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28 Jul 2017, 03:50
Kudos
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Hello everyone,
I’ve just taken GMAT Test in July 20 and got 710. This is a 70-point improvement in my GMAT journey and I don’t know how to express my feeling now. I just remember that I was smiling all the way home from test center :")
I think I might be a “familiar face” to some GMAT Club users here. Yap I usually commented on Verbal question posts, suggesting solutions to the questions, asking when I got concerns, and expressing my opinions to help resolve others’ ones. However, I have never talked about my own story. Ah one week before my test, I got a private message asking for advices also. I am sorry that I couldn’t give a response at that time, but I think, now, that this Debrief will be a proper reply that you may want to receive.
I studied International Business Economics and graduated in April 2016. Spending 1 year in a foreign Chamber of Commerce in my country, I felt thankful for the opportunity to join business seminars and networking events, which helped enhance my interpersonal skills, but I chose not to stay there in the long run. I want to pursue tertiary education abroad, a critical step that, I believe, will open the door to a brighter future career. That is why I tried a lot to keep self-study simultaneously during that 1 year. After scoring 7.5 on IELTS test, I started to learn the basics of GMAT…
I will detail my test scores in a chronological order
GMAT Prep Exam 1: 640
GMAT Prep Exam 2: 680
Honestly, before the first real test, I was not frequent on GMAT Club, I didn’t have an account and was advised to visit the forum by my friend just a few weeks before the test. My main sources of study is OG 2016, OG Verbal 2016, and Collection of GMAT Prep Verbal questions. As lots of successful test takers highly recommended on the Internet, I read a few “famous” books, such as Manhattan SC, Bible Power Score CR, and GMAT Club Math Book. Actually, I admit that I could not totally focus on studying while working. Especially, when it comes to the end of year, tons of work and several events continuously made me busy and required me to come home quite late when I was totally exhausted and didn’t feel like studying at all. Coming back home in Lunar New Year, I hoped I could spend more time studying but I couldn’t. Buying new clothes, visiting old teachers, and hanging out with friends kept me away from “academic time”. In the last week before real exam, I could absolutely devote all day long for study. In that intense study time, I reviewed verbal questions in OG 2016 and practiced some quant questions on GMAT Club. I felt confident of the incoming real test. Believe me, I even chit chat with my friend late the night before and was not trembling in testing room, a strange behavior I would not show whenever it came to an important final test in university.
GMAT Exam 1: 640 (Feb 27, 2017)
You know what, I ran out of time in the last minutes of Verbal part and could not submit answer to the last question. I was so tired at those very last minutes… I felt depressed, and reallyyyy disappointed with myself. I didn’t blame my failure entirely on limited study time, because I know some high scorers who could manage to work and study at the same time. Nevertheless, there is a fact that I am not a multitasking person or an innate prodigy, but rather a diligent student. I realized that in high school and university, the more I concentrated on a subject, the higher marks I obtained for its exams. More to the point, I just have a strong belief that time could gradually reduce absorbing ability of my brain, and a blank mind before the first attempt might be an evidence for an “old student” who left schools for a while. As in high school time, I need to come back to intense study to keep a conscious mind and “motivational anxiety” for the test day. Therefore, I decided to spend 2 months for in-depth studying.
1 month passed and I just felt overwhelmed. I did try the free test of The Economist, waited for “special days” of GMAT Club to take CAT Test. I practiced a lot but did not feel improvement. I thought that I need a course/ class or something like that where I could learn standard lessons and build solid strategy. Surfing on the Internet and taking a look at Review on GMAT Club, I shortlisted into 2 choices. Approaching via email, I am impressed by both, but considering more thoroughly, I thought I had my own choice…
April came silently, my friends were still busy with their work, and I was still lost… lost in studying… and lost in this bustling city... I thought about coming back to my hometown. Worship for my uncle would happen for a few days, this would definitely be a special occasion to gather family members. I miss such family unite. I book a ticket to come back home.
