I took GMAT yesterday for the second time and wanted to share my experience in the quick 5 minutes i have. I do not consider myself anymore than average and for now, i am happy to hit the 700 mark (actually just too happy, sorry to gloat
) Hoping my 2 cents will help others.
First GMAT score 660
3 months break
Second GMAT score 720 (Q 49 V 40) (Altho, i scored way low on IR, a score of 5 . Awaiting score on AWA but again, not expecting it to do wonders)
I have to admit it was really a bizarre day.
IR seemed very difficult but i decided to not worry about it.
Quants - I was worrying like crazy thru out this section bcoz it did not seem hard enough. And i was hoping test will get difficult as i go along so still kept trying to finish question fast and save time for later. here i was finishing entire section and still 15 minutes remaining. i guess I am an engineer and the section just played to my strength. But of course, i did not know it at the time of test. Felt like sweating so to calm myself i just sat on 37th question and tried to take a power nap and hit the submit button when 1 min was remaining.
Verbal - verbal is not my strength. Test seemed so difficult that i remember at one point i felt like leaving everything, throwing my stuff and go in a corner and just cry and cry. Of course, i decided not to do that and instead, put my best and i was hoping my second attempt will be at least slightly better than first time around. I am not great at SC but SC seemed okay. It was CR and RC driving me crazy. CR seemed so tough, i was feeling heat at my face (i did think CR my strength before the test though). As I was trying to go through the questions, i could honestly feel the blood rushing to my brains (i did say Bizarre day, didn't I) . I consider myself okay in RC but yet in test, it felt like text was so dense that i had to re-read and re-read certain portions to make sense of it. Also, i felt way rushed towards the end. I had 1 min for each question for last 10 questions (10-8 Qs, not 100% sure). I decided to put my best of that one minute and just click the answer i thought was correct and move forward (usually in practice i always lingered way too longer to make sure answer i select is correct.)
Believe it or not, i literally used my brains to a level and i was so much engrossed, a mental state i never thought or felt before. i was shaking for 5 minutes after the test and even when i had score in my hand i could barely make sense of it. My brain was so tired. my face was all red with heat.
Finally, i did realize i have done well and i can stop worrying
Food - i am a vegetarian and with a handful of protein allergies (yes allergy to veggie proteins). Also, i can never stay hungry for too long. i usually eat every 2-3 hours. so food was a concern for me. i ate salad with extra vegan protein night before. morning of the test, i had my regular plain oatmeal and ate a bagel/cream cheese with big latte a while before the test (which is my usual morning eating routine). my test was from 12 onwards. I took few apple slices and some nuts/raisins. It was a super hot day so i took water and a can of coconut water. I felt thru out the test as if i am in a hypnotic state. to my own surprise, i ate my entire food supply including water and ate like a pig (really the manner, i was stuffing food in my mouth). i felt so hungry and i could feel my brains. (i usually get headaches if my sugar goes down so yea, that explains in part). Food is imp for your brain to function so know yourself and act accordingly. Generally, it is recommended to eat some protein during/night before the test and avoid white sugar. at the risk of sounding so foodie, i learnt this in my first GMAT attempt that it is not your stomach that will howl for food (yes, you would barely notice) but your head (esp towards the last section, i remember feeling queasy)
Breaks - first break i was back in 2 mins but of course, proctor hit the button too soon so i did not really rest for remaining 6 min. second break, i was late for 1 min (yeah, second time around, my palm just would not behave with palm scanner). During the test, i had my adrenalin kicked in so high and honestly, i had no sense of time. i totally regret losing that 1 min of verbal section.
Notes - i changed rough pad at every break. I used them for Quants and IR fairly well. AWA just to write few words. Verbal - may be one page to mark some answers off. i did not make any notes for RC. there was no time for me. Also, i was so much into the text, my memory was serving better map at least for a short while (to each his/her own, no right or wrong here i believe)
Proctors - please don't assume that proctors will run you to your seat if you are late. its a special day for you but for them, a regular day. so that explains their leisurely walk. Also, raise your hand few seconds before while you continue submitting your last question, it took some time for them to look at my direction (proctor - busy dealing with another test taker/customer outside, one of the many situations) During test, i was feeling every second count!!
Noise - unless you can focus with chaos all around, please take the ear plugs as well as noise canceling head phones. Test center was alright but there was someone coughing so bad, not distracting for noise but got me worried for germs. it was that bad stinking cough.
