Self-Prep 760 (Q50, V42, IR8, AWA5.5)

Background

Indian Male Engineer who graduated in 2017 from an IIT. Working with one of the largest Telecom Service Providers in the country, building an operations support and analytics platform as a product manager.

GMAT – 760 (Q50, V42, IR8, AWA5.5)

A point to note here is that I had appeared for CAT 2018, and ranked in the top 0.2% of the applicants. This score would have been sufficient to get an interview call to the top 3 IIMs, had I not messed up my 10+2 examinations. I decided to make the most of this setback, and started prepping for the GMAT 3 months before my chosen date, in August.

Month 1

Prepped exclusively on GMATClub and solved OG quant and verbal questions. I realized there was no theory I needed to study for quant (I had covered almost all of it during my CAT prep), and all I needed was extensive experience solving DS questions. Verbal, however, was quite a shock for me - From being among the top 0.3 percent in the CAT, I was struggling to get more than 50% of the questions right, and most of these were from Sentence Correction (no surprises here, 3 months later). I purchased the Manhattan Prep Sentence Correction Guide and started going through it. I must have gone through the book atleast five times before appearing for the GMAT, but I simply wasn’t able to mould it into my intuition. I met an alumnus from my undergrad, who had scored a 770. His advice was simple – Ignore your intuition and “mouth feel” when it came to verbal. Use the tips and processes highlighted in the Manhattan SC guide, and build a process to solve verbal questions. Rely on your intuition only when the process gets you to the final two choices, and the process doesn’t help you anymore.

Month 2

Gave the first official GMAC Mock Test, and scored a 750. Two things stuck out from this attempt, for me
1) I had still not grasped the Sentence Correction process. However, my CR and RC were respectable
2) There was still room for improvement in my accuracy of solving DS problems.

Continued solving OG and GMATClub problems. GMATClub is addictive AF – I had started reading debriefs at lunch, solving SC questions while having my evening tea and CR questions during my daily commute. GMAT is a way more fun exam, and GMATClub is an incredible forum. By this stage I was confident I could improve my score to a 780. Things didn’t turn out so smooth, though.

Month 3

Similar to the GMAT, I didn’t attend any classes for CAT prep. I had bought a problem set and close to 20 full length tests. By the time there was just a month left, I was solving one test a day. I adopted a similar strategy for GMAT. I purchased the Experts’ Global Test Series – For INR 2500 they give you 15 full length mock tests. One thing to note is that the Experts’ Global mock tests are NOT adaptive. I had written the first test in Month 2, and scored a 690. I chalked this off as a half-hearted attempt, and didn’t bother reviewing my mistakes. Come month 3, I was solving close to a test-a-day. My scores fluctuated drastically – I was scoring a 700 the very next day after scoring a 770. My accuracy in SC was slowly improving but I was losing accuracy in RC and CR. I shifted my focus to CR, and started spending more time reading the RC questions – This was around two weeks before my GMAT. I started to panic, and resigned myself to a sub-750 score. Luckily, I happened to come across GMATNinja 's Youtube series on Sentence Correction. I started watching the series diligently, and tried to mimic his thought process. Stuff finally started to make sense, and I decided to go through the Manhattan SC guide one last time, and it all finally made sense to me. One week before the exam I wrote the second mock test, and scored a 770. The 770 on my screen significantly calmed my nerves. The last four days, I wrote no tests, and just went through my error log on GMATClub. My self-prep was only possible with the help of this ridiculously good community, and I hope to someday give back to it.

D-Day (Or maybe G-Day?)

Mistake 1 - I had booked a cheap hotel close to the examination center, and reached the hotel a night before. If you are a light-sleeper, DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE. I walked out of my room thrice to ask the staff – who played weird music all night – to keep quiet. I probably fell asleep around 3, waking up intermittently, before finally waking up at 8. Reached the center with five chocolate bars in my bag for breaks, a can of redbull, and a whole bottle of water. Mistake 2 – Do not drink too much water. I know this sounds silly, but trust me. I rushed through my final 5 verbal questions because I simply couldn’t hold it in. The exam otherwise went as planned, and I saw a 760 flash in front of me. I was rather disappointed I didn’t get a Q51, as I had scored a 51 on most of my mock tests. The V42 was adequate, however. I was rather disappointed I had only made a 10-point improvement over my first mock – I usually perform better on the exam than the mocks. I was disappointed, but relieved – I could finally focus on building up my profile, and get some rest after back-to-back exam prep sessions.

Key Takeaways

1. Do not hesitate getting professional help – I probably would have hit that 780 mark if I had figured out the process to solving verbal questions sooner. I was lucky I had someone tell me to not rely entirely on my intuition, and build a process.
2. Build a habit of solving tests – This process helped me do well on the GMAT despite a lack of sleep. I was afriad I would tank the exam, but once I sat down, I forgot all about the previous night (also probably helped by the can of red bull I had prior to the exam)
3. Try to solve questions from legitimate sources; As is frequently quoted by bb and other admins, GMAC spends close to $2000 per question. Test prep agencies can only do so much. That being said, Magoosh, Veritas and Manhattan Prep questions are pretty decent. Be careful while solving LSAT questions – personally, I felt GMAT CR questions aren’t as hard, and don’t test your critical reasoning ability the way LSAT questions do.
4. This applies to Indian Engineering Applicants – The verbal section of GMAT does not test your English Skills. It tests -

a. Your ability to comprehend information (RC)
b. Your ability to reason (CR)
c. Your ability to apply frameworks and logically arrive at a conclusion (SC)

Final Notes

I would, again, like to thank this community. GMATNinja ’s videos, and his answers on the verbal forum were succinct, and precise. Experts’ Global’s test questions were pretty decent IMHO. I hope they make the tests adaptive soon. I look forward to engaging with the community more, as I work on my applications. I will be applying in Round 1, 2020 with four years of work ex. under my belt by 2021. Please feel free to PM me if you need feedback regarding the Pearson Vue GMAT centre in Mumbai, Experts’ Global’s mock tests, and tips on how to self-prep, if you are confident enough. I’ve made quite a few mistakes while prepping for CAT and GMAT, and hope you don’t make the same on your self-prep journey.
Cheers!