Happy new year everyone!
I have been one of the many dormant members, who has benefited from this Group. Hence, writing this GMAT experience for helping others.
I have 10 plus year work-ex and plan to move to into management role in the future. As I am in technical role, MBA seemed to the best bet. I researched a bit about the GMAT classes and joined Jamboree in Pune, India during Jan 2017. Completed their weekend classes in 3.5 months, studied on my own for couple of months and then gave 10 mocks from Jamboree and 4 from
MGMAT . Gave GMAT prep1 and GMAT prep 2 a week before my first official GMAT and booked a date in October 2017. GMAT prep 1 score was 660 and GMAT prep 2 score was 700. When I went for the actual GMAT, based on the GMAT stories from the other members, I was hoping to get the score between 660-700, but things turned out differently. The First official GMAT was only 590(Q48,V23). Q48 was inline with the GMAT prep scores but V23(33%) was a new low score.
After the initial mourning period, I decided to get the ESR and see where the issues were in Verbal. I saw that I got 60% of the questions wrong in the first ten questions. The graph showed that the question level never went above the Medium difficulty leading to the low score. After ESR analysis, I decided to work on verbal and use '
e-gmat' course. The decision to use
e-gmat was based on the feedback of other students , plus the fact that I was working full time and didn't had the time to attend any in-person classes . Also, I had used the 'modifier application' section, present in the '
e-gmat' trial version and on the GMAT forum, during the first phase of the study and found the trial version to be of great help. Bought the
e-gmat online course and reached out to Rajat/
e-gmat team for help. They responded quickly with the steps to be followed.
Before starting with the second phase of the study, I decided to check my verbal ability on
e-gmat. The score was 44 percentile. It showed that I had some gaps that had to be filled, before taking second attempt. Over the course of next 2.5 months I religiously followed the
e-gmat SC, CR , RC and IR section and saw my verbal ability improve from 44 percentile to 77 percentile, couple of days before second GMAT. SC and CR were the big beneficiary , RC was fluctuating as usual.
During December, My company announced a forced furlough and that was the time, I decided to give the second GMAT. I gave GMAT prep1 repeat (700) and prep 2 (730). Then, I looked for the dates but couldn't find it in last week of December 2017. Only day that was present was 1 Jan 2018, 2 pm slot. This was different from the morning slot. Bought Exam pack 1 and Question pack 1 from mba.com and gave GMAT 3 on 27th December 2017 and scored a 650. I was worried that this might be the score that I get in second attempt. I decided to keep the worries aside and worked hard on the weakness and wrong answers. Gave three
gmat club test as well. These were pretty difficult but I was able to learn a lot from the wrong answers and the different type of questions.
For replicating the D-day experience, I started driving for 10 km (similar distance between my house and GMAT center) before giving the GMAT prep at home, wore same clothes, ate chocolate and banana in between timed breaks and it worked. Driving 10km was something I read about in one of the experience on GMATClub. Doing similar things allowed my mind to get acclimatized to the D-day. On the D-day, did the same and result was 700(Q48,v38), an improvement of 110 marks in 3 months. Though not a 750 plus score, but still enough to command an admit ( hopefully).
So, In brief, the following things worked in second attempt :
1) Spending more time on the question stem in verbal section:
As mentioned in the
e-gmat course, the question stem needs to be read and understood in detail and with clarity, before moving on to the questions. This helped in all the three verbal sections - SC, CR , RC and IR section.
2) Not thinking about scoring in middle of the test :
One of the thing that happened to me was that I used to spend some time on how I might be scoring on test or a particular section. While giving the second GMAT, I was caught up again during the verbal section but decided to answer each question on merit.
3) Working on weak areas strategically :
When I started with
e-gmat, during the second phase of preparation, I used
e-gmat planner, which gave me the target percentile score for each sections. I worked on improving on them individually and reached the requisite percentile score.
4) Replicating the D-day experience. One of my teachers at Jamboree told us "If you look at any well known athlete or player, they all spend extra time practicing, while preparing for a major event/match. Their preparations are as close to the exact match/event and they just go and replicate the same on the D-day. Same goes with GMAT, If you spend more time on solving the GMAT official questions, then the D-day experience would not be any different". I did the same and the result was there.
5) Finding 4 wrong answers in verbal then the correct one
For the second GMAT, I worked on finding the four wrong choices and eliminate them, rather than finding the correct answer. This increased accuracy tremendously. There were questions where I could find the four wrong answer but wasn't sure about the correct answer. This strategy worked wonders.
As for the test series, following are the reviews :
1) Jamboree test series - Pretty good, they are real stamina builder. Also, I am aware that students have scored 750 plus as well, after giving only these and GMAT prep tests. Hence would recommend the same.
2)
MGMAT - Quant test are super lengthy and calculation intensive. This has an effect on overall score and may lower your confidence. Hence skip the quant section and use only the verbal tests.
3) GMAT PREP (free and paid) - These are as close to the actual GMAT and should be used judiciously. Use Offical guide and verbal guides to get comfortable with the official questions.
4) GMAT CLUB Quant - Pretty good. Used only three but learned a lot from them. If time permits, students should take all the 27 tests.
5)
E-gmat Verbal tests - Pretty good . They give you the section wise breakup in CR,SC and RC and you can check your strength and weakness accordingly.
My scores on different test :
1.
MGMAT(1-4) - 620-680
2. GMAT PREP 1 - 660
3. GMAT PREP 2 -700
4. GMAT official 1 - 590 (Q48,V23) (Q-V-IR-AWA)
5. GMAT PREP 1 repeat - 700 (Q49,V34)
6. GMAT PREP 2 repeat - 730 (Q50,V38)
7. GMAT prep 3 - 650 (Q48,V30)
6. GMAT official 2 - 700(Q48,V38) (Q-V-IR-AWA)
Special Thanks to the faculties at Jamboree pune ,
e-gmat for providing the guidance and preparing the right material for the GMAT.
Additionally, Thanks to all the contributing members of the club, especially Bunuel, bb, GMATNINJA to name a few. Your posts helped me in fine tuning little things to score the 700.
Hope this post will help the GMAT aspirants.