May is a crazy month to me and to…… my friends. I imagined that I could spend all time studying at home but again, I couldn’t. A colleague at previous employer called and told me she would visit my hometown. She asked whether I could guide her… You may know my answer, of course Yes. One week later, a friend messaged to inform me that she and her mother would visit my hometown before she study abroad… Okay, let me be your tour guide… Then, I received a call from another friend, who had just quitted a big MNC… a vulnerable soul… no wonder why she chose my peaceful hometown as a destination.
As you may see, distraction prevented from studying as much as possible. But then, I has been building a habit of productive learning. I did not spend 10 hours per day and repeat that exactly 7 days per week, but I concentrated and made the most of that study time. Here came the first prep CAT after I came home…
GMAT Prep Exam 3: 760
Frankly speaking, this score was quite unreliable, since I got some questions I used to face on GMAT Club. But looking on bright side, I treat it as a motivating factor I continue to read books, and practice. Whenever getting stuck on a question, I looked for explanation from Ron Manhattan and/or GMAT Club.
In the second half of May, I register for 1–month course of EmpowerGMAT. The very first lesson is SC… impressive… One of the best part might be that I was required to practice OG questions, then got explanation from Max and Rich… very detailed and aligned with strategies they built. Another bonus point is that its consultant was very supportive, almost answering your questions immediately regarding both technical and academic problems.
GMAT MCAT 1: 680
My thoughts on this test: RC passages were quite long and most of them focused on technical topics. Quant was pretty hard. I would call it a new level compared to Quant of GMAT Prep. Interesting and worth trying.
One tip for self-study from Empower GMAT: studying each 75 minutes, and taking 5 minutes for a break. I strictly followed this routine. As sharing above, I ran out of time in the first real exam, so building stamina is a live saver.
I also built the habit of taking notes for both CR and RC.
GMAT Prep Exam 4: 720
This was a more reliable score, since I nearly got no repeated question. I was glad that I finished Verbal session without guessing more than 2 questions. One reason might come from lesson of categorizing answer choices delivered by Max. After that lesson, I could quickly cross off 3 definitely wrong choices and more confidently choose the answer without confusing when I was asked Why. Also, I was quite proactive on GMAT Forum at that time, practicing OG questions and commenting to help solve other test takers’ concerns. I received some compliments from expert GMATNinja. I was so proud of that. Thank you, GMATNinja, for motivating me
Another positive signal was that I submitted the last Quant question with about 15 minutes left. I used to think that I don’t need to study Quant, because my Q score was pretty cool already. However, applying 2 methods (Test It and Test The Answer) of Rich, I could finish the Quant session much faster and my accuracy level stayed the same. This would absolutely help boost my confidence a lot before facing Verbal challenges in test day.
New policy was announced. We could choose test order as we want yeahhhhhh. Another good news is discounted test from Manhattan. I grabbed that chance and immediately tried new setting.
Most of us may choose take IR and AWA at the end, but the question left is which part, Quant or Verbal, we should attempt first?!!
GMAT MCAT 2 (Q-V): 680
GMAT MCAT 3 (V-Q): 690
GMAT MCAT 4 (Q-V): 670
The figures may show that beginning with Verbal would help I score higher, but I didn’t believe so. Let me explain why. MCAT Quant is very hard, and I’ve never finished MCAT Quant without guessing. I kept that anxiety during and after Quant session. That would more or less affect my Verbal performance. That’s why trying Quant first is a bad move in MCAT. But when it comes to real test, it would be another story. I used to take GMAT test, so I know the level of real Quant questions. I predicted that my quant score in the 2nd attempt would be quite the same as that in the 1st and in Prep tests. I even increased speed of solving Quant questions. Therefore, positive feelings after Quant test would, I guess, help enhance my confidence before moving on the real battle – Verbal.
GMAT Exam 2: 710 (Jul 20, 2017)
Two days before the test, I bought a Red Bull and tried it again since.. like.. 3 years ago. Here another advice, let’s try taking beverage you would drink in test day regularly.
