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13 Sep 2024, 22:30
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Folks,
I recently took the test for the 3rd time and got a 715 (99th Percentile) with Q88, V86, and DI83.
Following are the details about my GMAT journey
Background:
I had never taken any competitive or standardised tests before the GMAT. I had the typical, "I am not good with test-taking" mindset.
I started my GMAT journey in May 2023 and my quant basics were in shambles. For instance, I had forgotten what a negative exponent meant. After a week of prep from free sources, I took an official mock and got a 555 score. As expected quant was an absolute disaster, and even though the verbal score was still poor, I was sure I could improve once I got more familiar with the question types.
In June 2023, I started my journey with TTP and studied whenever I could find time during the day. I took detailed notes, attempted all the recommended practice tests, corrected my errors, and strengthened my concepts. For the next 4 months, it was just work + study. I had sacrificed my social life and hobbies entirely. After spending close to 400 hours on TTP and another countless hours on the GMAT club, I took 3 more official mocks, scoring 640, 690 and 700 respectively, and booked the test in mid-October.
Watch Krunal's Debrief on YouTube
First Test
I couldn't calm my nerves, couldn't focus, second-guessed myself in every question, and couldn't manage my time well. I ended up with a 630 (Q42, V34, IR6). I was devasted and exasperated and I didn't have it in me to go through the entire cycle again any time soon. I tried to study but I was extremely inconsistent and put it aside for a while.
Prep for the second test
In May 2024, I decided to start preparing again and fortunately, I had my notes so I could quickly revise everything. I again took a baseline mock and got a 555 (Q74, V81, DI75). I knew I had to focus extensively on quant, and I started my prep in June focusing exclusively on improving my quant score. I got the GMAT club subscription and went through all the sectional mock tests, spent a considerable amount of time scouring through explanations to understand other ways to solve the problems and took notes whenever there was a conceptual gap. I spoke to quite a few people who had a 695+ score on the GMAT and implemented their advice and took help from some friends who were good with test-taking in general.
By the end of June, I had become extremely comfortable with quant and wanted to take multiple mocks. I signed up for Experts' Global mock tests and realised I was struggling with DI, so much so that it was pulling down my score significantly. I decided to sign up for their course for a month to focus on DI. They had some really amazing DI sets and I could see myself getting comfortable with all the question types and improving my timing as well. I used the mocks to get comfortable with test-taking, and time management. And even though they weren't adaptive, they were very close to the actual test. I took all the mocks at the same time of the day, to match my test day experience. My scores ranged from 555 to 695. I practised Quant through EG as well and decided to book the test after scoring 685 and 695 on the official mocks.
Second Test
It was the 3rd week of August and I had to travel to a different city as all the dates had already been booked in mine. This time I was much more confident before taking the test. My test started well, and I was killing it for the first 9 questions in Quant, however, the 10th question completely took me off guard. It seemed pretty simple but there was no straightforward way to think about solving it. And instead of moving on, I spent a lot of time on it only to move on later. My quant timing was completely messed up and I had to guess almost 4-5 questions towards the end. I half-heartedly moved on to verbal and DI and was expecting a disastrous score but I was surprised to see a 635 (Q81, V83, DI80), just 20 points below my target score of 655.
I had 6 incorrect answers on quant with 5 consecutive ones towards the end (and the one I spent a lot of time on), and 7 incorrect answers on Verbal and DI each. I knew I could at least boost my score by 20-30 points and I immediately booked the earliest slot I could find.
Third Test
I had around 20 days before the final test. I had started to hit rock bottom and my self-esteem went for a toss because of not getting the desired results. At this point, I had nothing else left to do. During the entire prep cycle, I had solved all the official and review guide questions, 1300+ quant questions on GMAT Club, Magooh's question bank, 100s of questions from Expert Global. I was just solving a few questions every day from the GMAT club and took no mocks during this period. I was trying to take it easy, but mentally I was beginning to give up. My friends and family supported me immensely during this phase and I decided to give it my all and reminded myself of all the prep I had done over the last 1 year.
