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First the Score Break-up in the order of Section attempted 
Verbal - 42
Quant - 49
Total - 750
IR - 7
AWA - Score Awaited. (Took the test yesterday)
Now, before anything, I want to thank Everyone - Founders, Moderators, Tutors, Aspirants, and Applicants (pardon me if I have forgotten anyone)
Now, Over to the GMAT Experience with decisions and reasons for those decisions. (Decisions are Underlined)
I booked a late afternoon slot - 4:30. At-least It's still afternoon at 4:30 in India. I booked this slot because I am not a morning person. Literally. I had been on a 3 week break from work until yesterday (of-course) and could never wake up before 12 PM. Hehe. So, a test slot of 12:30 or 1:00 was not even an option. I got a call from the center a day before inviting me to start the test between 3:00 to 3:30. I reached there by 4 anyways. Center was fine. Though there was a little disturbance at around 6 because there is Gym nearby, it didn't bother me much because neither is that gym a very happening one, nor did a little sound mattered to me much. Moreover, this was a better option than the other one in Delhi that has a parking-lot of bikes right outside its window - a noise that irritates me quite a lot.
Test Started and I picked Verbal section first, as stated earlier, because I did not want the energy drain to affect my verbal score as it was my weaker section. 2 questions into the test and I realized that it was not one of my good days. I faced a lot of difficulty concentrating but I knew, from experience of taking so many tests, that these questions are much easier than my actual level and real difficult ones will come by Q 10. You see, for sometime now, I had been getting 100% accuracy in first 11-12 questions in Kaplan and gmatclub tests. So, Fighting the urge to close the exam, I got my first RC by Q - 5 and it was like Rain in a Hot Summer Day. Though I did not consider RC my strong suit, it pulled me away from those urges and pushed me into the test. Though I could complete those First 10 Questions in about 14 minutes, they took me 16 min and I was unfazed by this loss because I still had 2 more minutes in the next slot. You see I wanted to spend more time in Q 11 to Q 20 because that's where I'd get my 1st wrong answer. OOh Yes. About the (imaginary) Slots in the test:
Verbal
Spend 18 minutes on a set of Every 10 Questions and 3 minutes on the last one. RCs could impact this rule by 2 minutes.
Question - Time on the clock
Q 11 - 57 Minutes (Use the time saved here in the next slot)
Q 21 - 39 Minutes (Thou Shall Not have any Time Saved here)
Q 31 - 21 Minutes (Though Shall Not Pace up unless you used too much time before)
Q 41 - 3 Minutes (I never really had 3 minutes for the last question but it doen't hurt to wish for it )
Quant
2 minutes per question. No question asked
Question - Time
Q 11 - 55 Minutes (Don't Slow down if you don't have to)
Q 21 - 35 Minutes (Q 21 to 31 is where I'd normally get my 1st incorrect. So, be careful now)
Q 31 - Recalculate the time left and adjust accordingly
You see, my timing strategy was different for both the sections because my comfort level is different in those sections. I took this exam as a test of business aptitude and because rigidity is the last thing you'd want in a good businessman, I was ready to adjust as and when required.
Back to the Test - My timing in Verbal was going fine except that I was off by 2 minutes by Q 31 and Kept hoping that I'd make up for it in CR questions. I have been solving some of them, during practice, within 90 seconds. Q 31 was the 4th and Last RC and by the time I had completed it, I still lagged by 2 minutes so I decided to skip Q 35. That gave me a comfortable ride till the end of the test. I had to nether pace up nor pace down to complete the test.
