A year ago, I took my first GMAT. Although I prepared for more than 3 months, It really meant little as I was really careless in preparation. I always felt I knew what exactly GMAT tests us but never really prepared for it. So, I got an average score of 620(V30 Q45). I knew I lacked good preparation but it was disappointing as I expected at least 650. 620 score was a joke and made me decide that will be my first and last GMAT attempt.
I analysed what I lacked afterwards. First, I lacked thorough basic knowledge. In 3 months of preparation I practised plenty of questions but never once went through the basics thoroughly. Second, my mind was duller than ever before. In GMAT you need ability to declutter the clutter and have presence of mind. I lacked both. I wasn't exercising enough, eating breakfasts and maintaining the healthy sleep routine.
After this analysis, I promised to myself I will not let my brain deteriorate further. I may never take GMAT again but living a physically active lifestyle is great for life in general. Following months, I played football actively: 2-3 times a week of above 2 hours session. I gained my brain sharpness. It was evident because I could reason well, perform well and feel good.
- 11 months after -
A new admission session was about to begin. I desperately wanted to continue my education. For that, I needed GMAT. I had about 1 month left for preparation and it would do nothing if I would score below 700. It seemed impossible at first that how can I score >=700 preparing for a month when last time I could only score mere 620 after preparing for more than 3 months. I gave a good thought on why I got so bad score last time and remembered the analysis I had done. I became a lot more confident after that. I was in top physical and mental condition since I had played football for months. Now, only thing needed was going through basics. I started the same day learning the basics. I just used GMATClub's math book and
OG for maths revision. And, started reading Crime and Punishment as a verbal preparation. This time I also realised I needed to speed up my reading. My speed was at about 250 words/ minute at that time. I read somewhere in Quora if you want save time in GMAT first thing you should do is increase your reading speed to at least 400 words/minute with >=80% comprehension. I kid you not, if you try you will significantly increase your reading speed by the time you read 50% of that book.
When going through basics I realised how careless I was before. For example, I used to always derive d=st and t=d/s from s=d/t, taking me every time valuable 4-5 seconds. I memorised all these. Being able read fast, having good and thorough understanding of basics helps you solve easy and medium difficulty level questions with above 90% accuracy and it really puts you in good position. As you all know, silly mistakes are not silly but really serious issue in GMAT. It doesn't matter much if you cannot solve a difficult GMAT question, but it matters whole lot more if you cannot solve a easy GMAT question. In three weeks, I could solve <700 questions with accuracy of over 90% in
OG questions and Gmatclub's questions directory by difficulty level. I cared less about >700 questions. In 2 Official GMATPrep mock exam I scored 680(v34 q49) and 690(V37 Q48). Those tests made me realise I had problems with Inequalities, absolute values, probability, combinations/permutations and s=dt word problems. I revised them once more. I could not do much about verbal and I thought I would pull 700 with good quantitive score. I was starting to feel the 700 in the air.
2 days before GMAT, I had a day off from office so stayed whole day at home and practised more. In the evening, I ordered a meal from a restaurant. About 3 hours after that, I started to feel tickle in my nose. The guy had brought flu with the meal. I didn't believe I would get flu in 3 months(I used to get flu every once in a 6 months period or more). It started to become worse. In few hours after the first tickle, my nose started to produce mucus. I was in disbelief. There is a GMAT day after. The sleep that night was bad. Next day my nose was flooding. I hoped for the best that it would be better the next day, the exam day. My sleep was messed, my brain was hurt and it seemed my world was falling apart. By the evening that day, I was certain that the next day I will not get better. I started checking if I could reschedule the exam but it would cost me full GMAT fee of $250 and also the next date was 16 days after which would be too late for masters application. I could either not appear in exam or give a best shot. I could barely sleep the whole night. In the morning I was in a doubt for 30 minutes. Then I thought I would do the morning ritual and see how I will feel after. I made really strong tea with ginger and pepper, drank it, ate croissant and dark chocolate, got hot shower. I felt better. I felt I could try at least for 250$' sake. I wasn't weak but having flu is the worst thing that can happen to a man. The irritation it produced was unbearable but hot shower made it better. I went to the bathroom. After a while I felt like going to the bathroom again. It was the start of Diarrhoea. I hurried towards the bus. I reached the test centre 15 minutes beforehand. I knew the whole time I would fail this GMAT miserably but that actually took off some pressure. I shat once before starting GMAT. Shat again when I finished Essay and IR. I had solved about 10 questions in quantitative section then I started to feel such a bad diarrhoea pain in my stomach. Good lord, I wish that never happens to anybody. On one hand, I had runny nose and headache, on the other, stomach pain. It was unbearable. I thought for a minute, whether I should abandon the exam. Stomach became better after few minutes. I continued. I finished with 4-5 minutes remaining. Then, again back to the toilet. I cleared my throat, nose and rectum. I drank energy drink, ate chocolate bar and entered for the Verbal part. I was better. The verbal was tough as hell. I had no confidence in any of the answer I chose. But, I did it. It was all over with 4-5 minutes remaining at the end again. I felt relieved because I passed the ordeal. It felt like I was a free bird because I could go to the toilet anytime now. I didn't so much cared about the test result at that time. Few "Next", "Next", "Next" and at the end and the result was presented. First thing, I saw was 710 and I could not believe it. I looked carefully and told myself, this is a miracle. Because of my pain and irritation I could not enjoy it and get excited but I felt happiness because I got 710(V36, Q50) after going through such a miserable ordeal.
I am still sick while writing this. I haven't proof read. There might be many mistakes in this post but I hope that some points I have made, in between the story, are helpful to many people.
Info: I had
Magoosh subscription when I attempted first time. While preparing for the second time, I did subscribe
E-gmat's sentence correction course but I only went half way through it as I didn't have enough time.