Now I knew that verbal was the weak link. I also understood that no matter what I did I will not be able to get 51 in quant(Its my understanding that to get 51 one needs to do less than 2 or three mistakes. I always did 4-5 mistakes in any exam I took). This time around.I heard about
E-GMAT from my friends and from some debriefs in GMAT club. I enrolled into it in mid august. I completed the
E-Gmat by Sep 20th. Then I started practicing Grockit and
OG.I took some
MGMAT tests. Here are the scores
MGMAT 1 690: Q 47 V 38
MGMAT 2 720: Q 49 V 39
MGMAT 3 710 : Q 48 V 38
MGMAT 4 710 : Q49 V 37.
GMAT prep 1: 720 Q 50 V 38
GMAT Prep 2: 770 Q 50 V V 44
On the D -day.I went to the exam with minimum amount of break fast and with some rules at hand(I will explain these later).I completed AWA and IR. Quant was a breeze. Now I was very careful with the amount of water I was taking.I took just a mouthful of water.I made sure that I went to toilet before sitting for verbal.I felt little dizzy at the end of the exam . I kept saying to my self ,"Just 15 more minutes and you will be happy for the next five years to come." I completed the test and was both a little disappointed and satisfied to see 730 on the screen.
Now the rules.
The verbal rules1. SC: Being systematic is the only way to score in verbal. Do Not trust your ear. Especially non natives. For years you have been fed with incorrect idioms. Never ever trust it.
E-GMAT taught me this again and again.
2. CR: Understand the passage perfectly and pre-think a lot. This will help you in eliminating the wrong choices. After understanding all the principles(such as how to see the assumptions, how to know the flaw in the reasoning) taught, by-hearting them and applying them , I understood that the holy grail to CR is to understand the passage and pre- think . Pre- thinking will help you not to fall into any traps set by the GMAT in the options.
3. RC: I tried to apply some techniques such as not reading the passage and directly going to questions, reading just the first line in the passage etc. But nothing else clicked for me except for the
E-GMAT approach. You have to really understand it and pre-think the main point before attempting any question pertaining the passage.This will make the meaning clear in your head.
4. After going through the first 4
MGMAT's and one GMAT prep I saw a pattern in my mistakes in verbal portion.In verbal , before 25th question I made a maximum of three mistakes and after it I made a minimum of 7 mistakes. I understood that this is because of the mental fatigue.After all GMAT is a test of stamina.So I made a promise to myself that no matter what happens I will make every attempt to be super-conscious after the 25th question. I applied this in the GMAT Prep 2 and got a V 44.Though some questions were repeat they were mostly in the quant section and not in verbal.(3 in verbal .that too before the 25th question). I made as little as 3 mistakes after the 25th question.That too , at the fag end of the test.
Now the ultimate thing that made difference.
Discipline and systematic hard work
will always get you to your dream score.I will explain how this affected me. After my first attempt I understood that just reading wont make anything happen.I have to practice. Luckily for practice there is no better combination than gmat club and grockit. For the last 20 days in my prep I made a point to just practice and write every mistake down in a book.I promised my self to revise them every day and did it. Just practice and nothing else.I pinpointed all the areas I was doing mistakes. Grockit helps you a lot with this.I made sure that I practiced them the day before the exam My grockit verbal accuracy was 77% with 82% in SC , 81% in CR and 64 % in RC. I completed all the questions that grockit had to offer in SC and CR. At the end Just in grockit I completed 1334 questions in verbal .Combine this with
OG and verbal 2, I got a good amount of confidence that I could get V 38 no matter what.
My take on the materials.
1. GMAT Club:- Awesome. Awesome.Awesome.
2.
E-GMAT:- For Non natives its the way to get a good score in verbal
3. Grockit:- Good for practice and to learn where you are doing mistakes
4.
MGMAT SC and CR Bible:- For learning principles they are good. But without enough practice you would not be able to reap much out of them.
Until Later, See ya
GMAT is a Life Style, Not an exam.