This past weekend I gave my second and final GMAT attempt. I am glad for this long and arduous journey to have ended, but the prospect of starting with the application process seems daunting enough that I thought of writing about my experience with the GMAT instead (procrastination is truly a hell of a drug). It is ironic that this is the first time I am making a post after having spent so much time on this site that my browser auto-completes to gmatclub instead of Google or Gmail! However, I strongly believe that Gmatclub has been instrumental in helping me reach a high score on the GMAT and as a result I wanted to share my experience in hopes that it might be illuminating for someone else.
Chapter 1: A spark is ignited (~April 2019 - August 2019)
I was interviewing with a Big4 earlier this year but didn’t get in. This led me to introspect on what I truly wanted to do in the future. Doing an MBA was always on my radar but was never really concrete enough. This rejection made it so. Around the same time I switched roles internally from the business intelligence practice to the strategy consulting practice which meant that I was suddenly looking at a lot more travel and 100 hour work weeks. As a result, I didn't start studying until September.
Chapter 2: Let's get this show on the road (September 2019)
I finally started studying once the summer was drawing to a close as I traded bottomless mimosa brunches with countless coffee doses (I wish I could make a better rhyme). I was still traveling a significant amount and working long hours so I was primarily studying on airplanes and in hotel rooms. I would try to cover it up over the weekends but my girlfriend was not very cheerleadish about that. As a result, it seemed more like a token effort and I was not really getting a lot of value from it but somehow I powered through the Manhattan guides.
Chapter 3: So you think you can GMAT? (October 2019)
I had made a strategic decision to give my first mock only after I was done reading the Manhattan guides. My reasoning was that the Manhattan guides would provide a solid foundation on which I could improve. So on October 1 I finally gave my first mock. I gave it after a full workday and a 3 hour flight so I didn’t have very high expectations. I was still hoping to get a decent score since I wasn’t giving the mock completely raw. But exhaustion got the better of me. I thought of quitting midway multiple times as my brain was screaming at me. I did realize in the quant section that my engineering brain would be detrimental in the GMAT exam – I was not realizing that I would spend 5+ minutes trying to come up with a solution when I didn’t know the answer. I would try multiple approaches before finally giving up. As a result, I barely completed half the questions in quant. I have always tested well in verbal as I was an avid reader growing up. My verbal section was not any better as I was a borderline zombie by then and guessing half the questions just to be done with it. Not surprisingly, I scored a 570 (Q34, V34). I did not test under the best circumstances, but I was still a little crestfallen to get such a low score. The guidance I had seen online suggested that it is a monumental, borderline impossible task to increase your score by more than a 100 points and as an ORM I was aiming to score 720+ to get into the top Bschools.
Chapter 4: And so my watch begins (October 2019 – January 2020)
The very next day I signed up for a 6 month subscription of
Target Test Prep through GMATclub and as a result got access to
GMATclub tests as well. I diligently went through each module in
TTP and solved all easy, medium, and hard quizzes. I don’t really care about video explanations so I just read through all the modules and filled out the flash cards. I was completing 1-2 modules per week based on the module sizes. And after finishing 4-5 modules, I would spend a week reviewing them again. Around this time I was genuinely studying with integrity. I had pretty much stopped going to the gym (used to lift for 1.5-2 hours daily) and stopped having a life. I would work from 8am – 8pm and then study in the office or hotel room for another 2 hours. It was long and taxing but I was committed now. I also started studying Verbal from the Manhattan guides and reading the PowerScore CR bible. Once I was done with all
TTP modules, I attempted the first
OG Practice test again on Jan 31st. Lo and behold I got a mere 600 (Q41, V32). Now, this was severely demotivating as I had put in a good 3-4 months of studying with almost no improvement in my score.
Chapter 5: Reversal of fortunes (February 2020 – March 2020)
Despite my low score, I knew that I had prepared hard and I just needed to keep at it. I was optimistic that my score would improve if I just kept my head down and continued working hard. I started reviewing each quant topic from
TTP and doing GMATclub quizzes for each topic simultaneously. This was an absolute game changer and my scores started improving. I also started watching
GMATNinja videos on YouTube and if you haven’t heard this enough – Charles is an absolute rockstar. I like to believe that I have a strong grasp on English and grammar, but I found his videos to be immensely helpful nonetheless. I attribute my performance improvement in sentence correction solely to him. If someone does not have strong English fundamentals, I recommend signing up for private tutoring. Charles, if you read this and are ever in Chicago (or if I find myself in Colorado), I would love to take you out to dinner. As I advanced in my preparation, I gave a bunch of Veritas and Manhattan tests, in which I saw steady improvement (scores at the end of debrief). This culminated with me giving the the 2nd
OG Practice test on March 28th and I scored a 770 (Q50, V44). Now, I felt confident so I went ahead and booked my GMAT appointment for April 17th. There was some ambiguity on whether I would be able to take the test as Chicago closed down in mid-March but I was optimistic (to the point of foolishness) to believe that the test centers might re-open by mid-April.
