Hi Guys,
Yesterday I appeared for my GMAT and scored a 650(Q48 V31).
I am not happy with my score as I consider myself as an upper 700 score guy.
I had to rush through my prep for the exam as I wanted to apply for ISB YLP -2nd round(Deadline-30th August).I studied for 2 months(June & July) and in the last month(August) I gave mocks and revised the notes.
I discovered GMATClub late in July and found the community very helpful.All the discussion around the questions, different ways of solving a particular problems, prep strategies all have been very useful.
BackgroundI am an Indian male, 21 ,studying Computer Science Engineering(final year) from a reputed college(Top 25). I have a good profile with great extra-curriculars(Founder and CEO of an online merchandise store, Microsoft Student Partner,etc) and a decent
GPA of 8.67/10, which led me to apply for
ISB YLP.I also interested in applying for
MiM Programs in top colleges in Europe, given my stellar(according to me) internship experience.
GyanOne , Please give me some suggestions and tell me whether I should go ahead and apply for MiM IN LBS,HEC,ESSEC,INSEAD etc with this score.
PrepThe ISB YLP Round-1 results came out on 30th April and I had still not given any serious thought to prep for GMAT.With University exams lingering, I decided to go ahead and enrol myself to the JAMBOREE Education live classes.Though teachers and the quality of course question bank is incredible,I was a bit disappointed by the lack of written guidelines and rules for SC,CR in Verbal coursework. They tend to rely more on students' prior knowledge and understanding.Anyways I continued with my classes on weekends but could not complete them because I had to go home for summer vacations.During Summers I gained momentum and started working on my verbal ability.I consider myself to be stronger in Verbal than in Quant.During my prep, I got a bit distracted because of attempting CAT Mocks and scoring in the early 90 percentile.I thought by studying for CAT, I can crack GMAT too.BIG MISTAKE!!
Anyways I realised my mistake in July when I had not even completed the
OG and Coursework from Jamboree.I quickly completed the remaining classes and started studying from
MGMAT SC and
MGMAT Quant to brush up on my quant skills.I completed the SC section from blue book(700 level questions-as they say) of Jamboree and the
OG,Verbal and Quant review by mid-August.
Now, I started giving mock tests.Jamboree has a pack of 12 non-adaptive tests(3 with IR and AWA).I attempted 6 of these and was scoring around 700 and 690.I also gave 4 GMAT Preps with score ranging from 660 - 680.I thought I could score atleast 700 on the real GMAT because I was committing very silly mistakes on mocks which could be rectified very easily.I did not get the confidence of scoring above 700 till the last day.I even had a verbal ability of 70 % on Scholaranium by
egmat.
Courses Used:1.
OG '16
2.Blue book-jamboree
3.Verbal,Quant review-(not completed)
4.Scholaranium - @
egmat-free subscription
5.
MGMAT SC
6.
MGMAT Quant
Mock Test Results:
1. GMATPrep 1: 680 (Q47,V36)- 8th August
2. GMATPrep 2: 660 (Q47,V34)-16th August
3. GMATPrep 1(R): 680(Q49,V33)-19th August-saw a lot of repeat questions in quant, bombed in Verbal-got 4 wrong in first 10 questions)
4. GMATPrep 3: 660 (Q46,V35)- 22nd August- Bombed in quant, but scored 91 percentile in SC-verbal
D-DAY
Actual GMAT : 650 (Q48,V31)
As you can see I never scored lower than 33 in Verbal and score was fluctuating b/w 33-36.Thus, seeing a 31 on Verbal was devastating!
I think I outperformed myself in Quant with Q48.
Test Day experience:I had appointment at 1:00 pm.Had a rather patchy night of sleep, but still got like 6 hours of sleep. Reached test centre one hour early. After formalities, I went in, selected 5 schools for score reporting and then started the test.
AWA was breeze.
IR started with very descriptive questions. They were not very difficult, very question stems were very lengthy and writtten in twisted way. I took almost 15 minutes for first 3-4 questions, then picked up the pace but forgot to check the option for the last question.Thus I got a low IR score of 5 due to penalty I guess.
Took optional break. Splashed water on my face, sipped Red Bull and went back in.
Quant started well. First 8-10 questions very straight forward and I found them easy. Then I started seeing some relatively tough one, but they were still managable as they didn't require too much calculations. Instead the questions were little trickier and needed to be very vigilant while reading the questions stem.I got stuck in 1 or 2 questions which took like 10 minutes of the total time. I had around 10 mins left for last 7 questions or so. I had to rush on some DS ques and guess on 2 PS questions, which required lot of calculations. Managed to finish the section in time.
Took optional break. I thought I bombed Quant because I got a damn easy question as my last question. I kept saying to myself, just 1 more session, 1 final push and I can get 700+ for sure. Again splashed water on my face, sipped Red Bull and went back in.
Verbal started with some easy SC and CR questions.I thought I had done well in the first 10 questions(clearly not the case- see ESR).Then, came the long RC with mind boggling Science facts and extra tough questions.The RC passage took around 13 minutes to attempt.By now I knew I messed up.Some more CR questions and SC questions went by.I thought they were medium level questions.One more long RC came talking about life sciences came, but I though I handle it pretty well.For the last 10 question I had merely 9 minutes left.The last 10 questions included 5 CR question,1 short RC and 3 SC questions.By the time, I completed my verbal section I knew I had screwed up my verbal score.After Background Info. Questions, clicked on Report my score. I was hoping to see at least 700 if not more.I was devastated on seeing 650.
Now I am planning to retake GMAT in 2-3 month's time so that I can apply for MiM programs in Europe.This time I am willing to give full attention and more time to my prep.I need some suggestions for the prep strategy.
I am also attaching my ESR with this post.Please feel free to analyse it.
And being true to my username : I WILL BE BACK!!
Attachments
File comment: ESR-Verbal -TimeMgt.
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