650 to 740...Persistence is the key!!!

Question

Wow!
Never thought I'll be writing this. I'll try to keep this as concise as possible.
Profile: Indian, Engineer, Male Age: 28
2011 - Graduated
2012 - Rejected by almost all top b schools in India - Realized the need to go abroad
July 2013 - 1st GMAT attempt. Studied only Manhattan and OG for 2-3 months. Scored a 650 (Q49 V31)
Applied to Krannert and Rice with a 650 - Interview calls from both but no convert
May 2014 - Got a call from NUS for there MSc program because of strong technical background
June 2015 - Graduated from NUS and had a job offer in hand 4 months before before graduation.
July 2015 - MBA bug hits again. Started preparing with e-GMAT.
November - December 2015 - Health issues strike - Sinus goes bad - Underwent surgery in December. Also screwed up a few things in my personal life - goes into depression for first time in life
January - February 2016 - Spent fighting depression, improving health and coming over personal setbacks - Started mindfulness meditation
Mar 2016 - 2nd attempt - scored 680 (Q51 V30)
May 2016 - 3rd attempt - scored 660, cancelled, (Q49 V31)
July 2016 - 4th attempt - scored 680 (Q49 V33)
Realized I may not improve further. Didn't wanted to miss R1 deadlines hence started preparing applications for ISB, INSEAD and Judge - Looking for 1 year MBA.
October 2016 - 5th attempt - scored 740 (Q50 V40)
Applied to 7 of US top 15 and LBS along with schools mentioned above.

What made the difference?
INTROSPECT - Yup, I read a lot of debriefs and realized everyone has unique deficiencies. Identify and hit them. I've intentionally skipped my preparation details as I believe they won't help anyone. I would rather use this forum to help you guys introspect. Here's what I suggest:
After every mock test list down 3 (maximum 3) things that you need to improve. Even if you write 1-2 things, its fine. Now, don't write CR/SC/Quant etc. etc. BE SPECIFIC...And make sure you tackle them before you next mock...
Few examples:
I was not confident solving probability questions though I got them right
I was nervous during the start of the test hence couldn't focus
I realized the break was too small and I couldn't rest my brain enough
My sleeping patterns effected my test performance
I'm attempting majority of SC questions based on gut and not able to apply rules
My mind wanders during the test and I start thinking about my work/bf/gf/parents etc. etc. during the test
I keep changing postures while taking the test hence not able to focus for a long time
My hairs start itching hence I'm scratching the head most of the time and loose focus
I'm not good at drawing geometry figures on rough paper hence am not able to approximate angle measurements
I can't remember or frequently forget probability/geometry/sets rules or formulas

These are general examples. Please be as precise and honest as possible.

Get it?
It may be anything the sun...It can be your mood, place, clothing, eating habits, exercise, meditation, eye sight, lack of conceptual knowledge, lack of application, lack of rest - ANYTHING...identify 1-3 things at a time and work on them...For the study part, go into the details and precisely find out the gaps. For eg. I always struggled to remember formulas for overlapping sets. I just couldn't remember them. I know its stupid. What did I do? I learned to derive them. I was never short of time on quant so I had the luxury to spend those extra 30sec - 1 min to derive the formula. Result? I approached set problem with 100% confidence. I know if I forget the formula I'll spend additional 30 sec and derive it.
Again this is one small example. You'll have multiple things like these that you'll identify during the process.

If you guys need any more details about my preparation schedule and material I used, feel free to respond to this thread and I'll be happy to share whatever details you guys want.

And last but the most important thing.
Have faith in yourself and NEVER EVER GIVE UP!!! Even my father got frustrated of me giving GMAT every 2-3 months. But you just can't give up. Once you give up, it's over --- forever!

Hope it helped. I look forward to answering any specific questions that you guys might have.

<ignore typos>

Update (23.03.2017)
Debrief with Rajat from e-GMAT:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understa ... jat-sadana

My MBA journey and article in MCB:
https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2017 ... mat-score/

KS15 · Answer

Rohit,

Congrats on the great score. Apart from the details you mentioned-could you please detail what made the difference in prep to get Verbal to V40.Also, tips on a Q50 will help.

Thanks.

Rohit6 · Answer

Dear KS,
Thanks...

Verbal:
Initial state: Weak in SC specially struggled with applying the rules. Not a regular reader hence weak comprehension made things difficult in RC and CR.
Strategy for Verbal: Did the e-GMAT religiously. I blindly followed everything e-GMAT course said in SC. At one stage I stopped using my mind and just followed the e-GMAT SC way. If I can solve a question using my prior knowledge but not using e-GMAT rules, I would consider it wrong and see what I missed out in the e-GMAT SC course. I improved my SC accuracy from 50-60% to 90%-100% in later stages. SC is the easiest to improve in my opinion.
RC/CR: Since my comprehension was weak hence the strategy was to master SC and read slowly in CR/RC since I need to absorb things in one go.
I highly recommend e-GMAT course for Verbal. Also don't forget the Scholaranium. That is the best test series after official material.

