740 (Q 50, V 40, IR 7) despite skipping 1 RC (4 question completely)

740 (Q50, V 40, IR 7): Not a great score, yet I can share a few things that might help anyone cause I feel I owe a lot to GMATCLUB.

Special thanks to Mr Amlan Mishra (my Elder bro & my GMAT guru). My GMAT journey was made lot lot easier thanks to his 2 years long research & resources collection pertaining to GMAT. Each time I was disappointed, he has been my go-to guy. Thanks, da !!!

GMATCLUB: there is nothing I can add to its glory what hasn’t been said earlier. Consider this, when you start spending more time in GMATCLUB than the amount of time you spend in https://gmatclub.com/chat/FB on daily basis, you can claim to be a GMAT aspirant. This is my tribute this awesome club.

First thing first: GMAT is not an Exam, it’s a habit and it’s a lifestyle.

Have faith in your dreams. GMAT is not out of the world. You might have read 100s of debrief. If they can do it. Why can't I? The day you will believe that you can do it, that is the day you have arrived on the scene and in a few months, you will be writing your own debrief.

Background
I am just like any average Indian guy: good in Quant and bad to average in Verbal. You might have met guys who won’t be serious about exam until the last moment. I am that guy.
Trust me when I say this. If I can do this, anyone can do this.
First attempt 690(Q50, V33, IR 6): 13th Jan 2017, Still remember the day.
My first attempt gave me clarity about my weaknesses and how to strengthen them. I knew I had severe problem with RC. And I didn’t pay much attention to OG (Biggest blunder). I also knew I have time to improve it. I decided to read some novels. In fact, bought 5 of them. But again, as usual busy with job and Bangalore traffic, I didn’t do much to improve my reading skills.
Then I took a job in UK and didn’t prepare for GMAT. But GMAT never left me I was constantly thinking about GMAT and on weekends I used to study an hour or so. I agree it doesn’t sound much. But consistency is the key. Although I wasn’t improving much, I never lost touch. GMAT study is perishable skill. My suggestion “don’t ever give up”. Every dog has its day. Your day will come as long as you long for it. You may not get time for as strict study schedule. But you must protect what you have leaned. Keep in touch

Commitment
September 2017 and Round 1 deadlines are on the corner. Then it hit me that I have lost valuable time, which I should have used to improve my reading skills. I started calculating what is the latest I can appear GMAT and still be able to apply to IIMs & Round 2. You have to commit. There is no turning back.

Evaluation
First a few days I evaluated myself on each & every sub sections. I took 10 questions (preferably medium level) from each segment (CR- Inference, Assumption ..., SC – Subject-verb, Modifiers..., RC- I just read & answered a few). Similarly for Quant. It’s very important to know your strength & weaknesses precisely. Not what you believe your strengths are, but proof yourself with data that you are good at something or not. For example I thought I was very good in Algebra, but I scored only 6/10 correct. Trust your over confidence can hurt you bad. This is the most important part (especially for re-takers).

Set Score Target
Be realistic. In my evaluation I found out I was still scoring 49+ in Quant. So my Target was 50. I could have targeted 51, but 50-51 is the hardest jump. So I decided to utilize that time for Verbal Instead. Next I decided what my Traget overall score is. I set my Target to 750. So that means with Q50, I need V41 at least. This is where E-Gmat’s GMATPlanner was useful. RC was and still is my nemesis. There are broadly 5 sections in a GMAT Exam (SC, CR, RC, DS, PS). Even if you are struggling with one of these, you can still score 750 by mastering the other 4. I decided a 95 percentile in CR & SC can easily give me a 40+ even with a 70 percentile RC. Hence my target set. If you have limited time as I had, you have to find out which 4 of these 5 sections will give you more value for your time. Reminder you can’t ignore the last section completely.
Another point should be on your radar is that which type of question you are going to skip if situation demands so. Keep track of all your errors. This will help you in those situations.

