Debrief: 690 (Q 48, V 37, IR 8) to 730 (Q 49, V 40, IR 6, AWA 6)

While the experience is still fresh in my head, I want to post this debrief. GMAT club has been my go-to forum for inspiration (have read a countless debriefs) and intellectual stimulation (hands down, the best Quant questions' collection). I owe a lot to some of the administrators (Bunuel and Bb, in particular, for their wonderful compilation of Quant questions) and a few regulars (GMAT Ninja, Rich and a few others). So, in a way, this is thanksgiving!

A bit about me: I'm a 33 year old avuncular kid (oxymoron? Hell yeah!) from India working in a sector not familiar to many (Water Treatment/Waste Management). I already have a post-graduate/MBA degree from one of the top 15 institutes in India. So why GMAT? Or MBA?

Well, for starters, GMAT for me has been a validation exercise, more than anything else. I really needed an objective measure that would let me know whether I am actually good at something (I refrain from using the term 'Smart') and if I have the will to see it to closure. Corporate targets can be misleading and more often than not, you end up feeling like the proverbial frog in the well. Despite being hailed as an achiever, year after year, I only felt an inexplicable void and ended up wanting to seek validation. Enter GMAT prep.

After years (not months) of speculation and procrastination, I decided to book my first date with GMAT: Feb 10, 2020. I was confident (a bit too much) because I was consistently scoring in the 700-770 bracket in GMAT prep tests. I had relied on Manhattan Prep also earlier but somehow felt the scores on Manhattan are not great indicators or predictors of actual test scores. For starters, the math questions are more difficult or at the very least, take more time to solve. The material is great though and the Manhattan Prep SC guide is hands down the best there is.

So, well, back to my first GMAT experience on Feb-10-2020. I had decided to take Quant section first (followed by Verbal, IR, AWA) as I have always found math to be more challenging. Little did I know how much this strategy would hurt me. The first question I got was a statistics/percentage based problem involving ranges (can't reveal much more although I remember the exact question). It looked straight-forward and I am normally good at both topics. But 5 and a half minutes into the question and my answer was not one of the answer choices I had on screen. I was unnerved. I knew I had goofed it up but nonetheless had to pick myself up and move on. Except that I could never move on. I had marked some random choice and felt like I had ended up doing exactly what I didn't want to (given the fact that so many people had advised to be careful with the first 10 questions). The subsequent questions were simpler but somehow I could never make up for the lost time. At the end of half an hour, I had another 20 questions to go. There was one simple looking problem (based on exponents) that turned out to be a hard nut to crack. I marked something but I believe I took about 3 and a half minutes for this problem. Also, there were a couple of co-ordinate geometry questions (involving circles and quadratic equation roots) that I wasn't sure of. But there were quite a few easy ones that I muscled through, without confirming whether I was marking the right choices as I simply didn't have the time. This blunder is what hurt me the most, I think, in Quant. I somehow managed to finish on time and I believe I got the last couple of questions correct. Anyway, I took the 8 minute break in which I kept telling myself that all is not lost yet and I can significantly redeem my score if I were to do well in Verbal. And my Verbal scores have generally been good and more importantly, I haven't had problems with the clock. Or so I thought...

The problem with GMAT prep scores is I had the luxury of stopping the clock whenever I wanted to. So I didn't quite adhere to the 8 minute breaks. In the real test, you hardly have any time to recover from your first section. When I started Verbal, I was confident and was answering well. Even the usually tough SC questions seemed like a walk in the park. All was well till a difficult CR question came up and I just couldn't make up my mind between 2 answer choices. And I again ended up making the rookie mistake of wasting too much time on one question. Suddenly, I was behind time. With 13 minutes to go, I had 10 questions to answer. Then came the mother of all RCs - A difficult passage on Paleontology and Radiocarbon dating and all that jazz which you can romanticize about while practicing passages in the comfort of your room. Not in the real test. Definitely not when you are behind the clock and playing catch-up. I was mentally fatigued and thought it's ok to skim the passage and take some cues. Big mistake. The questions were equally difficult (Inferences and questions focused on meaning). I was doomed as there was no time to go back to the passage. I picked 3 answers that I thought *looked* the best. And moved on. Thankfully the last few questions were not very challenging and I managed to finish again on time. I was left with a bad taste in my mouth though about the RC and about the time wasted on 3-4 questions. In retrospect, I realize those few were meant to be traps. And I fell for them hook, line and sinker. Well played, GMAT. As for the last 2 sections, I did IR really well. I think I got at least 11 out of 12 questions right. And AWA went well, thanks to the chineseburned template (1 more person to thank). I clicked next and up came the score. Q 48 (67 percentile), V 37 (82 percentile), IR 8 (92 percentile). Overall 690 (85 percentile). I wasn't exactly shocked or devastated. I just felt like it was too near yet too far. I would have been happy with a 700 and a slightly better Quant score. Anyway, it was not meant to be. I'd accepted the score only to cancel it a couple of days later.

I scheduled my next GMAT on March-16-2020. But owing to some official plans (which incidentally got postponed due to Corona scare), I had to reschedule it to today (March-9-2020). I had cursed my fate for not getting that extra 1 week of prep. Anyway, all's well that ends (reasonably) well, I guess.

