6 Attempts,3 years,710: I had a Last Laugh !!

Finally, the day has come when I am in position to write about my GMAT experience. Having been member of these forum for last 3 years, a silent spectator ( except couple of posts) and being a one who was always inspired by the GMAT success stories of others, it took only 7 attempts for me to get 710.I took my GMAT on 9th Jan. My debrief may not help many but even if it’ll inspire one guy to get a 700+, I’ll think this post will live its purpose.
7 attempts may sound that I am a below average student but it is not the case. I always believed I was capable of getting 700+ score and it’s not that tough but the statistics were not supporting my belief. Just to give a background about me, I am an engineer and in past have got as good as 96 percentile in CAT (One of the toughest competitive exam in India) but didn’t get any ‘A’ grade college and anything less than that was not acceptable to me. Couple of years later, in 2012 I started preparing for GMAT and never thought that this journey is going to last for 3 painful years.

So as like everyone else does, I started preparing for GMAT with all the widespread information available over different forum, bought couple of books and without any structured preparation, gave my first attempt in Sep 13. I got mere 580 (Q47, V24). Disappointed with score, I prepared more rigorously and in pressure to meet the deadlines of different schools, I rescheduled my test again in Nov 13. It was one mistake that I repeated multiple in forthcoming years as well: Not preparing well and scheduling the exam just to get score before the deadlines. My two cents advice is that one should schedule for the test only when he is prepared. Period. No deadlines of applications should drive it, coz if you don’t get that score, it’s worthless and yes, every time it cost you a whopping 250 USD. But learning is a process and I learnt it quite late in the game. So in my second attempt, I got 640 (Q46, V31). Although my score was improved with some points in verbal, on a broader level it wasn’t of much difference. With that score, I was not in position to apply for any school Again, I was so desperate and confident at same time to get 700, and didn’t wanted to miss the R2 deadlines, I scheduled my test again after a month making it my third attempt that year. (Another mistake). My score dipped down to 600 (Q47, V27). But this time, I got the idea that my verbal parts needs to be focused on.

I enrolled for egmat course and promised with myself not to leave any stone unturned this time. Anyways a year was wasted, so I thought to prepare with a structured approach. Needless to say, the SC strategy and Live Sessions of egmat course are their flagship products and they have reasons for it. It really helped me to clear much of the doubts .I somehow was feeling content with SC with accuracy of 70-80%. But CR and RC were still grey areas. Also, since my Quant was moderately good, I never focused on Quant. I always thought, I can manage a score of 47 just like that, another mistake.
Due to my official assignments, I moved to UK in 2014. Imagine the plight that you are in a city as beautiful as London with amazing weekends and hundreds of places to explore, and still you cant live it to fullest because there is something stuck on back of your head. I sacrificed all that and I prepared. More confident this time, I enrolled with Magoosh, @Manahattan Test , GMAT Prep/Exam Pack and what not. Name the test series, books, coaching, I tried all. I was exhausted with my preparations. My mock were reflecting scores between 690 and 720. I retook the test and just hoped to get a 700.But no, it was not that easy. I got 670 (Q47, V35). Man, at this point I was completely broke. A guy who had been always in the top 3 right from schools to his college, it was not acceptable that he didn’t managed to get a even 700 despite so many attempts. I just cant explain how the feeling was. But there are tough times and one should bravely sail through it. So this time, I decided to give it a break but I kept hopping on and off to gmatclub forum, solving just random questions. I came back to India. Again the season of applications was on and as it was my superficial belief that I’ll get a good score, I again took the test in Dec 2014.

And Imagine what, I got a super score of 590 (Q47 V24). I mean, what a score! So I was back to square one from where I started .I was set aback. Somehow I started feeling that this GMAT is not my cup of tea. I gave up on preparations. With a max score of 670 in five attempts, I decided to apply to some schools. And adding to my surprise, I got invite from couple of schools which included Kenan Flagler and ISB, thanks to my profile and essays. So the people who say that GMAT is just one part of game , its true but remember it’s a critical part for an average profile which I was (Indian, IT, Male). I was dinged from both the schools and very straight fact that I figured out was my GMAT score.

I again took a break, refreshed myself. I went on to couple of trips, started enjoying my weekend parties, friends get together etc. GMAT was out of scene. But I told you it was right before the application season, when I was always motivated to retake the exam.
With all my statistics in place, and with after being completely broke after 5 attempts, I decided to retake the exam again !! And just to tell you, I made up my mind, just 1 month before. I scheduled my exam and this time it was hardly 8-10 that I studied. All my content were exhausted and I was left with nothing new. But this time, what I did different was, I solved lot of questions from forum and all of 700 levels. I also enrolled myself with egmat’s scholaranium which is a question bank for excellent questions. And to let you know, I never performed well in that. But for each wrong question, I ensured to see where I was going wrong. I kept on solving questions. This time, I focused on Quant as well. I made my number properties and PnC areas strong. I skimmed through SC concepts again and practiced some good RCs, 700 levels. I guess all that worked for me this time.

I took my test on 9th Jan and was delighted to see a 710 (Q50,V36) and I had a last laugh. Tears rolled out and I said to myself that I am proud of me. Moral of the story just don’t give up, getting a 700+ is not a miracle neither its so tough. You can mark my words for that. Always listen to your heart and if it says you can do it, you’ll do it.

Sorry for my long post, but yes this is how it was. All it took was only 3 years and 6 attempts !!