GMAT Debrief - 3rd Time Lucky

Hi, i recently took the GMAT test for the third time in 7.5 months of total prep time and finally hit my target score of a 650 (Q42, V 37). Can't thank the GmatClub community enough so i'll contribute with this debrief on my learnings from this experience (i think this debrief is applicable to anyone who wants to score in the range of 680-710):-

(Note: these are all the things i recommend based on my personal experience. These strategies and tactics may obviously need a little bit of tweaking to accommodate subjective interests)

Subject Matter

1) Quant: Do not spend more than 3 weeks to brush up on fundamental concepts - the last time i studied anything before this was 7 years ago, so i naturally had to spend a lot of time on the basics but i reckon i over did it a wee bit - considering that i spent a good 6 weeks+ on the Manhattan Quant books. Practicing quant questions is way more important than conveniently immersing yourself in the concepts and wiling away time in the process. So get done with this phase soon enough and move on

2) Quant: You need to develop an understanding of how to solve problems in the simplest and fastest ways possible - You can't afford more than 2 / 2.5 mins per question in the test so there are times when the "math heavy" way just doesn't make sense to approach your problems. GMAT tests smartness and presence of mind - you need to have the presence of mind to know how to get the right answer in the fastest possible manner. This is the reason why i loved the Empower GMAT Quant modules and would highly recommend them. They show you simple ways to approach a problem and help you build that mindset for the quant section. Also, solving all questions from the OG is a must and Empower GMAT has great solutions for every OG question. Highly recommended

3) Quant - you need to develop a "solve for fun" attitude to succeed - this is why i'd recommend you move on from the concepts in 3 odd weeks cauz you need to gear yourself to solve atleast a thousand quant questions before test day (400 odd from the OG and the rest from the tests you take and practice questions you solve). Solve for fun, time yourself (if you exceed 2.5 / 3 mins for a particular problem, you're doing something wrong), analyze your mistakes, take up concepts you're weak in separately and prepare...ultimately, solving a slew of questions with the right review system will make a lot of this part of your muscle memory and that's the way to go in quant. I practiced a ton of questions from EGMATs scholaranium as well...since i was going to be okay with anything 650+, i chose to ignore the "Very hard" category of questions. Although i bombed quant a bit in the final test (Q42), i never scored under Q48 in all my 6 GMAC prep tests and i had also scored a Q44 in my second GMAT attempt .. so the strategy was still pretty okay i guess

4) Quant - the GMAT kills you if you get the easy/mid level questions wrong in the test - your understanding of the following topics needs to be thorough: number properties, ratios and proportion, percentages, averages and statistics, algebra. Don't worry about cracking other, more difficult questions of areas such as combinatorics, probability, rate and work, geometry and overlapping sets problems without doing the earlier ones thoroughly first

5) SC - i was naturally a lot better at SC (scored 90%ile in the test) which is perhaps why I found the MGMAT SC guide a bit too complex and hence had to let go of it. Make sure you understand the simple concepts of parallellism, modifiers, subject/pronoun - verb agreement, comma splices and fused sentences, etc and you should be okay - while, i'm sure it may help if you're a grammar ninja and can break a sentence down to its nuts and bolts: subject, verb, object, noun, etc but hey, i was able to do just fine without doing much of that. if you're interested, write into me at nandan[dot]convonix[at]gmail[dot]com and i'll share my SC notes with you - these notes are hand created by me, with examples and cover most of what you need to know to crack this section. A big part of SC is also whether you clearly understand the meaning of the sentence...most of us tend to ignore that aspect while trying to focus too much on the nuances...so keep that in mind. Also, a big shout out to the creator of chompchomp.com. I learned so many of my SC concepts here - all for free! highly recommended that you do the exercises from there.

6) RC - practice atleast 2 - 3 RCs a day for over a month or so and that'll be of great help. With the way GMAT is structured and scored, you can tend to skip through some difficult looking SC and CR questions to save time but you can't skip a single passage in the test...getting a bunch of questions wrong in a row hits you hard. i did just that in my first attempt and got a V31). Learn to paraphrase RCs well. After every para, write down (in short) what you understood from the para and what the author is trying to say. I practiced a number of RCs from EGMATs verbal scholaranium and that was of a lot of help. Practice RCs everyday to score at 75% accuracy and aim to finish 1 average length RC in no more than 8 minutes.