Quant:
I always scored 49 in my initial tests. I took e-GMAT quant as they were giving a good deal for the whole package. Geometry, Probability and number properties were my weaknesses. e-GMAT course on number properties is amazing. Probability and geometry I couldn't improve till the very end but that enough to get a 50 (or even a 51 during my march attempt)

Best strategy is to keep it simple. Choose a good mix of material that is doable and sufficient. Thoroughly follow the material and track improvement. Identify weaknesses, maintain error log and keep practicing. That's it.

akhileshdas · Answer

Hey Rohit,

That is one of the best debriefs I have read so far. The examples you gave regarding the problems are I believe sometimes more of a hindrance during prep and mocks that make the difference between an average score and a good score. I guess concepts and technical things are easier to take care but the issues you mentioned are the ones which if taken care and fixed can go a long way in having a good GMAT experience.

Rohit6 · Answer

Hi akhileshdas, I'm glad you found the debrief useful. Right..My experience is that after a certain point its the "soft" issues that matter and hinder our performance...This is exactly what I liked about e-GMAT as well. They focus on the basics. When e-GMAT talks about SC they don't talk about grammar, rules etc. etc. like other companies they talk about "meaning". At the end why do you need to correct a sentence? It is to convey the intended meaning..Similarly in RC/CR e-GMAT always talks about comprehension and not about weird reading strategies that are scattered all over.. Anyways, Let me know if you've any questions for me or if I could be of any help... Best of Luck :-D

akay91 · Answer

Hi Rohit,

Really impressed with your answer. Where did you finally end up? 
I have given GMAT 3 times myself with a score of 650, 650 and 700. 
Although 700 is decent I know it will get me nowhere. All the 3 times my Quant was 51, 50 and 50. 
I need to focus on my verbal which has been 27, 28 and 34. 
I am thinking of taking the Verbal online course in e-gmat. Will that suffice or should I prefer something else?

Rohit6 · Answer

As you can probably see from my status, I am joining Kellogg this summer. On your GMAT part I would definitely recommend e-GMAT. I would recommend taking the verbal live prep as there not much of cost difference and the live classes are a great value addition. Having said that, you have already made good progress in verbal from 27 to 34. Hence, I would take a moment before signing up for a new course and introspect why you have made this progress. There is surely something you're doing right that has led to this score improvement. If you can introspect, identify it and reinforce the same approach, you might not need a new course at all. Best of luck :thumbup:

kreel11 · Answer

Hi Rohit,

I have been preparing for gmat since march last year with some breaks in between owing to personal commitments. Though i have done most of the material like Manhattan and official guides i am still hovering between 600-650. My target is over 700 like around 740 quant is going 47-48 in mocks but verbal is not improving still 28-31. I have also exhausted the two gmatprep mocks but didn't cross 650. I seem to complete the verbal section on time and don't really have to rush as such though there are few guesses here and there. I do not know till how long i can keep preparing and still setting stuck at this level. What else can i work on to improve my score and achieve my target of over 700.

Posted from my mobile device

ankitbokaria · Answer

Hi Rohit,

Can you tell me how long did you prepare before going from 650 to 740, as in number of hours per day and time duration overall (in months), rest you have added is of lot of help.
!
Thanks

Sent from my A0001 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Rohit6 · Answer

Buddy,
You r facing an issue which majority of people face. Trust me when I say that. Over the last few months I have helped a lot of GMAT aspirants and around 95% of them sound like you do. My advice is very simple: You did Manhattan, you did OG, you did X, you did Y...To me all this makes absolutely no sense. The question is: WHY you did OG? WHY you did Manhattan? WHY you took X test series? WHY you redid the Y book? I hope you get my point...

As I have mentioned in my debrief INTROSPECTION is the key to success on GMAT. The earlier you do it the faster you'll get the result. I know it's difficult. Hence I recommend e-GMAT's course as that gives step by step analysis of your strengths and weaknesses, which otherwise are difficult to spot and track. It provide you with "data" about your ability in a particular topic hence you can pin point your weaknesses and work on them. Again, I am not promoting e-GMAT. I am just telling you what worked for me.

Does it help?

Rohit6 · Answer

Hi Ankit, As I have mentioned in my debrief I have intentionally omitted that information as every person is different and have their own set of commitments. Generally speaking, if you study 2-3 hours on weekdays and somewhere between 6-10 hours on weekends, that should suffice. A 3 month period is good enough to hit a good score "if" you do it right the first time. I took much much longer than that, but that's because I understood things quite late

All the best...

egmat · Answer

I will add a couple of data points to Rohit's response regarding the amount of time required:

1. Study Strategy: The amount of time required is much lower if you have a defined study strategy - Target Quant/Verbal scores and corresponding percentiles for SC/CR/RC/Algebra/Arithematic. Use  GMAT Planner  if you have not used the same to decide on the same.

2. Focus: Studying one topic and completing the same is a lot more efficient than studying multiple topics at one time.

3. Use of Analytics: Tools that highlight where you need to improve can save tens of hours from your preparation.

I hope the above helps. Also attend the Critical reasoning webinar that we have this weekend. Please click  here  to register for the same.

Regards,

Rajat Sadana

OrbitalDecay · Answer

Persistence is what ultimately wins with the GMAT- not inherent intelligence. As you can see, the studying always pays off.

650 to 740...Persistence is the key!!!

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards