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JDLaw
Joined: 07 Jul 2021
Last visit: 20 May 2024
Posts: 37
Given Kudos: 21
Concentration: Marketing, Strategy
Schools: McDonough '26 (WL) Rice Jones '26 (WL) Kenan-Flagler '26 (D) Ross '26 (D) McCombs '26 (D) Owen '26 (A$$$) Kelley '26 (A$$) Goizueta '26 (D) Simon '26 (D) Foster (A$$) ESADE'26 (WL) IE Sep'24 intake (A) Tuck '26 (D)
GMAT 1: 640 Q44 V33
GMAT 2: 690 Q46 V38
GMAT 3: 720 Q49 V39
WE:Marketing (Manufacturing)
Products:
I scored a 640 on my first GMAT when the latest mock just before the test had given me a confidence boost because of a 710 score! The second time I scored 690 when the mocks just before were giving a score of 740/750. Ill try to highlight some points that I feel are important.
Do not be overwhelmed by the high scoring students- If you're like me, you'd be overwhelmed by the number of students scoring 750/760 on their first attempt in almost all prep program adverts! you need to stop worrying about that. Everyone has a different pace and method of working, everyone is at different stages of preparations, with different levels of comfort with the subject matter. Stop comparing! It doesn't help you in any way. Moreover, such scores are few but are exploited (read advertised) the most. Majority of the test takers take GMAT more that once and spent way more than the 3 weeks advertised everywhere. Take your time.
Stick to one source for studying- Just a google search will inundate your mind with the amount of sources available to study. FOMO will be detrimental to your prep, don't pressurize yourself into studying more than one source for theory, specially if the source has proven its reliability. If you decide to study from every source, it will just give you diminishing returns and you will loose your motivation rather quickly due to fatigue. Trust the process and practice.(FYI official books work for some but I suggest joining at least one of the famous prep courses as personally I dont believe official books are enough)
General points to remember
A few technical pointers
My latest GMAT score is 720!
I can confidently say that it's all thanks to the above mentioned points.
Do not be overwhelmed by the high scoring students- If you're like me, you'd be overwhelmed by the number of students scoring 750/760 on their first attempt in almost all prep program adverts! you need to stop worrying about that. Everyone has a different pace and method of working, everyone is at different stages of preparations, with different levels of comfort with the subject matter. Stop comparing! It doesn't help you in any way. Moreover, such scores are few but are exploited (read advertised) the most. Majority of the test takers take GMAT more that once and spent way more than the 3 weeks advertised everywhere. Take your time.
Stick to one source for studying- Just a google search will inundate your mind with the amount of sources available to study. FOMO will be detrimental to your prep, don't pressurize yourself into studying more than one source for theory, specially if the source has proven its reliability. If you decide to study from every source, it will just give you diminishing returns and you will loose your motivation rather quickly due to fatigue. Trust the process and practice.(FYI official books work for some but I suggest joining at least one of the famous prep courses as personally I dont believe official books are enough)
General points to remember
- Study initially and book the exam date at least 15 days in advance. This will serve as a good motivation to buckle down in the 15 days.
- Become comfortable with 3 hr exam session. Replicate the exam scenario (If your exam is booked for 10:30 am, practice mocks at 10:30 am) as often as possible while studying. Not just the actual study part, even the breaks and what you would eat/drink (Coffee helped me personally). This will help normalize the routine, and even calm you down during the actual exam.
- Do not study with your mobile near you.
- Try to halt all socializing activities in the week before exam! you will regret it even if the exam gives good scores!
- Do not fatigue yourself the day before exam, light practice is great to keep the flow going!
- Get good enough sleep before the exam day.
- Don't stress out during the exam, you can always give it again! a bad score is not that huge a set back!
- Error log is quite helpful to many people!
- Work on your timing ( my 690 score is less than the mock score of 740/750 because I messed up the time in the first section and had to randomly mark around 4-5 questions in quant at the end bringing my score down from the expected minimum of 720).
