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17 May 2024, 13:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi, all. I wanted to share my GMAT experience, especially since I initially struggled with Verbal. I gave my first GMAT Focus on May 5.
As an Indian IT male candidate and a working professional, I began my prep with the GMAT Classic edition, scoring 680 (V31, Q50) on my first attempt. Despite working hard on Sentence Correction (SC), I couldn't surpass the 680 mark by January, which was disheartening. After a month-long break for a few weddings, I resumed my preparation in March with renewed focus.
Preparation Strategy:
In my first GMAT Focus mock in April, I scored 675 (V86, Q86, DI79) which boosted my confidence. I booked my exam for a month later. In my second mock two weeks before the exam, my score dropped to 655 (V90, Q85, DI72) due to 4 missed DI questions and the corresponding penalty. This led me to focus heavily on DI with almost 80% effort spent here. I immediately redeemed my reward points to get Gmat Club pro test series and started giving tests to help with my pacing.
The next week in my third mock, after attempting DI first to improve my efficiency in it, I scored 595 (V79, Q79, DI80), which was demoralizing since my other scores fell. At this point I had a week until the exam and I took the week off from work to study. However, I adjusted my strategy, focusing on problem areas in Quant(Numbers and Inequalities. I was having less practice here as these topics turned up less in DI prep) and pacing in DI using sectionals/tests.
Two days before the exam, my mock score was 645 (V81, Q83, DI81). I attempted V-Q-DI, which was my usual order. The day before the exam, I limited my practice to solving questions during my scheduled exam time frame. I had made 3 mistakes in 20 verbal questions and also avoided silly mistakes in quant and DI. For the remainder of the day, I reviewed GMAT Club debriefs, particularly one by NavenGJ here, who had improved from a 625 in his last mock to a final score of 695. I reviewed my scores and thought to myself that I would just try to give my best in each section and just keep faith in the prep.
On exam day, the test felt similar to my practice mocks so I didn’t have much expectations. But in the end my score of 695(V86, Q88, DI79) popped up with a 98 percentile. I was quite happy, but mostly relieved to finally see an improvement.
My Takeaways:
Closing Thoughts:
I was quite demotivated when my GMAT scores consistently got stuck at the 680 mark, despite knowing I had the potential to do better. To anyone feeling stuck at a similar bottleneck, I urge you to keep persevering with dedication. Often, it seems like no matter how much effort and time we put in, results don’t improve. Progress can plateau, remaining stagnant until we reach a certain threshold in our efforts and learning. However, with patience and persistence, results will eventually start to improve again, sometimes even exponentially. All the best with your preparations!
As an Indian IT male candidate and a working professional, I began my prep with the GMAT Classic edition, scoring 680 (V31, Q50) on my first attempt. Despite working hard on Sentence Correction (SC), I couldn't surpass the 680 mark by January, which was disheartening. After a month-long break for a few weddings, I resumed my preparation in March with renewed focus.
Preparation Strategy:
- Reading Comprehension (RC): I practiced a couple of passages daily for the first month
- Critical Reasoning (CR): I reviewed the PowerScore CR Bible and its syllabus and practiced questions on chapters.
- Data Insights (DI): I used GMATNinja’s YouTube series and questions from DI Butler on GMAT Club. TTP’s starter trial also provides a good overview. My major focus was in this new DI section trying to cover up the portion and improve accuracy.
- For Quant, I relied on my DI prep as my fundamentals were mostly thorough.
In my first GMAT Focus mock in April, I scored 675 (V86, Q86, DI79) which boosted my confidence. I booked my exam for a month later. In my second mock two weeks before the exam, my score dropped to 655 (V90, Q85, DI72) due to 4 missed DI questions and the corresponding penalty. This led me to focus heavily on DI with almost 80% effort spent here. I immediately redeemed my reward points to get Gmat Club pro test series and started giving tests to help with my pacing.
The next week in my third mock, after attempting DI first to improve my efficiency in it, I scored 595 (V79, Q79, DI80), which was demoralizing since my other scores fell. At this point I had a week until the exam and I took the week off from work to study. However, I adjusted my strategy, focusing on problem areas in Quant(Numbers and Inequalities. I was having less practice here as these topics turned up less in DI prep) and pacing in DI using sectionals/tests.
Two days before the exam, my mock score was 645 (V81, Q83, DI81). I attempted V-Q-DI, which was my usual order. The day before the exam, I limited my practice to solving questions during my scheduled exam time frame. I had made 3 mistakes in 20 verbal questions and also avoided silly mistakes in quant and DI. For the remainder of the day, I reviewed GMAT Club debriefs, particularly one by NavenGJ here, who had improved from a 625 in his last mock to a final score of 695. I reviewed my scores and thought to myself that I would just try to give my best in each section and just keep faith in the prep.
On exam day, the test felt similar to my practice mocks so I didn’t have much expectations. But in the end my score of 695(V86, Q88, DI79) popped up with a 98 percentile. I was quite happy, but mostly relieved to finally see an improvement.
My Takeaways:
- Practicing under time and using error logs.
- RC: Focus on contrast words and reasoning for eliminating incorrect choices. Personalized passage to keep myself engaged. Good CR inference skills also helped.
- CR: PowerScore CR Bible, particularly the chapters on reasoning and flaws.
- Quant: Mix of 700-800 level questions.
- DI: Practiced a lot of problems to get used to questions and pacing. During tests, I would sometimes completely skip questions of time consuming topics such as MSR and come back to edit the answers later.
- GMAT study buddy feature. I met another fellow aspirant in the GMAT club forum. I would usually help and explain my buddy quant questions which kept me actively in touch with quant topics. We would also discuss RC and CR questions once in a while to understand the elimination of options. Another person working towards the same goals kept me motivated to study as well.
Closing Thoughts:
I was quite demotivated when my GMAT scores consistently got stuck at the 680 mark, despite knowing I had the potential to do better. To anyone feeling stuck at a similar bottleneck, I urge you to keep persevering with dedication. Often, it seems like no matter how much effort and time we put in, results don’t improve. Progress can plateau, remaining stagnant until we reach a certain threshold in our efforts and learning. However, with patience and persistence, results will eventually start to improve again, sometimes even exponentially. All the best with your preparations!
Attachments
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20 May 2024, 12:08
Kudos
Bookmarks
Nice work!
Also, this tip seems particularly powerful:
Also, this tip seems particularly powerful:
Quote:
Congrats, and may all go well for you going forward.
21 May 2024, 06:49
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi utkarsh27,
Congrats on a great score! I'm happy to see that TTP was able to help in your preparation.
Congrats on a great score! I'm happy to see that TTP was able to help in your preparation.
