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PritamPany
Joined: 20 Jan 2022
Last visit: 21 Jan 2025
Posts: 23
Given Kudos: 4
Location: India
Schools: ISB '24 (A$$)
GMAT 1: 740 Q50 V40
GPA: 2.8
Products:
28 Mar 2022, 04:06
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi All,
I gave my GMAT (in center) exam on 25th March,2022 and received a score of 740 ( Q50 V40)!! That too on my first attempt after receiving a 540 in a cold mock on 8th December 2021. This is my debrief to share my learnings and experiences with everyone on this amazing forum. I have tracked a lot of details of my journey and will be sharing them here. Hope it helps!
I first started my prep by purchasing OG 2022 and practicing quant for 2 weeks. One official mock later, I scored 540, showing me the long path ahead towards a 700+ score. I went through lot of debriefs on GMAT club and subscribed for eGMAT's 4 month intensive course.
Materials used during the journey were:
In eGMAT, I left the RC course as I felt it didn't help me that much and pre-thinking approach for CR didn't quite work for me. eGMAT is more recommended for practicing verbal as they have a huge question bank, separated by difficulty with great analytics. I attempted close to 83% of eGMAT's verbal question bank.
I practiced close to 54% quant questions from eGMAT but left it because the questions didn't seem GMAT-like ( they required long calculations, which was difficult to do in under 2 mins).
After completing the theory from eGMAT, I started practicing from OG 2022, thinking it would be more than enough. I received a 700 score on my mock in Jan, so I assumed that my progress was good and I could achieve a high score. But going from 700 to 740 proved to be a different challenge altogether.
Being from an engineering background, I was able to quickly ramp up my score in Quant. But as a non-native, my waterloo was verbal. As you can see the data in the post below, I was never able to score above a v35 in mock verbal except for one fluke test. The reason was that I was going by ear and not applying any structured approach. Heck, I was so bad that even after going through eGMAT's SC course twice, I was unable to identify the subject-verb pairs in a sentence.
Accuracy in preparation during Jan and Feb
OG - 2022
Sentence Correction (SC)
Easy - 91%
Medium - 74%
Hard - 60%
Critical Reasoning(CR)
Easy - 85%
Medium - 81%
Hard - 65%
Reading Comprehension(RC)
Easy - 90%
Medium - 92%
Hard - 76%
Problem Solving (PS)
Easy - 97%
Medium - 91%
Hard - 82%
Data Sufficiency
Easy - Didn't attempt them all
Medium- 77%
Hard - 52%
EGMAT Scholaranium
The question bank tracks your progress based on weighted accuracy.
SC - 68%
CR - 56%
RC - 69%
Quant - 61%
I was unable to cross 710 in any of the mocks. All across the internet, people were mentioning that one needs to have an accuracy of 80%+ in verbal to be able to cross 700. Out of sheer desperation , I ended up hiring a private tutor for a month who helped me with SC and CR( my weakest topics) in mid Feb. Finally , I was able to understand the various nuances of SC and CR. I started practicing from OG 16, so that I get different questions as compared to OG'22.
Parallelly, I came across GMAT Club's quant tests, which I consider the best material for quant preparation. They contain questions with twists similar to GMAT's. The score that you receive in these tests will be the score that you will get in your official score.
Mock Tests Database
Date| Mock Test Provider | Total Score| Quant |Verbal
09-Jan |GMAT Prep 1 | 700 | 49 | 35
23-Jan |GMAT Prep 2 | 690 | 48 | 35
30-Jan |Egmat 3 | 700 | 48 | 37
06-Feb |GMAT Prep 3 | 710 | 50 | 35
13-Feb |Egmat 4 | 670 | 48 | 33
25-Feb |Egmat 5 | 690 | 49 | 35
01-Mar |Princeton 1 | 680 | 51 | 33
03-Mar |Veritas Free | 710 | 50 | 37
05-Mar |Princeton 2 | 640 | 47 | 31
07-Mar |GMAT PREP 4 | 710 | 50 | 35
11-Mar |Kaplan 1 | 710 | 49 | 39
13-Mar |Kaplan 2 | 670 | 49 | 33
15-Mar |Kaplan 3 | 670 | 49 | 33
18-Mar |GMAT PREP 5 | 680 | 50 | 31
22-Mar |GMAT PREP 6 | 690 | 51 | 31
25- March - D Day
Even with all this effort and after solving close to 3,000 questions, I received a V31 in official mock test on 18th March. I was very worried that my Test wont go so well. After taking advice from the forum, I downloaded OG'09 and started solving SC and CR questions in alert mode. If I got any question wrong, I would enter it into my error log and remember it in such a way that I wouldn't make that mistake ever again. It was in this last week of practice ( and 3rd OG) that I was finally able to achieve an accuracy of over 90% ( all new questions, no repeat), boosting my confidence.