- Do not skip prepping for AWA and IR. else, they will become a dread in the actual exam! do the bare minimum prep, read at least 10 AWA samples (following a process (from Gmat club post) for AWA helped me score a 6) and solve some IR question to get some familiarity.
A few technical pointers
- It helps if you actually start enjoying the practice!
- SC- Rules are important so no escaping it as such, but meaning is much more important! Understanding the meaning can easily help get right answers. note the meaning is taken quite literally in SC, you may feel like some words have to necessarily refer to what you think is the sensible subject, this is not always true. Colloquial english has no place in GMAT, neither does gut feeling!
- CR- Meaning becomes the prime target here. develop yourself to be able to read a passage and understand it in the first go, not just the general meaning but every single word is to be understood. Don't fall into the trap of rushing to save time, this will waste even more of your time in re-reading.
- RC- Read and understand with interest. If the passage is about a historian, think like a historian, be interested in that topic! Try to understand the passage with the intend of explaining it to someone else. This may take time initially but you will become better and also reduce fatigue as you will start enjoying the passages.
- Quant- Work on the absolute basics! This is not rocket science, there is no calculus. It is all high school Mathematics but it tends to check your understanding of the absolute basics. Solve questions and read multiple answers to understand the method rather than deriving that particular answer! Questions will never repeat so don't spend time learning the question. Learn the method, move on!
- Don't get stuck with a particular method of solving something if it is consuming a lot of time. If you're not improving then what even is the use of doing MBA?
- Be flexible enough to accept mistakes. Don't try to find the justification for things that don't matter, Sometimes the correct answer matters, dont try to disprove it, sometimes the incorrect options matter, don't try to prove them right. Learn and let go!
- Many question (not designed by GMAC) are quite poor quality, avoid practicing them!
My latest GMAT score is 720!
I can confidently say that it's all thanks to the above mentioned points.
23 Oct 2022, 23:37
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi JDLaw.
That's some great advice. You've nailed so many key aspects of successful GMAT preparation.
I have one to add, one that may help you.
Do much of your practice UNTIMED and shoot for VERY high accuracy, as in close to 100% on easy, 90%+ on medium, and 85%+ on hard questions, and even better is to shoot for streaks of questions correct in a row. Then, once you achieve such accuracies and streaks, you can work on answering questions faster while maintaining high accuracy.
In doing what it takes to achieve very high accuracy and long streaks of correctly answered questions, you develop the skills you need to get questions correct, complete sections on time, and achieve your score goal.
For an in-depth discussion of how best to practice for the GMAT, see this post.
The Best GMAT Practice Methods
That's some great advice. You've nailed so many key aspects of successful GMAT preparation.
I have one to add, one that may help you.
Do much of your practice UNTIMED and shoot for VERY high accuracy, as in close to 100% on easy, 90%+ on medium, and 85%+ on hard questions, and even better is to shoot for streaks of questions correct in a row. Then, once you achieve such accuracies and streaks, you can work on answering questions faster while maintaining high accuracy.
In doing what it takes to achieve very high accuracy and long streaks of correctly answered questions, you develop the skills you need to get questions correct, complete sections on time, and achieve your score goal.
For an in-depth discussion of how best to practice for the GMAT, see this post.
The Best GMAT Practice Methods
24 Oct 2022, 18:00
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi JDLaw,
Such good advice about "not comparing yourself to others". Everyone's GMAT journey is unique, so worrying about other have done or are doing in relation to the GMAT is going to be a losing strategy. Always trust in what you are doing, and just know you will get to the finish line in a time frame that suits you.
Such good advice about "not comparing yourself to others". Everyone's GMAT journey is unique, so worrying about other have done or are doing in relation to the GMAT is going to be a losing strategy. Always trust in what you are doing, and just know you will get to the finish line in a time frame that suits you.
