Hello everyone!
I have been meaning to write this debrief for quite some time now, to talk about my GMAT journey and some tips on what to do, but most importantly, what not to do, while preparing for GMAT. I recently finished my MBA from the Indian School of Business, prior to which I had 5 years of work experience in Consulting and an undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering before.
I started thinking about preparing for GMAT way back in early 2019. Coming from an Engineering and Consulting background, one of the common misconceptions that I had in my mind right from the start was that the Quant section would be a breeze and that all I would need to prepare for the GMAT would be the verbal section. I could not have been more wrong in my life about anything. It turns out, that the level of mathematical ability you might have and the way GMAT can trick you, especially in the DS section, are two separate things.
I started preparing for GMAT all by myself using some resources recommended by a few peers and by trying to devote a few hours after work to the preparation. However, due to an intense schedule at work, I would often find excuses not to give the required amount of time every day and ended up not crossing 680 in any of the mocks I gave till March 2020.
After numerous breaks, taking opinions from multiple test-takers about which would be the best preparation material, and delaying my preparation till the absolute last moment, I finally started preparing seriously for GMAT in July 2020 and took the GMAT Online Preparation Course from
Experts Global and leveraged their 12-week study tracker to keep my preparation in check. The strategy that I followed was to quickly go through all the videos and start solving questions as early as possible. Learning from my past mistakes, I focused equally on the Verbal and the Quant sections and gave a mock test every Saturday followed by its analysis on Sundays. I found the 15 mock tests by
Experts Global to be almost at par with the two GMAC mock tests and then the actual GMAT exam later. I also extensively relied upon GMAT Club for solving additional questions, especially solving their SC, RC, and CR Butler series diligently. As my preparation evolved and I got a lot more confident in answering questions without second-guessing myself all the time, I started with taking two mocks every week (Wednesdays and Saturdays) followed by their analysis (Thursdays and Sundays).
I had already taken the date for the online GMAT exam during my first week of preparation itself to keep myself motivated and not make any excuses to defer it to a later date. I gave my GMAT in the last week of September 2020, just in time to apply for Round 1 of all the major schools in Europe, the US and India. I ended up getting a 710 (Q48, V39) which was 20-40 points short of what I was getting in my mocks (something which can be attributed to a loss of internet connectivity for a few minutes during the Quant section and bringing from score down from Q51 in mocks to Q48 in real test).
Giving the GMAT so late did put me at a disadvantage when it came to working on 10 applications simultaneously and at times, put me under a lot of stress, often wondering whether I would be able to submit the applications in time along with the LORs. It also ensured that I was not able to give another attempt to improve my score (especially because I didn’t want to apply in Round 2).
With the benefit of hindsight, I believe that one of the biggest mistakes one can do while preparing for the GMAT is not being consistent with their preparation. In my case, an honest 2-hour effort on weekdays and 3-4 hours on weekends for 10 weeks turned out to be sufficient to get 730-740 in mocks and then 710 on the final test day. During my journey, I observed numerous times that while it takes a week for you to get in the habit of being consistent and focused, it usually takes a couple of days to get out of touch and then lose all the edge you might have got over the last 1-2 weeks. It is also extremely important to not wait till the end to start giving mocks but to keep them as an important part of your preparation, something which I observed a lot of my peers doing and only finding themselves out of time to focus and improve on the areas they were not so good upon.
It is also important to plan your timeline carefully so that there are at least three months of preparation time and 4-6 weeks of a gap between the test day and the earliest application deadline. It will also ensure that there is enough time for a second attempt if needed.
All and all, GMAT favours consistent effort over grit and it is important to give equal importance to all sections irrespective of our prior backgrounds, be it educational or demographic!
I hope this helps!
Devang Pandey
Class of 2022
Indian School of Business