I don’t know why but I felt a little uncomfortable when trying that Red Bull.. just thought that this is a common reaction of those who drink such energy drink..
Driving to test center at night to make sure I remembered the routes, I came back home and went to bed at almost 12 o’clock. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t suggest you sleep late like me. I’m just kind of a “nocturnal creature” and I would not fall asleep until that late even if I go to bed earlier.
I took the test in morning, the period of day I felt conscious the most. Quant came first as planned. 10 questions remained and I got 35 minutes left. I did not rush at all. Right at that moment, I got a tough question. I decided to “waste some minutes” at this crazy one. 6 minutes passed. Still could not work out… It’s high time for Triage! Move on! Somewhere in the last 10 question, there was another hard one, but this time, I solved it within 2 minutes and was confident with my answer.
Time for break. I came out of testing room, drank a little Red Bull and headed for WC. Washing my face, I looked at the mirror and told my self – I’m ready for the most important part!
Verbal part began. The first question is SC…. 2 tempting remaining choices. The 2nd question is CR… quite hard. The part I was afraid of the most, Reading Comprehension, was not difficult. I could pass RC questions quite smoothly. But the hardest came from SC and CR. I got some 3-5 hard ones along the way. 74 minutes left. I finished. No guessing.
In the 2nd break, I repeated my actions as in the first one… even faster… and did not know why when I came back to sitting, more than 1 minute of IR had passed. (I just remembered that when I came back from WC, instructor told me to hurry up because my session had begun @.@).
Some seconds after I finished AWA, my score appeared on the screen, 710
This is a 70-point improvement since my first test. I achieve my target!
+ To practice: OG 16, OG Verbal 16, OG 17, and GMAT Prep
+ To discuss and find answers for my questions: Manhattan forum, GMAT Club forum, and Beat the GMAT forum.
Sentence Correction:
+ To learn basic principles: Manhattan Book
+ Practice questions: A hundred 700+ SC questions, 25 hardest SC (posted by bb)
Critical Reasoning:
+ To learn basic principles: Bible PowerScore Book
+ Some helpful contents from e-GMAT: https://gmatclub.com/forum/list-of-free ... 56073.html
+ Practice questions: 25 hardest CR (posted by bb)
Reading Comprehension:
+ To learn basic principles: Veritas Prep GMAT Book
+ Practice questions: 63 RC Passages (just search on GMAT Club and you’re gonna see it), 25 hardest RC (posted by bb)
+ To learn basic principles: GMAT Club Math Book, GMAT Math Bible Book
One last words: I know there are a lotttt test takers out there who tried and did not reach their target scores. I used to that one and I know that bitter feeling. I may not give you the best advices, but just an encouraging saying: Try harder and harder. You know that you can do thattttt!!
Should you guys have any questions, just feel free to drop a comment below. Besides, I am happy to know if you read my sharing. Thank you
I’ve just taken GMAT Test in July 20 and got 710. This is a 70-point improvement in my GMAT journey and I don’t know how to express my feeling now. I just remember that I was smiling all the way home from test center :")
I think I might be a “familiar face” to some GMAT Club users here. Yap I usually commented on Verbal question posts, suggesting solutions to the questions, asking when I got concerns, and expressing my opinions to help resolve others’ ones. However, I have never talked about my own story. Ah one week before my test, I got a private message asking for advices also. I am sorry that I couldn’t give a response at that time, but I think, now, that this Debrief will be a proper reply that you may want to receive.
Background information (education, employment, etc.)
