Hi, I gave the GMAT recently and got 690,
since I'm an Indian IT male need a much higher score to make it count.
In this post I'll mention my existing strategy, mistakes as well as my progress in preparing for the next exam.
And ask for guidance for attaining my target score
Materials usedBooks:OG 13
Manhattan SC + 6 tests
Online prep:Jamboree GMAT 3 months + GMAT question pack 1, approx 135$
Test packGMAT prep softwareOG 13The book is a must but 70% of the questions are too easy and if you want to target 700+ only the last 50 questions of each section are valuable. I wasn't aware the questions were sorted in level of difficulty and wasted lots of time solving the first hundred or so problem of each section. I solved in bunch of 10 questions and all 10 would be right. Gave me a false sense of progress, and didn't improve as they were too easy. But still recommend for people starting off as this will help get a feel of GMAT questions and the explanations are top notch.
You only need the last 50 or so questions of each setUSEFULManhattan SC Good book and explanations but very few practise problems.
The main motive to purchase was the the supplementary tests available with the book.Manhattan supplemantary tests were ruthless on me and both demotivated and scared me to study harder. Rescheduled tests after consistently scoring in low 600s and less. I found the Quant way harder than the real exam while verbal was a tad harder than the real thing.
But it helped me understand how making mistakes in groups lowered the score more than scattered wrong answers.
In the test analysis found that I easily went to 90%tile+ 700-800 level within 3-5 questions and then my answer time degraded alarmingly with difficult questions.
Almost 4 mins a question, but even on answering wrong, the test kept giving me 700-800 level questions for next 3-4 questions and created more pressure regardless of me answering incorrectly. But my percentile reduced to sub 60%tile with just 3 successive wrong answers. an example: (percentile)
81 -
99 -
78 -
58 -
41 all were 700-800 level questions and the test didn't adapt to give easier 600-700 questions till it brought me down to 41%tile. Very hard to climb back up as one correct answer and bam another 700-800 level question!
My scores were :
Q41V19 510
Q44V29 590
Q39V27 540
Q44V28 590
was enough to make me reschedule the exam by 2 months
Q3 V34 380 (just gave the verbal as it was one day before the test and was concerned with verbal mainly)
didn't have time to give the 6th test
Mistakes:
needed to bookmark problems which were on concepts I was unsure of and didn't review the questions and mistakes sufficiently.
should have extensively and religiously finished all the tests and retaken them
Higher difficulty level helps prepare and focus more for the real test
The grading algo is flawed as answering first 5 and last 5 questions correctly will get you a decent score regardless of overall performance
Still don't know how to get a 700+ scores in these exams, many people are getting them.
USEFUL
Jamboree GMAT 3 months + GMAT question pack 1Questions bank was exhaustive but neither the 40+ question sets(medium and advanced with 20-25 questions each) nor the 4 available tests were adaptive. Explanations were decent nothing great, for harder verbal problems the explanation weren't satisfactory and didn't improve me in any way. Gives a good workout if you are targeting just around 700 or less. I also faced constant login issues and they deactivated my account 20 days before the exam as 3 months were over inspite of me telling them my exam date, required 3 days to get it back working.
NOT WORTH THE MONEYThe Official GMAT question pack offered at a discount rate was the real value here, the 400+questions were graded as easy, medium and difficult and very close to what I found in the real GMAT. I ended up doing all the hard verbal questions, left out the quants as as exam approached I realised verbal as my achilles heel and wanted the most verbal practise possible.
USEFULGMAT prep software 2TestClosest to the real GMAT in terms of question quality
Preferably solve the first mock one month before the actual exam to get a feel of progress, solve the second mock sometime in the week of the exam but not on the day. This score will probably be the most accurate prediction of your GMAT score.
My scores:
710 Q48V39
690 Q48V35
A MUST NO MATTER WHAT OTHER PREPARATIONS YOU TAKEUSEFULGMAT Experience: 690(Q49V35)Quant: found it easy but time management was an issue, finished 10 mins before time, should have spent more time on the difficult problems, can't help but think it could have been higher.
Verbal: was expecting more, again timing issue, finished 6 mins ahead, moreover effects of taking breaks in between mock exams showed, was exhausted, narrowed lots of answers to two but wasn't sure of the correct one. This was the deal breaker between a 700+ and a below 700 score.
I didn't attempt AWA and IR during mock exams and should have done so.
From my performance I guess Verbal is my main weakness and needs more attention.
I plan to give again in 3-4 months and need suggestions on how to get 700+ score, plus where to get 700+ difficulty questions and quality explanations. My mode of study is mainly solving and learning by practise over reading rules from books. So prefer Online prep course with good 700+ level question bank.