I solved a few questions on the test day to warm myself up, listened to good music and calmed myself down. This time during the test, I was extremely focused, and calm. I didn't care about anything else except for the question in front of me. I started with quant and I recognised some questions as difficult and time-consuming so I just took an educated guess and moved on. I still ended up spending 5 mins on a single question midway because it was easy yet calculation-heavy. I was again led into a time crunch but instead of panicking, I was still focused and somehow submitted the section on time.
I was a bit concerned as to how I performed considering I took some quick guesses, but that didn't pull me down. I stayed focused and as a result verbal section felt like a walk in the park. Then in DI, the second question itself was so calculation-heavy that I spent 4-5 mins on it and eventually decided to move on. I was pressed for time yet again. I had 10 questions left and only 15 minutes on the clock. I barely managed to complete it. I knew I had performed better than my previous attempts and was expecting a 655-675 score but I was surprised to see a 715 (Q88, V86, DI83). I had 2 mistakes in quant, and 4 in verbal and DI each.
I took some time to process it and let it seep in. I was overjoyed and this was the highest score I have ever gotten in any test I took during the practice. I was proud of myself for not giving up and persevering.
Summary of Materials and Sources Used Throughout My Prep :
1. TTP
2. GMAT Club
3. GMAT Club Math Book
3. Experts's Global Course and Practice Tests
4. OG and Review Guides, and Official Mocks
5. Powerscore CR Bible
6. Briefly accessed platforms such as Magoosh, Wizako and Top One Percent using credentials from my friends.
Final Thoughts:
I am honestly grateful to BB, Bunuel and countless other folks who actively keep this forum running. Everything I discovered about GMAT be it tricks, prep courses, Reddit forums and other things was through GMAT Club.
To people who are on a similar boat as I was - have grit and don't give up!
Also, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions about anything that you may have!
I recently took the test for the 3rd time and got a 715 (99th Percentile) with Q88, V86, and DI83.
Following are the details about my GMAT journey
Background:
I had never taken any competitive or standardised tests before the GMAT. I had the typical, "I am not good with test-taking" mindset.
I started my GMAT journey in May 2023 and my quant basics were in shambles. For instance, I had forgotten what a negative exponent meant. After a week of prep from free sources, I took an official mock and got a 555 score. As expected quant was an absolute disaster, and even though the verbal score was still poor, I was sure I could improve once I got more familiar with the question types.
In June 2023, I started my journey with TTP and studied whenever I could find time during the day. I took detailed notes, attempted all the recommended practice tests, corrected my errors, and strengthened my concepts. For the next 4 months, it was just work + study. I had sacrificed my social life and hobbies entirely. After spending close to 400 hours on TTP and another countless hours on the GMAT club, I took 3 more official mocks, scoring 640, 690 and 700 respectively, and booked the test in mid-October.
Watch Krunal's Debrief on YouTube
First Test
I couldn't calm my nerves, couldn't focus, second-guessed myself in every question, and couldn't manage my time well. I ended up with a 630 (Q42, V34, IR6). I was devasted and exasperated and I didn't have it in me to go through the entire cycle again any time soon. I tried to study but I was extremely inconsistent and put it aside for a while.
Prep for the second test
In May 2024, I decided to start preparing again and fortunately, I had my notes so I could quickly revise everything. I again took a baseline mock and got a 555 (Q74, V81, DI75). I knew I had to focus extensively on quant, and I started my prep in June focusing exclusively on improving my quant score. I got the GMAT club subscription and went through all the sectional mock tests, spent a considerable amount of time scouring through explanations to understand other ways to solve the problems and took notes whenever there was a conceptual gap. I spoke to quite a few people who had a 695+ score on the GMAT and implemented their advice and took help from some friends who were good with test-taking in general.