I studied International Business Economics and graduated in April 2016. Spending 1 year in a foreign Chamber of Commerce in my country, I felt thankful for the opportunity to join business seminars and networking events, which helped enhance my interpersonal skills, but I chose not to stay there in the long run. I want to pursue tertiary education abroad, a critical step that, I believe, will open the door to a brighter future career. That is why I tried a lot to keep self-study simultaneously during that 1 year. After scoring 7.5 on IELTS test, I started to learn the basics of GMAT…
Test scores (both in practice and in real exam)
I will detail my test scores in a chronological order
GMAT Prep Exam 1: 640
GMAT Prep Exam 2: 680
Honestly, before the first real test, I was not frequent on GMAT Club, I didn’t have an account and was advised to visit the forum by my friend just a few weeks before the test. My main sources of study is OG 2016, OG Verbal 2016, and Collection of GMAT Prep Verbal questions. As lots of successful test takers highly recommended on the Internet, I read a few “famous” books, such as Manhattan SC, Bible Power Score CR, and GMAT Club Math Book. Actually, I admit that I could not totally focus on studying while working. Especially, when it comes to the end of year, tons of work and several events continuously made me busy and required me to come home quite late when I was totally exhausted and didn’t feel like studying at all. Coming back home in Lunar New Year, I hoped I could spend more time studying but I couldn’t. Buying new clothes, visiting old teachers, and hanging out with friends kept me away from “academic time”. In the last week before real exam, I could absolutely devote all day long for study. In that intense study time, I reviewed verbal questions in OG 2016 and practiced some quant questions on GMAT Club. I felt confident of the incoming real test. Believe me, I even chit chat with my friend late the night before and was not trembling in testing room, a strange behavior I would not show whenever it came to an important final test in university.
GMAT Exam 1: 640 (Feb 27, 2017)
You know what, I ran out of time in the last minutes of Verbal part and could not submit answer to the last question. I was so tired at those very last minutes… I felt depressed, and reallyyyy disappointed with myself. I didn’t blame my failure entirely on limited study time, because I know some high scorers who could manage to work and study at the same time. Nevertheless, there is a fact that I am not a multitasking person or an innate prodigy, but rather a diligent student. I realized that in high school and university, the more I concentrated on a subject, the higher marks I obtained for its exams. More to the point, I just have a strong belief that time could gradually reduce absorbing ability of my brain, and a blank mind before the first attempt might be an evidence for an “old student” who left schools for a while. As in high school time, I need to come back to intense study to keep a conscious mind and “motivational anxiety” for the test day. Therefore, I decided to spend 2 months for in-depth studying.
1 month passed and I just felt overwhelmed. I did try the free test of The Economist, waited for “special days” of GMAT Club to take CAT Test. I practiced a lot but did not feel improvement. I thought that I need a course/ class or something like that where I could learn standard lessons and build solid strategy. Surfing on the Internet and taking a look at Review on GMAT Club, I shortlisted into 2 choices. Approaching via email, I am impressed by both, but considering more thoroughly, I thought I had my own choice…
April came silently, my friends were still busy with their work, and I was still lost… lost in studying… and lost in this bustling city... I thought about coming back to my hometown. Worship for my uncle would happen for a few days, this would definitely be a special occasion to gather family members. I miss such family unite. I book a ticket to come back home.
May is a crazy month to me and to…… my friends. I imagined that I could spend all time studying at home but again, I couldn’t. A colleague at previous employer called and told me she would visit my hometown. She asked whether I could guide her… You may know my answer, of course Yes. One week later, a friend messaged to inform me that she and her mother would visit my hometown before she study abroad… Okay, let me be your tour guide… Then, I received a call from another friend, who had just quitted a big MNC… a vulnerable soul… no wonder why she chose my peaceful hometown as a destination.
As you may see, distraction prevented from studying as much as possible. But then, I has been building a habit of productive learning. I did not spend 10 hours per day and repeat that exactly 7 days per week, but I concentrated and made the most of that study time. Here came the first prep CAT after I came home…
GMAT Prep Exam 3: 760
Frankly speaking, this score was quite unreliable, since I got some questions I used to face on GMAT Club. But looking on bright side, I treat it as a motivating factor I continue to read books, and practice. Whenever getting stuck on a question, I looked for explanation from Ron Manhattan and/or GMAT Club.
In the second half of May, I register for 1–month course of EmpowerGMAT. The very first lesson is SC… impressive… One of the best part might be that I was required to practice OG questions, then got explanation from Max and Rich… very detailed and aligned with strategies they built. Another bonus point is that its consultant was very supportive, almost answering your questions immediately regarding both technical and academic problems.
