Debrief on 710 (Q48, V39)- Learnings and experience

After about 10 years of dormancy with respect to taking the GMAT and pursuing the international MBA dream, when I finally woke up to pursue my latent aspiration this January, I didn’t know where to start. So, I thought why not start where I left it 10 years back, and dug out an old friend: The GMAT official guide 11th edition, which I had bought in 2009, but never went through it beyond the initial few pages introducing the GMAT.

Brief intro:
I am 35 y.o. having more than 13 years of experience in Petroleum Marketing (primarily petro-retailing). I did my B.Sc. in 2003 from my native town, Kota (Rajasthan) and MBA from NDIM, Delhi in 2006.

Tackling the verbal demons:
So, I took the plunge in Jan’19 with that old OG and started with quant, which was supposedly my strong area as it is for most Indians. I sailed through the quant part of the OG in a few days, but when I started preparing for the verbal section, I started with the section which I dreaded the most: RC. I went through few RC passages and was so overwhelmed by the sheer heftiness of the passages that I almost dropped my preparation mid-way, but probably the resolve this time was strong enough to prevail over my procrastinating mind. However, I still had to find a way to tame the verbal demons of GMAT. Hence, I decided to continue my verbal prep in the order: SC, CR & then RC.

I spent the next few weeks preparing for the SC and CR through mainly two sources: The OG and other free resources available on gmatclub. Though the resources available on gmatclub regarding CR were enough to improve my accuracy in this section to approx. 85% in a couple of weeks, the accuracy in SC didn’t go beyond 60% even after 5-6 weeks of practice. It was beginning of March already and I was targeting to take the test by June end. With time passing week by week and I not getting the confidence even in SC, let alone the dreaded RC, I knew that I needed a structured approach in these sections to improve my performance.

In the meanwhile, I had come across quite a few success stories of GMAT takers improving their verbal ability by following the methodologies taught in the e-gmat online course. Encouraged by these success stories I attended an e-gmat webinar which happened to be on RC. Thereafter I attended another webinar by e-gmat on CR. The emphasis in both the webinars was laid mainly on the structural approach to comprehend the passages before going on to answer the questions. Finally, I went ahead to subscribe e-gmat course for both verbal & quant.

Right strategy and right resources:
The first thing I did after activating my subscription was to create a personalized study plan for all the sections keeping the target GMAT date of 7th July 2019. Thereafter I started my preparation with verbal section and the first course that went through in verbal section was Master comprehension. I think Master comprehension is the single most important course in the whole e-gmat subscription package. It not only helped me with the RC, but also with SC. Before going through Master Comprehension, I used to take the SC as a test of grammar only and used to look out for the grammatical errors in the sentences, but when I started comprehending the meaning of the sentences tested in SC, I became aware of the logical and meaning based subtle differences among the different answer choices.

Over the course of the next 10-11 weeks I completed all the online courses for both verbal and quant sections along with the practice questions in the respective sections. After completing the courses, I started doing the scholaranium questions. While doing the verbal questions initially I focused on improving my ability, hence did not time the question sets, after a couple of weeks when I felt confident enough, I started taking the timed ability quizzes. The 3-step approach in SC helped me get passed an accuracy level of 85% towards to end of my preparation, however I relied primarily on the visualization skills in the CR and my accuracy in the section improved upto 90% with continued practice.

Taking the bull by the horns:
Yet RC continued to intimidate me and my accuracy in this section didn’t go beyond 60%. But my improved accuracy levels in SC & CR gave me enough confidence to take the RC head on. I started practicing 4-5 passages at a stretch (earlier I couldn’t even take 2 passages at a stretch as they used to give me headaches). By the time I reached 4th or 5th passage, I literally used to struggle with maintaining my focus on the passage, however persisting with this approach helped me improve my attention span, an ability which proved to be critical during the actual test. Finally, my accuracy improved to 80%, with which I was satisfied.

For quant preparation, I continued with scholaranium initially, but didn’t take the full length ability quizzes there. Rather I relied on gmatclub quant mock tests in which I consistently got Q49-Q50. For IR, I initially practiced with the practice questions available on the e-gmat, and later solved all the IR questions available with OG online subscription. For AWA, the template by chineseburned is the most helpful resource I could lay my hands on.

The D Day experience:
Finally, after taking 2 official mock tests on consecutive days and getting a 710 & 700 respectively, I took the actual GMAT on 10th July 2019. As I started my official test with verbal section, I felt butterflies in my stomach, my palms got sweaty and I could hear my heartbeat with my bare ears. I had not felt such trepidation ever before, but somehow was able to maintain my focus throughout the verbal section. As the section ended, I exhaled so heavily as if I had not breathed at all in the last 65 minutes. During the quant section I was quite relaxed. Though it took me about four and a half minutes to solve the first question itself, I was able to cover up the lost time during the subsequent questions.

After completing the test when I saw my final score I was surprised to see my verbal and quant scores respectively. My verbal score @ V39 was the highest I got so far in any full-length mock test, while the quant score @ Q48 was much less than what I was consistently getting on gmatclub mocks and the official prep mocks. However, I was satisfied with the overall score of 710 given just over three and a half months of structured preparation which I was able to manage mostly on the weekends only. Score in IR and AWA section was 5 in each section, which is just about average for both sections.

The Post-mortem:
Later when I reflected on my whole GMAT journey, I realized that while there were quite a few strengths in my preparation, there were few flaws also and if I were to re-take the test, I would modify my study plan mitigating those flaws.

The strengths:
1. Realizing timely that the just doing OG was not going to get me to my target score, and subscribing to the e-gmat course. (Though I still could have saved 4-5 crucial weeks here by subscribing earlier)
2. Devising a personalized study plan, Dividing the plan into weekly targets and completing the weekly targets no matter how much I needed to stretch beyond work.
3. Understanding the logical meaning that a sentence needed to convey and analysing the errors before jumping to the answer choices in SC.
4. Reading RC passages slowly and taking multiple RCs at a stretch to build and maintain focus
5. Capitalizing on the visualization skills to improve in CR.

The flaws:
1. I got complacent regarding the quant section. Though Quant is the strong section for most Indians, it cannot be taken for granted. It needs the due respect and preparation time.
2. I took the full length official mock tests towards the fag end of my preparation: on T-2 & T-1 days respectively. Though taking the mocks towards the end, gave a true indication of my anticipated scores, I didn’t have enough time to improve upon the weakness identified during the mocks.
3. The self-reflection that I did after taking the test should have been done periodically during the preparation journey itself to analyse my strengths and weaknesses, and then I could have worked upon the weaknesses with a greater focus.

Final Rundown:
All said and done, the preparation journey in itself was quite an enriching experience and is satisfying not only because of the score I achieved, but also because I was able to execute my study plans broadly the way I had envisaged and because I was able to sit and study for long durations after more than 13 years of being away from academics. Also, the journey to 710 in first attempt would not have been possible without the gmatclub community and e-gmat course. While the gmatclub community discussions and the question bank are impeccable support, the structured approach taught and emphasized in each section of the e-gmat course is so apt that if internalized thoroughly it gives fascinating results. I am deeply grateful to both gmatclub team and the e-gmat team for doing such wonderful work in their respective areas.

While even the thought of GMAT can be quite daunting at times, the fact is that it is not so much the test of talent, but more of determined effort. If a person like me, who did is education upto UG in Hindi Medium, can get a score of 710 with V39 in the first attempt, I think anyone can get to his/her desired score with a structured approach, a personalized study plan and the grit to stick to the plan under all circumstances.