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prashant3161
Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Last visit: 28 Dec 2014
Posts: 10
Given Kudos: 10
Location: India
Concentration: Technology, General Management
Schools: McDonough '16 ISB '15 Georgia Tech '16
WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)
24 Mar 2014, 13:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi All,
GmatClub has been a great support in my Gmat preparations.
I have read a number of inspiring stories which i actually needed after my first Gmat Attempt..
So, now i think its time i share my story and i certainly hope that it helps in planning others a perfect D-day.
Let me begin with the things that went wrong in First attempt.
Overall:650
AWA: 5.5
IR: 3
Q: 50
V: 27
1) Biggest issue, less sleep a day before the exam which left me sleepy and tired the next day.
2) Pen-Pad provided by the Gmac, while these might not be a big deal for many , but in my case i was used to writing a lot
even in Verbal section.But the pens kept on drying if i keep them open for more than a minute without writing which further adds to the tensed
environment.
3) Verbal section: High dependency on the CR and SC section: i was a little weak in RC section from the very beginning of my preparation
so instead of putting too much efforts in RC section i planned on getting as much good a score in CR and SC as possible.
which backfired big time...:D
4) Less practice for IR and AWA section:
Lets take them individually:
1) IR : Somehow(actually being from engineering background) i was good with IR from the very first day...btw i gave Gmat-prep 1 on the very first day of starting my preps...and scored 7000...yepppie....which backfired tooo......:D
2) AWA : I was confident on some template ..and just tried that 3-4 times 4-5 days before the exam...believe me such templates works very well...:D got a damn good score considering my writing skills.
So, considering these reasons i never practiced any test with all sections ...except for 2-3 i gave in lasst week.
5) On the test day in IR section i got MSR question as the first question ...and believe me it was damn difficult for
a) it was an reading based MSR very less data just the two tabs with stories of two separate scientists in the two tabs and data between the lines.
So as being me i wanted to write a lot but couldn't thanks to the pen ...i took 12-13 minutes in 3 questions and ended up being unnecessarily tensed.
Finally , scored 3 marks in IR..and there goes my Engineering background pride...:D
Ok...Now the attempt number-2
Overall:740
AWA: 5.5
IR: 6
Q: 50
V: 40
Changes:
1) Sleep ..couldn't help here....again sleep was okayish...I think last day study for Engineering exams has hard coded this to my mind..You don't sleep
a night Before an Exam..
2) Got a good RC doc (google with..rc 700 to 800 level you can find it easily): it had some 34-35 Rcs
What i did i started doing 2-3 RCs everyday and then put in a lot of efforts in analyzing the answers (not only the wrong ones)
3) Bought the pad and the pen .
Manhattan GMAT Test Simulation Booklet Spi Bklt Edition
Main idea was to practice closing the pen as soon as the use is done and see how often the pen dries up.
But being new pens they never dried even if i kept them open for hours...:D
As i said this might be waste for some...but in my case it helped a lot ...i can surely attribute 10 point to it..
4) Gave almost 13 test exactly the way i was going to write the Final exam.
This includes writing the IR and AWA everytime.
Well i realized one thing here that writing the exams the exact same way as the Real Gmat bulds up a lot of stamina for the final test and on the actual exam
5) I live in bangalore but belong to delhi. First time i gave the exam from bangalore center one near MG Road and believe me its not the perfect place to give your GMAT.
Reasons:
a) Many people give exam there ..so a little unnecessary chaos..people going out coming in...teacher coming in every time someone raises his/her hand up.Not cool..
b) Many people give exam there ..so the pen and pads are in there worst possible state.
So, i decided to give my second attempt from Delhi(earlier the main motive was a relaxed study from home but turned out to be a blessing in disguise).
"Positive Solutions, Pitampura near kohat enclave,Delhi, DEL, India"
Best thing about the center :Not many people give their test their so silence and good env to focus on test.On my test day only 2 people gave the exam and the room had max capacity of 3...
So, pen was in awesome shape never stopped in the whole test...and there goes my 1200 bucks..
Washroom and locker are just next to the room so it saves a lot of time for you in the break.
Also, the center guys were very helping.
So, these were the minor things that did the most of the trick.
Coming to the material:
here are the things that i did as said earliar for some it might be more that actually required and for some it be insufficient prep material to target the Gmat exam.
1) CR : cr 700 to 800 doc (Google the text and you'l find it)
2) RC : rc 700 to 800 doc (Google)
3) SC 1000
4) IR : watched some videos and practiced a lot of questions but mainly patterns as what/how questions are asked.
rest i took almost 13 full tests so every test added to the practice.