Set Timing Target (This one I came up at the middle of my preparation, not at the beginning).
I am a slow reader. I am very very slow (period). I knew I am never going to finish the entire GMAT section without skipping a few. Try your best but don’t forget to prepare for worst. In my first attempt I had only 15 min left for last 15 questions. I was slow as well as dumb. This time however, I decided not to be dumb. I anticipated I’ll get 13 RC, 14 SC & 14 CR. I noticed one thing SC I was already getting good at. CR I was good only if I have time. 14*1.5 = 21, 14*2=28. That means I am left with 26 min for 13 RC questions. At that time my Timing for RC was 6 min Easy (90% accuracy), 8/9 min Medium(90% accuracy), 10 min (short & hard) (<80% accuracy) 12/13 min (long & hard)(<70% accuracy). This is where I decided to leave few things to chance (only in RC). Out of 4 RC passages 2 will be short & easy (6+6=12mins), 8/9 mins for 1 medium RC. That leaves me with 5 min for 1 long RC passage. I decided I’ll spend 8 min in this passage. I am now 3/4 mins short. This is where I decided I’ll skip a few question to make up for the time. I decided I’ll attend only 38 questions in Verbal & make the best out of these 38.

Planning (Warning don’t follow any plan blindly. Make your own plan. If I may be blunt. If you can’t plan for yourself, you are not suited to be an MBA. Read as many articles you want. There is no harm in being inspired but don’t blindly copy any one)
By this time, I had 45 days left till my target date (I postponed it by a week later). I planned to study 4-5 hours daily & 6-8 hours on weekends. Don’t relax but don’t stress too much either. Take break whenever you feel overwhelmed and start fresh. There is nothing wrong in watching a movie or two in the weekend. (remember consistency).

Quant: After my weeklong evaluation, I decided to practice 15 PS & 15 DS from GMATCLUB everyday (remember consistency is the key in Quant) and devote rest of my time I to Verbal.

The “ultimate-gmat-quantitative-megathread” by Bunuel. Thats all you need as far as theory goes. Apart from that try to practise all the GMATCLUB questions.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gma ... l#p1886497
GMAT math is not tough but it’s trickier. GMATCLUB questions are may be on the trickier side. But as far as math goes the thumb rule is to practise all the 500/600 questions for strong foundation & 700 questions for learning the smart way of doing things. My overall stats in 700 level questions are just about 65/70%. So don’t get disheartened if you make mistakes. Learn the trick and practise a few more.
Special mentions.
Word problem in GMAT are tough nuts. Practise 100s of them to get hold of these questions.

DS: For Number properties questions, write +ve, -ve, 0, F (Fraction), S (same) these are the possible values.
Eg: If given a & b are 2 integers  a & b can’t be +ve or -ve, they both can be same or they can be 0. They can’t be negative.

For Set : I was able to get a grip on the formula through this table.
Group of 1 Group of 2 Exactly 3
All with 1 - All with 2 + once
All with 1 - Exactly 2 - Twice
Exactly 1 + All with 1 - Twice
Out of 100 people, 50 have X, 40 have Y, 30 have Z. That means (50+40+30= All with 1)
Out of 100 people, 20 have only X, 15 have only Y & 25 have only Z. That means (20+15+25= exactly with 1)

Sentence Correction: This is the section that I decided to give my maximum attention in the beginning. Registered for E-gmat course and simple followed everything that they taught. 1 Ron video daily as Top up. (Ron’s videos are awesome). But it’s up to you if you follow any one course wholeheartedly, that should be enough. SC is a combination of knowledge and mindfulness. Learn all the major GMAT SC grammar rules and practise. That’s all. There is no secret to SC. Trust me if you are going for a V40, you wont be seeing a clear split in the answer choices. So know your grammar rules. But similar to Quant you have to practise SC everyday without fail. (Remember consistency). Practice, Practice and keep practicing until u can score 95% correct within an average 1.5 min per question. ..!! Complete OG once in the beginning & once again in the last week of preparation. Most importantly when you are attempting a question, search that in GMATCLUB & read all the discussion by experts. You will be amazed how many new things you can learn just from a single question & always make sure you reject a choice for right reason (this is your thumb rule).

Resources: OG 15,16, and 17, E-gmat, Ron Videos, Super 100, GMATPREP (at the last coz you need to give the GMATPREP mocks. CR: This section got my second most attention. Almost same as SC. Registered for E-gmat course and simple followed everything what they taught.

