Hello!
I've been a lurker here, looking up answers and debriefs for the past whole month. Now that I'm done with my GMAT I can finally narrate my experience.
BACKGROUND: (Skip this if you want the real thing; this is just the 'build-up')
I'm a non-engineer female from India. Indian engineers are known to score high: they've had enough practice in quant, considering their college entrance examination process.
That's totally not the case with non engineers. I've always struggled with quant.
My
OG diagnostic scores were dismal, with an accuracy of <50%.
I'd thought of verbal as my strength. My diagnostic scores discouraged me entirely.
I needed to give the GMAT because I had to save my scores: I had a month of paid leave from work in hand. And that was longest I'd get in the next few years, unless I quit my job.
I decided that this simply won't do. I'd been an average student all my life, and a good GMAT score would help my B-school applications.
THE GRIND:
I started my 'research': scoured GMAT club for advice, colleted debriefs on Pocket (App- it's amazing for storing random articles off the web offine), formulated an action plan. Four weeks was all I had.
I knew I had to plan smart. Targeting a 51 in quant would be unrealistic. So I decided to focus on verbal instead. Moreover, the scoregrids suggested that the payoff per point was much higher for verbal.
After my research, I realised, my budget permitted me limited resources. I bought these books:
1. The
OG:
Yes, it has sub-700 level questions. But it is the official collection. The real Bible for GMAT, for every section.
2. Manhattan SC Strategy Guide:
Probably the most detailed and exhaustive resource I could find for SC. I'd learnt from debriefs that investing time on SC during your prep pays off on your exam- when you save time in the verbal section.
And that's it. For Quant, I relied entirely on Buñuel's questions. Check out his signature; he has the most amazing collection of quant questions. I couldn't finish them all, due to the time crunch.
They were tough, yes. So you need to start with the easy, not so tough ones, or you'll get discouraged. I knew I would, so I stayed away from anything that said "Tough!" Or "700+" or "Really difficult", in the beginning.
RC wasn't really an issue, or so my diagnostic test had indicated.
For two weeks, this was all I did. Day in, day out. I wouldn't advice anybody to do this- it was a really intensive schedule.
I started with the tests in the third week.
I gave the free
Manhattan prep and scored a 700. Q45/V38. That really pumped me up.
I went back to revising for the next two days.
Manhattan prep has unusually tough quant questions. I have no idea how I managed a 45, given that I'd always sucked at quant. The detailed solutions were really helpful in reviewing my strategy.
This was my first test, and I had run out of time, obviously.
I decided to STOP keeping an eye on the timer- that was what had freaked me out in the first place.
With a newfound enthusiasm, I tried to brush up my SC skills, which were still pathetic. (They continued to remain so till two days before my exam).
Two days before the exam, I sat down to do the Brutal SCs- all of them in a single stretch. And viola! My accuracy improved to about 85-90%.
Oh, also, that's a skill you need to master. To be able to sit for four hours at a stretch. For every mock that I took, I gave the AWA and IR.
In the next two weeks I took the GMATprep tests, and then retook them.
GMAT prep 1: 710 (Q50/V37)
GMAT prep 2: 710 (Q51/V35) (What.)
GMAT prep 3: 770 (Q51/V42)
GMAT prep 4: 780 (Q50/V46)
Okay, the retakes had repeated questions. Plus, I'm not too sure I remember the splits. But they were enough to encourage me. And like my mommy says, it's all in the state of mind.
And FINALLY:
GMAT: 710
Did I mention, I "chineseburned" my way to AWA? My AWA scores aren't here yet, though. *fingers crossed*
So yes. That.
It was good. But I think I'll retake the test. A good score can get you scholarships, and those are worth more than the price you pay for a retake. (The $250!)
I plan to retake the test in a couple of months. I won't have much time to study, of course. But now it's all about fine-tuning my prep, I guess.
Towards the end, I realised. It's true that GMAT isn't a test to determine how great you are at Math or English. It's about how you think, how you manage your time, and how well you plan.
If I can get a 700+, anybody can.
Don't let anything, much less a bad diagnostic score, get you down.
Sayonara! ^_^
NeutronSkye