770 (50, 46) - PERSISTENCE AND BRAVERY

GMAT stings you- your only option is to bite back with a vengeance” That’s what my friend told me after I got a 680 (48, 34) 3 months back. This is my story- one of a minnow who rose from shards of wretchedness.

3 months back I was quite desperate. I had spent money on prep courses – only to find that these courses were over even just when I was getting warmed up. To be fair, my overall score did improve by 5 points but that seemed too little for a $1400 course. Then I remembered the famous dialogue from BraveHeart – Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.

Second attempt: No shame is asking for help from your adversary
So I contacted my old friendversary (is there is such a term) who had scored 750 last year for guidance. He told me that the most important think to succeed on the GMAT is to ensure that you fundamentals are right. Once you have the right foundation – do OG multiple times, each time with a fresh perspective till you realize that you have started to think some-what like a test taker. He also recommended taking e-GMAT SC course in addition to MGMAT SC (which I already had).

e-GMAT SC course was wonderful. It just changed my approach towards SC. SC became like math – logical and lucid. The rules of grammar seemed a lot more logical to me. The course also had ample practice questions and really good support.


So how did I master this beast this time

Firstly, you have got to realize that GMAT different from your office project – You have got to make it personal. Make sure you have the right approach and then work tirelessly to master it. Here are some of the things that made a difference:

1. OG 12: I did OG 3 times, revising every question and trying to understand why the incorrect answer is incorrect. This was very useful in the exam. I discovered that OG explanations are not the best – especially for SC and hence had to create my own logical explanations. In the end this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
2. Read Read Read: I made it a point to read at least 2 articles from NY times daily. I would read each article 3 times. First time with the perspective of answering RC questions. Second time looking for long sentences ( NY times is excellent for that) and observing how the author maintained parallelism in long sentences, the idiomatic usages and the modifier placements. I would recommend Stanley Fish or one of the other opinionators. The third time to observe how the author defends or attacks the argument in the passage.
3. Question what you don’t understand: I looked up forums for answers, asked experts for help and formed my own hypothesis at times.
4. Plan: Probably the most important contributor to my success. During my first attempt my test prep company told me that it was better to do multiple sections at once. They could not be more wrong. In my second attempt, I decided to focus on one verbal section at a time and master it. The results were much better. I could track my improvement in mocks. Make sure you have a solid plan with mocks that we well interspersed to ensure that you can see your strengths and weakness.

So in the end, I am very happy with my score. I have done better than my friendversary Here is the prep material that I recommend:

1. Jeff Sackman’s books and Grockit for quant.
2. E-GMAT Verbal course - really good value.
3. OG 12, 11 (yes old questions but I found them to be good practice), OG Verbal, GMATClub GMATPrep questions, MGMAT tests, Veritas CR book (extra practice only, there is practically no theory)
4. Brent Hannesson’s quant explanations

In the end I have a couple of questions. I have 15 days before most of the deadlines for B – schools. I have 10 days where I can devote 8 hrs per day for applications. How many schools do you think I should target in R2. Also, do essay companies work during the Christmas break. I would like to hear from both experts and other applicants.

let me be the first to congratulate you on a great score..

cheers

I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

Congratulations!


Usually it is 1 school per month.
I would see the biggest weakness being your Letters of Recommendation. Can your recommenders pull it off?

As to admissions consultants, I know Precision Essay is closing its doors on the 16th and not taking any new clients after that date (you may want to hurry). Others are still working i believe. You may want to check directly as you will be paired with a consultant and it depends on their schedule.

mevsGMAT,
Congratulations on fantastic score!! can you provide your test scores? which test do you think is good, besides the gmatprep?

One more thought:

I would schedule a call with an admissions consultant and realistically evaluate your chances.
I would write a set of essays (at least 1 but preferably all of them so that the consultant knows where you are starting at) - you pretty much must get one if that's all the time you have.

hey congratulations for big score

could you please give your raw scores in practice tests . Also tell us ..how many mistakes you did in the tests
?

Congratulations!

congrats man...a great jod done...
All d very best for ur school hunt...

@MarkDavidChapman: Thank you for adding to my post and making it complete.

@Simba2012: I did Grockit, MGMAT and GmatPrep. As you said, nothing beats GMATPrep. the other tests were of similar quality and are helpful to track your improvement, however I like MGMAT better since it provided the analysis.

@bb: thanks for your input. I am planning to apply to Darden (fewer essays), Kellogg and Chicago. I contacted Poonam@myessayreview and she is working during Christmas and new year (e-GMAT recommendation). I am almost halfway through the core essay for Darden (1st draft only). I plan to do the schools in sequence to ensure that we dont compromise on quality.

@sandeepsharma: The number of mistakes varied by practice tests. MGMAT tests were more tolerable to mistakes. I could get a 34 even with 12-15 mistakes. GMATPrep was not so liberal. Grockit was somewhere in between. The best I every scored on any mock was 45 (assuming you are talking about Verbal), and I made 4-5 mistakes overall in that mock. let me know if you need to know more.

Congratulations!

wow...good job

Thank you everyone. Let me know if you need help.

Congratulations!

Hello everyone.. All applications done

Its been an eventful 3 weeks since my GMAT but overall I am happy. I received a PM about egmat. Here is the response:

1. egmat and MGMAT: I would recommend people to do egmat before mgmat. Actually MGMAT will start making a lot more sense once you do egmat. Now do you really need to read MGMAT after egmat - No, however most people already have MGMAT so its a good idea to go through the book. Also I reviewed the recordings of modifiers and parallelism sessions twice.

2. When to do OG: Absolutely do OG again for SC/CR with the egmat course even if you have done it previously. It helps. for RC enev though I did the complete OG again, I would recommend that you repeat GMATPrep and the last 8 OG passages. The first few passages were too simple.

Fingers crossed now. Lets see how the schools come back.

Congrats on your great score and kudos for completing so many apps in 3 weeks flat!:)

I myself had taken only the free e-GMAT courses, but found the course pretty useful.

All the best for your apps and take a well deserved break:)

Santanu