Critical Reasoning (Don’t look for shortcuts & tricks in CR. There is none)
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. ..Sherlock Holmes.
This was my CR strategy. Find out which cannot be the answer certainly.
Read slowly. Understand the passage completely (most important). Take your time. Find the exact entity that the conclusion talks about and which entity/entities in the premise it is linked to. Trust me this much will be enough for most of the questions. By exact means precisely there will be one word that is the most important in the conclusion. I call it the Sherlock. And the exact entity in premise on which the conclusion depends. I call it Watson. Find the Sherlock & Watson of the passage.
Next step is equally important prethink (E-gamt's term) an answer before looking at the answer choice. Probably this one word will have the most impact in your GMAT score.
When all 5 seems wrong, Read the option statements once again provided the understanding of the passage is clear
Criticize/ take sides. The more critical you are, the better you will do. (read somewhere & its definitely helpful)
Take notes as below
 If the conclusion talks about cost --> Find an answer choice that talks about cost
 If something talks about increase or decrease in revenue à look for Ans in similar lines. Ans about total revenue will be most probably wrong
 Sometimes author talks about a point & generalizes it in the conclusion --> It may be a weakness
 If the presence of something triggers an outcome (overtime means increased pay) (like a policy or rule)
 The past is not the future. Because something has not occurred in the past is not proof that it cannot occur in the future. It can be likely but not certain.

Resources: OG, CR Bible, E-gmat, Super 100

Reading Comprehension
For me, this was the only GMAT skill that would take a long time to master. (So if you have time for your GMAT exam Focus on building a habit for reading long boring stuffs: mainly topics similar to GMAT). Read slowly and understand.
If you don’t have much time, practice 4-6 passage every day. With time, timing and accuracy will improve. (my GMAT guru Amlan's Suggestion that I followed blindly)
Resources: OG, CR Bible, E-gmat, Super 100

Tests
Don’t take random test.
GMATCLUB tests are best for Quant.
Use the official mock tests. (GMATPREP exam pack) I recommend buying all.
My GMATPREP scores during my preparation: (I had used the free tests in my first attempt, So I bought all 4 mock tests)
GMAT prep 1 -730
GMAT prep 2 -760
GMAT prep 1 – 760
GMAT prep 2 - 770

EXAM DAY
My bad luck. I caught fever just the day before exam & it lasted few days. So I took my GMAT with 2 paracetamol tablets in my system. Probably that is the reason I missed the 750 mark.
I started with Verbal. As expected it was going smoothly until Question number 19 (a long hard RC passage). I would agree I was intimidated by it & wasted 5 min without understanding a single word. Then another 2 min trying to answer the first question. I guessed it & guessed 2 out of the next 3 questions. Now I have already guessed 3 questions and probably all 4 out of 4 was wrong. I was getting anxious. I paused for a moment & told myself my worst fear is over with question number 23. Rest of the 18 questions are all mine to grab. I knew this would happen & I am prepared for this. By the end of my preparation, I was scoring over 95% in CR & SC. So I carried on without worrying about the time remaining. (I was already behind by 5 min). Nevertheless, I finished with a minute to spare.

Quant: Nothing fancy happened. As usual. I was bored towards the end of Quant. I was 100% sure that I won’t get 51 but I was also 200% sure I won’t get less than 50.

IR: Again I had decided I am going to answer only 9 of the 12 question. I had decided to skip the 3 MSR questions. I did exactly that. Got 7. I won’t complain after all I had studied total 20 min for IR.

Bottom-line
1. In verbal, keep it simple. Read to understand. There is no substitution to understanding. No other trick will work.
2. Prepare your plan B. Find what area you make most mistakes. Make a list of question types that you can skip if situation arises.
3. Most importantly, this is what suited me. It’s like the wizard’s wand. You will have a perfect match of strategy for you. Find that.
4. As long as you can master 4 out of the 5 sections, you don’t need to worry. Till my last day I didn’t improve significantly in RC. But I made sure I won’t miss many in the other sections.
5. And remember consistency is the key.
6. Remeber your grammar rules & Quant formulae.
7. Make notes in google drive or in a similar medium. Add to it whenever you find something worthy of noting.
8. Unusual but helpful: Practise breathing exercise for 10 min every day.

PS: I'll keep adding anything useful that I remember.