Although i contributed to this forum occasionally, i was lurking in this forum almost on daily basis. I must thank everyone who contribute to this wonderful forum.
So, first things first.
I am a Indian Mechanical Engineer with 10 years of working experience, 6 years of which is in Singapore/Malaysia. I started preparing for GMAT in the month of August.
Materials used:MGAMT Foundations of GMAT Verbal
MGMAT Strategy guides (8 books set) Ed 4
MGMAT IR Strategy guide Ed5
OG12, OG13,
E-GMAT SC online course.
GMAT Tool Kit
I read many planing strategies and devised a 3 month plan for myself starting Aug'12 and Ending in early Nov'12. But, things did not go as i planed and needed to postpone my test date to 30 Dec'12.
I Started with a
MGMAT CAT as a diagnostic test and scored 530(Q43, V20). Verbal was my weak area (CR<RC<SC- Weakest) and Started with '
MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Verbal' and gradually moved to
MGMAT SC guide. But i struggled to apply what i learnt in solving SC questions hence i signed up for
E-GMAT SC course and found it very useful. Their approach is very structured, it made me to understand the concepts well and i started seeing improvement in the SC performance.
I found
MGMAT Math guides as well structured and inclusive. During my 5 months of study i had revised them couple of times (Had to revise Number Properties guide, and Equations, Inequalities, VIC guide 3 times as those were my weakest section in quant). Took 3 weeks off from work and studied religiously for at least 5~8 hours a day.
Thanks to Bunuel. Solving problems in his signature helped me to improve my quant understanding. And i loved his explanation for overlapping sets formula. Now, that is etched in my brain forever. GMAT Club's Math book -
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-math-book-in-downloadable-pdf-format-130609.html#p1073182 is a wonderful resource which i never utilised to full extent though it was readily available. But, it helped me as a review material in the last few days.
Mock CAT Scores:27 Jul'12 -
MGMAT CAT1 530 Q43, V20
15 Aug'12- Kaplan CAT 580 (Q 53%, V 48%)
13 Oct'12 -
MGMAT CAT2 530 Q39, V29 - Drop in quant score was expected as i was studying only verbal section in the past month.
16 Dec'12 -
MGMAT CAT3 640 Q43, V33
19 Dec'12 - GMAT Prepp Cat1- 600 Q42, V30 - while reviewing the questions accidentally shut down the computer and the no timing information about this test was stored.
24 Dec'12 -
MGMAT CAT4 600 Q44, V30
26 Dec'12 - GMAT Prepp Cat2- 650 Q47, V34 - Saw 4 repeats in quant and 6 repeats in verbal due to the mess up happened.
28 Dec'12 - GMAT Prepp Cat1 (Retake)- 700 Q49, V35 - Saw a whole lot of repeat questions in Quant section. Not a realistic reflection of my capability.
Problems faced/mistakes done:@ Had timing issues in Verbal section and fixed it by taking verbal section alone a couple of times using 800 score verbal tests.
@ Never understood the SC answer explanations in the
OG. I should blame it on myself as i lacked the strong grammar foundation.
@ Though the
MGMAT CATs give out a lot of information based on the performance, i never managed to comprehend and nail on my weak area.
Test day experience:Had a full brake fast. Revised some quant and verbal notes. Reached the test center 1.5 hrs before the appointment. Grabed a McMuffin at the nearby McDonalds for lunch.
I took my test in Pearson Vue, Singapore. The test center staffs were very cooperative, never faced any problem in check -out and check-in during breaks. Taking few CATs in this week helped me to face the rigor of the test without much tiredness.
AWA/IR:AWA section went as planned. I have prepared a template based on the thread in my signature (Thanks to Chinese burned)
IR: I never scored more than 4 points in any of the MGMATs. But, scored a 7 point in the GMAT Prepp. Felt that i did well in the actual test as well.
Took the break, visited the rest room, did some stretching, gulped down half of Red Bull and some water.
Quant:Quant section went fine. Saw most of the questions from Number properties, Inequalities and equations. A question in overlapping sets and before i knew it, it was the end of the section. I had no timing issues. Off course, i had guessed couple of hard nuts in between. But, i was prepared to do that any way.
Again utilised the break, visited the rest room, did some stretching, gulped down the remaining half of Red Bull and some more water.
Verbal:Verbal section Started with couple of SC questions and bang, comes the RC. I got 4 RC passages in total (1 Short, 2 medium and 1 long). I did see a bold face CR as the 39th question followed by once SC and another CR.
After quickly passing thru the personal information pages and i hit the Accept score button. And i saw 630 (Q47, V30).
After thoughts:I do not know if i stand a chance to my choice schools (NUS, NTU, SMU, HKUST). Need to get my profile evaluated.
Most likely i will plan to reappear in 3 month's time.