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Nov 1912:30 PM EST
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Learn how Keshav, a Chartered Accountant, scored an impressive 705 on GMAT in just 30 days with GMATWhiz's expert guidance. In this video, he shares preparation tips and strategies that worked for him, including the mock, time management, and more
Nov 2007:30 AM PST
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Nov 2001:30 PM EST
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Learn how Kamakshi achieved a GMAT 675 with an impressive 96th %ile in Data Insights. Discover the unique methods and exam strategies that helped her excel in DI along with other sections for a balanced and high score.
Nov 2211:00 AM IST
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Do RC/MSR passages scare you? e-GMAT is conducting a masterclass to help you learn – Learn effective reading strategies Tackle difficult RC & MSR with confidence Excel in timed test environment- Nov 23
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Attend this free GMAT Algebra Webinar and learn how to master the most challenging Inequalities and Absolute Value problems with ease. 
Nov 2407:00 PM PST
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Nov 2510:00 AM EST
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Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors.
28 Aug 2024, 08:30
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi everyone, I am writing this post to outline my journey from getting a 485 in my first mock on 14/7/2024 to finally scoring 695(Q-83,V-90,DI-80) in my first attempt (27/08/2024). This might be helpful for someone who is completely out of touch with the kind of material that is tested on GMAT and is trying to appear for a standardised test after a long time.
A little background about me, I am a Marine engineer by profession and have been sailing for last ten years, had no plans of doing anything except continue my career at sea,Due to a knee injury onboard i had to get down from ship on emergency medical grounds and while coming back home i finally made up my mind to appear for GMAT .
THE DIAGNOSTIC TEST
While going through debrief videos on youtube i saw many people recommend giving a diagnostic mock to asses one's starting point of preparation, I didn't do this because i tried solving some quant problems from the gmat club question banks and pretty soon realised that there was a huge knowledge gap that had to be filled and taking a diagnostic test would serve no other purpose than demoralising me right at the start.I followed ANA PREP's(karishma bansal) study material for my prep.The study material especially for quants is really comprehensive.
QUANT PREP
i had to work a lot on my quants section, made a lot of mistakes in my prep and therefore had to do course correction multiple times herein i will list some of the key takeaways.I should mention these tips are for those who struggle with quants.
1) Practice a good no. of questions from one topic before moving on the next topic, this is key for really solidifying your knowledge base and something that i didn't do. In trying to get done with all the topics quickly i just went through all the prep material for quant in one go ,practicing 5-10 question from each topic this later on cost me much more time as i had to keep going back and forth through the material again and again.
2) Practice questions of all difficulty levels,i had this idea if i can solve 700+ level questions other question will become very easy, this turned out to not be the best approach. It is important to realise that GMAT is not trying to test how good you are at solving the hardest math problems, rather it tests if you can solve a given problem in an efficient manner while you are under time pressure.The best approach for this will be to go through a wide variety of questions mostly from 550-650 level, as most of the questions on the actual test are of that level.
3) Be proficient in working with percentages and ratios i observed in my exam as well as the official mocks that i gave, GmaT is really keen on testing this skill in Quants as well as DI, most of the problems in quants do test the skill of manipulating percentages and ratios if one gets comfortable with these it will definitely save a lot of time and will eventually lead to a better score.
VERBAL
In the first mock i scored 79 in verbal but that was more due to time management issues than anything else i was only able to attempt 16 questions and just marked others.With more practice i realised that if i could just read the question stem and answer options clearly without getting distracted, then usually my first reactions were correct.I stuck to this approach and the mock scores kept getting better to a point where i was regualrly scoring 83-86. I wanted to improve my score futhur and thus tried reading the basics from various study materialsavailable online but honestly i found the material harder to understand than the actual questions, finally just 4 days before exam i came across One of TTP's videos on youtube where they were (i think it was MARTY) solving CR questions and just listening to him approach these questions help me codify a makeshift method in my head to get through the really hard questions.I should mention here that i have always been interested in reading and it has been my major passtime on ship, which paid off here.
DI
DI again was a struggle for me, in my first mock i scored 67 in DI and wasnt able to even complete all the questions. With practice my performance improved slightly but still was not able to move beyond 75 in mocks.The major issue in DI for me was time mangement, So i kept trying various approaches to solve the questions. I tried skipping the MSR questions altogether that saved time but put me at a disadvantage because with my level of proficiency(or lack of it) i was bound to get some more questions wrong which put a very low ceiling on my scores.What helped me in this was a GMAT club debrief video(aspirant name swagata) where she mentioned that she would just read through the MSR question to get a general idea of all the information provided and then just go through the questions and access the info again as per the questions requirement, this helped me a lot another thing that helped me was putting a hard stop on TPA questions if there was no clear approach in my mind for the question within 1.5 minutes i would just tick some random option and move ahead this let me give some extra time on DS questions which i could solve with a pretty high acuuracy rate given the extra time.One important thing to keep in mind is that the Scoring Algorithm is a lot more forgiving in case of DI as compared to quant section, therefore if one can maintain a good accuracy in relatively easier questions and is able to manage time well then 80 is a very achievable score.