By the end of June, I had become extremely comfortable with quant and wanted to take multiple mocks. I signed up for Experts' Global mock tests and realised I was struggling with DI, so much so that it was pulling down my score significantly. I decided to sign up for their course for a month to focus on DI. They had some really amazing DI sets and I could see myself getting comfortable with all the question types and improving my timing as well. I used the mocks to get comfortable with test-taking, and time management. And even though they weren't adaptive, they were very close to the actual test. I took all the mocks at the same time of the day, to match my test day experience. My scores ranged from 555 to 695. I practised Quant through EG as well and decided to book the test after scoring 685 and 695 on the official mocks.
Second Test
It was the 3rd week of August and I had to travel to a different city as all the dates had already been booked in mine. This time I was much more confident before taking the test. My test started well, and I was killing it for the first 9 questions in Quant, however, the 10th question completely took me off guard. It seemed pretty simple but there was no straightforward way to think about solving it. And instead of moving on, I spent a lot of time on it only to move on later. My quant timing was completely messed up and I had to guess almost 4-5 questions towards the end. I half-heartedly moved on to verbal and DI and was expecting a disastrous score but I was surprised to see a 635 (Q81, V83, DI80), just 20 points below my target score of 655.
I had 6 incorrect answers on quant with 5 consecutive ones towards the end (and the one I spent a lot of time on), and 7 incorrect answers on Verbal and DI each. I knew I could at least boost my score by 20-30 points and I immediately booked the earliest slot I could find.
Third Test
I had around 20 days before the final test. I had started to hit rock bottom and my self-esteem went for a toss because of not getting the desired results. At this point, I had nothing else left to do. During the entire prep cycle, I had solved all the official and review guide questions, 1300+ quant questions on GMAT Club, Magooh's question bank, 100s of questions from Expert Global. I was just solving a few questions every day from the GMAT club and took no mocks during this period. I was trying to take it easy, but mentally I was beginning to give up. My friends and family supported me immensely during this phase and I decided to give it my all and reminded myself of all the prep I had done over the last 1 year.
I solved a few questions on the test day to warm myself up, listened to good music and calmed myself down. This time during the test, I was extremely focused, and calm. I didn't care about anything else except for the question in front of me. I started with quant and I recognised some questions as difficult and time-consuming so I just took an educated guess and moved on. I still ended up spending 5 mins on a single question midway because it was easy yet calculation-heavy. I was again led into a time crunch but instead of panicking, I was still focused and somehow submitted the section on time.
I was a bit concerned as to how I performed considering I took some quick guesses, but that didn't pull me down. I stayed focused and as a result verbal section felt like a walk in the park. Then in DI, the second question itself was so calculation-heavy that I spent 4-5 mins on it and eventually decided to move on. I was pressed for time yet again. I had 10 questions left and only 15 minutes on the clock. I barely managed to complete it. I knew I had performed better than my previous attempts and was expecting a 655-675 score but I was surprised to see a 715 (Q88, V86, DI83). I had 2 mistakes in quant, and 4 in verbal and DI each.
I took some time to process it and let it seep in. I was overjoyed and this was the highest score I have ever gotten in any test I took during the practice. I was proud of myself for not giving up and persevering.
Summary of Materials and Sources Used Throughout My Prep :
1. TTP
2. GMAT Club
3. GMAT Club Math Book
3. Experts's Global Course and Practice Tests
4. OG and Review Guides, and Official Mocks
5. Powerscore CR Bible
6. Briefly accessed platforms such as Magoosh, Wizako and Top One Percent using credentials from my friends.
Final Thoughts:
I am honestly grateful to BB, Bunuel and countless other folks who actively keep this forum running. Everything I discovered about GMAT be it tricks, prep courses, Reddit forums and other things was through GMAT Club.
To people who are on a similar boat as I was - have grit and don't give up!
Also, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions about anything that you may have!
13 Sep 2024, 23:21
Kudos
Bookmarks
Great score!
All the best for applications!
All the best for applications!
14 Sep 2024, 03:40
Kudos
Bookmarks
Quote:
Gratz on the score improvement.
