And there it was..in front of my eyes..on my exam screen...the number that I did not expect even in my wildest dreams
...660.. (Q48 V31)...
I was shocked and devastated. I didn't know what to do. Somehow, my subconscious mind helped me to move the cursor in the right direction and cancel the score.
It was my second attempt at GMAT after a long time. I had appeared for GMAT in 2011, when I scored a respectable 710 (Q50 V36). In late 2015, when I felt that now would be a right time to go for an MBA, my score was already 4 years old. I decided to go for the GMAT once again and utilize the time to improve further on my score before application season starts.
Preparation part -1I went through all the available OGs from 10th edition onwards. I Used a lot of open source material available on gmat club, used gmat prep comprehensive CR, SC and RC extensively and solved the collections of 700+ problems across verbal sections. I also used some reference material such as Manhattan guides for SC and CR. I didn’t use any online/offline courses though. I Scored 760 and 770 respectively on the two tests. Wow!! Felt like making them official score!!.. My confidence was at its peak. I decided to go for the real exam in a week’s time and took a date just 3 days in advance.
Because of the previous experience, speed was constantly at the top of my mind. I was very cautious about 2 mins deadline on each question and decided to focus on timing part extensively.
Real exam strategy – part 1- Constantly focus on time. Look at the time after every question and try to assess if you are going ok.
- Guess the answer if you feel you are crossing the time more than 2.5 mins per question
- Use the ABCDE crossing method on blank paper to eliminate option
- Give equal weightage to all the questions. I had heard that all the questions matter equally and it’s a myth that initial questions are important.
Result
660 (Q48 V31) Worst performance ever!
Post exam analysis
–
I was clueless about what went wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong and I was not able to pin point it. I knew that my ability to solve the question was not so bad. It was proven twice on gmat prep. I discussed with my brother who himself is an ISB alumni and had a good experience in GMAT. He asked me whether I had made multiple mistakes in the initial questions that could have affected my score. I discarded such possibility. Based on various forums and inputs, I knew that accuracy in the initial questions didn’t matter more than that for remaining questions. I started to do some research on timing strategy and importance of initial questions. During the search, I came across a forum discussion on Gmat club, where some experimental analysis of gmat prep software was reported. Suddenly, things became crystal clear as to what could have gone wrong.
I realized that “first 10 question importance myth” is not really a myth
. Thanks GMAT CLUB.
I analysed further as to what all went wrong.
What went wrong – I realised that “2mins per question” strategy was harmful during the initial part because accuracy on initial questions did matter. Consecutive guesses in the first 15 questions might have killed my score. Looking at the time constantly is the worst thing someone can do to harm ones score. Hurried approach on RC affected my understanding of the paragraph. Lack of systematic approach on CR proved harmful to the accuracy. Overconfidence on quant hit my score badly.
Preparation part 2I improved my competency on CR further and made the question solving process much more systematic. I continued with regular practice for SC and made a rule-book of my own. I practiced the RC section a lot and made sure I understand the passage clearly before attempting the questions. I solved relatively more difficult questions on each topic of quant. I took a month’s time before I applied for the next turn. During this month, GMAT club was the only major source I used for my preparation. I extensively used the forums with subjectwise and difficultiwise questions sets.
Real Exam strategy 2 –- Look at the clock only 3-4 times throughout the exam. I knew that with my natural speed, I can solve even 700+ questions with average of two mins per question. So I decided to believe in speed and check the time only after every 10 questions.
- Allot more time for initial 15 questions. No guessing as much as possible in the first 15 questions of both the sections. I was prepared to guess all the last 5 questions if it came to that.
- Use the fingers for elimination strategy as pen didn’t work properly last time. I also felt that looking at paper the every time to scratch out the options consume some time.
- For CR – Read the paragraph very carefully. Don’t hurry. Focus on the conclusion. Eliminate the irrelevant options. Try using “negation”, “So what” etc. strategies. Try to find single word error/ extreme position taken.
- For RC – Read the passage very carefully.. I mean really very carefully (Believe me it saves lot of time later while solving the questions).
- For SC – Divide the rules into two parts. First – Go, No Go rules (very useful for eliminating the options) & Second – subjective rules (consider based on meaning, concision etc.)
- Quant – be calm. Don’t jump into solving the problem as soon as you read them. Seat back for 10 secs and see if there is any trick involved to help you solve the problem faster (you will find one for every question). After arriving at the answer, again try to see if you overlooked anything (especially for DS). Again, believe me I remember at least 4-5 instances, when this trick saved me from choosing a wrong answer.
Finally, every question needs to be given the respect that it deserves. Hurrying never helps.
Exam experience – I went to the centre well before scheduled time. I Tried to remain calm and composed. I read the newspaper at the centre for warmup.
During IR, I used my “don’t look at the clock” strategy. Surprisingly, it helped me solve all 12 questions, unlike during my previous attempt.
For quant section, I followed my strategy carefully and looked at the clock only 3 times throughout the section. Somehow, I was so comfortable and so focused that not even a single question felt challenging. When I looked at the clock the third time, I was on the question 35 and there were 17 mins left.
Verbal section started with a SC question. I stayed cool and focussed. I looked at the clock only at the pre-decided intervals. Every time, I was ahead of the pre-decided timings. I didn’t rushed through RC. Rather I enjoyed reading the passages. I comfortably completed the verbal section on time as well.
By this time, I kind of had a feeling that result is going to be good. Completed the formality questions and waited for the result. And there it was…760 (Q51 V41)…There are some moments in your life that you feel you truly deserve. And this one was one of them.
Important takeaways – First 15 questions are the most important ones. Attempt them as if you have all time in the world.
Try to be as calm and as cool as possible. Never focus too much on timing. Make sure while practicing that your average time per question is 2 mins and then believe in your speed while attempting the real exam.
There are a lot of tricky traps included in the questions. You will be able to recognize them only if you are calm and focused.
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02 Jul 2016, 09:19