Finally i was able to score 695 on the test day which is better than any of my mock scores, and even though i was targetting a 700+ score i'll try applying with this score.
I Think the gamt exam is as much a test of the test taking strategy as it is a test of one's knowledge my mock scores improved from 485 in july to 575 on 5th august to finally getting 695 on the test day because of a very important thing one of my friends told me " You don't master a competitive exam you have to crack it"
A little background about me, I am a Marine engineer by profession and have been sailing for last ten years, had no plans of doing anything except continue my career at sea,Due to a knee injury onboard i had to get down from ship on emergency medical grounds and while coming back home i finally made up my mind to appear for GMAT .
THE DIAGNOSTIC TEST
While going through debrief videos on youtube i saw many people recommend giving a diagnostic mock to asses one's starting point of preparation, I didn't do this because i tried solving some quant problems from the gmat club question banks and pretty soon realised that there was a huge knowledge gap that had to be filled and taking a diagnostic test would serve no other purpose than demoralising me right at the start.I followed ANA PREP's(karishma bansal) study material for my prep.The study material especially for quants is really comprehensive.
QUANT PREP
i had to work a lot on my quants section, made a lot of mistakes in my prep and therefore had to do course correction multiple times herein i will list some of the key takeaways.I should mention these tips are for those who struggle with quants.
1) Practice a good no. of questions from one topic before moving on the next topic, this is key for really solidifying your knowledge base and something that i didn't do. In trying to get done with all the topics quickly i just went through all the prep material for quant in one go ,practicing 5-10 question from each topic this later on cost me much more time as i had to keep going back and forth through the material again and again.
2) Practice questions of all difficulty levels,i had this idea if i can solve 700+ level questions other question will become very easy, this turned out to not be the best approach. It is important to realise that GMAT is not trying to test how good you are at solving the hardest math problems, rather it tests if you can solve a given problem in an efficient manner while you are under time pressure.The best approach for this will be to go through a wide variety of questions mostly from 550-650 level, as most of the questions on the actual test are of that level.
3) Be proficient in working with percentages and ratios i observed in my exam as well as the official mocks that i gave, GmaT is really keen on testing this skill in Quants as well as DI, most of the problems in quants do test the skill of manipulating percentages and ratios if one gets comfortable with these it will definitely save a lot of time and will eventually lead to a better score.
VERBAL
In the first mock i scored 79 in verbal but that was more due to time management issues than anything else i was only able to attempt 16 questions and just marked others.With more practice i realised that if i could just read the question stem and answer options clearly without getting distracted, then usually my first reactions were correct.I stuck to this approach and the mock scores kept getting better to a point where i was regualrly scoring 83-86. I wanted to improve my score futhur and thus tried reading the basics from various study materialsavailable online but honestly i found the material harder to understand than the actual questions, finally just 4 days before exam i came across One of TTP's videos on youtube where they were (i think it was MARTY) solving CR questions and just listening to him approach these questions help me codify a makeshift method in my head to get through the really hard questions.I should mention here that i have always been interested in reading and it has been my major passtime on ship, which paid off here.
DI
DI again was a struggle for me, in my first mock i scored 67 in DI and wasnt able to even complete all the questions. With practice my performance improved slightly but still was not able to move beyond 75 in mocks.The major issue in DI for me was time mangement, So i kept trying various approaches to solve the questions. I tried skipping the MSR questions altogether that saved time but put me at a disadvantage because with my level of proficiency(or lack of it) i was bound to get some more questions wrong which put a very low ceiling on my scores.What helped me in this was a GMAT club debrief video(aspirant name swagata) where she mentioned that she would just read through the MSR question to get a general idea of all the information provided and then just go through the questions and access the info again as per the questions requirement, this helped me a lot another thing that helped me was putting a hard stop on TPA questions if there was no clear approach in my mind for the question within 1.5 minutes i would just tick some random option and move ahead this let me give some extra time on DS questions which i could solve with a pretty high acuuracy rate given the extra time.One important thing to keep in mind is that the Scoring Algorithm is a lot more forgiving in case of DI as compared to quant section, therefore if one can maintain a good accuracy in relatively easier questions and is able to manage time well then 80 is a very achievable score.
Finally i was able to score 695 on the test day which is better than any of my mock scores, and even though i was targetting a 700+ score i'll try applying with this score.
I Think the gamt exam is as much a test of the test taking strategy as it is a test of one's knowledge my mock scores improved from 485 in july to 575 on 5th august to finally getting 695 on the test day because of a very important thing one of my friends told me " You don't master a competitive exam you have to crack it"
28 Aug 2024, 09:47
Kudos
Bookmarks
All the best going forward. Nice V90. Consider writing a profile-review.
28 Aug 2024, 11:03
Kudos
Bookmarks
This is so amazing! Kudos and thanks for sharing
