Hi,
I was hoping my first ever post on GMAT Club would be an awesome debrief wherein I would keep it so detailed on how I conquered this exam in over 5 years (since I REALLY sympathize with people who don't have a quick 3-6 months success story and I feel the ones that really benefit from debriefs are the ones struggling for a longer duration of time (myself included)-because trust me no one wants to be in this spiral).
Long story short (I still hope that debrief would come soon but even today I am indebted to what GMAT club is doing and has done for me and countless other souls out there. I have learnt so much about different people, the GMAT exam itself and motivating stories-thank you @bb) Also special shout out to
GMATNinja &
souvik101990 - I have learnt more from you than most of the test prep companies in India that I have wasted my money on. (again-I hope I can give a detailed successful debrief soon where I can be more specific about how I leveraged the great mentors at GMAT Club.)
A quick background-
I am an Indian Male (yeah right!) but from a Non-IT background (some SMALL salvage)- I have studied Bachelors in Science majoring in Physics from a top college in India. I was also a professional football (soccer) player having played both at National and International Level for ~15 years before my ligament was completely torn while playing in my final year of senior college, ending my dream to play professionally for the senior India team someday.
Ever since I have graduated I have been working in the Management Consulting domain for nearly 5 years. I want to pursue an MBA now from a tier 1 college in US/Europe and was hoping I would crush the GMAT (this notion was all based on the fact that I was doing really complex Mathematics in my course and felt my English was decent too + some high scorers had told me its an easy exam(God bless them-but everyone is different)). More on my profile maybe later or in comments, so i'll jump straight to my actual fight at hand.
First Attempt- Nov 26th 2015
I was fresh out of college and recently had come to terms that my football career was indeed over. I got into the corporate world (my academics was decent- First class honors and college topper in two subject papers: Nuclear and Particle Physics and Solid State Physics | in US context GPA 3.47/4). I landed a Consulting job at a Fortune 200 company and I thought I will follow this up with an MBA some years down the line. I was 22 at the time and all I knew about GMAT was that its an easier version of the Indian CAT exam (BIGGEST LIE- as these two exams are completely mutually exclusive and one just cannot compare as they both test you on different skillsets.) I enrolled myself with Jamboree and thought their classroom program would be enough to easily score a 700+. At that time I never leveraged resources such as GMAT club and my narrow vision told me to just utilize Jamboree's material, give the exam, score well and period. I feel my over reliance on Jamboree was my biggest mistake. These companies focus on quantity over quality and can bets be used to get a ~650 score. Yes, they give out countless students with amazing scores but behind those 100s lie 1000s of average scorers who never become part of their results data + these institutes teach you the basics and often when you're doing well in your prep 650-680 range, its all down to you on how you get into advanced level questions, timing strategies, what to focus on during last 30/15 days etc the small nuances that really make a difference, thats when these prep companies often fail to give that individual 1:1 time at the very business end of your preparation as their business models/faculties have to cater to the masses- fair enough-that's how it works and one needs to expect it when they enroll for such programs. My desperation and over reliance on such prep company model led me to experience this 3 times- with Jamboree, Top 1% and Crackverbal (probably the worst) in 3 different years. However these are just my opinions and I am sure there would be a big group of students that would be happy with the services they got from these companies. More power to you.
Back to my GMAT story-
First attempt was a total disaster- after scoring consistently in the range of 650-700 in my mocks I got a score of 520 (Q44/ V22) in my actual exam. It was all down to my nerves to be honest. I suffer from moving leg syndrome and hypertensive tendencies and I really got worked up during the exam. I remember I was shivering during the exam and the proctor had to make me sit down and have water. I went with the feeling that this exam would make/break my career. My whole life was dependent on this. BIG MISTAKE!
After coming out of the center that day, I told myself I will never give this exam again. But inside I knew that if I dream to go outside I will have to give this. Someday again!