5) AWA : template rocks..Please don't ask for it..can't share.
6) Kaplan Basic strategy book:
Kaplan New GMAT Premier 2013 with 5 Computer Adaptive Practice Tests
Well this book discusses a number of good approaches to the overall exam.I strongly recommend this.
I completed these docs and the kaplan book before starting with the test taking.
Took me arounf a month to be done with all this.
Tests:
1) Manhattan 6 Full Tests:
Believe me they are way too much difficult for the Gmat level but prepare you the best way to take the Gmat bull by horns.I recommend doing
these test right after the basic preparation to prepare yourself for the worst.
2) Kaplan 5 Full Test:
With the above book you'll get 5 full tests and those tests are gold.
They are the closest to an actual Gmat Exam given ALL (800Score ,veritas ,princetonreview ,economist Gmat tests, gmat club tests) the tests available tough it never hurt to practice some extra tests.Even the User Interface is closest to the actual Gmat...:D
Take these 5 tests within last 15 days of your D-day.
Well that's it...its all i can remember of my Quest for a good Gmat score.
I know the info is not very organized but i tried to provide as much as possible .
Do let me know if i can help in any way with your preparation.
GmatClub has been a great support in my Gmat preparations.
I have read a number of inspiring stories which i actually needed after my first Gmat Attempt..
So, now i think its time i share my story and i certainly hope that it helps in planning others a perfect D-day.
Let me begin with the things that went wrong in First attempt.
Overall:650
AWA: 5.5
IR: 3
Q: 50
V: 27
1) Biggest issue, less sleep a day before the exam which left me sleepy and tired the next day.
2) Pen-Pad provided by the Gmac, while these might not be a big deal for many , but in my case i was used to writing a lot
even in Verbal section.But the pens kept on drying if i keep them open for more than a minute without writing which further adds to the tensed
environment.
3) Verbal section: High dependency on the CR and SC section: i was a little weak in RC section from the very beginning of my preparation
so instead of putting too much efforts in RC section i planned on getting as much good a score in CR and SC as possible.
which backfired big time...:D
4) Less practice for IR and AWA section:
Lets take them individually:
1) IR : Somehow(actually being from engineering background) i was good with IR from the very first day...btw i gave Gmat-prep 1 on the very first day of starting my preps...and scored 7000...yepppie....which backfired tooo......:D
2) AWA : I was confident on some template ..and just tried that 3-4 times 4-5 days before the exam...believe me such templates works very well...:D got a damn good score considering my writing skills.
So, considering these reasons i never practiced any test with all sections ...except for 2-3 i gave in lasst week.
5) On the test day in IR section i got MSR question as the first question ...and believe me it was damn difficult for
a) it was an reading based MSR very less data just the two tabs with stories of two separate scientists in the two tabs and data between the lines.
So as being me i wanted to write a lot but couldn't thanks to the pen ...i took 12-13 minutes in 3 questions and ended up being unnecessarily tensed.
Finally , scored 3 marks in IR..and there goes my Engineering background pride...:D
Ok...Now the attempt number-2
Overall:740
AWA: 5.5
IR: 6
Q: 50
V: 40
Changes:
1) Sleep ..couldn't help here....again sleep was okayish...I think last day study for Engineering exams has hard coded this to my mind..You don't sleep
a night Before an Exam..
2) Got a good RC doc (google with..rc 700 to 800 level you can find it easily): it had some 34-35 Rcs
What i did i started doing 2-3 RCs everyday and then put in a lot of efforts in analyzing the answers (not only the wrong ones)
3) Bought the pad and the pen .
Manhattan GMAT Test Simulation Booklet Spi Bklt Edition
Main idea was to practice closing the pen as soon as the use is done and see how often the pen dries up.
But being new pens they never dried even if i kept them open for hours...:D
As i said this might be waste for some...but in my case it helped a lot ...i can surely attribute 10 point to it..
4) Gave almost 13 test exactly the way i was going to write the Final exam.
This includes writing the IR and AWA everytime.
Well i realized one thing here that writing the exams the exact same way as the Real Gmat bulds up a lot of stamina for the final test and on the actual exam
5) I live in bangalore but belong to delhi. First time i gave the exam from bangalore center one near MG Road and believe me its not the perfect place to give your GMAT.
Reasons:
a) Many people give exam there ..so a little unnecessary chaos..people going out coming in...teacher coming in every time someone raises his/her hand up.Not cool..
b) Many people give exam there ..so the pen and pads are in there worst possible state.
