580 to 730: A tale of perseverance, dedication and belief (Debrief)

After reading multiple success stories on this lovely forum, I always wondered when would be the day that I can do the same. I am so happy that day has arrived for me because I honestly did not believe it would. Standardized tests such as this, SAT, GRE had always been my Achilles heel, I never liked them (I do not now as well), and my disdain for such tests was so much that I never even attempted my best at these because I always thought I would be bad at those (and I wasn't wrong, never did too good on those). However, I took the GMAT a little too personally because I wanted to ace it for my own self, for my pride, and also because this was my last standardized test I would be giving so I wanted to give my all to this, literally throw the kitchen sink at it till I get the score I wanted.

Rewind back to June 2018 when I first gave my GMAT. I prepared (at least that's what I thought) using Magoosh but again I was not really paying attention nor was very dedicated to preparing for it. I was merely going through the motions, doing it "just for the sake of it". I got a 580 (47Q, 22V). I did not understand what it meant, I did not care what it meant. I still remember that day very well because I was absolutely blank during the exam and was merely marking answers as a chore. As I’ve always believed, no dedication--->no passion----> no results.

Finally in October 2019, I was talking to my parents and the topic of GMAT and MBA came up. I had a fierce discussion with them which culminated in my mum giving me a proper "ass-whopping" (verbal ofcourse) and questioning my mentality for such exams. And this is where I took it personally. I took it upon myself to prove her wrong and show myself and her that I possess the ability to ace such (useless in the long run) exams. Perhaps I needed an awakening and it couldn't have come from a better person other than my parents (love you so much ). Another person of much importance has been my brother, watching him and his work ethic was a huge inspiration for me before I started on this. It was him and his work ethic that inspired me to push and work hard to get the results. His dedication to his craft always got him the results and I have always looked up to him for that. A big thanks to him for motivating me and inspiring me, he has been a massive influence on me in this regard ( ).

Now for the preparation: I started with Magoosh again and I must say their sentence correction module is just fantastic. A lot of basics, fundamentals were strengthened and it stuck with me even after my subscription ended (I also took notes). Additionally, I signed up with Brent from BrentGMATPrepNow, the mathematics module from Brent is probably the best out there. The concepts, the videos, and attention to detail is absolutely in line with what GMAT asks on the tests (believe me, I gave this thing 5 times). He also provides links for multiple practice problems at every difficulty level (sub-600, 600-700, 700+) under every concept. The beauty about math is that the only way you can nail it is by practicing it. The more you do, the better you become.

My preparation continued well into the pandemic. I was sad with the state of affairs around the globe, depressed with the fact that I was not close to family but I made GMAT(as much as I despise it) as my way to escape from the reality. I used my time to just study and make myself better and better. I followed a schedule on a daily basis: work, workout, study GMAT and repeat. Would take an occasional Saturday off but I kept reminding myself that I had to ace this thing because "I F***ING CAN AND I WILL". Reading the debriefs here of people who succeeded were motivations for me as well so thank you to all those trailblazers for helping people such as myself ! Right around then, GMAT came out with the online option and I thought to myself to check on my progress and just give it a shot to take it. I registered to give the online test on 07/13/2020 and also was able to get an in-person appointment for GMAT on 09/30/2020. I gave my GMAT Online and scored a 650 (49Q, 29V). I was not pleased with the score but considering I am someone who wanted to do verbal first and quant second, my hands were tied for the online exam. However, seeing that I improved from 22--->29 on verbal and 47--->49 on quant did show that I had improved. Now my next aim was to improve from 29--->40 on verbal and 49--->50 on quant.

In order to achieve this next step, I contacted Ben from GMATCoachBen and that was probably one of the best decisions I made for myself. Ben is a kingmaker in my opinion. He is meticulous, extremely detail oriented, effective in his communication to you and really good at motivating you to perform your best. Apart from teaching the GMAT stuff, he will also guide you for exam day prep, the mediation/mental aspect of the day and so on. Working with him worked wonders for my preparation. I started working with him sometime around mid-late August 2020 and in about a month I improved my score (for my exam on 09/30/2020) from 650--->680 (49Q, 33V). I was pleased with my improvement and also the fact that working for about a month with Ben I could at least break the 30 barrier on my verbal. My target was still some distance away so I registered for retaking the test, this time on 11/10/2020. Ben made me focus on my areas of weakness and specifically targeted those (I had low scores on RC and SC parts of my 33V score) and guess what, I completely aced those sections in the next test and ended up scoring a 710 (49Q, 38V with 95%ile on RC and 87%ile on SC from 64%ile and 59%ile respectively) but unfortunately I suffered this time with CR wherein I scored on the 44%ile. Now, I am as stubborn as a mule or had become because my ego would not take anything less than a 50 on Q and 40 on V so I decided for a last dance. I reserved a spot again for 01/29/2021 and was more determined than ever to knock this thing out of the park. If you hang around the barber’s shop for long, they will eventually let you in
Going with that attitude, a lot of my work focused on CR but this time I made sure I did not ignore RC or SC as well. I quadrupled my efforts because I wanted to make sure every single base was covered and Ben absolutely helped me with that. I worked even harder on Quant because I wanted a 50.
Additionally, I started working on the SC module from TTP and boy that did do wonders for me as well. Their SC module is probably the most difficult and comprehensive one I have found and its worth every single cent. It goes above and beyond to prepare you for the actual exam. Some of their questions are super super hard but the underlying lesson under each one of them is priceless.
The day of the test arrived and I was nervous, palpitating and almost about to break down because of anxiety. Anxiety stemmed from the fact that I just never cracked such tests despite multiple attempts. I found it a little difficult to retain my calm and keep my focus but a lot of deep breathing, some hymns and calming classical music helped my heart beat go down from 95bpm to 62bpm. As I started with the verbal (I always preferred starting with verbal), I felt the first few questions to be a little difficult ? Or perhaps my nerves were such that simple questions looked hard and I overanalyzed every answer choice I made. The verbal section ended and I felt that I bombed it but I wanted to forget that and start with quant and focused on acing it and not worrying about what I had already done. Quant, in my opinion, was the easiest I had ever had so far. I felt it was so easy I was singing songs as I was doing it and ended up finishing it 2-3 minutes before. The IR and AWA were sort of a haze, my head was only thinking about the numbers that would pop up once I finished my essay. My heart was beating so loudly that I could hear it, that’s how nervous I was. Finally, when the screen with my score popped up, I felt a sense of relief and accomplishment (730, 50Q, 40V). I got the score I wanted and I could tell myself that I finally nailed one of these useless standardized tests (no offence to anyone but I genuinely despise these tests and do not consider them to be a barometer of one’s academic standing). A weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I could focus on my applications and other important useful things in my life.