7) CR - i benefited a lot from EGMATs CR modules and then solving CR questions from their verbal scholaranium. Do this first and then perhaps start practicing questions from the OG. Doing the OG first may not be of help as with CR, you tend to remember the answers when you solve them again - so it's important to preserve the OG questions after you've spent time on the concepts. Assumption questions are the most important so spend enough time to understand those well.


Test Taking - Strategy and Ability

This area is super important. you need to know that the first 10 questions are a little more important to get right... (I'm not implying that the questions after no. 10 are not important). You need to know what your target score is (for me it was anything 650+) and work towards that...You can't get a bunch of questions wrong in a row, across any section so plan your guesses accordingly (cauz you invariably have to guess a little to finish on time). You have to let go of your ego in cases where you get stuck (develop an internal timer to move on from a quant question after 2.5 mins of being at it, 1.5 mins for SC, 2/2.5 mins for CR and less than 8 mins for one RC).

You must take atleast 6 tests in legit GMAT-like conditions before the final test (you will see your test taking stamina improve significantly because of this..without it, the test will take toll on your and you'll eventually be too bored to take an honest shot at verbal, which is the last section of the test). Make sure you take these practice tests at a similar time as your scheduled GMAT test. if you can afford the extra exam packs from MBA.com, go for them please. If you can't, borrow money from someone and get them. Those are very important to have and take...indispensable.

Also, you need to know you're pacing yourself right during the exam (must have target check points after question no. 10, 20, 30). Guessing on difficult questions inorder to save time is not as detrimental to your score (i could still manage Q48+ in the 6 GMAC Prep tests i took and a Q44 in my second GMAT attempt by doing this). On verbal though, do not guess on a question without checking its difficulty level - i did this in my second attempt and i think that one thing brought my score down (v29). SCs difficulty is easier to gauge and CR as well (difficult CR Qs are clearly harder to comprehend). Make sure you answer all questions as the penalty on not doing that is severe and also ensure you don't end up having to guess the last 6-8 questions just because you screwed up your timing earlier...this is why it's important to have check points at question no. 10, 20 and 30 that you must meet with an error margin of no more than 2 mins.





Overall lifestyle

It pays to be at the best of your fitness levels (mental and physical) when you pursue the GMAT. Ensure you keep staying healthy during the process (and also otherwise in life!) and make time for light exercises every once in a while. Abstaining from alcohol and other intoxicants will pay huge dividends (in the last 1.5 months of my prep, i was down to just the one glass of wine on Friday evenings cauz i clearly saw that too much alcohol consumption was limiting my scoring potential in practice tests). Get alteast 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep everyday during the last 2 months of your prep..i, like most other people, balanced my GMAT prep with a demanding job but still made sure i was sleeping enough everyday. Sacrifices are needed here.

If you think some artificial stimulants help you focus better, go for them by all means. Having a cup of strong black tea before every study session (and eventually during my final exam breaks) clearly helped me a lot. Never study or take any test (practice or final) without having eaten and slept adequately.


Philosophy..failed attempts...retakes

I failed in my first two attempts because i made a mountain out of the GMAT in my head. Don't. It's just another test and you take it and move on. We're humans and we find ways to be happy. Treat the test as objectively as you can and you'll do better (especially if you have test anxiety, which i did).

A lot of it also depends on test-day luck as well (ofcourse only if you've put in the hard yards first) so don't get disheartened if you get a bad score. You can manage a retake and hope for a better outcome next time...and another retake if even that doesn't work either...and another one. Such is life, there is no other way but to keep trying.

If you think you've done the hard yards and know your content (i knew i did cauz i had been scoring at the avg 670 mark in my GMAC prep tests...my last GMAC Prep score was a 710, two days before my second failed attempt of 600 - bummer!), take the next attempt ASAP while you're still in touch. I was out of my test repository after my second failed attempt so all i did was revise my bookmarks from the previous tests for 10 days (i had to manage applications for 6 days so couldn't study then) and then reappeared to hit my target score. This is only because i knew the 600 in my second attempt could've been a 690 on another day or even a 700+.

Make sure you go about flagging all tricky questions, especially across quant..these will come in handy when you revise stuff or prepare during your retakes.


All the best!