GMAT Experience : 710 , AWA- 6 , IR - 8

Hi All ,
I took the GMAT a few weeks ago . I prepared for around 2 months. While I was worried that IR section will add to my nightmares , it turned out quite the opposite.
Got perfect scores in AWA and IR.

710 - Q - 49 , V - 38

The majority of my preparation was on the verbal. My verbal scores have generally been decent hovering around 36 and I thought a solid preparation will help me cross 40. During all my practice exams I was losing concentration , in a sense that , atleast in one area I will just perform really badly. The other sections will be ok. It was disturbing as it seemed like I was good in all sections , but could not bring it all together in one exam.

In the GMAT prep I took before the exam I scored a 730 (50 , 40 ) and was happy about it. I really knew the MGMAT SC page by page. But tell you what , none of this will help you in the exam.

I generally do well in real tests than practice tests as I concentrate much more. So I was satisfied with the progress and took the last 5 days a little easy. I did not take any tests during this time.

The key I think I missed was building stamina and performing consistently. In the actual exam , I moved slowly. AWA - I was always behind the clock since I took time to script my response. I did the same with IR. Take your time. Move slowly. I had decided that out of 12 I will complete 10 properly. So even when I was behind the clock I was ok with it. I did take those 2 guesses , (not blindly, but spent little time).

As it turns out , this has helped me quite well.. However the problem was , I think my brain was already firing all cylinders. By the end of the quants , I felt surprisingly normal. But when I started taking the verbal , I could notice I was spending way too much time on the first 10 questions. I kept on saying that I can catch up.. And started making 2 answers quickly in every 10. I could never catch up and in the end I had to finish the last 15 odd questions in around 20 minutes. I could hardly read it once and had to make an answer and move on. I am pretty sure my score dipped atleast a couple of points here..

So here is my tip , when you are doing verbal , practice to work in this speed. (around 1 minute per question), specially for SC. If you cannot do this , don't take the exam. Am serious.

RC accuracy can be improved drastically by writing notes while you read.. but it consumes a lot of time.. (In hindsight , I guess I lost any advantage I gained from RC). So you definitely need to improve on SC.

In case of CR , if you cannot process all the fallacies and question types within 75 seconds , I would say dont bother spending too much time on learning the stem and fallacies. Instead do more questions , so that your brain is wired to identify mistakes by default..

I know I have certain strange suggestions here. This is applicable for people who can score 650+ without any preparation. If you can build a good stamina , practice doing SC really fast and internalize CR reasoning , I believe it will make a difference.

Ofcourse try these tips during your practice test. Dont go to the exam hall like an idiot without any plan on timing ( which is what I did)..Good luck all.

I was a little disappointed when I saw the score to be less than 730. I am pretty confident that on a good day my verbal score would have touched 40.. I am not sure how I am going to go about this.. I dont have the energy to go through this ordeal again.. Does any one think perfect scores in IR and AWA will help my application look better than a simple 710.. ?

Cheers
=/=