So, i decided to give my second attempt from Delhi(earlier the main motive was a relaxed study from home but turned out to be a blessing in disguise).
"Positive Solutions, Pitampura near kohat enclave,Delhi, DEL, India"
Best thing about the center :Not many people give their test their so silence and good env to focus on test.On my test day only 2 people gave the exam and the room had max capacity of 3...
So, pen was in awesome shape never stopped in the whole test...and there goes my 1200 bucks..
Washroom and locker are just next to the room so it saves a lot of time for you in the break.
Also, the center guys were very helping.
So, these were the minor things that did the most of the trick.
Coming to the material:
here are the things that i did as said earliar for some it might be more that actually required and for some it be insufficient prep material to target the Gmat exam.
1) CR : cr 700 to 800 doc (Google the text and you'l find it)
2) RC : rc 700 to 800 doc (Google)
3) SC 1000
4) IR : watched some videos and practiced a lot of questions but mainly patterns as what/how questions are asked.
rest i took almost 13 full tests so every test added to the practice.
5) AWA : template rocks..Please don't ask for it..can't share.
6) Kaplan Basic strategy book:
Kaplan New GMAT Premier 2013 with 5 Computer Adaptive Practice Tests
Well this book discusses a number of good approaches to the overall exam.I strongly recommend this.
I completed these docs and the kaplan book before starting with the test taking.
Took me arounf a month to be done with all this.
Tests:
1) Manhattan 6 Full Tests:
Believe me they are way too much difficult for the Gmat level but prepare you the best way to take the Gmat bull by horns.I recommend doing
these test right after the basic preparation to prepare yourself for the worst.
2) Kaplan 5 Full Test:
With the above book you'll get 5 full tests and those tests are gold.
They are the closest to an actual Gmat Exam given ALL (800Score ,veritas ,princetonreview ,economist Gmat tests, gmat club tests) the tests available tough it never hurt to practice some extra tests.Even the User Interface is closest to the actual Gmat...:D
Take these 5 tests within last 15 days of your D-day.
Well that's it...its all i can remember of my Quest for a good Gmat score.
I know the info is not very organized but i tried to provide as much as possible .
Do let me know if i can help in any way with your preparation.
24 Mar 2014, 21:30
Kudos
Bookmarks
This is an informative post. And congratulations on your major improvement from your first official test to your second! A few things that stood out to me:
You did a wonderful job of identifying prep areas to improve in and then actively making changes there. This is something that everyone should try to do during their prep, if possible. Having set evaluation points during prep when you take a critical eye to your progress and potential areas for adjustments is recommended.
Your emphasis on taking CATs in a way that mimics the official test is wonderful. 13 CATs was probably on the high side in relation to the amount of targeted practice you completed, but you clearly got the results you were looking for.
I'm glad to hear that Kaplan has improved their CATs. For a long time they were less than ideal for measuring progress and honing skills.
You did a wonderful job of identifying prep areas to improve in and then actively making changes there. This is something that everyone should try to do during their prep, if possible. Having set evaluation points during prep when you take a critical eye to your progress and potential areas for adjustments is recommended.
Your emphasis on taking CATs in a way that mimics the official test is wonderful. 13 CATs was probably on the high side in relation to the amount of targeted practice you completed, but you clearly got the results you were looking for.
I'm glad to hear that Kaplan has improved their CATs. For a long time they were less than ideal for measuring progress and honing skills.
25 Mar 2014, 23:41
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations on your impressive score:)
Your post is motivating for me since I scored 650 in my first attempt and hope to get the progress as you did.
My weak link is RC. I have been working on RC 700 to 800 and looking for extra material.
I generally finish 4 passages in 30 minutes on RC. But in real test, I found myself extremely nervous and I couldn't finish the last few questions.
As for mock test, I'll probably do more tests before my next attempt as you suggest.
Here are my questions:
(1)Do you have any recommendations on RC?
(2) Can you share your timing strategy?
Thank you for sharing your GMAT experience. Your post is full of humorous elements and is very delightful to read by the way
Your post is motivating for me since I scored 650 in my first attempt and hope to get the progress as you did.
My weak link is RC. I have been working on RC 700 to 800 and looking for extra material.
I generally finish 4 passages in 30 minutes on RC. But in real test, I found myself extremely nervous and I couldn't finish the last few questions.
As for mock test, I'll probably do more tests before my next attempt as you suggest.
Here are my questions:
(1)Do you have any recommendations on RC?
(2) Can you share your timing strategy?
Thank you for sharing your GMAT experience. Your post is full of humorous elements and is very delightful to read by the way
