Finally, it's my turn! 760 Q51 V41, seven weeks after 690!

Hellozzz!

I must admit that reading the success stories on this forum was a great deal of inspiration during the depressing patches in my prep. On the 7th heaven, I hope that this post will give back to the forum, inspiring others in the same position as I was until 2 days ago

Here is my debrief...


First attempt...

Started with official guide
Revised my CAT (Indian entrance for MBA) notes and books
Completed Manhattan sentence correction
Took GMATPREP
Revised official guide
Completed verbal and math review
Took free Manhattan, Veritas tests. Found them off the GMAT so did not proceed.
Exam pack 1
Repeated GMATPREP; scored 740, 760 here.
Exam day- the test seemed more difficult, I struggled for time. Had to mark the last 2 questions in Quant as well as Verbal blindly.
690- disappointed.
Coming from the common Indian IT pool, I need a high score.


Second attempt...

Took a few days break from studies.
Took 5 weeks off from office.
Revised all I did in the first attempt.
Took Experts Gobal's online course. They have a 14 weeks x 20 hours per week study plan, I completed almost everything in 4 weeks as I studied virtually all day.
I solved 2 exercises of RC per day (4 RCs) on a GMAT like interface of Experts' Global. This really helped.
Completed all theory videos (100+, each approx 15 mins average) of Experts' Gobal's and solved all their exercises (2000 plus questions I think) as well as their 15 mocks. Also completed their 200 short 1-minute videos, a great tool for revision.
Revised everything and emphasised on analysing everything carefully.
Completed EP2- 770, 750. Scores in last three Experts Global mocks were 750, 760, 750. In these 5 mocks, Quant score kept at 50-51 and verbal score varied between 40 and 44.
One day before exam, revised a few things, slept for 10 hours
Exam day- found myself more confident, the test got really difficult towards the end but I told myself that I must be doing well
Turned out, I was doing well

Happy score, great end to all the hard work and leaves from office.

A special mention for Experts' Global here- your videos are great, the short videos that you call GMAT Shots are awesome- I took several shots each night before sleeping , the GMAT like interface for all thousands of questions really help in getting used to GMAT, the SC Book is really detailed, and one of the best things is your mocks- in great sync with GMAT and great in depth and variety of concepts. The analytics are amazing and they make identifying the weaknesses really easy. Great platform! I am having a very fine experience so far with my applications also with you- a lot to cover in the coming weeks but that's for later. Sincere thanks for the GMAT help!


Key learnings from my GMAT preparation...

Do not underestimate quant. Q48 to Q51 was great help in lifting my score.
Before practicing dedicatedly, as far as possible, master the concepts.
RC is the king, especially on the shorter test; mastering RCs makes the test easy.
Take a lot of tests. After GMATPrep, Experts Global's tests are the closest to GMAT.
Don't repeat the mocks, the inflated scores harm!
Spend a lot of time on analysing the performance and the mistakes.
Have a plan for your preparation (Experts' Global's program did that for me), else it can get overwhelming.
Very important- GMAT can be very interesting, have fun...don't be bored or too serious in your preparation. Enjoy the process.

Thank you all, guys. I have long been a passive contributor, happy to be posting of late. Happiest for this post

Go, win the GMAT!