varunjoshi31 wrote:
Dear
natley4788,
First of all congratulations for crossing your target of 750!!! 770 is a phenomenal score and I am sure you would be able to get an admit from the school you are aiming.
I had few more questions :
1. How did you train yourself to stay focused throughout the exam, specially when you reach the verbal section.
In my case, I almost feel like a zombie till I reach the verbal section and its very difficult to keep myself focussed.
2. How did you utilize your time during the breaks
Would you revise some quick notes, what kind of food/drink did you consume to keep yourself awake
3. Lastly, did you allot more time during the first 10 questions of each section to get a better accuracy.
In my analysis of 3 CAT's, I feel that having an accuracy of >70% definitely helps to boost your score and I generally allot 5 minutes more for the first 10 questions
Many thanks for sharing your experience!!!
Cheers,
Varun
Hi Varun,
Thanks for the congratulations; very happy with the score! To answer your questions:
1. Firstly I think doing practice CATs is very important to building endurance, just like working out at a gym. As I mentioned earlier I did 9 practice exams, 3 or 4 of which I also did essay writing and IR. Felt destroyed at the end of them, but you get more resilient over time. The other key tip is to focus on the exam in chunks. When sitting down to do IR, just tell yourself: "I'm only going to focus on IR, I'm going to nail these 12 questions, then I'm done". When the IR section is over and you get a break, stand up, go wash your face, have a bite to eat, do some jumping jacks/stretches. All within the 8 minute time limit of course, but just get the blood pumping, refresh the mind and body. Then a minute or two before the next section, get yourself in the mindset -> "I'm only going to focus on [next section e.g. Quant]. I'm going to nail these 37 questions." I would also quickly remind myself of the key rules I need to keep in mind (e.g. don't spend longer than x minutes, if its verbal I would remind myself of section specific strategies, I mentioned above, etc.
When you finish the Quant section, you get up, refresh yourself and do it all over again for Verbal. The key is to just stay focussed on the upcoming section and break the exam down in your mind into 75 minute chunks.
2. No note revising, but I did run over my key strategies in my head. First 5 minutes was washing my face, drinking water, eating a protein energy bar. Do some jumping on the spot, some stretching, to get the blood flowing. Last 2-3 minutes was running over strategies in my head.
3. I was more careful for the first 10 questions, but I wouldnt say I allotted more time. I was able to solve them all relatively quickly, but just double checked to make sure they were right. I wouldn't over do it though. I found veritas' scoring mechanism strongly emphasises your score in the first 10 questions, which trained me in some bad habits. But I don't think the actual GMAT as harshly penalises you for the first 10 as does Veritas. But at the end of the day you will find as many people who argue that the first 10 questions are critical as you will find people who argue that the first 10 are no more important. So do whatever you feel is best, whatever you feel gives you more confidence and doesn't negatively impact your score.
Cheers,
Natley