from 510,500 to 640 - I am done and satisfied!

Hey Friends,

I took the GMAT for the 3rd time on 20th November 2015. Many may not consider mine a successful attempt simply because I did not cross the 700 barrier, and there is nothing wrong with that opinion either - After all who doesn’t want to score a 90% on the GMAT or for that matter any test.
I am really not sure if this story belongs in this section, but I am putting my story with an intention that it may help someone somewhere preparing for the GMAT.

This post is dedicated more toward people who are struggling to cross 500 and feel frustrated for staying there for prolonged period.

I scored a 640(q45,v33) in my third attempt and I am extremely happy about it.

I scored a 510(q43,v19) in my first attempt, and this after putting in 1 year of effort. One year of effort meant - no time for friends, family, interests, hobbies etc. Believe me this is a big mistake and should not be followed by anyone. If you think you will put in 15hours a day for 6 months and come out of the testing with a print out reading 700, you are wrong! Things won’t work that way not in the GMAT world.
In my second attempt I scored a 500(q39,v21, yes I am not joking), I mean can it get more frustrating than this? I was literally in pieces after this attempt. I still remember my wife came to pick me up from the testing center and she did not utter a word, just one look at me and she knew the entire story. I was desperately trying to put up a brave face but inside of me I was broken.

Why was I so shattered? I mean this wasn’t the biggest tragedy that could happen to a person, and this wasn’t even close to bad things that happen to people. So why was I feeling so bad and miserable?

I did some introspection and realized that I had become obsessed with GMAT in a very unhealthy way, that, if not completed successfully, would decide the fate of my life. I want to say this to everyone who has felt what I have felt, DO NOT GET OBSESSED WITH GMAT in an unhealthy way.

GMAT is far from deciding your fate and In my honest opinion it is not even close to being a reliable indicator of a person’s capability. But the hard fact is it is required to get into a business school and there is nothing wrong in trying to do well on it.

But the important question is how far should you take it?

In my third attempt I did a few things differently - I consciously made an effort to dissociate myself from obsessing with GMAT - I meditated for this and I used to ask my mind to be calm. I was back to enjoying the little things in life. Yes there was still a lot of pressure but I consciously made an effort to stay calm by meditating and exercising.(I bought a new bicycle and went for a 12k ride everyday).

So this is what I want to convey

1. Find your way to dissociate from being obsessed in an unhealthy way with GMAT
2. find your methods to relax - I found meditation and cycling relaxing

The day you do the above, you’d have won half the battle.

I increased my score from 500 to 640 by following the above and by studying systematically. I have studied from variety of sources MGMAT,veritas, e-GMAT, GMATPrepnow - and I feel they are all good but what you get out of them is really in your hands.
GMATPrep now is a great free course that can be used to prepare for the GMAT. People may be skeptical to use GMATPrepnow thinking its free and may not offer quality lessons, but trust me it is all you need to prepare very well for the GMAT - Just give it a try and you’ll love it.(If you are in the right mind set). You may need some personal help if you are anxious and are low on confidence(This is my case) and thats why I took a private tutor’s help in addition to the above.

I took help from a private GMAT tutor(@prasi55) who was my friend’s friend and is a friend of mine now. Not only was he there to help me in math and verbal but also was there when I needed moral support(which I feel is really important to prepare for an exam like GMAT). He especially helped me in SC questions. In fact its he who asked me to focus on the subject and the verb to get clarity on the meaning, leading to high SC accuracy on my practice tests. After taking a test we used to analyze to see what went wrong and what I need to improve and I consciously tried not to repeat mistakes that I was repeatedly making. I did not maintain an error log as such(probably the reason for me not scoring 700 Smile ).

My private tutor helped me in refining my concepts especially on P&C and probability and inequalities, I was really struggling with this subject. He taught me how to think of simple solutions to solve complex problems. After this I started making fewer mistakes on P&C and probability. The best part is I used to make PDF’s of questions that were difficult or the questions that I did not understand and then we(I and my tutor) used to discuss these problems.

On my tutor’s recommendation I subscribed to Economist magazine and started reading and paraphrasing articles everyday. I not only improved my reading skills but I also started learning better english. Believe me this is the best way to fix all the 3 sections of the verbal. In my opinion if your comprehension is good you will automatically improve on CR and SC, how?

Having good reading comprehension would mean you understand the CR passages better, the more you understand the CR passage the less time you need to select the right answer.
Similarly for SC’s, you bump into the right usage of idioms etc when you read good quality articles, selecting the right SC answer option will become second nature to you if you pay attention to the usage of sentences on good quality articles.

This is what I would recommend

1. you can learn from any source - but try to understand what ever you learn, just don’t do things blindly.
2. e-GMAT scholaranium is really good if you want to practice the strategies learned - It has more than 600 questions and you can benefit to a great extent if you use them wisely.
3. If you think you can benefit from getting help from a private tutor, please do that.
4. If you are looking for a free video based course - GMATPrep Now is the choice - It is an excellent GMAT course and has everything a person needs to do well on the GMAT. I used some of the video lessons(The SC section in ridiculously good ) and they were excellent.

PM me if you want some personal guidance or want to contact my private tutor.

Finally,

Fix your mind to fix the GMAT. If you can calm your mind you can score really well.

I may not be able to offer you tips on the subject matter but I can tell you this with conviction - Every effort of yours to score high on the GMAT will be meaningless until you fix your mind.@