4 Weeks to a 730(Q49,V41) GMAT - 1st attempt

Hello Reader,

I gave the GMAT Online exam on August 14th,2020 after a month of intense preparation and got a score of 730(Q49,V40,IR7). This was my first attempt of the GMAT exam.

I know that my debrief and preparation strategy will not work for a lot of people but if it helps even one person then writing this post would have been time well spent.
I know the post is long so please bear with me.

A little about me to give more context of my experience:
I am an Indian living in the US for the past 10 years. My company went through major layoffs due to the pandemic and I was also affected by it. I have always wanted to do an MBA and now seemed like a good time to get started. So, for the first 10 days, my time was split between job search and researching about the GMAT. I was lucky to have a found a job quickly and had a minimum of a month of downtime (legal formalities) before joining new company.

I decided to dedicate all my time during this period to GMAT prep and give it a good shot.

I registered for the last day of GMAT Online testing available at that time (August 14th) and began my preparation. Based on my prep time, schools initially I was targeting, I set myself a target of 700+.

GMAT Initial Prep
I borrowed an old version of the KAPLAN GMAT premier 2017 and Wiley's GMAT official guide 2017 from a friend and gave the paper test. I spent the first week reviewing the Kaplan's strategies for SC, CR and casually practicing on questions from the official guide.
While browsing online I saw that there was a free seminar on CR hosted by e-GMAT and signed up for it to compare my ability with others. I found the seminar very useful but I had gotten my answers on CR mostly correct.

One day after the CR seminar, I took the first free practice test from GMAC. I got an overall score of 590 (Q44,V27). This was a major shock for me. Growing up, I was always good with both English and Math. I spent time reviewing my performance. In quant majority of my mistakes (all but 2) were on Data Sufficiency questions and I also did not complete this section. On verbal, I realized that for a lot of questions my gut answer was correct but because I over analyzed I got them wrong. I did well in CR and had spent too much time on RC. I needed this low score to kick me into action.

Based on my performance and seminar experience I did 3 things:
1. I signed up for e-GMAT course for both Quant and Verbal
2. I bought the additional tests 3-6 from GMAT official prep.
3. I worked on creating a customized study plan on the e-GMAT platform with me spending an average of 10-11 hrs a day from June 22nd to August 8th.

GMAT Prep - Intensive 10 hr a day

I began studying by focusing the first week on Quant. The idea was to revise the concepts. Learn time saving tips and method of solving problem. If for any section, my method of solving yielding the current result in a timely manner, then I skipped over e-GMAT's solution for the same problem. If I did not solve the question correctly, or took too long to solve them, then I spent time reviewing the solution and trying to solve problem again using the new method learnt. (I had to be very conscious of where I was dedicating my time, given the tightly packed schedule) I had a couple of days on my study planner with only a few hours of effort as buffer to catch up in case I lagged behind.
At the end of the week, I had spent 11 hours every day revising quant concepts. Till this time, I had not attempted the Scholarium section (Cementing quizzes) on e-GMAT. It was a deliberate choice to do these only after both quant and verbal prep work were completed.

After this came the Verbal section.
Based on my practice test, i knew that this section needed the most improvement if I had to score well on the exam. I started with SC. I began with the basic fundamentals of what a sentence is. I made my own notes/flash cards of certain key points. These were basically quick notes that I would revise every single day before sleeping. I would pick a sentence and then reformat it in multiple different ways. With sentence correction, I even before the e-GMAT course, used to try to solve them based on meaning. I was not someone who could rote-learn certain rules and solve questions using that.

Critical Reasoning was a section that came naturally to me. I was luckily able to move through this section quickly by not having to spend too much time on the review of practice problems

For the Reading Comprehension, I practiced the method of reading and summarizing each para before moving forward. At the end of passage, before reading the questions, I wrote down my take on what the author was trying to say. This method helped me with the questions and I did not have to reread the passage. As, I solved more questions, you realize that you do not need to write down details from each passage. Instead began to note down transitions and location of where examples were stated. I also read through examples quickly, not given it too much attention. This allowed me to know where in passage author spoke about any instance that might come up in the questions. I could then re-read that detail. Helped me reduce the time spent on passage. Will talk a bit more about why the transition in the next section of cementing the concepts.

A quick note: If anyone is looking to follow the intensive approach of spending 10-12 hours a day preparing for the GMAT then would recommend not learning the same section for entire duration. Math came easy to me and so when I studied quant it was not taxing to my brain. But when working on the verbal section after the first few days, my mind started to get drained and I felt my efficiency was dropping. To give my brain a break from English grammar, I spent couple of hours in the middle of my session focusing on the IR section.
Also, it's important to know and stick to your strengths

By following my timeline, I had managed to finish the entire course material for verbal and quant by the 8th of august. That meant I had 5 days to transition my learnings into a better GMAT score.

