Well it took me 3 attempts and a lot of pain but finally in the elite 700's club (GMAT - 720(48/40) (95th Percentile))
My GMAT journey started in Nov/Dec 2014 last year with the aim of getting into
TAS (Tata Administrative Services). I work for a Tata Group Company (TCS-Aerospace) and we are eligible for In-house TAS recruitment after 2 years of service based on GMAT Scores and national interviews. Considering the short duration of time (cutoff date - 28 Feb) I had, I booked a Feb end date before starting my preparation.
Flashback !!!!!!!
GMAT - 1 (Feb 2015)Nothing short of disaster. Screen flashed 6xx score. I was dinged by both Quant and Verbal Section.
I didn't even bother seeing the screen for much, cancelled the score, came out of the center, smoked after so many years
and bamm...was silent for some days !!!
Mistakes I did :-
1.)Prepared from whatever random sources I got.(GMAT Club, Veritas,
Magoosh etc.)
2.)Solved
OG Questions but didn't analyse my mistakes properly.
2.)Didn't give even a single full length mock-test.
4.)Didn't prepare for the mental stamina battle of 4.5 hours that GMAT demands.
5.)Over-confident in Quantitative Aptitude.
Needed a rehab - Spent an awesome weekend at Goa - India !!!
GMAT - 2 (Sep 2015)With TAS gone, I had some personal scores to settle with GMAT. I started my preparation again in April 2015
My work hours are very hectic and with general shift timings in Bangalore, 10-11 hours of work hours actually mean 14-15 hours considering the sick traffic mania this city has. You can't expect to study for 3-4 hours in a day if you are away from 9 am to 10 pm.
I work for a UK based client, so the first thing I did was to ask my manager for change in timings, which meant I had to come to office by 1:30-2 pm IST and leave by 11pm IST. Fair Enough !!! Couldn't have asked for more!!!
Secondly I reduced my social media interactions. I deleted my https://gmatclub.com/chat Account and used to periodically use Facebook once in 10-12 days. I am a very bad multitasker so I needed all this to get my concentration back. My day used to start at 9am and end at 11:30pm with limited contact to outside world via social media. But I made it a point to call my friends and meet them on weekends !!!!!
My weekends were spent relaxing and watching EPL - LA LIGA matches with my flatmates.
We have a
Manchester United,
Chelsea and
Manchester City supporter in the house so you can very well imagine how things look like on weekends
Once in 2 days I used to give mocks and analyse it on weekdays. Otherwise those 48 hours were for me to unwind and read good quality books!!!!!!
My weekday schedule :-
9 AM - 1 PM = Studying in my office Library (My office Library has entire Manhattan, Kaplan,
OG Series books)
1:00 - 1:30 PM = Power nap in office bunker room
1:30 PM - 11 PM = Actual Office Work
This continued for 5 months (April-Aug 2015)
Preparation :-
1.)I solved all the official questions from
OG, VR-2 religiously with error analysis.
2.)Bought Kaplan and GMAT Club Mocks. GMAT Club mocks are really good in terms of quality of questions.
3.)Used
E-GMAT material for my CR preparation.
4.)I gave around 14 GMAT Club Quant Mocks and 6 Verbal mocks. My scored hovered around 48-49 in Quants and 34-35 in Verbals.
5.)Gave 5,6 full length Kaplan mocks. My score hovered around 690-730.
I had planned for July-retake but due to some important personal commitments couldn't give in July.
I gave in Sep-2015 and ended up with 660. It was a day of mixed emotions. On any given day 660 could have been 680-700 but I guess God wanted it like that only.
I planned to apply to some colleges with this score only.
Definitely needed a rehab - Spent an awesome extended weekend at Goa - India !!!
GMAT - 3 (Nov 16 2015)I never told anyone this attempt was coming. (No one in my family and not a single flat mate knew)
I got close to some Rs 12k (200$) as my quarterly bonus in office. So thought why not give another attempt and utilize this money rather than wasting it on clothes and pub hopping.
Preparation :-
1.) No mocks (20 Sep - 16 Nov 2015)
2.) Didn't open any book. In a way I was happy with my score and cursing myself later why I re-booked the test.
3.) Till 2 hours before the test I was cursing myself more, now I can't get my money back too - why I booked GMAT.
4.) Went to the exam center at Manipal Center - Bangalore. The guy knew my face and asked in Hindi "Bhaiya aap phir aa gye"- (Brother, you came again)!!!
5.) I had absolutely no pressure. The day was not looking like a normal Test Day.
Quant Section :-
Maths was insane level but I was enjoying the experience. There were some good pitfall questions. In-between I was stuck in some 2-3 formula based questions.
I was not sure of the formulas to be used so I guessed and went ahead. I definitely had a chance to breach 50/51 but was expecting 49 this time around.
I took the mandatory 8 min break, meditated and came back to the hall.
Verbal Section :-
First 3 SC Ques - Bamm Bamm Bamm!!!!!! Clock read 74:02 sec and I had already done those 3 SC Questions. They were very easy or probably SC was my strong point.
Then came an RC passage which was related to something I like reading (Capitalism-Communism Stuff) - Killed 4 questions - Bamm !!! Bamm!! Bamm!!! Bam!!!
7 questions done and I knew 7/7 were correct.
Then the 8th question was a boldface..... Damm!!!! I knew what I was thinking was right (Boldface generally come whenever you are doing good in the Verbal Section).
Consolidated the great start with good middle section. CRs were tricky but manageable. RCs and SCs were tough.
I had become some sort of question answering zombie in between and I didn't see the clock again till the 28th question. I was enjoying the experience as I had no pressure.
13 questions left and some 25 mins were remaining. I carefully attempted the remaining questions so that I can reach 37-38 level. A 49/37 would have given me 700.
Clicked on the finish button some 4 mins before the actual time and the screen flashed
720(48/40) 
!!!!
I was silent for 20-30 secs, went out, took the prints, took a day off from office for sleeping but couldn't.
Few things which helped me in GMAT 2/3 :-
1.) My core preparation used to be from 9 am - 12 pm everyday and my test timings was 9 am too. So it was just another day for me.
2.) I tried to identify patterns which are very crucial in CR.
3.) Gave as many mocks as possible.
The intention behind this long post is to just spread a message that GMAT is do-able. You just have to be focused. If an average guy like me can do it,
anybody can !!!!!!!!
close
21 Nov 2015, 01:25