GMAT MCAT 1: 680
My thoughts on this test: RC passages were quite long and most of them focused on technical topics. Quant was pretty hard. I would call it a new level compared to Quant of GMAT Prep. Interesting and worth trying.
One tip for self-study from Empower GMAT: studying each 75 minutes, and taking 5 minutes for a break. I strictly followed this routine. As sharing above, I ran out of time in the first real exam, so building stamina is a live saver.
I also built the habit of taking notes for both CR and RC.
GMAT Prep Exam 4: 720
This was a more reliable score, since I nearly got no repeated question. I was glad that I finished Verbal session without guessing more than 2 questions. One reason might come from lesson of categorizing answer choices delivered by Max. After that lesson, I could quickly cross off 3 definitely wrong choices and more confidently choose the answer without confusing when I was asked Why. Also, I was quite proactive on GMAT Forum at that time, practicing OG questions and commenting to help solve other test takers’ concerns. I received some compliments from expert GMATNinja. I was so proud of that. Thank you, GMATNinja, for motivating me
Another positive signal was that I submitted the last Quant question with about 15 minutes left. I used to think that I don’t need to study Quant, because my Q score was pretty cool already. However, applying 2 methods (Test It and Test The Answer) of Rich, I could finish the Quant session much faster and my accuracy level stayed the same. This would absolutely help boost my confidence a lot before facing Verbal challenges in test day.
New policy was announced. We could choose test order as we want yeahhhhhh. Another good news is discounted test from Manhattan. I grabbed that chance and immediately tried new setting.
Most of us may choose take IR and AWA at the end, but the question left is which part, Quant or Verbal, we should attempt first?!!
GMAT MCAT 2 (Q-V): 680
GMAT MCAT 3 (V-Q): 690
GMAT MCAT 4 (Q-V): 670
The figures may show that beginning with Verbal would help I score higher, but I didn’t believe so. Let me explain why. MCAT Quant is very hard, and I’ve never finished MCAT Quant without guessing. I kept that anxiety during and after Quant session. That would more or less affect my Verbal performance. That’s why trying Quant first is a bad move in MCAT. But when it comes to real test, it would be another story. I used to take GMAT test, so I know the level of real Quant questions. I predicted that my quant score in the 2nd attempt would be quite the same as that in the 1st and in Prep tests. I even increased speed of solving Quant questions. Therefore, positive feelings after Quant test would, I guess, help enhance my confidence before moving on the real battle – Verbal.
GMAT Exam 2: 710 (Jul 20, 2017)
Two days before the test, I bought a Red Bull and tried it again since.. like.. 3 years ago. Here another advice, let’s try taking beverage you would drink in test day regularly.
I don’t know why but I felt a little uncomfortable when trying that Red Bull.. just thought that this is a common reaction of those who drink such energy drink..
Driving to test center at night to make sure I remembered the routes, I came back home and went to bed at almost 12 o’clock. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t suggest you sleep late like me. I’m just kind of a “nocturnal creature” and I would not fall asleep until that late even if I go to bed earlier.
I took the test in morning, the period of day I felt conscious the most. Quant came first as planned. 10 questions remained and I got 35 minutes left. I did not rush at all. Right at that moment, I got a tough question. I decided to “waste some minutes” at this crazy one. 6 minutes passed. Still could not work out… It’s high time for Triage! Move on! Somewhere in the last 10 question, there was another hard one, but this time, I solved it within 2 minutes and was confident with my answer.
Time for break. I came out of testing room, drank a little Red Bull and headed for WC. Washing my face, I looked at the mirror and told my self – I’m ready for the most important part!
Verbal part began. The first question is SC…. 2 tempting remaining choices. The 2nd question is CR… quite hard. The part I was afraid of the most, Reading Comprehension, was not difficult. I could pass RC questions quite smoothly. But the hardest came from SC and CR. I got some 3-5 hard ones along the way. 74 minutes left. I finished. No guessing.