Last 5 Days prep:
During this time, I gave 2 practice tests every day. One of the official GMAT guide and another of the Sigma Mock tests from E-GMAT.
The idea of giving the test every single day was to get comfortable before the actual test date. First test of the day was given at the exact time and setting as that of exam day. I extensively used the physical whiteboard for solving questions. It took me a little time to get used to solving a question and then having to clean it up before moving to next question. Also, the way I wrote, I tended to use up quite a few markers.
The rest of the time during the day was spent on reviewing my solutions and then solving additional questions on e-GMAT’s scholarium section.

I was basically using the cementing quizzes for 2 things:
1. Revise concepts
2. Try out new strategies that will help me save time and solve the questions correctly. These practice quizzes allowed me to understand in quant when answer substitution worked and when I needed to solve them. These strategies are going to vary from person to person. Do not worry about your performance as long as you know that you have a solid foundation.

Here it is important to know the mistakes you have made in the exams. Make sure to keep a log of it. Understand the reason for getting the question wrong. Also look at questions that you spent more time and got the answer correct.

Common reasons for me getting question wrong:
1. In a hurry did not read question correctly. So, marked the opposite of what question asked (Both quant and verbal)
2. Was running short on time and so guessed.
3. Mistake in calculations(quant)/ special cases (SC – such as)

I would again like to point out that I was using the methods from the course to supplement the way I did things. I was not looking for a drastic shift in my thinking. If while preparing for the course, you realize that a major conscious shift has to be made in solving questions then this timeline will not work for you. You will be better off taking the 3-month approach to GMAT Prep.

In my practice tests, I had improved my quant scores to a 50 and verbal fluctuated from a 33 to 42 (But mostly around 36 – 38).

Here are my scores:
Official Practice test 2: 720(Q49, V39)
Official Practice test 3: 700(Q50, V33)
Official Practice test 4: 740(Q50, V40)
Official Practice test 5: 700(Q50, V35)
Official Practice test 6: 710(Q50, V36)

Official tests given in actual environment and are a good indicator of the scores you can expect to get.

Sigma Mock tests: Test platform to further try out new strategies.
Mock test 1: 540(V27, Q38)
Mock test 2: 640(V29, Q44)
Mock test 3: 680(V34, Q49)


A quick side note: I would recommend e-GMAT's verbal package for everyone trying to improve their understanding of the verbal section. If the platform is used properly it will definitely help in boosting your score.

Actual GMAT Online experience:

On the day of the exam, I did not do any last-minute prep. I went for a run in the morning, played on the XBOX and was in a calm and relaxed state of mind. I logged in 15 minutes before my scheduled start time. The proctor also logged in shortly after that. She had asked me to remove a couple of items from table and wanted to look at my white board.

The exam started and I answered the first question. In the first few questions, I by mistake had cancelled my test. Luckily the proctor pointed it out and asked if I was sure about cancelling the test. This had gotten me a little flustered. I took a few minutes to calm down before continuing with the test. I had to rush through the last couple of questions but had managed to complete the section just on time.

The proctor also got my attention in between as I was reading the question loudly. Gave a quick warning and said if I do it again then my test would be cancelled.

Then moved on to verbal. I was lucky not to get RC in my first 6 questions. I tend to spend a little more time on the first few questions as I wanted to ensure I got them correct. I managed to complete the verbal section with 5 minutes to spare. The proctor got my attention in between as I was reading the SC question loudly. Gave a quick warning and said if I do it again then my test would be cancelled. I was trying to get to correct answer without looking at options (trusting my gut) and so had a find another way of doing the same without having the test cancelled.

Before moving on to the IR section, I took a short break. Before restarting the exam, the proctor wanted to check my whiteboard to ensure it was clean. This led to a few minutes being lost from my test time. I was on the last question about to select a choice when my time ran out.

At the end of the exam, I was drained and unsure of how the exam had gone. I decided to not think too much about it and enjoyed the next couple of days. I was happy with my score when I received it, but know that a GMAT score is only one aspect of the MBA admission process.

My final advice to people is to keep calm and give it your best shot. Prepare for GMAT with intention of using the skills gained in your work and not with the pressure of wanting to get a particular score in your head.


I know it’s a long post. If I have wasted your time then I am sorry and if it was useful then great.

Cheers!