A RollerCoaster to 710

Hi Everybody,

I gave the GMAT on 23rd May at the NTTF center in Bangalore and scored 710 (Q49,V38). My AWA score is 5.0.

Materials Used.

Concepts
5 Manhattan Quant Guides
Powerscore CR Bible
MGMAT SC
MGMAT RC
EGMAT SC

Practice
OG 12 Official Guide.
OG Quant Review.
OG Verbal Review.

Tests
2 GMATPrep Tests
6 MGMAT Tests

Preparation.

I began my prep for the GMAT in mid Dec 2011 & targetted the last week of May 2012 for my GMAT. That gave me about six months.I purchased the 5 MGMAT Quant Guides as per BB's suggestion on this forum and started off diligently. I believe these 5 books helped be build a strong base in Quant and helped me reach my Quant Target.I solved the practice problems at the end of each chapter twice.(First time in Jan and second time in April)

Geometry - I completed the MGMAT book in around 2-3 days studying around 5 hrs per day . This is one of the smaller books and i feel anyone with a background in maths to be able to do the same.

Word Translations - Wow! i loved this book it is really good. I required a lot of time with this since it has a lot of content which i wasnt familiar with especially the DS section.Overall this book took the better part of 2 weeks. But at the end of it i was fairly comfortable witht the concepts.

Number Properties - I have to confess i got bored when i started to study this book but trust me this book is invaluable as mentioned before on this forum.It is absolutely a must have.I completed this book in around 1 week.

VIC - This book was one of the most essential parts of my prep. The chapter on Inequalities is amazing. i completed this book in about 2.5 weeks.

FDP - I actually did not study this book properly the first time i did Quant in Jan. It was only in April when i redid the whole of Quant that i completed it. It has a few nifty trick which are definitely helpful. Overall i think 1 week is enough for this book.

I followed up by practicing the Quant section of OG12. By the end of Jan i was essentially done with Maths! Atleast i though so . . . First Big Mistake. I did not touch Maths till April and it cost me dearly . . . .

All through Jan i had been focussing on Maths and once in a while i looked up a little stuff on CR & SC nothing serious though.

In Feb i began with CR and by Mid Feb i was done with reading the Powerscore CR Bible. The second Big Mistake i did was i did not practice the CR questions!!! There were some reasons on personal front but you know what, these reasons cannot help me justify this very stupid decision on my part. I essentially lost the advantage i had gained in the first half of Feb. Damn!

I was out of town in March, This month was cathartic for me on the personal front. I was gutted so to speak anyways to cut a short story short. I did a little of RC from MGMAT and I barely managed to complete the e-gmat SC lessons during that one month. It helped me but i wasnt able to focus and when i solved the MGMAT SC question Bank i didnt do well.A lot of valuable time was lost in Mar with very little to show The Third big Mistake was i did not practice SC !!!! Dammit!

So in April with less than 2 months to go i panicked and realized i might actually end up making a fool of myself with the GMAT. I came back home and began to bring some order to my chaotic approach. I revised CR and completed the OG 12 & Verbal review Practice questions. It took me around 3-4 days. But my early advantage in CR was lost since i could not devote more time to revist all the concepts. Anyways i then started my review of Quant all over again .Yes you read it right ALL OVER AGAIN!!! 2 months of no practice in Maths i had lost my Math Advantage ! Well two weeks of Hardcore Quant review from the MGMAT Guides was helped but i was running out of time since i still had to PRACTICE!!! I started the Quant Guide and finished it but guess what i could not find the time to review the ones i got wrong !!!!! $h!T 4th Big Mistake. By the end of April i was barely O.K with Quant but still had OG 12 quant section i needed to revisit.

May came with a whole lot of other issues, my collegaue went on a month long Leave so work was unrelenting. I had not started the Practice Tests. I still had to start SC practice while trying to finish RC practice. i had 3 weeks left for all of this. I just went ahead and gave my first MGMAT exam 600. Five Months of effort had brought me only so far. The Fifth and Biggest Mistake i had waited till too long to begin the Tests . I was very disappointed with myself. I started planning to postpone my exam but my Dad told me to give the exam at any cost since the worst i could do was bomb the GMAT but i would atleast know where i stood. I revised SC from E-GMAT and completed the UGE section in it . One Word "WOW" I wish i had begun the UGE earlier. I started the OG12 & Verbal review SC practice in earnest i did reasonably well. Completed OG12 Quant section and finished of the pending RC passages. All along i kept giving test in those 3 weeks. My scores were as follows.

MGMAT 1 600
MGMAT 2 730
GMATPREP-1 730
MGMAT 3 690
MGMAT 4 700
MGMAT 5 740
GMATPREP-2 710
MGMAT 6 740

The variation in Quant in these practice tests was from 45-51 whereas in Verbal was from 32-42. The one right thing i did was thoroughly review every Manhattan Test question including the ones i got right. This was immensely Helpful. The last two MGMAT test gave me inflated scores since the 700-800 question were severely depleted by then.

My experience has taught me that consistent practice is very essential to figure out timing issues.I believe i started my practice tests too late due to which i was unable to devote sufficient time to fix obvious shortcomings (e.g Time Management , 700-800 questions).

I kind of ran out of time in both sections and ended up scoring less than 40 in verbal which was a dissapppointment for me. Quant 49 seems more in line with my current Math skill level so cant complain though i feel i could get better in Math as since i am after all an engineer .Overall i am a bit dissapointed as well as relieved. I was contemplating retaking the GMAT since i felt i could do better but have decided that a 710 should be enough to get into a Top MIS program. Yup i am not targetting B-Schools !

It was the Intensity of my effort in April & May which eventually helped me cross 700 but it was too late to go beyond 730 since i had already lost valuable time re-learning stuff i had learnt in the early part of the year. I hope people reading this post avoid the mistakes i made and reach a higher score than me . All the Best.

I am grateful to BB & all of you for the support and encouragement.

Cheers
DataAce1701