Took the 8 minute break, got back to my seat and surprisingly, I got another 1 minute to read the instructions for the quant section. I spent 45 seconds on that screen before moving forward :wink: The Very 1st Question stumped me. Badly. I could not let it go because IT WAS THE 1st QUESTION and since I generally completed quant with 5 minutes on the clock, I wasn't too worried about the time. 4 minutes into the question and I couldn't solve it yet. That was frustrating and Demoralizing
I tried to eliminate the options but
couldn't move in any direction. It seems that my mind was in a lock down. 5 minutes in, I marked the answer and moved on. Everything after that was a breeze though I did face some difficult ones. The last question stumped me again but this time I had only 3 minutes for it. tried it, marked it, and moved out of my seat realizing that I am not going to get 50 in Quant. I didn't.
Took another 8 minute break composing myself, trying to recover from the blunder. I could not afford to mess up the IR section as schools have started looking at it. Took another 45 seconds Not Reading the Instructions Completed the section without any major strategic decisions. Got 1 minute break for Not Reading the Instructions of AWA. "Posted" my template and submitted the test. For about 2 minutes, I couldn't even focus on the screen :shifty: A huge load had been lifted off my mind. I had just completed my Last Attempt at the GMAT. I called the Proctor and asked him where on the screen was my Score Mentioned? It was 750 with IR 7. I got agitated :yikes asked him to accept it immediately before the time runs out. Apparently, the timer was not running on that screen. hehe. I moved on to the next screen and there was the question whether I wanted to accept that score. I exited the center, got in my car bouncing up and down :bouncer2 with my hands in the air :punk
Verbal
CR
Evaluation Question - My 9th Question was evaluation It motivated me signaling that I am doing good in exam. Not sure whether I got a total of 2 or 1 Evaluation question. This is in tune with one one friend of mine who took the test on 3rd of this month and got 0 Eval questions in V 42.
Parallel Reasoning and similar questions - 0 Questions
Strengthen - 2 to 3
Inference - The one in Final 10 was close to the LSAT Inference Questions. Not as tough, testing Contra-Positive. But close. Its Argument had hints of LSAT but reasoning of Correct Answer was strictly in GMAT's Domain.
Bold-Faced - 1 Question. It was Easy because one of the bold sentences was the main conclusion and only 2 options identified it so.
SC
I didn't get too many questions with splits. 3 or 4 in total.
Long Underlined Part - Only 2 Questions
Modifiers - A lot of questions.
1 Question used "and also" in underlined portion of every option. So, GMAC doesn't consider it wrong. Wordy? Maybe. But wrong? Absolutely not.
No Question Tested Idioms Explicitly. I could eliminate every option on other grammar rules and Meaning. However, it seemed like not more than 2 options tested the same grammar rule.
RC
Short RC - 2. 1st one was Q 5, as mentioned. Both of them were dense. First one had a lot of Phenomenon with Cause-Effect Relationship but fortunately, that was the shell-game strategy meant for us to waste time. No correct answer touched upon those relationships. You'd feel that the inference questions of GMAC are kind of straight forward if you have solved Kaplan's RC in tests.
Long RC - 2. Felt Easy. 1 RC was definitely about birds + excavation.
Quant
Some questions were Tricky.
Probability - Last 2 questions.
TSD - 1 Question.
1st one that stumped me was from Algebra.
An important thing for the end because we do not really have any questions on this topic.. The last question I got asked for the probability in a geometric figure. Because I cannot post the whole question, this is all that I can say about it; but looking back, I think getting it right would have given me Q 50.
Verbal - 42
Quant - 49
Total - 750
IR - 7
AWA - Score Awaited. (Took the test yesterday)
Now, before anything, I want to thank Everyone - Founders, Moderators, Tutors, Aspirants, and Applicants (pardon me if I have forgotten anyone)
Now, Over to the GMAT Experience with decisions and reasons for those decisions. (Decisions are Underlined)
I booked a late afternoon slot - 4:30. At-least It's still afternoon at 4:30 in India. I booked this slot because I am not a morning person. Literally. I had been on a 3 week break from work until yesterday (of-course) and could never wake up before 12 PM. Hehe. So, a test slot of 12:30 or 1:00 was not even an option. I got a call from the center a day before inviting me to start the test between 3:00 to 3:30. I reached there by 4 anyways. Center was fine. Though there was a little disturbance at around 6 because there is Gym nearby, it didn't bother me much because neither is that gym a very happening one, nor did a little sound mattered to me much. Moreover, this was a better option than the other one in Delhi that has a parking-lot of bikes right outside its window - a noise that irritates me quite a lot.
