I received my scores on earlier this week:
760 – Q50 V44 
Up popped a notification around 1 AM Paris time ‘Your Official GMAT Online Exam Score Is Now Available’. I will be honest - As had been the case on seeing that dreaded blue screen, my heart began to thump louder than ever and my eyes were hoping not to see another dejection. With great courage, I clicked on the button to view my scores and VOILA, popped a 760! Finally, I had done it. Q50 V44 for a pretty average guy. I did not sleep that entire night. I was overwhelmed. The feeling was surreal. This exam and the journey have taught me so many lessons that are going to stick with me for a very long time, probably my entire lifetime. The emotional side, the personal side, the professional side - so many facets, each demanding a story but that’s for another time!
Sorry for the delay, but I took a week or so to introspect what was it that worked for me. Post some introspection, I came up with this debrief and want to give back to this beautiful community to which I am forever going to be grateful to
Hello team GMATClub, please hear my heart out and welcome to my story ? I have structured my debrief in the following way:
- Beginning the journey: 550 -> 710
- Hitting the plateau
- Overcoming my emotions and fears: 710 -> 760
- General takeaways
Beginning the journey: 550 -> 710
I was in the final year of my undergrad, contemplating where I wanted to be 5-10 years post my studies. It was sometime in early 2017 when I decided to pursue an MBA and hence take the exam. Given my undergrad was in Computer Science from a college known for its coding culture, not many in my network had treaded the MBA path. Hence, I did not have much guidance and did not even know about the awesome community of GMATClubbers back then. However, I was convinced that I want to do an MBA at some point in time so I decided to prepare for the exam. I came across some blogs on the internet that talked about how the exam can be conquered in about 3 months: Little did I realize, my journey was going to be slightly longer ?. Popular websites suggested that I take an official test and then solve
the Official guide end to end. So, as naïve as I was, I ordered
the official guide and started reading through it as if it were a novel. An exciting chapter of my life was about to unfold.
Unplanned and unstructured, my preparation involved solving as many questions as I could. I did no analysis whatsoever. Only if I knew I was digging a grave for myself. Late in my solving spree, I did Google a question and it was then I stumbled upon GMATClub. I did not know there was such a huge community of GMAT clubbers willing to help each other! I was truly amazed. I read a few debriefs and tried to identify common threads. Since I am not a native speaker, my takeaway was to sign up for a popular online course as I had seen some amazing reviews. I spent a month on the course going over their modules. I found it way more interesting than reading the
OG books. I finished the modules in two months and scheduled my GMAT.
Exam day:
Honestly, I felt the exam centers atmos
phere quite daunting. It only made me more tense. As much as I tried to calm myself, I could not. Back then choosing the section wasn’t a thing. So I began with AWA and IR - I spend a lot of effort in both these sections. Trying to perfect my AWS and get every question correct on IR, I was quite exhausted when I started Quant. The first 10-15 questions were doable. However, towards the end, I saw the exam throw some difficult questions at me that I could not answer. But being as adamant as I was, I spent 6-7 minutes on a question. And still could not solve it! I spent so much time that I was rushing towards the end. As a result, I had to solve questions in a rush and this costed me a point I think. It is important to trained one's mind enough to let go of the very hard questions.
By the time I began verbal, I was drained and exhausted. I could not stop thinking about my performance in Quant! Nonetheless, the first 9 questions felt simple, especially SC. However, the test got difficult as I progressed through Q2 and Q3 and I found it hard to make my way through the tough RC and CR. I remember I had 10 mins to work through the last 10 questions. I finished in a rush, attempting most of them half-heartedly. Eventually, I saw the dreaded blue screen flash a 710 - Q49 V38. So, even though I had crossed the 700 score barrier, given my demographic the score was not enough. I came home with mixed emotions. I convinced myself I had to retake at some point. Giving up was not an option. I made a folder called ‘GMAT2’ on my PC. It was time to begin my second innings which was probably the most arduous part of the journey.
Hitting the Plateau:
This was the phase in my journey when I got busy with my full-time job, studying on-and-off. I had many conflicting priorities and my GMAT journey took a side lane.
