490 to 650 - Finally made it!

After months of blood, sweat and tears, I am finally all set to start my MBA in September 2019. I know many people won't consider 650 a good score, but I think given my circumstances and how the GMAT can leave you deflated and frustrated, I'm taking it as a huge victory!

In 2018, I gave the GMAT and received a score of 490. I was absolutely crushed and completely out of time to re-apply for schools so I decided to drop it and pick it up again a few months later. While I had planned to start studying in July, a lot of things (work-wise) came up and I was thrown off my schedule. When I finally found time, it was January and I had just a few months to apply and finish up.

I started my prep in January 2019 with GMATPrepNow and EmpowerGMAT. I spent a lot of time learning the basics. The formulas, the different terms, working through number properties, revising grammar rules. For me, Quant was the true weakness. I was not able to 'see' questions differently, this is where EmpowerGMAT really helped. Rich's method of instructing you through the course really teaches you to eliminate fear and be practical. You see a big paragraph? Don't get scared, read it, you might find it is simpler than it looks. A large part of conquering the GMAT is conquering your fear of seeing a 'hard' question. At the same time, GMATPrepNow was giving me the skills to lay the foundation for a great score. Looking back at it, the rows and rows of questions at the end of each video were not 'fun' to look at, they are what helped me solidify my understanding of question types and how to approach them.

I took my first Mock test: 610 (Q42, V31)

There went Verbal, the one section I thought I would do decently well at. So I decided to re-focus my efforts now on Verbal since Quant seemed to be picking up. I started EmpowerGMAT's RC method and I can't adequately express how incredibly thankful I am to have discovered the 'laddering' method. Its going to take some time to get used to, but once you do, RC passages just melt away. Once I conquered RC the Verbal score began picking up again, my next test landed on a 610 (Q37,V37). I was pretty happy with my Verbal score there. The next few mocks put me 640, 660 and 600. The 600 I got the day before my test (NEVER DO THIS!)

April 4th I gave the real thing, and ended up with a 550. So what went wrong?

1. I took it a time I am NOT comfortable at: There were only two time slots available at my center of choice, 8 AM or 2 PM. 2 PM as everyone knows, is death hour. Its after lunch and you are going to feel drowsy. So I went ahead with 8 AM, thinking rather hoping it would turn out alright. If you, like me are being that naive, don't do it. Pick a time you KNOW your brain is awake at. If you start work at 10, try and pick a time 30 minutes before or after 10, your brain will be fully functional and can actually process what you are reading.

2. Going in under-confident: The 600 mock the day before the test completely knocked the wind out of my sails. I started fretting over the result even before the exam started. This is a sure-fire way of shooting your months of prep in the foot. Go in confident, tell yourself you will slay the GMAT demon, bury it and get on with your life. Please believe me when I tell you, the GMAT knows you are bound to make mistakes when you are anxious and so, is laden with traps for those with a nervous temperament.

So I came home, cried over the score (Many people will tell you not to, just do it. Its very important to deal with your loss in the way you choose to) and then decided to just focus on applying for my schools anyway. Why? Because I still had atleast another month in hand to re-take the test and if I could get a conditional offer, that might motivate me more.

So I went ahead, applied and while I was half way across the world in Denmark, I got the conditional offer from my "dream" school. The condition was a 650 score. My heart sank. By that time, half a month had already passed and I hadn't been able to touch my books. Panic set in, how on planet earth was I supposed to make a 100 point increase happen in 2 weeks?

Well, that's when it hit me. I already KNEW everything I had to know for the test. It was just a matter of revisiting and revising what I knew, taking a couple more mocks and identifying weak areas. So the next two weeks I spent going over all my notes (Make sure you're making your own notes for EVERY TOPIC, it is important!) then working through problems. I did 9 CRs, 3-4 RCs, 10-12 SCs a day. For Quant I just went through OG questions and new questions that Bunuel posted (Approx 15 per type). This was my routine on days I was not taking mocks.

On the days I took mocks, I focused on applying strategies like Triage, Test-It (LIFE SAVER!) and Test The Answers to get through Quant. With Verbal I applied the different techniques I picked up. My mock scores were: 600, 640 and 690.

The amazing part of this story is when I got that 690 I thought the GMATPrep software had gone wild. I didn't want to believe I was capable of that score. Talking to MikeScarn knocked this silly idea out of my head. I definitely deserved that score, I'd worked for it!

Three days later was Test Day: I'd taken a slot for 9.45 AM, a time I was 100% awake at and had taken two mock tests at. I carried some chips, chocolate, water and a banana for my 8 minute break(s).

I started with the Verbal section. Having hit a V40 in my mocks, I knew I'd be somewhere around that range and as long as I managed to stabilise in the 38-40 range, I'd be okay. The thing about Verbal is you can never ascertain how you're doing. Its impossible, so don't bother trying, just keep answering the questions. I wasn't sure if I managed to answer the last question and that was worrying. But I took my break, put it out my find and focused on Quant. The moment I saw the first question on Quant, any fear or panic I had, died away. I wanted to prove a point to myself, that I could do this and I focused on that. I found the questions relatively straightforward and pretty easy to solve. I wasn't sure if I was getting questions wrong or my practice had paid off. I finished the section in good time (2 minutes to spare) and took my second break.

The only downside to doing your main sections first is it clouds your mind for the other two sections! But I went through IR and AWA just fine. The moment I clicked "send" I was half expecting another 550, but when I saw the 650, I almost wanted to scream with happiness, which I didn't, out of respect for the other test-takers. I was so giddy with joy, I forgot to take my locker key from the test room. I took my unofficial score report to confirm I wasn't seeing things, and yes the 650 was still there!

I am still overjoyed and over the moon with this score. I don't have any tips for those of you about to take the test except:

1. Don't PANIC: The test knows when you do.
2. Be very confident: You may not know an entire topic (Please, atleast know the basics of it) but please tell yourself the night before and on the day of, that you are going to kill this test.
3. Don't study the day before: Just don't do it. If you haven't learnt it in the last couple of weeks, you're not going to magically get it overnight.
4. Don't be disheartened: Your score does not define who you are. Don't make it a part of you or at all representative of your capabilities.

I really want to thank a few people who've been on this journey with me since the beginning: harvard2019 MikeScarn @nightblade345 @Amaranth Staphyk

Each of you knows what you did for me, so thank you so much!

And a huge thanks to this community too c:

~Tato Out