Test Started and I picked Verbal section first, as stated earlier, because I did not want the energy drain to affect my verbal score as it was my weaker section. 2 questions into the test and I realized that it was not one of my good days. I faced a lot of difficulty concentrating but I knew, from experience of taking so many tests, that these questions are much easier than my actual level and real difficult ones will come by Q 10. You see, for sometime now, I had been getting 100% accuracy in first 11-12 questions in Kaplan and gmatclub tests. So, Fighting the urge to close the exam, I got my first RC by Q - 5 and it was like Rain in a Hot Summer Day. Though I did not consider RC my strong suit, it pulled me away from those urges and pushed me into the test. Though I could complete those First 10 Questions in about 14 minutes, they took me 16 min and I was unfazed by this loss because I still had 2 more minutes in the next slot. You see I wanted to spend more time in Q 11 to Q 20 because that's where I'd get my 1st wrong answer. OOh Yes. About the (imaginary) Slots in the test:
Verbal
Spend 18 minutes on a set of Every 10 Questions and 3 minutes on the last one. RCs could impact this rule by 2 minutes.
Question - Time on the clock
Q 11 - 57 Minutes (Use the time saved here in the next slot)
Q 21 - 39 Minutes (Thou Shall Not have any Time Saved here)
Q 31 - 21 Minutes (Though Shall Not Pace up unless you used too much time before)
Q 41 - 3 Minutes (I never really had 3 minutes for the last question but it doen't hurt to wish for it
)Quant
2 minutes per question. No question asked
Question - Time
Q 11 - 55 Minutes (Don't Slow down if you don't have to)
Q 21 - 35 Minutes (Q 21 to 31 is where I'd normally get my 1st incorrect. So, be careful now)
Q 31 - Recalculate the time left and adjust accordingly
You see, my timing strategy was different for both the sections because my comfort level is different in those sections. I took this exam as a test of business aptitude and because rigidity is the last thing you'd want in a good businessman, I was ready to adjust as and when required.
Back to the Test - My timing in Verbal was going fine except that I was off by 2 minutes by Q 31 and Kept hoping that I'd make up for it in CR questions. I have been solving some of them, during practice, within 90 seconds. Q 31 was the 4th and Last RC and by the time I had completed it, I still lagged by 2 minutes so I decided to skip Q 35. That gave me a comfortable ride till the end of the test. I had to nether pace up nor pace down to complete the test.
Took the 8 minute break, got back to my seat and surprisingly, I got another 1 minute to read the instructions for the quant section. I spent 45 seconds on that screen before moving forward :wink: The Very 1st Question stumped me. Badly. I could not let it go because IT WAS THE 1st QUESTION and since I generally completed quant with 5 minutes on the clock, I wasn't too worried about the time. 4 minutes into the question and I couldn't solve it yet. That was frustrating and Demoralizing
I tried to eliminate the options but couldn't move in any direction. It seems that my mind was in a lock down. 5 minutes in, I marked the answer and moved on. Everything after that was a breeze though I did face some difficult ones. The last question stumped me again but this time I had only 3 minutes for it. tried it, marked it, and moved out of my seat realizing that I am not going to get 50 in Quant. I didn't.