Exam Day -
I got up in the morning , had my breakfast, then revised some idioms. Post that, I practiced 20 odd questions in CR to get me into exam mode. Somehow , all the stress and nervousness was gone when I reached the center. I chose V-Q-IR-AWA as my order and was pleasantly surprised when I got a boldfaced question in the last section of Verbal ( means that my score range was high). I wasn't able to time my quant section well and ran out of time for 2 questions in the end , which I had to guess super quick.
I was expecting a score around 710 as that was the max I have scored in any of my mocks (official or otherwise). It was a big surprise when 740 ( Q50 v40) flashed across my screen. It shows that one shouldn't fret too much over one's mock score and must focus on learning all the concepts, while concentrating on accuracy.
Some quick tips and strategies:
1. For Quant, Theory from a reputed content provider, practice from any OG and GMAT Club Quant Tests are more than enough. Period. If you are able to score a q50/51 on GMAT club consistently, expect the same on the actual test.
2. For Verbal, one should always eliminate 4 options and never select 1. My accuracy was very poor as I was selecting 1 option while solving and creating bias amongst the options. The GMAT exam puts traps that can never be solved by this approach. Remember, there is no right answer, just the best answer.
3. I would attribute my spike in score to sheer practice. After practicing a lot, then practicing some more ( in a super alert mode) , one is able to understand the patterns in questions that GMAT tests. Once these patterns are clear, the questions become easier to crack.
4. It is a good idea to give multiple mocks as you are able to build stamina, muscle memory and learn from your mistakes. My error log, from just the mock exams, was 5 A4's long.
5. Go through the SC videos by GMATNinja. They are super helpful and clears any doubts you may have in this topic.
6. The Manhattan verbal guides are good to browse through once, but one should always practice from official questions only.
Hope someone can gain something from my debrief. Sorry, I can't upload my ESR as I don't have 5 posts yet, but following are my section splits:
Verbal
CR - V36
RC - V41
SC - V44
Quant
PS - Q49
DS - Q51
P.S. I was studying for 4-6 hours on a daily basis for 3 months straight.
--Pritam
I gave my GMAT (in center) exam on 25th March,2022 and received a score of 740 ( Q50 V40)!! That too on my first attempt after receiving a 540 in a cold mock on 8th December 2021. This is my debrief to share my learnings and experiences with everyone on this amazing forum. I have tracked a lot of details of my journey and will be sharing them here. Hope it helps!
I first started my prep by purchasing OG 2022 and practicing quant for 2 weeks. One official mock later, I scored 540, showing me the long path ahead towards a 700+ score. I went through lot of debriefs on GMAT club and subscribed for eGMAT's 4 month intensive course.
Materials used during the journey were:
- eGMAT Course for theory
- OG '22, '16 , '09 for practice
- OG Advanced Questions
- GMAT Club for quant Practice Tests
- GMAT Club Math Handbook
- Manhattan SC and CR guide
- 700-800 CR, SC and RC question pdfs
In eGMAT, I left the RC course as I felt it didn't help me that much and pre-thinking approach for CR didn't quite work for me. eGMAT is more recommended for practicing verbal as they have a huge question bank, separated by difficulty with great analytics. I attempted close to 83% of eGMAT's verbal question bank.
I practiced close to 54% quant questions from eGMAT but left it because the questions didn't seem GMAT-like ( they required long calculations, which was difficult to do in under 2 mins).
After completing the theory from eGMAT, I started practicing from OG 2022, thinking it would be more than enough. I received a 700 score on my mock in Jan, so I assumed that my progress was good and I could achieve a high score. But going from 700 to 740 proved to be a different challenge altogether.
Being from an engineering background, I was able to quickly ramp up my score in Quant. But as a non-native, my waterloo was verbal. As you can see the data in the post below, I was never able to score above a v35 in mock verbal except for one fluke test. The reason was that I was going by ear and not applying any structured approach. Heck, I was so bad that even after going through eGMAT's SC course twice, I was unable to identify the subject-verb pairs in a sentence.
Accuracy in preparation during Jan and Feb
OG - 2022
Sentence Correction (SC)
Easy - 91%
Medium - 74%
Hard - 60%
Critical Reasoning(CR)
Easy - 85%
Medium - 81%
Hard - 65%
Reading Comprehension(RC)
Easy - 90%
Medium - 92%
Hard - 76%
Problem Solving (PS)
Easy - 97%
Medium - 91%
Hard - 82%
Data Sufficiency
Easy - Didn't attempt them all
Medium- 77%
Hard - 52%
EGMAT Scholaranium
The question bank tracks your progress based on weighted accuracy.
SC - 68%
CR - 56%
RC - 69%
Quant - 61%
I was unable to cross 710 in any of the mocks. All across the internet, people were mentioning that one needs to have an accuracy of 80%+ in verbal to be able to cross 700. Out of sheer desperation , I ended up hiring a private tutor for a month who helped me with SC and CR( my weakest topics) in mid Feb. Finally , I was able to understand the various nuances of SC and CR. I started practicing from OG 16, so that I get different questions as compared to OG'22.