Cutting straight to 2020. In the last 5 years, I tried countless times to study again, that mostly resulted in sprints of 1-2 months and died out. During the years I felt I was more mature and had better control on my nerves but since I was occupied with my job in which I was doing fairly well I kept procrastinating and looked for reasons to delay my GMAT. Which I did for 5 years.
However, in August 2020 I decided -IT WAS ENOUGH. All these years I was just going through different Business school websites hoping one day they will say GMAT is not required for you. (Yes I know waiver are being offered today but we all know they will not cut it out for someone from India that makes up for a very very competitive pool).
from August 2020 till three days back- I completely isolated myself and took GMAT head-on. This journey also made me realize that I HAD NOT STUDIED AT ALL THE LAST TIME I GAVE IT. I leveraged GMAT club to the fullest, read blogs, saw countless Youtube video's of experts, almost 50+ debriefs conducted by GMAT Club and other prep companies- all of this to ensure I familiarize with all the material, challenges, quick fix strategies, and all other miscellaneous things that could help me in my journey.
Second attempt-15th Dec 2020- I scored a 640 ( Q48, V29)- Again I felt my nerves were taking control but I tried my best to not let what happened the last time. I had somewhat better control on my nerves and my legs. But one might say this is a 120 point improvement from my last attempt and somewhat similar to what I had been getting in my mocks (details below) prior to this attempt. However, I feel this is not what I am capable of. I genuinely feel I can hit the 700+ mark. I think I have gathered all the knowledge from a course standpoint but I am definitely missing the last mile details/applications of certain concepts/pacing to help me take the next leap from a 640 to perhaps a 710/720 or beyond.
Here is a breakdown of my prep results and the material I used-
1. GMAT Prep 1 (19/10/20) Quant Scaled score: 50 Verbal Scaled Score 33 | Error split- RC -2 CR-2 SC-8 |
2. GMAT Prep 3 (04/11/20) Quant Scaled score: 50 Verbal Scaled Score 36 | Error split- RC -6 CR-2 SC-2 |
3. GMAT Prep 6 (08/11/20) Quant Scaled score: 49 Verbal Scaled Score 20 | Error split- RC -8 CR-5 SC-4 |
4. GMAT Prep 5 (19/11/20) Quant Scaled score: 47 Verbal Scaled Score 33 | Error split- RC -4 CR-3 SC-4 |
5. GMAT Prep 4 (19/11/20) Quant Scaled score: 47 Verbal Scaled Score 28 | Error split- RC -8 CR-4 SC-5 |
6. Veritas Prep 1 (22/11/20) Quant Scaled score: 47 Verbal Scaled Score 32
7. GMAT Prep 2 (11/12/20) Quant Scaled score: 48 Verbal Scaled Score 38 | Error split- RC -4 CR-3 SC-5 |
8. GMAT Club CAT primarily used for Quant- average scaled score 48-49
Materials used:-
1. Manhattan SC guide
2. Crackverbal online material for Quant and Verbal concept videos
3.
OG 2020, Verbal and Quant Review 2020
I want to give another shot (perhaps my last) but be very strategic about how to proceed because like every other student who has dedicatedly studied for months- I have exhausted most of the official material, I have a well detailed
error log, which I can happily discuss in more detail with someone over a private window. I feel there is something missing in my prep-certain key value adds that can certainly help me push and break the 700 mark.
I would really appreciate it if the experts on this platform can help me zero down on how to best approach my next attempt, which resources I should focus on and how to better control my nerves on this exam. I thank you all for whatever you have done for me till now (because I AM SURE I HAVE READ SOMETHING REALLY USEFUL AND AWESOME YOU HAVE WRITTEN ON THIS FORUM ALREADY and I thank you in advance for all your valuable insights and suggestions going forward.
P.S- facing difficulty attaching my ESR on this post.
Sincerely,
Nishant
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Updated on: 18 Dec 2020, 13:04
