From 460 to 740

I am feeling extremely delightful to write my debrief here. This wonderful community has given me so much that i must give a little back and help someone in need. I hope it can help in some way to the test takers.

As an Engineering graduate and that also from INDIA, i needed a big GMAT score to get a good B-school. People say that the test takers from this part of the world, generally need a very good score to find a place in the premier school. After searching in all the Bschool's websites and all the forums here, it was concluded that i need a massive score as my GPA and WE was a concern. That point i thought somewhere near 680 would be a decent one and i targeted the same from there.

My takeaway is, GMAT is very exhaustive, a good continuity with a mixture of hard work and dedication is needed to counter it. I missed so many parties specially my father's birthday and many more, and also when virat kohli or barcelona boys were taking on the field. It was hard to study at those times but to get something , you have to lose something and exactly that was the case.

My baseline was a mere 460, when i gave my first CAT. It was obviously a big shocker for me as i was dreaming to get a score that was well ahead of my baseline. I realised i had a long way to go from there on. Same day i came to know about this wonderful community, through one of my friend, and i started searching for the helps here. I still remember i didn't have a single idea about which book to go first. I read some debriefs here and OG was common in all of them. So i ordered OG and started studying with it.
I did my Quant preparation first followed by Verbal.

Quant:
I started with Mathematics first because i have a good interest in Maths work, and that interest could give me a continuity of 4-5 hours a day for preparation, consequently it happened very smoothly because i had not touched my books for quite a long time. Practice questions given in OG were little bit easy i felt and i solved them in about 2-3 days. Then i took a CAT and used only Quant section in it, i scored a 42. I came here to check which book should i prefer for math and i found MGMAT books are the ones that people using the most. I ordered the same and after getting that book set i started and finished those 5 math books in about 12-15 days of time and took another CAT then after. I scored a 45. I thought i am missing time management, so i decided not to waste more than 3 min on any question, however that also didn't help me and i scored a 44 in the next one. I felt i was lacking practice,which was not available much in MGMAT books. I used 700-800 level question booklet, which took another 10 days to complete and till then i had invested my one month in quant just. I took another test and scored a 48 and thought to recheck it, so gave another test and scored a 47, and it was satisfying for me because that 700-800 question booklet worked for me.

I wanted to hit atleast a 50 because my desired score was a big one. I used Kaplan 800, Princetone review and Veritas Prep books thereafter. I found no difference in them because they were quite similar to MGMAT books, which i already had finished. I was constantly hitting 47-48 and it was big frustrating for me because till that point i had used so many books and put a lot of effort already. I came here again and read a debrief that said MGMAT advance quant is a source for maths. So i followed it, and read Advance quant of MGMAT, however it took me a good 4-5 days to complete and than took another test. I scored a 50, and from there i constantly started hitting 49-50 and got a whooping 51 in my real test.

Verbal:
I started Verbal with Sentence correction(SC) followed by CR and RC.

Sentence correction(SC) :- I started with SC because at that point i though my English grammar is good enough, however i was mistaken. The reason was, i studies all my books in British english as in INDIA we use the same, and GMAT tests in American english. However, the difference between the two is not much but that little difference only is frequently tested in GMAT. I remember when i started with SC, my accuracy was 3/10 around. So it was like "looking london talking tokyo" kind of situation for me.

From earlier debriefs that helped me in quant, i followed them and ordered Aristotle SC grail 3rd edition. It took me around 7-8 days to complete and ohh boy what a great book that is. I liked it a lot that i recommended it to some of my friends who were not even preparing for GMAT. From then i was constantly hitting 8-9/10. If you are looking for 40+ in verbal, i strongly recommend this book for SC because scoring good in SC can help you big in overall performance as SC takes relatively less time than CR and RC.
Although MGMAT sc book is also good, Aristotle SC grail 3rd edition is more useful.

Critical Reasoning (CR) :- This part is only about how broadly your brain can think with a clear concept of every type of CR question. There are total 10 types of CR que there but only 5 are tested very frequently in GMAT, they are: assumptions, weaken, strenghten, must be true and flaw type. My accuracy in the beginning was very low and somehow i could manage to get it rightly up word, thanks to Powerscore CR bible. Another book suggested by a debrief here, which helped me get a good accuracy in this part.
Some of the techniques are superior and not given anywhere else, i read Aristotle CR and MGMAT CR before. Its negate technique helped me big in converting all those tough assumption que into weaken. So Powerscore CR bible is recommended for this part.

To get a good look at both SC and CR, i suggest you to make notes while studying and solving every question. This can make a huge difference while you compare two questions at the end of the respective sections. If you are in Delhi, i can give you my notes. You can later thank me, with a Beer if you are a boy and with a Coffee if you are a girl.

