This debrief has been due for a long time. I retook GMAT in September 2011 and scored a 710 (Q49, V37), whereas my earlier attempt was 610 (Q49, V23). As my profile belongs to an over represented pool, a score of 710 is not that competitive, and I soon realized this with rejects from my dream schools. I have decided to retake GMAT one more time and thus thought of writing down about my previous attempt.
I do not remember much about my exam day experience, but if I could recall later I will definitely submit that. However for now, I will try to list down things I did to get a different score than a 610.
Quant:
Though an engineer by profession, my math skills are not that great. Still, I did not focus much on Quant, just practiced lot of questions, especially DS and numbers and inequalities, floating around the net. I could not afford to devote enough time to Quant as I needed to work a lot on Verbal.
Verbal: This was my problem area. Yes, I am a non-native. Let me explain this in detail.
RC:
For Strategy:
1) Ron Purewal’s videos and his posts on RC strategies—Very Good
2) MLIC--Good
3) GIN's RC method --Good
I practiced many many passages and by the end of my preparation this section became my strongest area in the verbal section. Practice and analyze, keep on repeating these 2 steps until you get a knack of it, there is no other way. No shortcut. Learn from others but develop your own way, do not just copy, but experiment and see what style suits you.
CR: -- This was my weak point – I took lot of time to comprehend the stimulus
For Strategy:
1) Ron Purewal’s videos and posts on CR
2)
e-gmat CR
3) Powerscore CR
Ron Purewal’s posts taught me a lot about the right thought process to solve any CR passage. I would also like to mention that
e-gmat CR course helped me understand the gaps in my understanding and how to implement the strategies in different types of CR questions.
SC:
1) Ron Purewal’s videos and posts on SC
2)
e-gmat SC
3) Manhattan SC book
I have learnt a lot from Ron Purewal’s posts on the forums, so I have to give him the credit of helping me build my concepts in SC.
I would also like to thank
e-gmat as their material helped me understand where exactly I was going wrong, and what steps I can take to improve on them in the most efficient manner. Their SC concepts explained in a very simple way helped me to improve step by step, and the best part was that I could feel I was improving.
Overall, IN MY OPINION:
Ron Purewal: The best Instructor out there. Nobody knows GMAT better than this man. Learn as much as possible from his posts.
e-gmat: The Best course in the market. I spent days learning concepts from various posts on net that
e-gmat taught me in one slide. That was the Aha! moment for me. I realized the kind of expertise they have in their material, and their concepts certainly helped me travel the distance from 23 to 37 in verbal. It has been a while, but I do remember the confidence I gained in Verbal through their course. I recommend it.
I will keep you guyz posted on the development, and as I start my journey again before the Round 1 deadline, I hope I can soon type part-2 of this post with a much better score.
Thanks,
CaptainM
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Updated on: 19 Jun 2013, 08:25