A big thank you to everyone on this community who helped for the questions I asked. Big thank you to Sajjad1994 for all the RC passages and solutions, daagh sir (RIP you legend) I had so much help on SC concepts from your comments, GMATNinja for all the help on CR questions, bb for this wonderful forum and Bunuel for all the quant solutions and problems that you provided, they were so so useful.

I also did do a lot of practice papers, below are the scores and dates of when I took those tests (all the way back from 2018).

03/24/2018: Manhattan CAT 1 (530, 38Q, 26V)
05/28/2018: Manhattan CAT 2 (580, 41Q, 31V)
04/04/2020: GMATPrep 1 (660, 49Q, 31V)
04/18/2020: GMATPrep 2 (640, 50Q, 25V)
05/12/2020: GMATPrep 3 (710, 48Q, 40V)
05/27/2020: Manhattan CAT 3 (680, 48Q, 35V)
06/09/2020: Manhattan CAT 4 (680, 47Q, 36V)
06/23/2020: Manhattan CAT 5 (690, 48Q, 36V)
06/28/2020: GMATPrep 4 (710, 50Q, 35V)
07/02/2020: Veritas 1 (690, 50Q, 35V)
07/04/2020: Veritas 2 (690, 50Q, 35V)
07/06/2020: Veritas 3 (710, 50Q, 38V)
07/08/2020: GMATPrep 5 (640, 48Q, 31V)
07/19/2020: GMATPrep 6 (710, 50Q, 35V)
07/27/2020: Veritas 4 (690, 51Q, 34V)
08/06/2020: Veritas 5 (740, 50Q, 42V)
08/12/2020: Veritas 6 (740, 50Q, 42V)
08/20/2020: Veritas 7 (710, 50Q, 37V)
08/31/2020: GMATPrep 1(770, 51Q, 44V)
09/06/2020: GMATPrep 2(770, 51Q, 44V)
09/14/2020: GMATPrep 3(760, 50Q, 44V)
09/22/2020: GMATPrep 4(750, 50Q, 40V)
10/13/2020: GMATPrep 5 (770, 50Q, 45V)
10/21/2020: Manhattan CAT 1 (730, 51Q, 39V)
10/28/2020: Manhattan CAT 2 (780, 51Q, 45V)
11/02/2020: GMATPrep 6 (770, 50Q, 44V)
12/09/2020: Veritas 1 (760, 51Q, 43V)
12/15/2020: Veritas 2 (740, 51Q, 40V)
12/22/2020: Veritas 3 (740, 51Q, 41V)
12/29/2020: Veritas 4 (790, 51Q, 47V)
01/04/2021: GMATPrep 1(780, 51Q, 47V)
01/10/2021: GMATPrep 2(770, 51Q, 44V)
01/17/2021: GMATPrep 3(770, 51Q, 44V)
01/24/2021: GMATPrep 4(780, 51Q, 47V)

As can be seen, I gave a lot of tests (even repeated ones), but I had to. I had no other choice. A lot of people can make do with much much less but personally, I knew I would have to give this much in order to get what I had to get. Yes, it was not cheap either with all the courses, tutors, tests etc but I had the resources to do and the pandemic, if anything, did not make me spend much so all my resources were directed and focused towards this one goal. There was some silver lining to 2020 for me personally and I guess this was that. Attached here is also a screen shot of then number of questions I practiced on GMATClub from the last one year.

I am open for any help, tips regarding the GMAT exam, the prep etc. Please feel free to DM and I would be very happy to share more about my preparation, how to schedule your time and so on. This has been some journey and I strongly believe there is a lesson anyone and everyone can take from this struggle starting all the way back in 2018.

-K