A Planned journey to 760

760 (99%) || IR 8 (92%)|| Q 50 (87%) || V 42(96%)

Background:

I am an Indian IT Male Engineer with 30 months of work experience. I started looking for a role change when a few circumstances in my life started to expose me to the business side and I realized that it captures my interest way better than my current profile. I currently work in financial services industry as a quality analyst. My job timings are from 2 PM – 10 PM. I live 40 Kilometers away from my office and hence take 4 hours to commute.

Initial Prep:

I decided to prep up for GMAT in the month of June and started doing my research. I surfed internet day and night and gathered all the information I could around this exam. I started to formulate my study plan, my schedule and my timeline. I read a lot of debriefs, lots of suggestions for study material, study structure etc. I came up with a timeline of 3 months and a defined study structure which I decided to stick to. I also judged that the things which would stop me from achieving my goal were time and lack of determination. So I set my mind to tackle these hurdles along the way.

I gave the first test from the GMAT prep software to accurately gauge my position. I didn’t attempt the AWA, but did attempt the IR. It was very difficult to sit for those few hours (I have been out of touch from studies from approximately 2 and a half years.) but I somehow managed to sit and completed the test in one sitting.

My Score:

640 Q49 V27

Next I picked up the OG and gave the diagnostic tests to gauge my strength and weaknesses. I scored excellent in RC and PS. My score was average in DS and CR. And it was below average in SC. So Voila, I had a very clear picture of the areas I needed to work upon.

I removed all the stuff from one of the spare rooms and set up a table chair in there. I knew that I won’t be able to study in my own room with all the comfort. Next I printed calendars for next four months (I kept a buffer for a month for unexpected reasons and procrastination) and pasted them in the study room. I got sticky notes. I chalked out my plans for the upcoming weeks and printed them and pasted them in the room. I changed my phone’s wallpapers to “JUST DO IT”. Bought blue and black pens, a new register, a few A4 size sheets, crayons from the nearby stationary shop.

Study Material:

Manhattan 10 books set and pack of 6 tests – All books available on internet. I purchased the sentence correction book for the test series though.
Kaplan 800 – Purchased second hand from OLX.
OG 2015 – Purchased second hand from OLX.
OG Verbal 2015 – Purchased second hand from OLX.
OG Quant – Downloaded from the internet.
Veritas Prep Series (Pack of 7 tests) – Got it from some offer Veritas was having. I had to upload the picture of my GMAT PREP Score on their website.
Power score CR Bible - – Downloaded from the internet.

The Schedule:

Since my job timings are from 2-10, my schedule was not as normal as one could hope it to be. I used to get up late (12 PM) and sleep late (4 AM). So I had to change a lot of things to get the study in my schedule and get used to it.
I decided to get up early, but it was very difficult for me to get used to that. My alarm clock woke me up at 7 in the morning, but I would again sleep in an hour or so. The job was eating 13-14 hours from my time. I was sleeping for 7-8 hours. There wasn’t much time to get in the studies somewhere. I wasted a week trying to study but to no avail. I was too sleepy or something or the other kept me stopping.

I had to change my schedule. I started to lie down on bed by 1 AM and tried to sleep and get up by 8 AM in the morning. Within a week I got used to it. I would start studying by 9 15 AM and would study till 10 30 AM. Then would again start studying by 11:15 AM till 12:15 PM. After that I would pick up a few questions from the OG while commuting and would target to finish them while travelling. I wanted to use whatever time I had. I wanted to utilize my breaks in office as well. So I found the forum GMAT CLUB and made my account. I loved the forum. I started doing questions here and there from GMAT club whenever I could manage time from my work.

Returning from work I wouldn’t study since I didn’t want to overwhelm myself, so I just used to enjoy the company of my friends in my cab. I ate my dinner once home, watched a video here and there, or a half hour TV show and slept for the day. Every day depending upon whether or not I achieved my goal for studies, I would color the day in the calendar I printed with green (when I was satisfied by the amount of study) or red (when I felt I didn’t study or could have studied more.)

On weekends I wanted to study, but at least one day out of Saturday and Sunday would be taken away from me by my friends (now I think it was also necessary to enjoy the life a bit between all the preparation). So on one of the days I would study for 5-6 hours and on the other day I would party hard. 

The actual Study:

Maths:

I started with Math which was my strong point and aimed to get done with it in 15 days(obviously I was over stretching). I was able to complete Math in 1 month. I read all concepts from Manhattan books, even though I knew most of them already. I just wanted to be sure that I am not missing anything at all. I also made a habit of jotting down every little formula or trick which I thought would be useful for me in solving the questions. I was done with the concept sin 10 days. Next 20 days I started to apply the concepts in the questions from the OG. I did all questions from OG and OG Quants. What I also did along with this I kept a track of each and every question in my excel sheet (error log – template downloaded from the internet). I would write the OG question number, and if I did it wrong I would write down the reason because of which I think I got it wrong.

I achieved 91% accuracy in PS in both QG Quant and OG.
In DS, I achieved 82% accuracy in QG and 86% in QG Quants (QG quants was attempted later)

And so I was done with Math by the first week of August. I wasted a few days in between when I wasn’t able to study, mainly due to weekends and a few weekdays also here in there.

