Unexpected but still happy, after all there is no such rule that you can take GMAT only once.
I am a typical Indian guy with lots of aspirations-nice salary, nice car, ability to spoil you parents by fulfilling all their wishes and definitely a cute girlfriend. I was in my junior of my engineering when I realised that in order to fulfill all my aspirations, I have to reach a good B school. Now the question was-from where? Whether to take CAT or take GMAT. While I was confused with this stuff, I got scholarship offer from University of Edinburgh for its Masters in Management program. I was awarded two scholarships, a financial incentive of around 8000 GBP. It was tempting, but only until when I asked myself why an MiM and why not an MBA. I consulted various web sources and finally decided to defer the admission. (Yes! they gave me such option). I deferred it happily and finally decided to appear for GMAT.
I consulted back to GMAT Club of which I was a member when I was in junior year of my undergraduation. By this time I started active participation on GMAT Club. Since I had no major issues with quant, I decided to concentrate on verbal. Purchased
MGMAT SC(SC Bible) and studied it, and side by side made notes. Soon I took the GMAT and got the score 640. It was the baseline, so definitely there was some hard work to do. After all no one becomes the CEO without any hard work.
Initial days on GMAT Club:Had a nice interaction on forum with members such as GMATBull, JP27 etc. They posted SC questions and I really loved to solve those questions. Sometimes, these questions made me refer back to SC Bible and later I found to be very beneficial. For maths, Bunuel and Vips0000 were great as usual. Seriously speaking, they helped a lot.
Active period on GC:The strategy that I adapted for SC was to find as many errors as possible during preparation time. I didn't time while practicing SC questions and as a result I took as much as 3-4 minutes to answer questions. But lately, practice reduced my time to about 45-50 seconds. This saved time helped me a lot and saved me enough time for RC and CR questions. I don't have anything to say about RC becase this is the section I fear the most, whereas CR is just a puzzle game. Enjoy each and every section on the GMAT.
Material used:
Probably I used and practiced 80% of the resources and questions available on earth. So probably, if I were to mention the resources then would ask you to call me rather. But yes, I can definitely name the best of the resources that I used.
1)
MGMAT SC guide
2)
MGMAT advanced guide
3) Veritas RC
4) Veritas Probability and combinatorics.
5) CR directory on GMAT Club.
6)
e-GMAT: One of the best courses available. If one is facing a bit with SC, then I shall recommend
e-GMAT. The course is divided into different levels and the best thing is that one cannot go to next level without scoring a minimum. "FIVE STARS".
Practice Test Scores: Don't remember the date, sorry for that.
GMAT prep 1: 640
After two months:
MGMAT CAT 1: 730
MGMAT CAT 2: 720
MGMAT CAT 3: 750
MGMAT CAT 4: 760
9th Feb- GMAT Prep 2: 780
Didn't study for the last two days prior to exam apart from just revising the notes that I made and solving some questions on GC: time spent-around 30 mins. The day prior to exam, played console games for hours and never thought about the exam. Whenever the thought came, I calmed down myself by saying that if I don't score well this time, I will take the exam again.
12th feb:
Took two KitKat chocolates and a Red Bull( the biggest mistake till date)
The essay and IR was fairly nice. Can't say whether it went good or bad, but yeah I was pretty relax.
In the break following IR, gave some splases of water on my face and had one KitKat. The moment I tried to resume after the break, the system asked for some crap login id and password. I raised hand and called the administrator. He came and entered the id and password. The next thing that happened was the least expected. The system got crashed. It stopped working and I wondered what the hell was happening. But later I thought, "if it crashes then I will complain to GMAC and they will allow me a free retake, as a result I will get more time to study."
But somehow the administrator made the computer work again. A big disappointment. Somehow with an utter disappointment on my face, I took the quant section.
In the break following, I gave a splash of water on my face, ate KitKat and had RedBull and then I resumed the test.
By the time, I was facing 10th question, I felt that I need to go washroom. But I convinced myself that I can go for loo after the exam gets over. The plan failed. The feeling became uncontrollable after sometime, and this definitely had some negative effect on my performance. I finished with the exam and got 720.
I will be retaking the GMAT because I am not facing any deadline pressure. By the time, I have some 3 years experience, I'll get enough time to improve my profile in every aspect.
P.S.: I would suggest everyone, don't go for RedBull in your breaks.
I am single, so I am pretty much worried-with whom am I going to spend the Valentines Day.