In the 2nd break, I repeated my actions as in the first one… even faster… and did not know why when I came back to sitting, more than 1 minute of IR had passed. (I just remembered that when I came back from WC, instructor told me to hurry up because my session had begun @.@).
Some seconds after I finished AWA, my score appeared on the screen, 710
This is a 70-point improvement since my first test. I achieve my target!Books & materials used
Both Verbal and Quant
+ To practice: OG 16, OG Verbal 16, OG 17, and GMAT Prep
+ To discuss and find answers for my questions: Manhattan forum, GMAT Club forum, and Beat the GMAT forum.
Verbal
Sentence Correction:
+ To learn basic principles: Manhattan Book
+ Practice questions: A hundred 700+ SC questions, 25 hardest SC (posted by bb)
Critical Reasoning:
+ To learn basic principles: Bible PowerScore Book
+ Some helpful contents from e-GMAT: https://gmatclub.com/forum/list-of-free ... 56073.html
+ Practice questions: 25 hardest CR (posted by bb)
Reading Comprehension:
+ To learn basic principles: Veritas Prep GMAT Book
+ Practice questions: 63 RC Passages (just search on GMAT Club and you’re gonna see it), 25 hardest RC (posted by bb)
Quant
+ To learn basic principles: GMAT Club Math Book, GMAT Math Bible Book
One last words: I know there are a lotttt test takers out there who tried and did not reach their target scores. I used to that one and I know that bitter feeling. I may not give you the best advices, but just an encouraging saying: Try harder and harder. You know that you can do thattttt!!
Should you guys have any questions, just feel free to drop a comment below. Besides, I am happy to know if you read my sharing. Thank you
28 Jul 2017, 06:47
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Lucy Phuong
Let me grab on privilege on being the first to congratulate
on your GMAT journey. (please excuse usage of being if incorrectly used
)
I met you in one of the verbal chats and as rightly mentioned by GMATNinja
you had brilliant knack of attacking SC / CR questions. You in fact reduced lots of
loads on experts by posting your comments to various queries posted in verbal forum
Can you elaborate a bit detail on below points:
a. What change in approach / strategy led to you to this score jump?
Your views especially in Verbal shall help others out. Any specific reading habits
you would like to advocate for aspirants aiming to score 700+
b. We all usually face distractions of some or other sort during our GMAT journey.
How did you motivate yourself to stay on track in terms of discipline and putting in
diligent study hours, especially after seeing 'not expected' GMAT exam 1 score.
c. Did I understand correctly that you bought GMAC EP1 (2 mocks) before first actual
attempt of GMAT and GMAC EP2 (2 mocks) before second actual
attempt of GMAT? If one is not sure to crack GMAT in first attempt, does it make sense
to hold GMAT EP2 before second attempt? Did you not buy QP at all from GMAC?
d. Your take on skipping practices while seeing TAG as GMAT PREP to not see inflated scores
after purchase of official resources from GMAC?
Once again heartiest congratulations on your sweet journey to success and all the best
for your admissions !!
It's a definitely a battle hard fought and won in end for you, I guess.
WR,
Arpit
Let me grab on privilege on being the first to congratulate
on your GMAT journey. (please excuse usage of being if incorrectly used
)I met you in one of the verbal chats and as rightly mentioned by GMATNinja
you had brilliant knack of attacking SC / CR questions. You in fact reduced lots of
loads on experts by posting your comments to various queries posted in verbal forum
Can you elaborate a bit detail on below points:
a. What change in approach / strategy led to you to this score jump?
Your views especially in Verbal shall help others out. Any specific reading habits
you would like to advocate for aspirants aiming to score 700+
b. We all usually face distractions of some or other sort during our GMAT journey.