Materials used for preparation - i used veritas in my first preparation. They are decent if you are not starting from an already high level of practice GMAT score. Second time, i used manhattan resources, SC bible, CR bible and
OG. I also used GMAT prep with additional question packs (i did not completely exhaust each resource tho --my fault)
Practice tests - Veritas CATs, MCATs,
OG practice tests, GMATprep- free 2 and bought 2 additional (btw, my score is inline with how i was scoring in practice tests)
Courses i absolutely hated -
E GMAT (i know there are many thinking to throw stones at me!! ) but sorry it was just not for me. I felt it was good if i know nothing about the subject but if i do have even a little bit it was so simplified and so slow that i felt mind numbingly boring to continue after few minutes. Also, i am not sure if material covers higher end questions. For super tough
OG questions, explanation was not satisfying me; felt it was not correct at times(Felt, please don't ask for proof
I am not going back to Qs again).....again, these are my feelings and it could just annoy me so much (regret buying it)
My life is messy with unexpected responsibilities (looking to go back to job and a demanding, hyperactive toddler). Initially i was going thru so fast that i exhausted all CR Qs. Thats why i decided to slow down but thats when my other responsibilities needed a little bit more of me and towards the end, i ended up with so much to do. i studied just sooo much in last two weeks. I would totally not recommend this strategy to anyone. i had rescheduled my GMAT exam many times before so I did not want to do it again
so my choice was fight or flight this time. two days before the exam, i was feeling totally **** and exhausted (believe me it is an understatement to how fatigued i was). My brain was so burned that i was hitting easiest of Quant questions all wrong...all the way wrong (the Qs i think i can do even in my dreams normally). so yeah i was so burned. that's when i realized it was time to STOP (big time) . i ate, watched movies, slept and spent time with my family for rest of the time before the test...f you can, you should avoid the burn situation completely.
As for me, i don't think this score is my limit but with my life situation esp. the time constraints, i am perfectly satisfied
I hope my story helps someone...
-----------------------------------Adding details---------------------------------
Yes, you are right. In the three months time i took, i worked only on verbal. I said verbal is not my strong area in compare to quants. I am an enginneer and considering years of work in math/related areas verbal is not coming close.
I have always been good at CR as long as I understand what is written:). I went thru powerscore CR for both my exams and it was a good read, something i really enjoyed reading. So to your question what made a difference is a lot of reading.
I just started reading on different subjects on daily basis so that helped me with not only RC but also CR.
I will go thru science and economics magazines in library/online and read at least a few pages every day (even on the days i was not studying GMAT at all). That helped me tremendously in the sense previously i could read only what interested me but now i can read anything. I learned to find interest in things I would have found totally boring. I learned to really emerge into the text and really get why an article is written. It was not a linear growth but undoubtedly, best thing i did for my preparation.
I concentrated on improving accuracy and fixated on only the good books and materials i mentioned. In my first attempt, i was lost and i was just trying to get thru many questions from all kinda resources - a sure shot idea for failure.
Regarding SC- there are so many grammar rules. I went thru powerscore and manhattan SC both times. But please don't mistake my reading to actually understanding it all. The second time around, i tried more on basics and totally ignored the big jumbo grammar words. I personally didn't feel like i needed to concentrated on very exceptional grammar rules (for ex last chapters on Manhattan). Not bcoz they could mot help me but bcoz i felt it was too much to remember and get confused (at least for my small brain). So i focused more on basic grammar via both books, trained my ear to what sounds better/correct and concentrated more on meaning. Of course reading helped me here too.
I went thru my incorrect questions multiple times and to my surprise, i was making same mistake over and over. Just bcoz i read the solution it does not mean i really get it. So lets say i hit q#5 wrong, i read the solution and got it (thought so at the moment). 2-3 weeks down the line, tried same q and same mistake. So u see problem was i was not fixing my way of thinking. This time i worked on my mistakes.
I maintained a really simple log and if my answer is incorrect i put my answer (that was imp for me) and X mark.
For CR and RC - unless i made a silly mistake or missed some details, i was answering same incorrect answer. Actually i was accepting correct answer reluctantly (as in okay i agree to disagree. we both are different!!). Second time around, i was more accepting and will google that question on GMATclub, FB, Manhattan website and really spent good time understanding where i was wrong and how could i get to the correct answer (yes as Ron said
) . Altho there is a downside of this tactic, you will be surprised to see so many incorrect comments so you will have to spend good time filtering.
For correct questions - i made sure i was picking it for correct reason (this took time too but nowhere close to what it took analyzing incorrect answers)
Another thing - i made sure i try at least 3 questions of each type (3CR, 1 psg RC, 3 SC, 3 PS, 3DS) on daily basis (i know sounds only a few but requires commitment). There were days when i could not even do this much. there was absolutely no time. Then i will do at least 3SC+3RC+3CR
Regarding reading resources - WSJ, Economist, Scientific american, FEE (if you search this topic, you will find so many diff websites and some are even free). i started with newyorker though. it is on lighter side but at least it got me started (it's almost like reading fashion magazine just to make an habit of picking a resource and sitting with it..but hey, you got to start somewhere
)
Accuracy is more imp than timing. As in, when you learn how to look for right things, you can pick correct answer a lot faster esp in a stress situation. but only timing does not lead anywhere.
Also, i do not agree with reading RC just for main points (few lines here and there). i read from top to bottom, word to word and start to end. While reading for bigger picture but it is still imp to understand roles of all elements.
None of my strategies are original. In fact, I learnt all of these from many on this club (my sincere thanks if you are reading
)