Parallelly, I came across GMAT Club's quant tests, which I consider the best material for quant preparation. They contain questions with twists similar to GMAT's. The score that you receive in these tests will be the score that you will get in your official score.
Mock Tests Database
Date| Mock Test Provider | Total Score| Quant |Verbal
09-Jan |GMAT Prep 1 | 700 | 49 | 35
23-Jan |GMAT Prep 2 | 690 | 48 | 35
30-Jan |Egmat 3 | 700 | 48 | 37
06-Feb |GMAT Prep 3 | 710 | 50 | 35
13-Feb |Egmat 4 | 670 | 48 | 33
25-Feb |Egmat 5 | 690 | 49 | 35
01-Mar |Princeton 1 | 680 | 51 | 33
03-Mar |Veritas Free | 710 | 50 | 37
05-Mar |Princeton 2 | 640 | 47 | 31
07-Mar |GMAT PREP 4 | 710 | 50 | 35
11-Mar |Kaplan 1 | 710 | 49 | 39
13-Mar |Kaplan 2 | 670 | 49 | 33
15-Mar |Kaplan 3 | 670 | 49 | 33
18-Mar |GMAT PREP 5 | 680 | 50 | 31
22-Mar |GMAT PREP 6 | 690 | 51 | 31
25- March - D Day
Even with all this effort and after solving close to 3,000 questions, I received a V31 in official mock test on 18th March. I was very worried that my Test wont go so well. After taking advice from the forum, I downloaded OG'09 and started solving SC and CR questions in alert mode. If I got any question wrong, I would enter it into my error log and remember it in such a way that I wouldn't make that mistake ever again. It was in this last week of practice ( and 3rd OG) that I was finally able to achieve an accuracy of over 90% ( all new questions, no repeat), boosting my confidence.
Exam Day -
I got up in the morning , had my breakfast, then revised some idioms. Post that, I practiced 20 odd questions in CR to get me into exam mode. Somehow , all the stress and nervousness was gone when I reached the center. I chose V-Q-IR-AWA as my order and was pleasantly surprised when I got a boldfaced question in the last section of Verbal ( means that my score range was high). I wasn't able to time my quant section well and ran out of time for 2 questions in the end , which I had to guess super quick.
I was expecting a score around 710 as that was the max I have scored in any of my mocks (official or otherwise). It was a big surprise when 740 ( Q50 v40) flashed across my screen. It shows that one shouldn't fret too much over one's mock score and must focus on learning all the concepts, while concentrating on accuracy.
Some quick tips and strategies:
1. For Quant, Theory from a reputed content provider, practice from any OG and GMAT Club Quant Tests are more than enough. Period. If you are able to score a q50/51 on GMAT club consistently, expect the same on the actual test.
2. For Verbal, one should always eliminate 4 options and never select 1. My accuracy was very poor as I was selecting 1 option while solving and creating bias amongst the options. The GMAT exam puts traps that can never be solved by this approach. Remember, there is no right answer, just the best answer.
3. I would attribute my spike in score to sheer practice. After practicing a lot, then practicing some more ( in a super alert mode) , one is able to understand the patterns in questions that GMAT tests. Once these patterns are clear, the questions become easier to crack.
4. It is a good idea to give multiple mocks as you are able to build stamina, muscle memory and learn from your mistakes. My error log, from just the mock exams, was 5 A4's long.
5. Go through the SC videos by GMATNinja. They are super helpful and clears any doubts you may have in this topic.
6. The Manhattan verbal guides are good to browse through once, but one should always practice from official questions only.
Hope someone can gain something from my debrief. Sorry, I can't upload my ESR as I don't have 5 posts yet, but following are my section splits:
Verbal
CR - V36
RC - V41
SC - V44
Quant
PS - Q49
DS - Q51
P.S. I was studying for 4-6 hours on a daily basis for 3 months straight.
--Pritam
28 Mar 2022, 04:56
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi PritamPany.
Nice work achieving such a huge score increase in under four months. Your success demonstrates the power of trying one thing after another until you find something that works, of "sheer practice," and of taking "multiple mocks."
Regarding this,
I tend to agree with what you said with regards to SC. In SC, there is often only a best version and not a perfect version. However, for CR and RC, there is generally a truly correct answer along with four truly incorrect choices. So, while it does make sense to go through all five choices, eliminating four and choosing one, I think in CR and RC, you can take the attitude that you will find a choice that is clearly correct.
Anyway, congrats! We appreciate the inspiration and insights, and may all go well for you going forward.
Nice work achieving such a huge score increase in under four months. Your success demonstrates the power of trying one thing after another until you find something that works, of "sheer practice," and of taking "multiple mocks."
Regarding this,
Quote:
I tend to agree with what you said with regards to SC. In SC, there is often only a best version and not a perfect version. However, for CR and RC, there is generally a truly correct answer along with four truly incorrect choices. So, while it does make sense to go through all five choices, eliminating four and choosing one, I think in CR and RC, you can take the attitude that you will find a choice that is clearly correct.
Anyway, congrats! We appreciate the inspiration and insights, and may all go well for you going forward.