How did you motivate yourself to stay on track in terms of discipline and putting in
diligent study hours, especially after seeing 'not expected' GMAT exam 1 score.
c. Did I understand correctly that you bought GMAC EP1 (2 mocks) before first actual
attempt of GMAT and GMAC EP2 (2 mocks) before second actual
attempt of GMAT? If one is not sure to crack GMAT in first attempt, does it make sense
to hold GMAT EP2 before second attempt? Did you not buy QP at all from GMAC?
d. Your take on skipping practices while seeing TAG as GMAT PREP to not see inflated scores
after purchase of official resources from GMAC?
Once again heartiest congratulations on your sweet journey to success and all the best
for your admissions !!
It's a definitely a battle hard fought and won in end for you, I guess.
WR,
Arpit
29 Jul 2017, 02:38
Kudos
Bookmarks
adkikani
Hi Arpit,
Glad to hear from you
Seems that I have tons of exercises assigned by you hehe. Okay, I'm gonna answer one by one
a. What change in approach / strategy led to you to this score jump?
First of all, as I said above, I had better self-awareness than I had had before the 1st test. After failure, I sit alone to evaluate myself. I wondered why I achieved high scores in Math at high school and some other subjects at university, even IELTS score. Why?? Ah the key answer to my case is quite simple: practice makes perfection! (though I know that my scores are not the best - perfect) Like many Asian students, I have a solid Math background, and that background has been built gradually since I was in primary school, then secondary school... Moving on to GMAT, as Ron used to say, many CR questions require real-world assumption, which might be naturally instilled in our mind by day-to-day working. This is definitely one of disadvantages for such a fresh graduate as me. And look at me in preparation for the first test: very limited hours of "real study". Almost all I can remember about that period is tiredness after a long day at work. Coming home with a blank mind and "inactive brain", I felt it really difficult to "absorb" anything into my mind... Therefore, what I need now is a high concentration on studying.
Secondly, it's important to improve stamina. Remember I told ya that I ran out of time in the last minute of Verbal in the first exam? What's worse is that I even felt unconscious in some questions along the way. And I know why. It's all about stamina. But what level is enough? Do I need to go to gym club practicing weightlifting 7 days a week? Maybe an expert could give us a proper answer. But to me, I chose simulation. Just repeat all what we'll do in test day for usual practice at home. Each session, Verbal or Quant, lasts for 75 minutes. I preferred the test in the morning supposed that Quant came first (we didn't know the new policy until June 15). So I did the same - try to wake up early to study in the morning... Quant first... each 75 minutes... and 5 minutes in between for break.
The third point is about reading. I realized that my weak point lies on CR and RC. (Initially when I first came to GMAT, I used to think RC is as easy as Reading of IELTS... innocent me!
) From my point of view, a typical person could understand most of CR questions but .... in longer than 1.5 minute. Especially, in case of non-native speakers, we are confused by complicated wording of CR, as a result, pressured by time limit, we will end up shaking our hands and choosing an options on our own... by instinct... That's my case in the first attempt. Can you believe that I used to solve more than half of CR and RC questions just by identifying "keywords" without knowing what reasoning the author makes, or what the choices are talking about?? Slow reading and time pressure led to that behaviour! If I can read faster, I can control time management while understanding the questions and choosing answers more confidently. Then, I practice reading skill. As recommended, I read The Economist, and some academic papers (about Organization Management) handed from my mentor. Those 2 are main sources. Besides, I also read, though not so often, other ones, such as HBR Tip, etc. Btw if you want to read technical papers, you can look at this - https://www.academicjournals.org/journal/AJARFurthermore, I prefer understanding in-depth instead of solving as much questions as possible. Regarding CR and SC, I usually searched for explanation from Ron on Manhattan forum. I know that to a particular question, many people can choose the same correct answer, but their approaches are more or less different. Reading explanations from Ron, I just had a feeling that my mind got brighter and I believed that learning and applying his reasoning did partly help me increase rate of accuracy. Also, GMAT Club and Beat the GMAT are interesting place to discuss and learn from each other
When you have a question, just ask experts for help. If experts are busy, there are a bunch of smart test-takers out there who are willing to share their thoughts and "fix your bugs". And I realized that explaining a question helped me understand more deeply about it. For example, I solved the question No1 this way and found out the correct answer but you had another opinion, which led you to the incorrect one. Figuring out why your thinking has a problem helped me more understand about the way the test writers wrote a GMAT question. Your perspective might be true in real life but it is not necessarily aligned with GMAT type. (Btw I really admire experts here, sometimes we just need the 5th level to solve a question, but we must have the 7th level or above to explain so that other ppl can understand). Just that. Learn. Learn from our mistakes. And learn from mistakes of our friends.Last but not least, habit of taking notes helped me a lot. As Sir Charles (@GMATNinja) shared on his post, note taking is suitable for some, and also, is of no value for some others, and I belong to the former group. I usually pre-think simultaneously with writing down some key words of CR stimulus. In RC, summary of main points of each paragraph definitely helped me have a general view about purpose of the passage and find out where to look for details/ inference questions.
