From 600 to 740 in GMAT in 2.5 months (CLICKBAIT? Not really, though!)

Hey Guys!

Given how much the GMAT Club has helped me through my GMAT journey I think it is only fair to share my experience with the GMAT. I have given the GMAT twice over a period of two and a half months. I'll talk about each of my attempts separately, hopefully, it should give you enough clarity! Any queries what so ever, feel free to reply to this post and I'll try my best to reply to it as soon as possible!

Background: Bachelors of Business Administration Student in the third year in India

Attempt 1: 600

15 Sept 2018
Quant: 48
Verbal: 25
AWA: 5.5
IR: 5

(ESR attached)

PREPARATION:
- I started preparing for the GMAT in full swing at around June end, when I was still an undergraduate student - meaning that I would put in around 4 hours almost every day, and as much as I tried most weekends could not be used for studying.
- I gave the MGMAT tests before I gave the exam as well, my score ranged between 590 - 680. One thing I noticed was when I gave the MGMAT tests on, say, Friday - having studied all week, I felt it would help to have that momentum, - I scored on the lower 600's; but when I have the Test on Mondays after the weekends where I didn't even think about the GMAT, I would score on the higher 600's.
- An honest suggestion is to NOT use any unofficial tests at all as they are not good predictors for your performance on the actual exam. It is a very good investment if you're considering to buy the set of the 4 GMAT tests with around 400 questions in addition. (Something I learned after my second attempt)
- After constantly hovering in the 600's despite months of effort, I decided that the MGMAT tests, if anything, ruined any little confidence and hope I had of scoring above 700 - I then stopped giving any tests and just solved questions for roughly a month and a half and then gave the exam which proved to be a disaster.
- Had not really practiced much of IR as I used to score between 6 & 7 during the MGMAT mocks

TEST DAY:
- Since before the day of the test, it is safe to say I was extremely anxious, there were loads of changes in my routine/lifestyle over the week before the test
- As much as people say that the test center does not make much of a difference, I think it does. The ambiance of the test center of my first attempt was anything but comforting and pleasing - the staff did not seem the slightest bit comforting - so before you book your test, please check the reviews of the test center at every possible forum - I did see bad reviews of mine, but I shrugged them off.
- Got into the test center - the registration process took forever, feels even more irritating when you're already anxious, even though it's just a really small issue.
- I always follow the order of Verbal - Quant - IR - AWA
- Verbal - So the start of verbal was pretty smooth, but as soon as I was done with my first ten questions, I had a horrible panic attack because I had spent nearly 25 minutes solving those few questions (as you would notice in the ESR) followed by the panic was unnecessary overthinking of the questions and answers because I just couldn't focus. By the time I reached the last 7-8 questions, I couldn't help but choose a random option and go next (mentally hoping I got lucky and at least 5-6 of them turn out to be right) - safe to say I 'bombed' my verbal. Mind you - I considered my strong point to be verbal since before I started the GMAT, and maybe a couple of months into the prep, I realized that Quant is where I could perform better.
- Break - After my verbal, I took the 8-minute break - one thing to remember here is that you don't really get the whole 8 minutes, it's safe to say you have just 6ish minutes because once you get out and before you get in you will have to do your palm vein scans. Eat something light and quick in this time. I carried flavored yogurt and fruit juice with me.
- Quant - After preparing for quite a lot of practice, I came to learn that Quant is most likely my strong point (as it is for most Indians and East Asians) This went pretty smooth despite the fact that I was as anxious as one can be.
- IR - By the time I reached IR I was extremely restless, and just wanted to get done with the exam! But I did manage to convince myself to put my full concentration into this, and somehow managed to get through with it, not really unsatisfactory to be honest.
- AWA - Being generally confident about my writing skills I didn't bother preparing for this except for just reading a few essays which were scored 6/6. This section went pretty well, given that I have a good typing speed as well.