Having realized that a 710 score was either at the borderline or below the median scores of target schools, I started to spend more time on this wonderful resource GMATClub with its vast variety of questions. I actively read debriefs of people and decided to add the Critical Reasoning Bible and Manhattan SC guide to my arsenal. I diligently maintained an
error log but my focus was still on “Solving More Questions”. I used to read the book and then jump to solving hard questions in a timed manner. Big mistake! During this phase, I tried a lot of prep courses, mocks, and private tuitions in this part of my journey. (I have elucidated my experience with each of these in a follow up comment). However, my verbal score was hovering between V35-V38 across mocks and I could not make my mind to schedule the test.
Overcoming my fear and emotions: 710 -> 760
Let me address the elephant in the room then: What was it that helped me from V38 to a V44 even though I was working a full-time job, preparing three meals a day(lol, I love Indian food and can't compromise on this aspect), and working out at the same time (thanks to my gym trainer)?
- 1) MINDSET of no fear – Very important: Mindset can make a difference of 50 points if not more. Let me explain. In my earlier attempt, I went into the exam thinking that I have to get a 740+. So, my focus was on the number and it was something ingrained in my head. This was the mental pressure I had put on myself. What if I don’t get a 740? What if I won’t be able to apply this year? What will my friends and family think if I don't get that 740+ score. Every mock I took that gave me a sub-par score made me indulge in self-doubt. Going into my 760 attempt, I made myself comfortable with the uncomfortable. When my mind asked me: what if you don’t get a good score even this time? I said I would be OK applying with a 710. What if you don’t get in with a 710? I said I would be OK pursuing an alternate career path – I was anyway quite happy in my job. I had even imagined what my life would be like if I get rejected from all B-schools. It is important to visualize yourself living the worst-case scenario. Once you have made peace with it and realized that it’s not going to be the end of life, you will have NOTHING at stake in the exam. With such thoughts, I was relaxed. I had made peace with the idea of failure.
- 2) Going back to the classroom: I found the human touch element missing in my journey. I love the classroom atmosphere and wanted to relive the experience. Having drowned in tons of books and a plethora of online prep courses, I enrolled in the July batch of ‘GMAT Intensive’. The simple yet powerful learnings were beautifully delivered by two expert instructors. (more on that later in the review section of the materials).
- 3) Subordinating the GMAT: Yes, you read that right. After cycles of self-doubt, I understood it the hard way that GMAT is a part of your life, not your life. Interestingly, this thought was instilled in me by my gym trainer: Demoting the importance of GMAT in my life was crucial. In part, I was forced by my gym trainer. I told him I wanted to take 2 weeks off from the training. He asked me why? My reply was that this exam is important for my B-school admissions. His reply though simple yet left a lasting impression on me. He said “Now, it is this exam for which you are sacrificing your time on health. Tomorrow you will find hundred other reasons to not work out - there is excessive workload at your job, then you would say you want to get that promotion, then you would say marriage, then job interview, etc. I understand that the exam is important that demands some of your time but I don't see a reason why it should occupy all your time. Take out an hour and see you on the field tomorrow.” Although I was hesitant to accept at first, he had a valid point. Turns out that this decision helped me hold my nerves during the last 15 days of my prep
- 4) The comfort of the at-home exam: As mentioned earlier, I was never a fan of test centers. Although I did face a few issues towards the end of the test, the ability to take the exam at home helped me stay calm.
- 5) Luck: Contrary to what many may think, I believe luck is a factor in this exam. Your score could vary based on the questions you get – subjects of RC passages, types of CR questions, idioms tested on SC, etc. For example, I faced a few bold-face questions on my online exam and was quite comfortable with this question type.
Online Exam Experience:
The Check-in process was smooth. I did face some interventions by the proctor who asked me to stay in the frame while solving questions. As in my previous attempt, I faced some really hard questions in Quant towards the end but time-wise I was doing okay. I skipped the ones I knew I would not be able to solve. I remember I guessed on a couple of them. I used the last question in Quant to relax before beginning the verbal section. Then began my nemesis haha- the Verbal section. I found commonly used idioms helped me save time in SC. There were a few CR but this time I managed to finish the section on time. The long RC was a dense read but I could scrape my way through it. For the IR section, I did face some technical issues towards the end of the exam that caused me to panic and hence waste 5-6 minutes.
Overall, my 10 tips and general takeaways for someone embarking on his or her GMAT journey:
- 1) Begin with an OG diagnostic: Don’t waste the official mock to determine your starting point. It is a precious resource. Take the diagnostic to get an initial estimate of your abilities.
