GMAT Debrief - Scored 760 (Q50, V42)

Hi guys,
During my GMAT preparation, I read a lot of de-briefs from people who were quite successful with the GMAT and tried to find common themes in these posts. I found debriefs both insightful and source of motivation throughout my GMAT journey. I am here to summarize what worked for me and what didn't. This post covers my background and general section wise strategies. If need be, I can comment how to make the best of GMATClub Tests and other resources on this website the way I did.

A big thanks to GMATClub for providing me with such a great platform to learn, share and consolidate my learning about GMAT exam and business schools.

Background
I am an engineer. Last year I applied to the top business schools using my 330 GRE score and was quite confident about it. I worked hard to improve all other aspects of my profile but little did I know the disappointment that was about to hit me. By mid-2016, I was rejected post interviews in a few top 10 B-schools and in most other schools without even an interview. It was quite clear that I had to take the GMAT, especially because I belong to an overly represented country. Before taking the GMAT this year, I knew I had to achieve at least a 750 if I have to make any improvements my applications this year (GRE 330 = GMAT 750 *Score conversion table). Another thing to note is that if you are applying to top-10 schools, GRE score no matter how high is inherently risky for overly represented applicants and I just learned it the hard way. (My close friend from a different country and with a very similar experience and profile, got through to Top 10 school with a lower GRE score than me, so don't draw any conclusions yet).

GMAT Preparation Summary
1. Preparation time – I was rejected off the waitlist in some schools so I waited until mid-May to book a GMAT exam. I decided to take the GMAT in the first week of June. That gave me 7 weeks for the prep. I took my first GMAT and scored 720 but immediately cancelled the score. After that, I didn’t prepare for two weeks until mid-July and then booked my GMAT again for August 1st.
2. Books and reference materials – Discussed in detail in Part II
Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide, OG 2015, OG Verbal and Quant Review, Bunnuel’s Maths Questions from this forum, My Error Log spreadsheets, GMATClub Tests – Quant and Verbal, Magoosh Premium Membership, Manhattan Tests, LSAT CR Questions, GMATPrep ESR, GMATPrep all 6 tests and Question Pack 1

General Strategy

Quantitative
I scored with over 85% accuracy throughout my GMAT preparation in GMAT Quant, but that wasn’t why I did well in the GMAT exam. For starters, I finished all the questions in OG, Magoosh & downloaded GMATClub Quant guide for notes. These took me through my first GMAT exam. For my second attempt, I attempted GMATClub Quant test almost every day something I didn’t do as frequently before the first GMAT. I also used the Mistake analysis tool in GMATClub Test subscription to the fullest and spent time preparing my problem areas – Overlapping sets and Geometry. In the end I was scoring from 49-51, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough in the end to get me a 51.

Verbal
This is where I lagged throughout my GMAT prep. Going into my first GMAT exam, my prep lacked discipline in SC/CR. I did not have structure/grid/methods to solve a specific question types, something which I highly recommend if you are not a native English speaker. For my second exam, during my 2 weeks prep, I solved all hard level questions in Magoosh question bank twice or even thrice. I also completed all GMATPrep questions twice noting all the errors in my error log. While my SC prep mostly involved Magoosh and OG, my CR prep involved LSAT, Magoosh, GMATPrep and GMATClub CR collections. In CR, I was always able to eliminate those 2-3 irrelevant options that GMAT makers throw at you but even with 2 options left I generally chose the correct option only 3 in 4 questions in timed settings.

Right before my final GMAT -
My SC accuracy rates hovered around 85-90% with per question timing of 1min30 secs (I wasn't very fast and wanted it to be so). For CRs, my accuracy was 75-85% with average timings of 2m 35secs each. (For RCs I was 95-100% times right – trick was to spend up to 3 mins on brisk passage reading and use CR inference strategies for that one troubling infer question that stumped me every now and then)

Pacing
Pacing is CRITICAL in GMAT. I haven't seen de-briefs push this aspect much. Once you have a good accuracy and structured approach to each question in GMAT, you need to control your pacing. I won’t go into too much details about how I narrowed my pacing down to numbers, but here's what worked best for me in the end -
For verbal I followed 60-40-20-10 mins rule which means I have to be at 10th, 20th, 30th and 36th questions at 60 mins, 40 mins, 20 mins and 10 mins respectively
Similarly for quant, the guideline I used was 58-42-24 for 9th, 18th and 27th questions. I was not following a 2 min rule in quant, that was to keep me on my toes.

Exams Summary
Before my first GMAT, I took all MGMAT tests and GMATPrep Exam Packs 1 & 2. For practice when building your concepts, I think Manhattan tests are not bad, but I would not recommend taking those after 2 weeks prior to GMAT, as the scores or scoring is nothing like the GMAT. I often felt frustrated and actually never finished the Math section of any MGMAT tests I took, despite almost always 49-51 in GMATClub Quant tests. Although I managed to score a 750 in one of the GMATPrep exams right before my first exam, I scored 720 in my actual exam. Hence I cancelled the score after the test.

For the second test, the core of my exam prep involved GMATPrep test repetition and working one only problem areas. My biggest weakness were SC &CR and pacing in Q and V. In the end, started scoring in the 750's consistently. During my second test I actually felt I was doing poorly in my accuracy but my pacing was almost perfect till the end.

Summary of all my tests -
GMATPrep Free Test 1 - 700,
MGMAT - 1 (640) to MGMAT - 6 (730)
GMATPrep Free Test 2 - 750 (Q-50. V-41)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -2 Test 1 660 (Q-50, V-30)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -1 Test 1 690 (Q-50, V-32)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -2 Test 2 740 (Q-51, V-39)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -1 Test 2 750 (Q-51, V-40)

First GMAT - 720 (Q-50, V-38) * I was inconsistent in my tests, and that inconsistency reflected in my final score. I narrowed it down to not having a fixed structure to SC and CR solving.

GMATPrep Free Test 1 Retake - 740 (Q-51,V-39)
GMATPrep Free Test 2 Retake - 760 (Q-50,V-42)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -2 Test 1 Retake - 760 (Q-50, V-42)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -1 Test 1 Retake - 740 (Q-50, V-39)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -2 Test 2 Retake - 750 (Q-50, V-41)
GMATPrep Exam Pack -1 Test 2 Retake - 760 (Q-51, V-41)

Second GMAT - 760 (Q-50, V-42)