Hi Guys,
Wrote my first GMAT test a few hours ago. I got 690 (Q48 V36, IR 8). I am aware that this is not a bad score, the unofficial report says that I am in the 86th percentile.
Here is the deal, I have around 3 months left for my application (applying to one school this year) and as an Indian IT Male a good GMAT score will definitely help your candidature.
I am confident that if I put effort in the right direction I can increase my score by 40-70 points. I had no well-defined strategy for my first attempt, most of my effort was concentrated in the last 15 days with no error logging and random studying. Simply put, I am not satisfied with the effort that I have put it in.
I would be very thankful if y'all help me put a sound study plan in place. I'll detail the things I went through during my first attempt.
Quant: Till date I have solved all problems of
OG 2017 (A huge time gap between first 300 questions and last 100 questions). I have gone through the book which was put by Bunuel (this is a gem, wish I would have taken it seriously). My problem with quant is that I tend to get easy problems wrong, by this time I have figured out that getting 3-4 easy problems wrong = forget 51. I couldn't deduce any sectional patterns for my wrong answers, seems to be evenly spread out
My target Quant score is 51 (atleast 50), In my opinion this should be doable if I go back to the basics and understand the underlying concepts with clarity rather than blindly solving problems. Another reason why getting a 50/51 matters a lot is because Indians usually end up getting a Q50, Q51. Even though a Q48 is around 71 percentile, colleges around the world have started to compare your scores to the local maxima.
Verbal: I am extremely dissapointed with my efforts here because they were extremely haphazard and lacked any direction. I did solve all the CR and SC questions in OG2017. When it came to RC I put in zero effort. This reflected during the actual exam, 2 passages stuck me down hard. For RC I just solved around 30-40
OG questions. I went through the CR Bible once just for the heck of it. After a week, I couldn't recall any concepts. Same thing with the Manhattan SC book. Even after going through the book I still used to solve SC questions on the basis of 'Does it sound right to me'
Mocks: I wrote 5 Manhattan Mocks, these were written with no seriousness and lots of pauses.
MGMAT CAT 3,4,5 were taken in two consecutive days along with the official test 2. I used to get around 650-680 in these mocks, blaming the score on 'difficult' questions. I kinda screwed up the
OG Tests, because I used to reset Test 1 to get more questions. Little did I know that these tests share a common question. This ruined by
OG Test 2 when I saw 50% repeat problems and ended up with a false 770.
So yes, I am just blabbering here. For my second attempt, I would like to destroy the GMAT with a structured and disciplined attempt and would appreciate all of your thoughts. Since I have exhausted all but one of my
MGMAT mocks (resetting is an option, but it would be like practice questions), I would need advice on sources for a fresh set of mocks.
I wouldn't be studying more than 1.5 hours a day on weekdays and no more than 4 hours a day on weekends. I will start preparing after a 4-day break and would like to attempt GMAT 2 between Dec 15-25 ish.
P.S: I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes, awkward and wordy constructions. Too sleepy after a 4-hour 5pm - 9pm test. I just had to get this off my chest
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05 Oct 2016, 12:25
