gmat Debrief - a test of strategy,confidence and nerves

Gmat Debrief- 640(q50 v27) to 720 (q49 v 40)

These are my 2 cents to the awesome community that has helped me on every tiny step. This is basically for people like me who score decent enough in the mocks but succumb to test day pressure. A lot of test takers especially non natives get daunted by the verbal section especially on test day resulting in a very low verbal score. Huge Rcs on a boring topic or a series of confusing sentence correction questions can lead to nervousness and hence result in a bad performance on test day.Also if you are good in with logic and math but struggle with verbal even in the mocks or in general then this post is for you

Preparation: To be honest i was pretty good with math and i never really struggled with it being from an engineering background. My test date was march 17th. I gave my first gmat prep mock test with just 10 days of preparation and i scored a 670 v34 q49 . In those 10 days i basically solved the og (only the verbal part except rc). I was too lazy to do rc. The very next day i again gave my gmat prep test (2nd test) and i scored a 720 q50 v38. I was very good with comprehensions and critical reasoning and sentence correction was okay. An important point to note is that i never had any systematic approach to answer anything in verbal. I would read the passages clearly and think logically. Even those questions in rcs i got wrong would be those in which i had narrowed down to two options. Even critical reasoning i had an accuracy about 60% to 70%. So since my gmat preps were around the 700 mark and i needed somewhere around the 700 mark to get into the best mim (masters in management) programs i booked the test date within a month. I thought a period of 20 days was enough to improve my sc . I gave a manhattan mock and i would advise people to avoid it as it has a very hard quant section.


640 Shocker: The exam day is a total different experience . I started with the awa and it was pretty smooth but tiring. Next came the ir section. One very good thing l had learnt from my mocks was that usually 1 or 2 questions will be hard and time consuming so i had developed a straterggy to skip those. I saw one very hard question and skipped it knowing that i would just waste time on it. I was able to complete on time and i am confident i must have scored 9-10 out of 11 . i got a 7 in ir Next was math and i found that it was identical to that in gmat prep. Similar kind of traps and almost the same difficulty level. I finished on time.Trust me on this if you solve the og completely and do take the gmat preps and a few mocks from the gmat club you will atleast find 4-5 questions which are almost identical like i even got a venn diagram question which was absolutely identical to a test question in manhattan tests. I was very tired after math but very happy i knew i had done well. Then started verbal i was tired and i couldn't read the words properly. I had to guess the first question i just didn't know what to do . I couldn't comprehend the rc and time was slipping. The passages seemed huge. My eyes became watery and the verbal section was a shocker . When i clicked on submit i expected a 600 because of my poor verbal . I got a 640 and i accepted it.

After the test i was shattered the guy who got around 700 in the mocks within 10 days of prep had a 640. I realized i needed a strategy for verbal and solve it like math step by step. That is when egmat came into the picture . It had great reviews and it came at an amazing price. I bought it and it was the best decision ever. It had a strategy for every type of question. It has pre chapter quiz and a post chapter test. You can do it at your own pace . After taking a break for about 3 months i started with the egmat course though i had bought it earlier college activities kept me busy. The explanations in e-gmat are amazing .Every solution is explained in detail and you not only know why an option is right but also why the other options are wrong.

720: I had scheduled my gmat on 15th july after a month of prep . i gave a few gmat club tests and had solved the entire e-gmat question bank for cr and sc . Rc i didn't do many questions as i didn't have much time and i was confident that i had the right approach this time. Since this time you could choose the order of your sections i chose verbal followed by math and then ir and awa. I advise future test takers to start with verbal or quant and keep ir and awa for the end. As verbal started i had a planned approach this time. I followed the steps on most questions especially it helped a lot with sentence correct. I was slow but very sure of my answers especially cr and rc. I had to guess 4 questions in the end and when i had my break i was a bit disappointed that i had to guess 4. Math again was smooth and frankly i expected a 670-680 around a v35 but i guess i atleast got 2 of my 4 guesses coorect and i must have made very few mistakes in the first 37. I was thrilled to see a 720.

Take aways:
1)Have a solid approach to solve each question and analyze your mistake.
2) Be calm on the test day it's just an exam and incase you get a low score you can still retry
3) Don't study from too many resources gmat club for quants , egmat for verbal and ofcourse og
4)The gmat preps are almost identical and please review them carefully
5)It is okay to make a few educated guesses and it is okay if you have to hurry a bit in the end especially last 2 or 3 questions.Don't be too focused on pacing if you have to hurry only a bit 5 mins last 4 verbal questions is okay as long as the 36 questions before that are solid

I wish everyone all the best. I am free to answer any further questions