AFTER THE TEST:
- Walking into the center with the hopes of a 700+ score and walking out getting a meager 600, obviously, I was extremely disappointed - maybe slightly shocked too, but going by the way I gave that test, it wasn't that huge of a shock either.
- Decided that I WOULD HAVE to redo the GMAT because I knew for a fact that I was at maybe the 680's level if I was at my mental best, so I decided to take a long break from GMAT, and I did not really have a choice because I had my university exams starting in 3 weeks.
- So the break went on till roughly 20th October, I had a vacation for a good 3 weeks. I decided that if I gave the test before the end of my vacation if I could score above my 700 mark, it should be good.
- I got an ESR after the test to understand exactly where I needed to prepare so I could focus on those areas before my next attempt.
- To my surprise, I got every CR question wrong, this was surprising because during the period of my preparation, I always almost got all the CR questions right, and would only falter in the RC and SC
- Another shock was my performance in geometry in the Quant section, which again was something I was rather good at.


BEFORE ATTEMPT 2
- From around October 20th, I would dedicate the whole three weeks, except for a 3-day break for a short family trip. Over these 3 weeks, I would practice CR every day (Despite the confidence I had in myself for this area), since I had used up almost all the content, I had to refer to the older GMAT paper tests, and then older publications on these topics. In fact, I would over these three weeks go through every topic that is tested in the GMAT in both Quants and Verbal.
- Roughly two weeks into this schedule, I would solve paper tests every alternate day, which while good practice for the Verbal sections, has extremely easy quantitative sections compared to today's tests - another issue with the paper tests is that they are not adaptive, so it just counts as practice. In these tests, my scores would be around 720 - 770 (not sure if these scores are comparable to the same from the CATs), but these tests sure did boost my confidence.
- Once I was done with my vacation I would spend 4 hours a day just like my old schedule until I gave my exam - and practicing questions in areas I felt I was weak.
- Around the 18th of November, I started giving official GMATPrep tests and solving the question bank of 500+ questions (Including IR)
- For AWA, I used the Guide to Perfect 6.0 AWA GMAT Score - AWA Template for 6.0 by ChineseBurned

GMAT Prep Test 1 - 750 (Q50,V41,IR3)
GMAT Prep Test 2 - 740 (Q49,V41,IR7)
GMAT Prep Test 3 - 730 (Q49,V41,IR7)
GMAT Prep Test 4 - 730 (Q50,V38,IR7)
GMAT Prep Test 5 - 750 (Q50,V41,IR7)
GMAT Prep Test 6 - 710 (Q49,V37,IR7)

- The drastic drop in test 6 was because I started overthinking the fact that during all the tests I would read the passages out loud, and would not be able to do so during the exam, so I tried reading the passages just in my mind throughout the exam. (I was wrong, you can actually read it out as long as you do it softly because, everyone around you would have their noise cancellation headphones on, which the center in which I had my first attempt did not provide)
- If you plan to revise or anything on the day before the exam, I suggest do not study anything related to the GMAT on the D minus one day - and just relax and watch a movie or go for a drive or something. You most likely will do some reading of the GMAT, just like I did - I was just going through the notes that I made over the period of my preparation.

Attempt 2: 740

31 Nov 2018
Quant: 49
Verbal: 42
AWA: 6
IR: 6

(Didn't get an ESR as it didn't make sense spending another $35 on it!)
TEST DAY:
- This time I picked a different center knowing the bad experience I had the first time, the center has extremely kind staff who were warm and welcoming.
- Gave the test in the same order, Verbal, Quant, IR, AWA.
- During the test, the notepad that they gave, I used 4 or 5 of them in total, the proctor in the center was extremely helpful and whenever I raised my hand, the staff always came in with a notepad saving me time! What happened in my previous exam center was that the proctor would come in, ask me what was it that I needed, and then go bring it (It's just a matter of few seconds, but it could make a huge difference in an exam like the GMAT)
- The timing strategy I followed for this exam was to finish each question in roughly 1.5 minutes. And roughly 10 minutes for the RC passages
- Overall the test went smooth, I was calm and focussed throughout the exam.
- After I had completed my test and saw that I had scored a 740 I was extremely happy that my efforts finally bore fruit!

P.S: While this does make a good reattempt story, please remember that I did not magically grow from 600 to 740 in one and a half months preparation, even before my first attempt I would say I was at the 680 level, just that I was in a rather bad mental condition on that day - distracted and restless.

P.P.S: You need to remember that forums like the GMAT club will only have success stories posted, failures, if any are rarely posted - so you should make sure that you don't feel disheartened by reading all the 700+ stories and comparing them to your performance in the mocks or your previous GMAT attempt. Everyone is going to have a different journey - you just got to embrace yours!