A JOURNEY OF THOUSAND MILES---- IS OVER

How would you feel if you break when it matters the most? – Imagine this feeling for good 7 years. A reality which seemed so distant that I thought I would be at some level in the INCEPTION movie- Jolt1, jolt2, jolt3 and boom- the sleep is over dude., welcome to the world you are in.

BEWARE: This isn't an ordinary debrief (when I say ordinary it means the ones you are used to read here). It is a story of passion, overconfidence and ego that changed to remorse, disbelief, tears, shattered confidence and silence. However, the movie doesn't end here. This was Part 1.

Please read Part 2 if you are driven by failures, call yourself an achiever even a below 700 and are a fan of "Not so successful" stories.

PART 2- FROM SILENCE TO TEARS OF JOY, CONFIDENCE AND PRIDE.

620-A Gradual Ascend from 580-- You know that when you are climbing something like a Mt Everest after a successful failure, the road isn't going to be easy. You think you know the route, but you don't know the route that you haven't traveled. That was the game in my case. Error Logs, consistency, no burnouts and limited questions in a day was the route that I took after reading uncountable debriefs here and watching XYZ hours of videos on YouTube.

I am a person who aimed for base camp itself (a psychological 700 but a realistic 680-700) of Mt Everest rather than the peak, knowing my reality. After successful learning of 6 months, alongside my job, and hitting a consistent 680-690 in my mocks – 3 MGMAT, 2 E-GMAT and 2 Official Mocks (in which I scored a 710 and a 690) I nailed another failure to the best possible extent I could.

Something was wrong, terribly terribly wrong. I had already given up, but I wasn’t able to absorb that score. Navigating through personal and professional challenges during a year that marked the beginning of covid era I knew that this was my last chance.
Dying to do an MBA, I started contacting admission consultants for admission assistance to Tier B or even Tier C schools since I knew I was ageing- personally and professionally- and I didn’t know if being mature and senior takes care of GMAT score. One of the admission consultants told me to not to even waste his time and improve by at least 60 points, a number that will help achieve my goal.

620, 3 months course, Remdesivir, Fabiflu, many deaths, 2 months official prep, and 5 official mocks later- a 660
60 points decrement from my median mock scores and from a consistent V38 to a V34. Do you feel the power of failure? I did- each moment and each passing breath. Yes, I would say luck didn’t favor me because the same set of Q-V split gives you a 680- nothing more than some sort of psychological advantage. I came to terms with the fact that I am like that one player who’s super good for selection but fails to deliver on the day that matters the most.

Finally, I decided to move out of the toxic relationship with GMAT after multiple attempts of saving it. However, by this time, I had become content with what I had and started building from thereon.I hire an admissions consultant who again questions my score, but I was determined to challenge its prudence and started my school search.

3 months and uncountable iterations later I chose 6 schools and cracked an admit in 3 of the quite competitive schools - considering I was an outlier in terms of years of experience and below average GMAT score in those schools.

I may not have cracked IVY League colleges, but I knew they weren’t meant for me (or I wasn’t meant for them if I boast about myself-haha). But I learnt great lessons, gave respect to small achievements and believed in my hard work, more than anything else. My parents saw me struggle, choked and helpless and for them I had come a long way in terms of this achievement. The day my first admit came, I hugged my parents and cried for good 5-10 minutes not because I did something special but because I created something very special in this journey- SELF BELIEF.

WHY THIS STORY WHICH IS NOT GMAT SCORE HEAVY:

It is to encourage you all who get bogged down by the fierce competition and lack of belief. It is for those who over analyse and question themselves. It is for those who celebrate the average and finally it is for those who don’t come across such debriefs.

P.S.- I am neither a consultant, nor a techie. I am an average guy from not so over representative pool professionally. I am an engineer from the pre digital age, but I have learnt to chase value holistically. In the process, I realized that I don’t need to build a profile outside academics. I already have- thanks to my parents, friends and surroundings, very early in my life. This has been, I believe, a more decisive metric in my applications.

I may not be an achiever amongst the talent pool present here but I assure you that I won’t let you fail because I have tried everything under the sun in my GMAT journey.
GMAT Club is a great community, and I am happy to help as much as I can – if you are willing to seek it from someone who isn’t a high achiever but very determined to lend a helping hand 😊

STUDY RESOURCES:
- Crack Verbal Live instructor led course,
- @e-gmat blogs and video tutorials.
- GMATNinja video series and explanations
- Power score CR bible
- Aditya Kumar’s videos on YouTube for Quants
- GMAT Club Forum
MOCKS
- @MGMAT- only if you are scoring at least a 48, please attempt them to develop your approach and thinking.
- @Experts' Global- Value for money and good. For some of the questions GMAT shorts of 1 minute each are an excellent refresher.
- GMAT Club tests- No brainer for quants. Just buy them for great practice and concept revision.
- Official Mocks- The only reliable mock for your Verbal scores- especially if you are a Non-Native.

Signing Off and Wishing each one of you here a great journey.