b. We all usually face distractions of some or other sort during our GMAT journey. How did you motivate yourself to stay on track in terms of discipline and putting in diligent study hours, especially after seeing 'not expected' GMAT exam 1 score.
- Yes self-discipline is not as easy as it's talked but to me, it was a must at that time. Opportunity cost might be a driving force for me to study as productively as possible. Just imagine, if I had stayed in big city and work for a big MNC/ foreign company, I would have learned a lot, broaden my network, and added a point on CV. As I heard from a senior in previous company, "when life pushes you to the edge and you have only 2 choices - win it or lose it all, you just know that you have to try really hard to get the best of you." Yes, build your own wings, and don't expect to have any helping hands from others.
- Diligent study hours... As I said before, if I had to choose, between hours spent in a networking event, and hours of self-study, I would choose the latter. That's my style, my characteristics, at least at present.
c. Did I understand correctly that you bought GMAC EP1 (2 mocks) before first actual attempt of GMAT and GMAC EP2 (2 mocks) before second actual attempt of GMAT? If one is not sure to crack GMAT in first attempt, does it make sense to hold GMAT EP2 before second attempt? Did you not buy QP at all from GMAC?
In fact, I bought only 1 pack of GMAT Prep. The 2 first exams are of free pack, and the EP1 is comprised of exam 3 and exam 4. Not until after the first real test, did I buy this EP1 in the package of EmpowerGMAT 1-month course.
If I were the one who used up 2 free GMAT Prep tests, I would consider 2 scenarios:
- If I wanted to take the GMAT in less than 2 months, let's say, in 50 days or less than that, then I would not buy EP1, but rather buy 6 MCATs instead. I would revise all the questions of free pack and OG, then check their explanations (even of ones I answered correctly) on Manhattan forum, GMAT Club, and Beat the GMAT. Remember that 6 MCATs allow you to take the test in new order setting, and to post on GMAT Quant, GMAT Prep Verbal, GMAT MCAT and a lot other helpful topics. Just try to utilize these features. Try to understand as deeply as possible each question, reasoning and its correct answer.
- if I have 2 months or more to go, then buying EP1 is one of the first thing. If you can, just buy 6 MCATs also. I'm not a salesman of this package, of course, but I must say this is a good deal
And hey, after you complete 2 exams on EP1, let's try the "fake" tests as suggested by expert Charles. https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... l#p1884600d. Your take on skipping practices while seeing TAG as GMAT PREP to not see inflated scores
after purchase of official resources from GMAC?
Not sure I understand your question but I will try... I thought I had practiced quite a lot OG and GMAT Prep questions on GMAT Club before prep exam 3. Hoping not to see the inflated score again, I took a look at tags whenever searching for questions on GMAT Club. In the following exam, I was "lucky" not to see several repeated questions and that helped me better evaluated myself. I called that a luck because if I had not countered as many same questions in exam 3 as I did, then I would not have been aware of the risk of inflation in score. I might have continued to practice EP1 questions, thus might having "saying hi" to soooo many repeated questions in exam 4.
Thanks a lot for your questions!
Hope the above solves your concerns. 
That's a good score! 
... have a great school hunt !! 