Took another 8 minute break composing myself, trying to recover from the blunder. I could not afford to mess up the IR section as schools have started looking at it. Took another 45 seconds Not Reading the Instructions
Completed the section without any major strategic decisions. Got 1 minute break for Not Reading the Instructions of AWA. "Posted" my template and submitted the test. For about 2 minutes, I couldn't even focus on the screen :shifty: A huge load had been lifted off my mind. I had just completed my Last Attempt at the GMAT. I called the Proctor and asked him where on the screen was my Score Mentioned? It was 750 with IR 7. I got agitated :yikes asked him to accept it immediately before the time runs out. Apparently, the timer was not running on that screen. hehe. I moved on to the next screen and there was the question whether I wanted to accept that score. I exited the center, got in my car bouncing up and down :bouncer2 with my hands in the air :punkObservations of the Test
Verbal
CR
Evaluation Question - My 9th Question was evaluation It motivated me signaling that I am doing good in exam. Not sure whether I got a total of 2 or 1 Evaluation question. This is in tune with one one friend of mine who took the test on 3rd of this month and got 0 Eval questions in V 42.
Parallel Reasoning and similar questions - 0 Questions
Strengthen - 2 to 3
Inference - The one in Final 10 was close to the LSAT Inference Questions. Not as tough, testing Contra-Positive. But close. Its Argument had hints of LSAT but reasoning of Correct Answer was strictly in GMAT's Domain.
Bold-Faced - 1 Question. It was Easy because one of the bold sentences was the main conclusion and only 2 options identified it so.
SC
I didn't get too many questions with splits. 3 or 4 in total.
Long Underlined Part - Only 2 Questions
Modifiers - A lot of questions.
1 Question used "and also" in underlined portion of every option. So, GMAC doesn't consider it wrong. Wordy? Maybe. But wrong? Absolutely not.
No Question Tested Idioms Explicitly. I could eliminate every option on other grammar rules and Meaning. However, it seemed like not more than 2 options tested the same grammar rule.
RC
Short RC - 2. 1st one was Q 5, as mentioned. Both of them were dense. First one had a lot of Phenomenon with Cause-Effect Relationship but fortunately, that was the shell-game strategy meant for us to waste time. No correct answer touched upon those relationships. You'd feel that the inference questions of GMAC are kind of straight forward if you have solved Kaplan's RC in tests.
Long RC - 2. Felt Easy. 1 RC was definitely about birds + excavation.
Quant
Some questions were Tricky.
Probability - Last 2 questions.
TSD - 1 Question.
1st one that stumped me was from Algebra.
An important thing for the end because we do not really have any questions on this topic.. The last question I got asked for the probability in a geometric figure. Because I cannot post the whole question, this is all that I can say about it; but looking back, I think getting it right would have given me Q 50.
Edit: Added the last sentence about the Probability and Geometry.
Material I used to Study
This is a tough topic to answer as I referred to a lot of material over the course of these attempts.
2 Blogs that really stood out are -
1. Manhattan Prep - For general strategies like ("Like" can be used to present examples. OG has atleast 1 question) Timing Strategy here and here, Guessing Techniques here and here, and Test Strategy here and here. These are just a few articles among many that helped me.
2. Magoosh - I read this blog mainly for the concepts but here are some good topics that also helped Study Plan for a 700, Is this a 700+ level, Learning from Your Mistakes, The GMAT, Learning, and Memory, and Improve Your Verbal Score. Besides these, mikemcgarry has posted some of the most amazing posts on GMAT Concepts. Thank You Mike. I realized the real power of Philanthropy through Internet from your blogs. Through these posts, I am paying-it-forward
Now, over to Books and Material. I am going to divide it in 2 parts - For 720 and For 750. 750 required a different strategy to prep but it does not mean that you cannot get a 750 through the material for 720. You'll understand the difference shortly.
For 720
Quant - I am an Mechanical Engineer in India. So, Maths was a strong suit for me. As a matter of fact, I scored Q 44 in diagnostic test of Manhattan. That was before any prep. I didn't even know the format of DS Questions. So, the material I used was -
1. Veritas Books, they have a lot of printing mistakes but since I am good in Maths, they didn't really bother me. The mistakes were too obvious. Anyways, Veritas nicely covers all the major concepts and questions in their Homework Section test Most of the intricate details and techniques in those topics. Long Story Short, they are good to make you aware of all the ways Quant topics can be tested. A special mention of the DS Book. It helped me quite a lot and I think it is available free of cost. If it is, GET IT.