Verbal:

After doing this I realized that I was running late and I may be devoted too much time to Math. I was worried but I had to go on nevertheless. I picked up CR Bible and started going through the book (It’s a very long book and may eat a lot of your time.) I won’t recommend this book straight ahead and I would advise to use the book with caution. I ‘deeply skimmed’ through the book in a week. I made my notes and got a hold of how to approach the different type of question in CR.

I again started with the OG and the OG Verbal and completed all those questions in the next few days. I was done with CR in next 14 days.

85% accuracy in OG and 88% in OG Verbal

Next I was to tackle the biggest monster for my preparation – SC. I was weak at this and I was scared to tackle it as well. I started reading Manhattan verbal foundation book (recommend only for those who need clarity in their grammatical concepts or are below average in SC ) to clear my grammar concepts. I wrote notes but it was difficult to get through the theory. It was boring. I used to sleep in between on my table as well. I would change places – go to the dining hall, sit in the balcony, just to get over with all that stuff. Well, at the end I did. I became so confident that now I would be able to tackle SC. I attempted a few questions the next day in office. To my surprise I had not improved at all. I was taken aback and thought that I had wasted my time going through the Manhattan book. I even didn’t study for the next 7 days or so and procrastinated. I didn’t want to pick up the books again. Then one day while playing a game on my phone the mobile wallpaper chipped in – with the words flashing “JUST DO IT”. I don’t know if it sounds dramatic but it did the trick for me. The next day I was again with my books. I picked up the SC book from Manhattan. I just loved the book. It’s very well organized and it’s just great. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the technique to tackle SC. I also realized that the verbal foundations was the key to understand the SC book, since I wouldn’t have gotten a hold of the grammatical terms otherwise. Nevertheless I finished the book and kept on adding to my notes. I applied the questions in the OG. After attempting every question I would read the explanations(even if I got the question correct). I would find little tricks or rules in there, which I made sure to copy in my notebook. Even If I was getting the question right, by reading the explanations, I got to know how to eliminate other answers. I also gave a mock or two in between, but didn’t score well, and the scores were depressing, but I didn’t pay attention. All this took me around a month.

I achieved 79% accuracy in OG and 84%in OG Verbal

Last I picked up the RC, I didn’t read any theory and just did all the questions in QG and OG Verbal. I did all the questions in a span of 7 days. This brought me to the last week of September. I picked my date for 27th October. A month later from there.

Achieved 88% and 90% accuracy in OG and OG Verbal

The Mock Marathon:

Next, I arranged a few leaves (10) from my office and mixed them with ‘Work from home’ leaves(6). There were a few holidays in the month also which paved the way for last undisturbed 26 days of studies for me. I organized my mock exams from a week later.

I revised all my notes in the first week and applied all my incorrect questions from my error log. I revised all my mistakes and made note of things which I did wrong twice.

Next as you see in the below table, I gave a lot of mocks. I made sure to give my mock test at the time my actual GMAT was scheduled. I would close my room and mimic exact test day circumstances. I did all the four sections including AWA in these mocks. For AWA , the Chinese burned template is the only one I considered. I only took the allotted breaks in between. After the test I would take a break of two three hours and then come back and review. I would review all questions - even the ones I got wrong, just to see if there was a better approach I could follow. Then I would take down 5 things which certainly needed improvement in the exam. And the next day before sitting in for another mock I made sure that I tackle those 5 shortcomings. Sometimes the same shortcoming would repeat for two three mocks, sometime I was able to tackle it within a day. And after all these mocks I was ready and confident that I would do decent in my GMAT.

Test Scores:

September 13 Veritas 600 Q45 V28
September 20 Veritas 620 Q45 V30
September 25 Veritas 640 Q46 V32
October 8 Veritas 650 Q46 V33
October 10 Manhattan 680 Q45 V37
October 11 Manhattan 700 Q48 V37
October 13 GMAT Prep 740 Q50 V40
October 15 Veritas 650 Q48 V31
October 16 Manhattan 690 Q48 V36
October 17 Veritas 670 Q48 V34
October 18 Manhattan 720 Q48 V40
October 21 Manhattan 710 Q47 V40
October 22 Veritas 710 Q51 V36
October 24 Manhattan 700 Q47 V39
October 25 GMAT Prep 730 Q49 V40

The D Day:

On the day of my GMAT I wasn’t tensed at all. I got up and skimmed through my notes. I listened to a few songs and watched some TV. I took a shower and ate a light breakfast and had some fruits. My friend dropped me to the center. I was all cool until then. At the very end while I was just about to enter the center, I got tensed and anxious. Nevertheless, the test started and it started feeling like just another mock. I completed my essay just in time. Next IR was much easy as compared to the mocks I had given. Quants was very easy as compared to Manhattan Quants. I took a Red bull in the break. While attempting Verbal I felt that the difficulty was a bit more, and I had a constant feeling that I was not hundred percent confident about my choices. At the end the verbal got really difficult which got me a bit tensed. As the exam ended I was just praying for at least a 730. The score flashed 760 and I was all smiles.