So this time, I had decided to take Verbal first. The last thing I wanted was to get mentally fatigued during the last RC passage. I wasn't too sure if it would work as Quant could become a challenge in the latter half. But I just trusted myself with this decision and went forward. I reached the center early, did a few SC questions on the Wiley OG app. Was getting most right, so thanked my stars and got my confidence back.

I started the test on time and was pleasantly surprised to see an easy SC question. When I marked it right, I subconsciously decided not to look at the timer and go ahead answering questions. This turned out to be a great move: I had looked at the timer only after finishing 18 questions (halfway mark in the section) and realized I was not even 30 minutes into the test. I was relieved but also a little sceptical on whether I was too confident with my responses. I slowed down a little in the latter half. One tricky RC passage towards the end and a couple of tricky CR questions probably pulled my score down but timing wasn't an issue this time. At the end of the Verbal section, I felt confident and had attained that elusive state of calm. I gobbled a protein bar and some dry fruits that my wife had thoughtfully packed for me. And started the Quant section...

I was slightly dreading the first question as it had trapped me badly last time. But this one was a simple algebra question that I answered in less than a minute. In fact till the 10th question, I was a picture of quiet confidence. Then came the 11th question - a tricky one on number theory about the possible 10s digit of a sum of 2 numbers. Although I answered it, I couldn't prove it was right. There just wasn't enough time. Then till the 18th question again, the problems got progressively difficult but nothing that I couldn't really answer. Trouble was I was losing time. So with 14 questions to go, I just had 21 minutes. And the 19th and 20th questions were both tricky and needed me to think out-of-the-box. Just didn't have the time to get these right. I knew getting 2 questions wrong in a row would hurt my score but I also knew I was in danger of not completing the section on time. So I did what I thought was best given the circumstances. Questions 21-29 were a blur. I think I got most of these right. May have gotten 1 or 2 wrong as I didn't have the time to verify or confirm. With 1 and a half minutes to go, I entered question 30. It was easy but needed calculation. I went ahead and did it. I am pretty sure I got it right. I had 29 seconds for the last question. It turned out to be a piece of cake. Exponents inside square root. Got it right with 4 seconds to go. Phew...

I had somehow mentally switched off at this point. But instead of moving on to the next section during a well-deserved break, I chose to look at my answer pad to check how many I got wrong. I couldn't be sure but it seemed like I got 5 wrong and 2-3 were suspects. Still felt like I had done better than last time. Couldn't be sure. Had to wait an hour more to find out. I had the last sip of my iced tea(which was no longer cold) and resumed the test. IR, which was a strong point in my last attempt, was pretty challenging this time. The first 3 questions were based on some soil analysis and had questions based on some temperature gradients which I just couldn't put in perspective. I am pretty sure I got at least 2 out of these 3 wrong. Then the rest of the section was just playing catch-up with the clock. When I finished the section, I was sure I had kind of goofed it up. So told myself to do better in AWA. Which thankfully (and hopefully! I haven't got my official score yet) turned out to be something of interest to me. An argument on finance with very little data to support claims. I felt I had constructed my analysis really well. I still used the chineseburned template but the actual content of my analysis had a lot of original thoughts. Let's see how it turns out! Update on Mar-12: Got my Official score report. Scored a 6 on the AWA!

So I clicked next and got my score. Quant 49 (74 percentile), Verbal 40 (90 percentile), IR 6 (68 percentile). Overall score: 730 (96 percentile). Looking at the 7XX alone had me relieved. Seemed like the second attempt was justified. Thankfully my score in both Quant and Verbal was better than last time (IR is a slight sore point but I plan to reinstate my previous attempt in case this comes up during any interview...In any case, I have my unofficial score report from the first attempt). Months of hard work and burning the midnight lamp finally paid off (I guess I can take some liberties with parallelism or the lack of it in my sentence ). I may still come back a couple of months later in my quest for that elusive 750+ score. But for now, I hang my gmat boots. And get ready for the next frontier to take on.

My 2 cents for the aspirant(s): There is enough and more wisdom, advice and questions in the gmat club pages to fill your day and night. Just don't get too lost and focus on a strategy. Don't take tests mindlessly and always try to take tests in conditions that mirror the actual test, as much as possible. Finally, nothing can prepare you for the actual day but a positive attitude, confidence and focus can go a long way in getting your dream score (I still haven't got mine but I guess I am pretty close). In any case, take this advice (or for that matter, ANY advice) with a pinch of salt and do what suits you best. Do remember this one thing though: You got to sharpen your ability to game the system. GMAT is like a game, which requires you to understand its rules in entirety and crack it like a code. It is definitely not a game of 'Take how much ever time you want to answer correctly'. Nor is it a game of 'Fastest finger first'. It's about balancing speed with accuracy and knowing what you are capable of getting right within the stipulated time period. All the best in your quest to crack this code!

Thanks a ton for all that you do at GMAT club. You guys rock!

PS: I have attached my ESR and the entire history of my mock/prep test scores with some descriptive stats. Hope some of you find these useful!

PPS: I initially thought I will stop subscribing to question(s) of the day. But on second thoughts, I want to continue with it. It has helped me in ways one can never imagine. Thanks again!!

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