Exciting GMAT Journey starting from 620 to 710 and finally to 740

Hey there fellow test takers,

I have seen many debriefs on GMATClub and remember how they motivated me, how they helped me understand the mistakes I was making and get me to where I am (I got a 740 - Q50, V41). I wanted to help this community back by taking them through another GMAT journey. This gives me chance to reflect on my mistakes and the things I could have done differently. I hope this also helps some of you people out there in your preparation.

My Journey
I would say I underestimated the time that I would take to get to this score. Primarily because of how I started preparing. There was absolutely no structure in my preparation. I researched about the exam and the average score I would need to get into in the IVY league schools (probably one of the good things I did). Going on GMATClub helped me realize that a plan is absolutely necessary. Made a plan to get study verbal first and then Quant. I was confident that I could get to Q50 since I am from engineering background. I started studying from new year (Jan'21-hoping this would bring a change in fortunes). I studied from random websites and the OG2018. I tried to solve the questions from the OG, started with the easy ones at the beginning and felt confident that I was on the right track. I gave 2 months for this according to my plan. In early March, I gave the GMATClub Verbal CAT and scored a mere V33. I was so disappointed. I did not know what to do next since there was no real improvement in the score in 2 months of study.

I was then going through some of these debriefs and came across eGMAT. I decided to book a free consultation with them. I was then told to give the free eGMAT Sigma-X mock so that they understand and analyze my performance. Dhruv from the eGMAT team presented all the numbers and the analysis, impressing me right there. It was then that I realized that I was going headless, directionless in my prep until that point. I instantly got access to the course and my first course of action was to make a personalized study plan based on the performance from the mock. They helped me with the sub-section level scores that I would need to achieve to get to the target score of 740. I know that not everything happens according to the plan but that gave me a path to go on. I decided to start with Quant since I know I could complete it faster and ahead of plan. I completed it and gave some sectional tests on their scholaranium platform and scored good. I felt confident and moved onto the most daunting section for Indian applicants - the Verbal section. I started with the SC module and when I was almost 75% through it, I was diagnosed with COVID. This was the most painful thing I had to encounter. Not just me but all my family members except my father were diagnosed with it. I was worried primarily for 3 reasons -COVID, the time that I was losing out and that I may actually lose touch with everything I studied until that point.

Once I recovered after almost 3 weeks, I got back into it, going slow at first. I tried to complete all the modules as fast as I could. After completing the verbal section, I gave another mock and this time I scored 660 (Q50, V31). This was way below my target score. I got in touch DJ from the eGMAT team. I was so feeling so low that I indirectly asked him if 700+ was too far for me. He didn't think so. He motivated me to get back to the prep and believed in me. I am absolutely sure I wouldn't have been writing this debrief had he not been there as my mentor and guided me all the time. He then highlighted my weak areas and asked me to get back to basics for them. I went and reviewed all those for two weeks and then again gave the mock. I got a 710 (Q50, V37). I finally managed to breach the 700 barrier but was still not happy as my target was 740. DJ again made a personalized video plan for me for 2 weeks. I worked on the plan and got 740 (Q50, V40). I decided to go ahead and book the test within the next 3 days. But then, while going through the official website, I came to know that passport was the only acceptable ID at the center and I didn't have the passport (Another mistake that I did during my prep - Not checking this earlier). So I had to wait for a week to get the passport.

Once I had my passport, DJ again made a personalized 7 day plan for me to work on and booked my GMAT for the 8th day (29th July). I gave a few mocks and was scoring 720+. I was confident that I could get to 730 at least. But, Fate had something else in store for me. I got 710 (Q50, V35, IR 5, AWA 5). Even though I was okay with the Quant score, I knew I could perform better in verbal and IR. I decided to retake the exam. During this time, I decided to focus just on the verbal section with some lower proportion of time dedicated to the quant section. I did not have the eGMAT access this time. So, I decided to study entirely from the OG2018 and the GMAT Club tests. I started giving the verbal CATs and some mocks regularly. I gave a lot of time to understanding where I was going wrong (read: maintaining an error log) for each question. I started scoring good in verbal CATs and the mocks that I gave. One more thing that I think I did good was keeping the official mocks until the very end of each of my attempts. I gave the second one 2 days before the exam and scored 770 (Q50, V44). My confidence shot up through the roof. I analyzed both these mocks and tried to figure out the pattern for the official questions - what was tested, how close were the answer choices, how the test makers intend to confuse the test takers. I would say this helped me in the final days before the second attempt. I finally gave the attempt on 17th Aug and scored 740 (Q50, V41, IR7).


Few of the things that I did good:

1. Research about the exam and the B-Schools I intend to go before starting the prep: I can't stress enough on this point. Knowing the test is of utmost importance before you even start preparing. Knowing the target schools also helps you determine your target score.

2. Giving a diagnostic test to understand your current level of preparation: This will help you set the baseline and help you understand where to focus on during the prep to get to the target score. If possible, try to get a sub-sectional level view as well. So that the path ahead is well lit in terms of what exactly needs to be worked on.

