So here goes my first attempt debrief of the GMAT experience that I had after finally taking the exam that since so long I have avoided. I started the preparations last year in August and after completing the
OG, I invested in princeton review for a better view on the exam. Showed promise till about October '2014 and due to work related reasons veered away from the preparations. I gave a single mock test during that period and scored a 680 but lost track after that. Year 2015 began with me being relocated to a new city and much of the first few months were spent without a trace of GMAT in my head. Finally after 8 months of turmoil and on/off preparation, I came back to my home and started the GMAT prep again in August'15. A year had passed and I had not even taken a single mock after my first. I renewed my princeton portal and started again on
OG and booked the test date to 30th Sept '2015. Again due to some reasons, couldn't come smooth sailing on the track of preparation and decided to extend the GMAT to 20th Nov'2015. Finally i got my bearings and started full swing towards the preparation in October'15. After about a month of preparation which focused mainly on completion of
OG questions and mock tests, I realized i was doing much better last year when I started as my mock scores will substantiate:
GMAT Test 1: 660 (Q43, V 39, IR 3)
GMAT Test 2: 630 (Q50, V 27, IR 4)
GMAT Test 3: 640 (Q45, V 33, IR 6)
GMAT Test 4: 650 (Q47, V 34, IR 5)
GMAT Test 5: 630 (Q43, V 34, IR 6)
GMAT Test 6: 670 (Q45, V 38, IR 5)
GMAT Test 7: 610 (Q41, V 34, IR 4)
During the start of my preparation last year, since i had scored 97.8%ile in the CAT exam and got offers from a few good Indian schools, I was sure that 700+ was not a tough target for me to achieve. But since i gave a relatively less time post reviving my preparation, I just couldn't get that confidence back.
Finally came the D-day and I had trouble sleeping the night before, but wasn't too perturbed about that fact. The actual exam experience was quite intimidating for me at the first but i somehow managed to keep my cool and consider this as a just another mock test. Noticing a red colored noise cancelling headset on my table was a huge distraction in itself
The thing that i think i did wrong was taking a relatively shorter break after quant section before the start of verbal. I didn't take the first break and was willing to complete the exam in a single go. But i decided instead to take a break and resumed in about 2-3 minutes afterwards which somehow distracted me too much to be sure of anything in the verbal section. My score is as below:
GMAT 1.0 (20th Nov, 2015) - 630 (Q 49, V 27, IR 6).
Though I am disappointed by my first score, but going through many posts on gmat club about the re-takers, I feel confident that I would be able to turn the things second time around. I have not formulated a plan for that as I plan to take a day or two off before resumption, but any suggestions by the members are more than welcome.
PS: Now I feel that I should have spent more time on gmatclub since i have not been a very active member.
~ Nishant