Update: Got 8 in IR! (Shocker) and 4.0 in AWA (Bigger shocker.. Just 23 percentile)
Just done with my GMAT 4 hrs back. Got a shocking and unexpected score - 760. Here's my debrief. Since I am super tired and also because people will find it easier to read, I am mentioning it in points instead of big lengthy paragraphs (unless reqd).
My Background- Work in construction industry
- Workdays Monday to Saturday - 12-14 hrs min everyday
- Sometimes work on Sunday for 3-4 hrs but rarely
- This is my first GMAT attempt
- Started preparing around April beginning
- Wasn't able to give more than 30-60 min a day due to heavy work load
- Majority of study time was on Sundays
My studies- In April, google searched GMAT to see what it was all about
- Spent 2 weeks just browsing, reading forums, seeing associated colleges, etc
- Bought
OG 13 and started to solve all problems one by one
Tip: Dont solve questions section by section - Example 100 questions in SC then move to 100 q in CR. You'll get bored and tired and wont be able to concentrate
1. QuantMaterials I used:
-
OG 13
-Gmatclub Question of the day
Other Details:
-Went through all
OG questions.
-My quant was naturally good so didnt bother with all the theory.
-Most of my quant practice came from free online tests such as those in Gmat Club.
-Quant in
MGMAT mocks are interesting and challenging.
-solved Gmatclub question of the day everyday without fail. learned a great deal from it.
Tips:
- Go through
OG just for fun. The Q here is way too easy. Most questions are 500-600 levels.
2. Verbal - SCMaterials used:
-
MGMAT SC guide (Must Have)
-Gmatclub Question of the day
-100 SC questions set - gmatclub
https://gmatclub.com/forum/post1113822.html#1113822Other Details
- Verbal overall was my weakness
- 100 SC set is a must have for everyone. It increased my accuracy from 60% to 90% within 10 days. Explanations are included and are superb. Its a must have to improve your concepts in short duration.
3. Verbal - CRMaterials used:
-Powerscore CR (Must Have)
-Gmatclub Question of the day
-700-800 level CR set - gmatclub
https://gmatclub.com/forum/100-amazing-cr-questions-explanations-cr-700-to-800-level-137885.html#p1115972Other Details
- Verbal overall was my weakness
- Again, the CR set here increased my accuracy from 65% to 90% within 10 days.
Tip:
-700-800 CR set is a must do for everyone. If you are short on time just do the 100 questions of superset included in it. They are superb.
- For concepts refer powerscore. It is THE best book out there for CR.
4. Verbal - RCMaterials used:
-Aristole RC 99
-700-800 level RC set - gmatclub
https://gmatclub.com/forum/exclusive-700-to-800-level-gmat-reading-comprehension-rc-143319.html#p1149063Other Details
- RC was my biggest weakness in Verbal
- Lots of practice required to get better at it.
- Aristole RC is divided into 3 sets of difficulty. I directly took the hardest one.
- After doing half the problems, gave up on it because it was crazy hard. You would never see such RC coming in GMAT even in your dreams.
- Yes I know it was supposed to be more for practice, but I wasnt going anywhere with it so I kept it away.
- My accuracy was around 50% a week before the exam
- The RC set here increased my accuracy to 80%
5. IRMaterials used:
-
MGMAT IR
-
Magoosh IR (Available Free)
Other Details
- Just like lot of others, IR was my nightmare.
- Max correct ans i got in all mocks was 5.
- Never finished IR properly in any mock.
- I just left it to God for the actual IR in the exam and hoped for the best.
Tips:
- IR materials dont really matter. Dont waste your money
- Best practice is do it along with GMAT mocks
- Just understand the types of questions once. Dont waste your time going into detail
5. AWAMaterials used:
-chineseburned notes - gmatclub :
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6-0-awa-my-guide-64327.htmlOther Details
- Chineseburned notes are all that you require.
- From his notes made a template common to all arguments.
- I wrote the same intro and concl to all without even reading the questions. Saves time, increases words.
- Gave AWA with all my mocks. This was my only practice
Tips:
- AWA materials dont really matter. Dont waste your money buying them.
- Most good materials are available on the gmatclub forum itself.
- Best practice is do it along with GMAT mocks
- Unless your writing skills are bad, dont spend much time practicing it.
My mocksFor the last 2 months before the GMAT exam, i made it a habit to give one mock every sunday and review it deeply. (4 hrs + 3 hrs for review).
I had set my target at 700.
1.
MGMAT Mock 1 - 630 (Q44,V32)
Started with this mock which i got with
MGMAT SC book purchase. These mocks are highly recommended. They are the best available out there.
Anyway, so my first mock was disappointing. I said no prob.. Just starting to work. Will get better.
2.
MGMAT Mock 2 - 660 (Q44,V36)
Improvement. Felt better. Hoped for further increase in next mock.
3.
MGMAT Mock 3 - 640 (Q44,V33)
Down again. I noticed that my Q was pretty fixed by V kept going up and down.
4.
MGMAT Mock 4 - 640 (Q44,V33)
Still no improvement. I started feeling disappointed and tensed. Low on confidence. Is this my final level? 640? I thought its time i tried a mock apart from manhattan just to make sure.
5. Kaplan Free mock - 720 (Q47,V36 or something)
Kaplan scoring is highly inaccurate. Talking about the mock, Q was unbelievably easy. It was giving mostly 500 level questions. I coulnt help but laugh while giving the test. Weirdly, I got just 3 ques wrong in Q and still got Q47. In V i got 20 wrong ( more than
Mgmat) and still got V36. I looked up some discussion threads discussing Kaplan tests and found out people usually get in low 600s ( those who get 700 in
MGMAT) So I was fully confused with the result and chose to ignore it.
