Ok people. Here is my debrief. Mainly because so many other experiences on this app have helped me, i thought putting out mine might help some one else.
1. BACKGROUND- 36yo Indian male, 15 yrs in military. Ex NDA. ABSOLUTELY no background in maths/IT. The last time i studied maths was in high school and even then i probably wasnt good at it. Thats why ended up becoming an arts major.
2. Started preparing aimlessly sometime back on a whim. Sometimes studied 2 hrs a week and sometimes 15. Sometimes didnt study for weeks on end. Was a casual approach.
3. 10 days back around 15 Jan 22 i gave my third mock and scored a measely 610 (V34 Q34). First two mocks were 640 (Q44,V34) Put out a cry for help on this app. I had a window to give the exam that was closing fast and didnt know what to do. My aim was 700+.
4. So i ended up giving 08 mock exams in last 12 days. Here are the results
16 Jan - 610
17 Jan - 640
18 Jan -640(Q44, V34)
20 Jan -680 (Q45 V 38)
21 Jan - 690 (Q46, v38)
22 Jan -710 (Q49,V39)
23 Jan-710(Q49,V38)
24 Jan -690 (Q48,V39)
FINAL DAY 28 JAN -710 (Q46 ,V41)
AS you can see my maths was not great and thats what screwed my result.
5. MISTAKES I DID-
A. Aimlessly solving questions. One should begin with basics of maths, practise the concept and only then move forward. Dont waste time and energy and get a false sense of accomplishment by mindlessly solving
OG/Gmat club questions.
B. Forgetting verbal when doing quant. One has to be in touch else you will forget whatever you read and practised. Do 5-10 questions of either everyday to be in touch.
C. Underestimating the time it takes to prepare. I read it takes 120-150 hours to adequately be prepared for the exam, but forgot that its for college students who are used to studying and are aware of basic concepts. In the end i had to ride my luck on permutations/combinations and quadriatics.
D. Not signing up for a program earlier. I signed up for
E-Gmat because i read review of someone like me. It was pretty decent and scholarium and customs quizzes do help.
E. Rushed through in IR. Scored an average /below average 4 in that. I aint sad cause you cant get the world in 10 days.
6. THINGS I DID RIGHT.
A. Time myself. I realised that i was running out of time in quant having to do 7 questions in 9 mins or something like that. Same for verbal especially in RC. So its important to time yourself and keep track of time. I distributed the time in chunks of 10 questions in quant and 18 questions in verbal to keep track.
B.
Error log. Not really an
error log but i did see where i was going wrong again and again.. which happened to be inference questions in verbal. So addressed it one day before.
C. Play to strengths. I realised two days before exams that its too late to improve quant score as that would require loads of practise and that still would not guarantee that the same type of questions appear in the exam.. so best to stick to verbal which had the best chance of pushing my score above 700. Limited type of questions especially in CR and RC. So practised them.
D. ALL IS WELL. I kept getting hard RC. Got 4 in the exam and the last two were extremely difficult. Kept telling myself that i have done well in quant (which was not really the case, but i didnt know then). 2 mins/question can get overwhelming in two hours so one has to be cool and calm throughout the exam.
E. Build stamina. Do keep practising timed mocks and not just review the mistakes in questions but also address the mistakes in the exam. Time management, space management on the whiteboard etc.
6. Resources
BOOKS
OG ALL THREE
OG ADVANCED QUESTIONS ( WHICH I DIDNT EVEN TOUCH)
KAPLAN PREP PLUS ( 06 MOCKS THERE)
Program
E-GMAT 3 month module. Did 20% of the quant part as i ran out of time.
In the end, thank you to all of you for being an anonymous support. You guys really did help. I do feel bad for preparing so casually. Q50 would have pushed score to 750+. I may give another exam in a year or two. Not really planning anything now.
Thats it. My experience of 700+ on GMAT in 10 days.
Gtg now. Duty calls.
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