2. Manhattan Advanced - Good Book. The theory covered in it is adheres nicely with the 2 articles about test strategy on their blog. 150 questions at the end are tough but necessary (maybe).
3. OG 16 - OG is a must have. Enough Said!
A special mention of Bunuel and VeritasPrepKarishma. Especially Karishma. Bunuel is good. There is no doubt about it but I find Karishma's solutions more in tune with what I wanted in an alternate Solution. Thanks Guys
More details about Quant in the 750 Section.
Verbal - I am an Mechanical Engineer in India. So, Verbal was a weak suit for me. As a matter of fact, I scored V 28 in diagnostic test of Manhattan. SC Weighed me down and Rightfully so. We Indians are not taught Grammar in School. Like Literally No Grammar. Yes, I could speak a fluent English and write my thoughts easily but none of that could be called Grammatical. Everytime I hear one of my friends speak in English, I want to smack him in the face specifically because he scored 99%ile in CAT, an entrance exam for MBA Schools in India. Desis know all that I am talking about. Anyways over to the interesting stuff.
CR I always considered myself a strategist, a logical guy. So, this section didn't really bothered me.
1. Veritas Book - Good coverage of all the concepts and very good questions in the Homework Section.
2. Powerscore - Used it to pick up my CR accuracy after it dropped because I prepared exclusively for SC for a month.
3. All the questions in this Document except last 70 in Super 100.
4. I also Solved a lot of questions from this doc.
5. CR Posts on Vertias' blog are also good but none stood out specifically.
6. OG 16 - OG is a must have. Enough Said!
7. Veritas - Advance Verbal Strategiy - Amazing Book. No questions asked.
RC (SC is more exhaustive)
1. Veritas Book - STOP Strategy. I've found it extremely helpful.
2. Solved Every Question in this doc. It helped me diagnose my weak areas in RC - Types of question and Types of Passages.
3. Manhattan Prep Blog - Reading Tips.
4. Magoosh Blog - GMAT Reading List, Read Carefully Once, and The Economist.
5. OG 16 - OG is a must have. Enough Said!
6. Veritas - Advance Verbal Strategiy - Amazing Book. No questions asked.
SC I spent 1 complete month on this topic as this was my weakest section.
1. Manhattan Prep SC - Amazing Book. Even though I got about 60% accuracy in OG after my 1st read, I read it about 4 more times, cover to cover, just to grab every piece of grammar rule written in it as I did not want to miss another question because I did know a Rule. Surprisingly, I always found atleast 1 new rule that I glossed over in all the previous reads. By the time I read it for 5th time, my friends had started calling me to learn the rules that were tested in the question but they didn't know.
2. OG 16 - OG is a must have. Enough Said!
3. 50 One-Liner Questions posted by me earlier. Consider it Theory instead of Practice. The solutions are amazing.
4. A Document of 100 SC Questions. There are a lot of documents that contain exactly the same questions but their solutions are not as good as the one that I have. I'll post it in a couple of days. Consider it Theory as well. BTW, more than 1 friend of mine who scored V 42 independently described it as Holy Bible of SC.
5. Document posted in thisthread.
6. Aristotle SC Grail. A friend gave it to me.
7. Veritas - Advance Verbal Strategiy - Amazing Book. No questions asked.
8. The Posts on Magoosh's Blog - Past Perfect, Comparison, Phrases as Subjects, Due To, with + [noun], The Empty ‘It’, Nested Grammatical Structures, Infinitives, That, Indefinite Pronouns, and Dropping Common Words in Parallel. Quite a list! I know. Sorry but I had to post this list as these posts helped me fine tune the rules and apply them in the questions.
