570 to 710 in 2 months - How I RKOed the GMAT outta nowhere!!!

570 to 710 in 2 months - How I RKOed the GMAT outta nowhere!!!

In line with current trends on Vine, I would very much enjoy sharing my GMAT experience with you guys here. I have often referred to this website for so much help and have never been disappointed, so it's only fair that I give back to the community.

Background

Now to clear some things up - I have always hated the MBA degree. As far as I am concerned, being suited up in a tie and business suit, acting pricey and some cheap trash talking like you are a smart ass is something I have genuinely hated for the most part of my life. However, as life would have it, I am looking for avenues to get out of India, and thus needed a savior. GMAT was the unlikely one.

It all started when I casually walked into a Princeton Review testing center 2 months back and took a test totally unprepared. Got a 570. This was 27th August, 2014. No worries. I needed to know where I was. To be honest, 700+ looked difficult from there. I came back home, googled around a bit and found The Economist GMAT course online. Since they were offering a free trial for a week, I signed up with them and got started. The artificial intelligence and adaptivity that these guys have put into their software is amazing!! It is a software that coaches you as you go along, and keeps track of your progress and learning curves to throw you up more questions of the sort you would need. I tried that for a week, gave a free sample test and scored a 650. Voila!! . I was elated!! 80 points jump within a week.

Well, I took out my credit card and signed up with them for a full fledged course. In hindsight, it was probably the best decision I ever made. I am a financial services consultant with the Big 4 and a hectic travelling schedule keeps me mobile constantly. (Can't exactly attend classes when you are in another city and working 12+ hours a day to transform a bank, can you?)

The course allowed me to access material on the go, enabled me to have Skype sessions with tutors and even submit essays for getting rated. I used to spend 4+ hours a day in the first month studying since things were a bit light at work. The Skype sessions with the tutors really helped me - I would really like to thank Isaac and Kasia for their constant and realistic support. I was getting a bit frustrated with my progress on the test scores though - I scored a 670 on the second test 2 weeks after the first one, and a 680 on another one two weeks after the second one. I was worried that I had maybe begun to peak off.

The hard part started when work climbed up to 12 hours a day and there was simply no time left to practice GMAT questions. Here I was, spending 12+ hours a day at work, returning to the company guest house at 9 in the night, and then studying 2 extra hours on the 3 OG books while everyone dozed off on their fat asses in their beds. In middle of all this, I scored 680 on GMAT Prep Test 1 and was absolutely devastated. It was like a Stone Cold Stunner. All motivation to score a 700+ seemed to disappear into the distance. And with this work schedule, things could hardly be expected to get better.

Turning Point

Perhaps the turning point in my schedule was my decision to re-take the Prep Test 1. Yes, you heard me correctly. I was damn low on confidence and needed anything at all, even if it was superficial to perk my motivation up to performing levels. I retook Prep Test 1 (obviously a lot of repeated questions) while on a weekend morning when nobody was up as yet, and got a 770. It offered some form of mental comfort. From there on, I realized that beyond a point, GMAT is more about your state of mind than about what you know. My next two weekends yielded consistent scores of 710 on the Economist and I booked a date 15 days back for 27th October - I felt I was ready.

I arrived home from my client site a few days later, feigned illness and took a week off to gather my senses. The very next day I scored a 740 on a 4 hour diagnostic and was elated!! It was like main eventing Wrestlemania!! Way to go - With 5 days to go for the GMAT, I felt ready. However, the happiness was short lived, as 2 days later (3 days before the exam) I took GMAT Prep Test 2 and scored a 690 I felt as if I had been Curbstomped I had no one to blame since I had started the test on an empty stomach and there was bound to be exhaustion within a 4 hour time frame. Even though, my brain understood - my heart did not. It was hardly inspiring to get a below 700 score, with 3 days left to go for the exam.

I had a Skype session with my tutor Kasia that day, and boy did she save me!! Upon her suggestion, I downloaded the 30$ exam pack 1 from the GMAC website and practiced hard questions for verbal, quant and the whole of IR. By Sunday morning, I was done with practice, and the next day it was time for Hell in a Cell with GMAT!!