3. Subscribed to eGMAT: This turned out to be the best decision I took. Not only they helped me with the concepts, but they also helped me with the moral support needed for an exam at this level (Shout-out to DJ - Cannot focus more on having a mentor through your preparation phase). I like the way the course is structured. It focuses on learning the basics as well as the application of these basic concepts. This was the most important part while preparing to get a 700+ score as the GMAT tests the application of these concepts and not just the concepts themselves. They help us achieve mastery in the application of these concepts using their unique 3 step process - Understand the concepts, cement these concepts and focus on application of these concepts. Basis the performance on the baseline mock, they tell us which step should be move to next. This especially helped me lot moving faster through concepts where I was strong and giving some more time to those topics where I was a bit weak. The Scholarium2.0, platform where we have the question bank, is exceptional with the analytics. Identification of the areas to work on becomes very easy using this. eGMAT especially focuses on the concepts and no shortcuts at all. I feel this is an excellent strategy to build a solid foundation.

4. Access to the GMAT Club tests: These tests helped me a lot during the time between the two attempts. And the best part about this was that I got them through a lucky draw. GMATClub conducts these seminars where various B-schools are invited. During these, GMATClub gives out these tests in a lucky draw. I was lucky enough to get these in the lucky draw. Thank you, BB, Bunuel. Please keep a close eye on the seminars being conducted, not only for these lucky draws but also for the information that you get from these sessions. This can be especially helpful in the later part of the application process and helps you answer many questions that you might have. (eg: which round to apply for?, et al)

5. Keeping the 2 official mocks until the very end of the prep: A lot of people usually take the officials mocks at the beginning as the diagnostic test. While this is not too bad, but these tests can be very helpful at the end. The interface is almost similar to the interface of the actual GMAT exam. The questions are also similar to ones that you'll encounter on the actual one. Thus keeping them till the end helps you be better prepared for the exam.

Some of the mistakes that I did:

1. Tried to jump in the prep from random sources: One major mistake that I did which cost me the initial 2 months was that I started preparing from random sources (eg: 800score dot com). I didn't know how accurate it was and was it actually helping move towards the score that I wanted. So, researching for proper study sources is just as important as studying for the exam.

2. Not maintaining error logs: For the initial part of the prep, I did not maintain a error log. I realized this mistake once I started repeating those mistakes time and again. Hence, maintaining an error log is an exceptional thing to do while preparing for the exam (Thank you to eGMAT and DJ, again). This helps you list down all the errors so that you can refer to it and understand what is the exact mistake that you do. Going through this log ensures that you recognize the Answer choice/Question stem that traps you and this prevents you repeating that mistake.

3. Not choosing quality over quantity: During the initial part of the prep, I believed that solving a large number of questions will help me get to target score. This was busted when I gave the CATs and still the score did not improve. eGMAT then helped me realize that how you solve the questions is more important that the number of questions solved. Towards the end of prep, I started analyzing all the answer choices to understand what exactly made this choice wrong, something which I didn't do when I started.

Broad Strategies that I used:

1. Order of the exam: This can play a very important role in how the exam shapes up. The advise that I followed was - Start with your strongest suit. For example, I knew Quant was my strongest section. So I started with the quant section. This helped me build up my confidence in the test as well as get my brain all warmed up for the verbal section which is not as strong as quant.

2. Utilization of breaks: My strategy during the breaks was slightly different. Since I had taken Quant first, I utilized the 8 min break to broadly go over the frequent mistakes in the verbal section(which were on the top of my head due to frequent revision of the error log) and made sure I try not to repeat them again. Hence, instead of brooding over what was already done, I tried to strategize for the next section. I think this helped me clear my mind and focus on just the thing at hand.

3. Quant Section: One major thing that helped me was going through the basics and the eGMAT course helped me do exactly that. It is always said that the strongest building is built on the strongest foundation. It is applicable to the GMAT as a whole as well. Ironing out the kinks in the basics helped me solve the hardest questions pretty easily. One major mistake I was making is not reading the question stem correctly and assuming things. For ex. The question just stated two variables x and y, I assumed they are integers, et al. Hence, the learning here was that, 700 level questions are not too difficult to solve, they are just a little twisted than you would normally think.

4. Sentence Correction: Again, the part that helped me the most was clearing out the basics, getting the foundation solid and focus on the meaning implied by the original sentence. The Original sentence usually gives out some hints which will help us get the correct answer. For ex, Tenses and subject-verb agreement in the underlined and the non underlined portion. Also, knowing the commonly tested topics on the GMAT helps you focus on them and make sure they don't appear frequently on the error log.

5. Critical Reasoning: I sometimes made a mistake to strengthen/weaken the premise or the wrong conclusion. Identifying the conclusion and reading the question stem carefully to understand what exactly needs to be done helped me remove these errors from the error log. Also, pre-thinking the logical structure of the argument and arriving at the assumption before even reading the answer choices helps to narrow down the answer choices pretty quickly.

6. Reading Comprehension: People usually suggest active reading while reading the passage for the first time. While that helps to some degree, eGMAT suggested the approach to think about short passage summaries and then condense them further to get the main idea of the passage. This helps to quickly get through the main idea question. This helped me in the detail questions as well since I knew where to get back in the passage to solve that question.

All the above points are what worked for me. I understand not all of these will work for all of the people. Feel free to reach out to me in case you have any further questions or need help in your prep.