Reading Comprehension (RC) :- I hardly can advise you something in this part as RC is one of my strong part. I like to read articles and i feel i am a good reader, i use to read those 6-7 articles given in cricbuzz mobile app even before i was preparing for GMAT, thanks to my cricket interest. When i started reading particularly for GMAT, i realised i needed to read passages related to business as this kind of passage is asked frequently in the practice test and so as in real test.

I felt vocabulary is not a big issue in dealing with RC. You can easily consider "X or Y" for such words that you don't know the meaning of. For example, a sentence reads "Big tits were flying around John". Here if you don't know the meaning of Big tits, you can consider it as say X or Y, that is something that can fly. There are more chances that
you will get some words in RC you don't know the meaning of, and hence you can use this consideration method. For conformation, the meaning of big tits is Paradae Bird's species mentioned in the above example.

Timing: Time management is a big factor in verbal, try to not get stuck on a particular question and keep moving with a good rate.
2 min for each RC que, 2 min for each CR and 1.5 min for each SC is sufficient. I felt SC helps u get a big score for sure.

Books Used:-
For quant
1:- 5 MGMAT books.
2:- 700-800 que set.
3:- kaplan, Princeton and veritas prep.
4:- MGMAT advanced quant. and OG16

For verbal:-
1:-MGMAT books for all RC SC CR.
2:- Aristotle SC grail and Powerscore CR bible.
3:- OG16 and egmat(very useful for RC)

I always use to read using my laptop and even my cell phone too, as i could easily bring these books with me anywhere i go and so that i could give more and more time to study. For this purpose i arranged all these books in the pdf format. If anyone finding it hard to find any of these books, i can give you its pdf version, but only if possible.

Test Day :- I scheduled my GMAT in the afternoon time as i wanted to get a good sleep ahead of the exam and also because i use to study at this time the most. I read nothing before going for the exam. I reached at centre half an hour before as i already had visited there a day before just to see the place so that i don't get confused. I entered the hall it was quite silent which i am not used to of. I went in the office and asked for my test, and a beautiful lady asked me to wait in the hall. I went to the hall, there were already some test takers waiting for their turn. And then a beautiful girl entered the hall, she came to me as i was just near the door, and asked for the office. I directed her. She was so beautiful, i wish i could admire her beauty but later i realised it is the biggest exam of my career and it can help me achieve so big. Therefore, i focused back to the situation and avoided looking her.
Then test started, it was like another test for me as i already took so many tests before this one. I wrote Essay, it was an easy one and my writing skills also helped me to write faster. Then IR was good too and then i had a break. I went outside. Had some fresh air, and came back two min before to focus back. This was where the real test was about to begin for me. Quant started, with easy in the beginning followed by harder ones and soon after the section was over in a flesh. The reason was, i was very well prepared for it and had practiced the test too often. I remember i completed the last question with 7 min remaining, so i waited for those 7 min to complete,then clicked the last que, and had a break of 15 min instead of 8. During this break i started feeling hunger, so i ate a chocolate bar and took 5-6 sips of Redbull. I recommend you to bring atleast something to eat with you, because after almost 3 hours you might need to get energy and that can help you in verbal. Something full of energy is suggested, because you get very limited time during the test, I had a chocolate bar and a redbull cane in my case. Then verbal started, same as in quant, easy to start with and ending with difficult ones. I completed verbal with a minute to spare. Then filled all details and followed steps that system asked. In my mind i was sure of atleast a 50 in quant and somewhere near 700 overall. Than finally the screen prompted, calculating....... My heart was beating much faster for sure as that was the time when your all hardwork was about to pay just in a second or two. And then it showed a 740, and i was like awwwee.. .I couldn't believe what just happened there, I turned back the invigilator was just behind me looking at my score smiling. I accepted the score and walked with invigilator to the office to collect the printouts. Invigilator, along with three others, congratulated me with all smiling faces. I wish i could offer them something but i only had a half chocolate bar and an empty cane of redbull to offer. I thanked everyone our there. Came outside with a big smile on my face.

My takeaway from the test is, GMAT is a very exhaustive test, but if give enough time with a lot of hard work, you definitely can score big. The continuity is required with a lot of practice and dedication. Trust me, Success is very sweet.

The last and the most important thing, for which i wrote this debrief, is don't forget to thank those people, be it your family, friends, or may be GOD, who helped you in some way, and also don't forget to say a sorry if someone deserved. I want to thank this wonderful community and my friends specially Adarsh Rawat (for providing me his laptop so that i could study well) Abhishek soni and Shubham Khandelwal ( for helping me in application) and Titiksha Kapoor for encouraging and supporting me.

Best wishes to all test takers, says Ashutosh Dwivedi.