I had never completed the OG but had enough to practice on. So I figured - what the heck. Let's just go out there and do it. I had a calm sleep the night before, after a hot water shower, so I woke up fresh and prepared my arsenal. Bananas, green tea, pomegranates, cookies, water and dry fruits. No, I wasn't going for a picnic, but its better to be well prepared in case you might need anything. A word of advice - Take what you are okay with. I am personally not comfortable with sugary drinks or Gatorade or energy bars, as after the initial high, your concentration level just crashes. For me, tea had always been the better stimulant.

Test Day

I drove down to my test center (which I had visited the day before just to be sure) while listening to Basic Thuganomics and Cult of Personality by Living Color. Repeat: It is all about keeping yourself in a good mood Surprisingly, though I reached at 11.45 , they didn't let me into the center till 12.30 as my appointment was for 1 pm. Upon entering, I was taken through the rules by the test center staff and was ready to begin my test.

I F5ed the AWA section - damn easy, nothing to worry about. IR was whacky like Dean Ambrose - there was no use bothering about it too much and I had sincerely no idea how I had performed on the medium to hard questions.My strategy was clear- -conserve your energy for the main sections of the GMAT. Took my break, used the washroom, washed my face (very important!!), munched on dry fruits and a banana, sipped some tea and suddenly the test center administrator told me that 5 min of my 8 min were over. Boy! Was time flying!!

I came back, all ready to break Quant. The first question was a simple inequality with two variables. Qouting Dolph Ziggler's theme song - "Sometimes, things are exactly what they seem". I knew, my brain had just gone to that state - bonkers. Simply speaking - I was registering nothing. I spent 6 minutes on the first question (bad idea, don't do this), made a guess and moved on. My run with the Quant section never really reached a satisfaction level. I was getting mostly medium level questions, and was not being able to break through to the difficult ones. Whereas, I had consistently scored 50s in the Economist Test, here it was a dream too far away. The last question was a "simple addition" question. I knew I had blew it. In other words - I had been Rockbottomed!!

I took the break and immediately decided that it was no use lamenting what had happened. I needed to get my act together. Verbal had always eluded me from a 40 and above score (except once in the sample tests), and it was this beast that I would have to tame to keep my chances alive. I knew I had bombed quant so this was it - all or nothing. I asked myself - Do you really want to screw up now, score something like a 10 or 20 points away from 700 and then go through the rigmarole of appearing for the test again?? Those late past midnight study sessions, all that effort flashed in front of my eyes, and I looked into the mirror like a viper with water dripping down my face and into the basin, narrowed my eyes and said - I am gonna kill Verbal.I am a guy who transforms banks, would I let this stupid test derail me? Never. I stepped out, had a banana, munched on dry fruits, sipped some water and then the center staff informed me I was left with only a minute and a half. WTF!! time really was flying!!

I walked in as a viper, ready to strike - I began Verbal with the utmost concentration (something like Edge's theme song - On this day, I see clearly...), and I knew I was in the mode - that mode where in I simply exceeded expectations, mine included. Everything seemed to get progressively difficult - and I was happy with it. RCs were tough, so was CR, although SCs were relatively easy to manage. I finished the section just in time - something that surprised me as I usually had 7-10 min to spare on the practice tests; in the test center time just seemed to fly.

Some stupid demographic data collector popped up and I was frustrated with it being not able to locate my college initially. After a few screens, I clicked on next and the following stared me in the face -

IR 7 81 percentile
Quant 48 74 percentile
Verbal 40 91 percentile
Overall 710 92 percentile

I had RKO'ed the GMAT - Outta Nowhere!!!!!

I raised my hand still dazed. The test center administrator walked in. I foolishly asked him what to do next. He smiled and said - Click on the next button I apologized to him and said - I am sorry, this came up and I am still dazed. He smiled back.

I got up, collected my report and walked out feeling like a champ. This was 27th October, 2014. I had done it in exactly 2 months. On a steady diet of 12 hour workdays, emotional rollercoasters and an incredible amount of stress, I could finally say - THE CHAMP IS HERE!!!!!

Feel free to ask me anything. Would be more than glad to help.