6. Princeton Free mock - 660 or something not sure
Dont remember the details sorry.
7.
MGMAT Mock 5 - 620 (Q45,V31) - 2 weeks before GMAT
After this is I decided that my actual level was low 600 only and I should probably aim for 650 in the actual test. After studying and giving so many mocks for 2 months and getting a score lower than my 1st mock was completely demoralizing.
8. GMATPrep Mock 1 - 700 (Q49,V36) - 1 week before GMAT
I let out a sigh of relief. One thing i noted here is that
MGMAT Q is much tougher than actual GMAT.
MGMAT V is similar in SC and CR but RC are much much tougher than actual GMAT. In Q i got 13 incorrect and in V i got 14 incorrect. I was happy with my Q score. Decided that in the week thats left i will concentrate only on Verbal.
9. GMATPrep Mock 2 - 710 (Q50,V35) - 2 days before GMAT
Slight improvement. Improved Q again. V was quite to the contrary. My main aim here was to reduce the number of incorrect answers. I got 10 incorrect in both Q and V which was a big improvement. I didnt understand why even after giving 4 fewer incorrect ans than previous mock by score reduced by 1 point. But happy with anything above 700.
Exam Day- Reached 1 hr in advance
- Got gatorade. Just something i read in gmat club forums :D
- Finished with the routine checks
- They allowed me to start immediately. (Highly recommended not to wait longer. You will start feeling tensed and probably tire soon)
1. AWA
- Didn't see the question. Wrote my template of introduction and conclusion (chineseburned notes)
- Recommended not to see questions, your mind will start wandering, you may forget the template
- Make sure you write template withinin 6-7 min, read question deeply 2-3 min, Fin essay with clock around 23 min, check for spelling, grammatical errors, sentence construction, etc for remaining time - very imp
- In my exam AWA wasn't that straightforward. Took some time to come up with points.
- Fin with 1 min to spare. Did decent. Will update AWA score when it comes.
2. IR
- My nightmare.
- Got the 1st question as easy as anyone can imagine. It was a Quant Find X-Y 2 part. Took 5 min, got completely confused, guessed and moved on.
- More tension due to this. Already short on time.
- Others were somewhat easy and managed to get some of them right. Had to guess a few. Finished right on time.
- My aim was to get above mean score in IR. I think i achieved that. Will update once scores come out.
Note: IR in actual exam is way way easier than those in mocks. Trust me. I know i too read this on posts by other members and didnt believe it but you have to see it to believe it.
MGMAT IR is killer - tough and time consuming. Dont get scared by it. GMATPrep IR is slightly tougher than actual IR too.
3. Break
- Wrote time limits for my quant section in the booklet.
Questions Done - Time left
7-61
14-47
21-33
28-19
35-5
37-0
Other people follow other limits. This is my own. I have tried many. This suited me perfectly. You follow whatever you want but DO follow.
- After that i went out
- Drank half bottle gatorade
- Stretched hands and legs.
- Went in
4. Quant
- Always been my strength
- Straightforward PS questions, quick to solve
- Many DS were tricky so i took my time
- Overall maybe guessed/unable to solve just 2-3
- Fin with 2 min left. Felt positive about my performance.
5. Break
- Wrote time limits for my verbal section in the booklet.
Questions Done - Time left
10-57
20-39
30-21
40-3
41-0
Other people follow others. This is my own. I have tried many. This suited me perfectly. You follow whatever you want but DO follow. Make sure to use bigger interval than Q as you may have to accommodate RC in it.
- After that i went out
- Drank remaining half bottle gatorade
- Stretched hands and legs.
- Emptied Bladder
- Went in
6. Verbal
- My overall score has been coming down mainly because of verbal
- Cleared my head. Told to myself, we will take this one ques at a time.
- Many SC were straight forward. But i took my time reviewing each option just to make double sure that there wasn't a trap.
- CR were easy too apart from a few tricky ones. The prob with them is they take more time to read than SC which leaves you lesser time with options
- Tried to read quick and tried to understand what it was trying to say. Answered (do check all options no matter what) and moved on.
- RC was more of a surprise and a relief. I got 3 or 4 RC. Sorry dont remember exactly how many. Really easy ones and straightforward.
- Passages were easy to understand. No weird terms and didnt have to remember anything. Answered most questions without reading the passage again.
- During my last question stage ( Ques 31-41) i was going really behind the clock ( according to my time limits which i wrote during break) so had to speed up
- Marked some quick answers for the last few questions - but never guessed. If i wasn't sure, i took my time to re-read the questions and solutions again
- Dont make hasty decisions due to time shortage. Make quick decisions not guesses.
- Done just in the nick of time. Felt that I did ok but wasnt feeling that confident of verbal overall.
7. Done
- Went through the routine surveys
- If you have updated your profile at mba.com, most options will already be selected in the survey.
- Clicking Next - Next - Next .. countless times
- The important screen with warning in red - Cancel score or show score. They give 1 min time limit. Make sure you select within that else score will be cancelled. Clicked OK and hoped for a score starting with 7.
- 760! completely surprised. At first I thought it was showing something else, maybe what I could have got if i had not made mistakes or something like that. Kept staring at the score looking at all parts of the screen for any conditions apply or something.
- when i was completely sure of my score, i was elated. Couldnt take my eyes off the computer screen. Finally the proctor had to come and tell me to click finish and get out.
- Took my unofficial Report again making sure that it was my name written above the score.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions regarding anything at all, feel free to ask here. I would be glad to help. If this debrief helped you in any way you know what to do (Kudos 
) so that i know my 3 hrs spent writing this wasnt a waste of time. Cheers!
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Updated on: 17 Feb 2015, 19:31