Chapter 6: Almost there – GMAT attempt 1 (720, Q49, V39) (~April 2020 – June 2020)
Test centers did not reopen and there was no end in sight. I kept booking the next available date every time Pritzker extended the lockdown but the ambiguity around when I would be able to take the test killed all my motivation. I took a 2 week break in which I didn’t touch my books as I was starting to feel burnt out. I also was cautious of not using up all my material too fast but finally started using the
OG books and
OG practice questions set 1. The biggest change I made was that I would review each and every question from GMATClub and built an
error log for the questions I found difficult. I breezed through the
OG guides and practice questions as I was used to a higher level of difficulty as a result of the GMATclub questions. I also gave the rest of the
OG mock tests (exam pack 3-6) and scored 760-770 (scores at the end) in each of them. I was finally able to get an appointment in June and couldn’t wait to be done with the GMAT. On the test day, I reverted back to my timing issues and spent a ridiculous amount of time on 1 question which meant I was rushing through the rest of the quant section. I did the same in Verbal and as a result I knew that this would not be my best attempt. I was not surprised to see a 720 which I promptly canceled, as I knew that I could do a lot better.
Chapter 7: Deliverance – GMAT attempt 2 (760, Q51, V41) (July 2020)
Since I had started studying, I always planned on giving the exam twice but my timeline got pushed so much due to the lockdown that I was now considering just reinstating my score and starting my applications. But I was confident that I could improve my score, so I booked the earliest test date I could find (July 24th). In the meanwhile I had to move apartments and my work ramped up exponentially. As a result, I didn’t get back to studying until July 18th and had to move by test date by a week to August 1st. In this time I just went through the PowerScore CR Bible again, purchased and did the
OG Practice questions set 2, and reattempted some of the
OG practice tests again to get back in the zone. On the actual exam day, I was relaxed and powered through the quant section with ease. During the verbal section, I started feeling tired (had worked out prior to the exam to get my brain juices flowing) and wasn’t doing great on timing. As a result, I had to rush through the last 4-5 questions and I knew that would probably hurt my verbal score. Post my break, I powered through IR and AWA and clicked next to see my score. When I saw 760, I was honestly more relieved than ecstatic. I knew that my verbal section didn’t go that well. And my verbal score was lower than that of my mock tests but I will take it.
This debrief ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated and I can’t put off work any longer so I will end this here with a TL;DR. Also, I have not reviewed grammar, spellings, formatting, etc so I apologize for that. Please feel free to comment below if you have any questions as I am not great at responding to DMs. Hopefully, this debrief is informative for some of you and shows that scoring a 750+ in GMAT simply comes down to your tenacity if you’re not naturally gifted.
TL;DR – Work hard and believe in yourself. You will get there if you’re disciplined and diligent. Use the right materials and constantly reassess areas for improvement. GMATclub,
GMATNinja, and all
OG materials are imperative if you want to get a high score (in my humble opinion). For quant,
TTP is a great place to get started and will get you to Q48-49 if you complete it in its entirety.
GMATclub tests/quizzes and redoing questions from your
error log will get you to Q50-51. For verbal, having strong fundamentals is paramount. I think just
GMATNinja videos and
OG materials are sufficient if you have your basics covered. Finally, give as many credible mock tests as possible. Simulate exam conditions as much as possible for all mock tests (I wore a mask for each mock test as I knew that I would have to at the exam center). Another critical piece is to have a strong support structure. My girlfriend was a rock by my side the past year and helped me through times when I was demotivated or lost hope. She helped out tremendously so that I didn’t waste any time throughout the day. I would work for 8-12 hours and then study for the rest of the time I was awake. I couldn’t have done that if she didn’t pick up some of my slack around the house. Last of all, be clear headed that at the end of the day GMAT is just a test, and your performance on it does not define you, so don’t beat yourself up too much if you’re not where you would like to be. Just take a deep breath and keep going.
Test scores:
Date Test Score Split
10/1/2019
OG GMAT Practice test 1 570 Q34, V34
01/31/2020
OG Practice test 1 (2nd attempt) 600 Q41, V32
02/08/2020 Manhattan CAT 1 650 Q43, V36
03/14/2020 Manhattan CAT 2 690 Q46, V38
03/21/2020 Veritas Prep Test 1 720 Q50, V39
03/28/2020
OG GMAT Practice test 2 770 Q50, V46
03/29/2020 Manhattan CAT 3 640 Q43, V34
04/11/2020 Veritas Prep Test 2 710 Q51, V37
04/12/2020 Veritas Prep Test 3 710 Q51, V37
05/18/2020 Manhattan CAT 4 680 Q46, V37
05/28/2020
OG Practice test 3 770 Q50, V44
06/01/2020 Manhattan CAT 5 680 Q46, V37
06/05/2020 Veritas Prep Test 4 710 Q51, V36
06/06/2020
OG Practice test 4 740 Q50, V40
06/11/2020 Manhattan CAT 6 670 Q45, V36
06/13/2020
OG Practice test 5 760 Q50, V44
06/17/2020
OG Practice test 6 770 Q50, V45
06/19/2020 GMAT Exam (1st attempt) 720 Q49, V39
07/25/2020 Veritas Prep Test 5 740 Q50, V41
07/26/2020 Veritas Prep Test 6 710 Q49, V39
08/01/2020 GMAT Exam (2nd attempt) 760 Q51, V41
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05 Aug 2020, 16:40