- 2) Do not pick the OG AND mindlessly start solving: I made this mistake. Not only did I waste the precious questions, but I also ended up exhausting many OG questions. If you are enrolled in a course, try to apply your learnings to official questions and confirm your understanding. The number of questions is not that important. In fact, for my 760 attempt I solved fewer than a hundred questions. It is how much you can extract from each question. Spending 20 minutes per question to identify everything that is going on with it would help you build a solid foundation.
- 3) Setup a GMATClub account: GMATClub is an awesome resource: Make an account so that every question you solve will be logged. It has pretty much all things you would need for the journey.
- 4) Actively use GMATclub but with caution: Looking up explanations for every on GmatClub without actively reading could be a waste of time. Everyone can express his or her opinion and hence it is not surprising that many explanations (even with a high number of kudos) are not entirely correct. Either with help from experts or using your reasoning, do attempt to question every explanation you read. You can find my 100+ posts in which I tried to either provide a solution or question other explanations. Can't guarantee all my explanations are correct
- 5) An error log is optional: It helped me move from 580 to 710 but in the final leg, I did not have one. Although I did look at the questions I answered incorrectly
- 6) Solve questions untimed (Easy -> Medium -> Hard): Try to see how many questions you can get right in untimed conditions. Even 20 minutes per question is alright as long as you learned something new. If you achieve the skill of solving questions untimed with high accuracy, you will witness boundary blur moving from untimed to timed questions.
- 7) Precision is the key– one word, every word. GMAT will play with words in difficult questions. One word can change the scope of the argument. One word can make an RC choice incorrect.
- 8) Execution strategies are as important as hard skills: For example, solving initial questions quicker can allow you to spend more time on the hard ones. Solving SC quicker can give you more room when you deal with dense RC passages. Experiment with these. Play around with timing options. These can make or break a score.
- 9) Debunk the myths - there are many of these floating around us, especially in SC. For example, like cannot be used to cite examples, due to cannot be used to provide a reason for an action, Comma +verb-ing needs to always associate with the subject etc. However, given the dynamic nature of the exam, it takes one official question in a new edition to debunk long-standing ideas. However, the good news is I felt that the official exam never played on these minor details - all options had big flaws or meaning issues.
There is no such thing as a GMAT world. There is only the logical world. I had this misconception for a long time!
- 10) Make a GMAT friend (not necessarily a study buddy): The ride is full of emotions. Find someone who has been through the journey or is in one. You may not discuss questions necessarily but it will help to share your experiences and gain a different perspective on things.
A high score is not necessary for everyone: In no means does this exam define intelligence. As much as we all love a high score, do not get obsessed with GMAT. It is just one data point. For some, a 600 is enough. For some, even a 780 won't make the cut. The importance of score is very subjective in one's application and only you know what score you need. Understand what your goal is but don’t keep reminding yourself about it. If you were climbing Mount Everest, would you be able to reach the top if every hour you looked at the highest peak and wondered if you could? Know your goal but just focus on the process. With consistent efforts, you will reach the goal.
The beast had pinned me down earlier, but this time I won ?
For me all the pain and all the efforts were worth it when I saw this:
Attachment:
Gmatscore.PNG
That one moment of absolute joy has a long story of perseverance behind it. I believe the exam is very, very learnable and if there is one trait needed to ace this exam it is perseverance. I know it’s a very long, emotional, and painful journey for some. If even one of you was deciding to give up but after reading my debrief decided against doing so, this debrief shall have served its purpose.
Please reach out to me via DM if you wish to talk about the specifics of the exam or anything about it in general. I understand preparing for this exam can get overwhelming. I may be able to help you with your journey.
Thanks for reading my rant and I wish you all the very best in your GMAT endeavor. Remember, there is more to life than the GMAT ?
Thank you,
bb for creating this wonderful community. The journey would have been longer had it not been for GMATClub. Owe a lot to you and your team!
I would like to thank
TheGMATCo,
GMATNinja, @VeritasPrepKarishma,
gmatexam439,
ajay94,
ScottTargetTestPrep and many others who are not on on Gmatclub
TL; DR
All I wanted to say was don’t give up. It is more achievable than you think. I want you to believe in yourself. Be patient. Keep hustling.
(Updated specific strategies for each sub section below my post. I will soon be posting a review of each of the prep courses and study materials I used since I have used a lot of them )
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Updated on: 11 Dec 2020, 22:45
