So finally gave my 1st attempt and was surprised to see a score of 730 as I was not sure during the Verbal about my answers. Here is my journey
Background info: Working professional with fairly good quant skills but poor verbal skills.
Journey started on 22nd August when I gave the 1st mock of GMATPrep without any preparation and scored 680. My aim was to get a 710+ score and I thought it would be a cake walk from 680 to 710+ as I needed improvement only in verbal section. But it turned out otherwise!!!
I started solving questions from
OG and just checked my answers without reading the explanations. Since I got almost 70% questions correctly in
OG's Verbal section I thought I was prepared and decided to give mocks again. But I was in for a shock. Gave 1 more GMATPrep mock and scored only 660. Thought it was just a bad day so decided to give Manhattan's mock test and score went down to 640 and then to 620!!!
My accuracy in CR and RC was about 90% but in SC it was about 25-40%. So just in 2 weeks what I thought was a cakewalk turned out to be a walk in opposite direction and it was time for some serious preparation.
My wife had a fairly good idea about the exam and advised only the following:
1. Solve all questions of
OG and GMATPrep with explanations.
2. Watch
e-gmat videos for SC
So I followed the plan everyday for 2-3 hours and after 2 weeks decided to give 2 more mocks of GMATPrep. Thanks to
OG and
e-gmat my score improved and score 730 and 750 in the mocks. So I booked the slot to give exam.
Experiences and tips of gmatclub were really helpful in knowing what to expect on the test day, do's and don'ts and how to manage time. Just before the test day I was feeling really anxious but when I started revising SC notes which I had made from
e-gmat and Quant from Gmatclub's book anxiety lowered and I could sleep well. On the test day I just read a sample AWA, did some yoga to relax myself and reached the centre 1 hour before.
I followed a simple strategy of rechecking the first 5 questions in Quant and just aiming for 19 questions in 37 mins. I was able to complete Quant well within time. In verbal I aimed only for finishing 20 questions in 37 minutes but spent too much time on a tough RC and as a result had to complete 7 question in the last 6 mins with guesses in some.
Some tips which I would like to give:
1. In quant always read the complete questions and know first what the question is asking.
2. Don't spend too much time on a single question (>2.5 mins)
3. Don't get demotivated if you get a very easy question suddenly after a series of tough questions.
4. Wear shoes to exams
take them off if its hot.
5. Just revise few days before the exam and don't try anything new.
But one thing which I missed out was that I gave mocks in a very solitary environment whereas at the Test Center in Lucknow it was difficult to concentrate in Verbal as the other candidate is seated just next to you and the environment is not that solitary. So prepare accordingly.
In the end I just want to thank gmatclub for all its resources and guidance,
e-gmat for their excellent verbal videos and my wife (of course).
ATB to everyone