Phew! that was quite a lot of material. No doubt about it. I started in Feb and completed Veritas, Manhattan, and OG by the end of April, spending at least 2 hours everyday. Everything in them except 5 reads of Manhattan SC. I had read it only once by then. That prep routine was more about gaining new knowledge and calibrated mode of study. Ok. Now, Mock Tests..
I had 12 from Veritas, I bought their complete study package, 5/7 from Manhattan, don't really remember how many tests manhattan gives, and 4 from the GMATPrep.
For 750
I had 2 tasks when I started preparing again by the end of April this year. My study log for a few days is here and looking back at it, I hit my minimum requirement except for the time limit
I couldn't continue the log for long as it used to take a lot of time to make an entry.I bought Kaplan Premier 2017 because I wanted new tests and Kaplan 800 because I had heard that it has some good questions in Verbal.
Quant - Aim - Q 51
1. Veritas Books - Revised them to regain the conceptual clarity. Because my annual subscription had ended, I could not practice their tests.
2. gmatclub Tests - Exchanged them for Kudos in May. Those are some amazing Tests. Kudos to you guys.
3. Kaplan Premier 2017 - Don't think about its Quant unless your Mock score is around 20 or maybe 30. If it is above 35, this quant is mostly useless.
4. Kaplan 800 - Better Questions in Quant but not tough enough.
I did not review the Manhattan Advanced Quant this time as I concentrated my efforts toward Gmatclub Tests.
Verbal - I already knew most of the concepts but there was still a huge scope of improvement. Hence, I needed a new strategy to prepare.
CR
1. Revised from Veritas Book.
2. Kaplan Premier 2017 - After covering a few topics from this book, I had an epiphany. The one I had been waiting for. I realized that I could put CR arguments in different buckets and make the process of solving them a bit more mechanical. So, I started labeling the buckets and putting down the question types in them. I've already posted some tips. Link is in my signature. More about it soon.
3. Kaplan 800 - Completed CR section in it.
4. Super 100 - 50 Questions in this doc. They helped boost my confidence in the new technique I had developed.
5. OG 16 - Didn't complete it this time. I know this is not an ideal thing to do but the way I see it is that I could either complete this or practice the document mentioned above. I picked the document.
RC - My accuracy in RC was satisfactory. So, I did not need to worry too kuch about it.
1. Kaplan Premier 2017 - Completed all the RCs using STOP strategy by Veritas.
2. OG 16 - did not solve last 2 or 3 RCs.
3. Read Economist articles every day. I found an app of What-if by economist. It had some amazing articles.
4. The blog post on Manhattan also helped - Hack GMAT RC.
SC
1. Revised from Manhattan SC book.
2. Practiced questions from Kaplan Premier.
3. Solved 80% OG Questions.
4. 50 One-Liner Questions and the set of Top - 100 SC Questions as I did earlier.
5. Kaplan 800
Tests -
1. Kaplan - Quant is a little more difficult than GMAT's and Verbal is a real shocker. Their RC are too difficult but useful to prepare for the Worst Case Scenario, a scenario that I faced during the test. So, Kaplan's Tests helped wuite a lot.
2. Gmatclub test - Their Quant is amazing. No doubt about it. However, I was always a little skeptical in CR.
There is one last section - Strategies that proved instrumental in taking me to 750. But because this post is already too long, I'll make another post for it.
Edit: Added the link of Top 100 SC questions, solutions of which helped me tremendously.
06 Aug 2017, 07:25
Kudos
Bookmarks
Every word was worth it, shows off your hard work!
It would be great if you could chip in some RC strategies (except reading articles from few sources).
And also the last 2-3 weeks preparation strategies would be nice to read!
Waiting for the next part, take your time buddy, but let it be de-brief!
Congratulations!
It would be great if you could chip in some RC strategies (except reading articles from few sources).
And also the last 2-3 weeks preparation strategies would be nice to read!
Waiting for the next part, take your time buddy, but let it be de-brief!
Congratulations!
