GMAT EXPERIENCE 2ND ATTEMPT 710 Q49 V37 IR 6 WITH HECTIC JOB SCHEDULE

710 (Q 49, V 37, IR 6): This is not a score to boast of but given my circumstances and needs, I have met my target score. I know that my de-brief is quite long for a score like 710 but my bare-it-all insights on my GMAT journey would surely help a soul or two.

The most important thing to new test takers: GMAT is not a just a test of your knowledge, but more importantly a test of your ability. It is rather a good news!!! More on this later....


Background

I am the same average Indian mechanical engineer from a reputed Govt. Institute: good in Quant and not so good in verbal.
I am married for the last ten years and have a small daughter.
My main objective to get a good score in GMAT was to get into a prestigious Executive MBA program in India. I work in an Oil and Energy Major PSU in India since last 11 years. Given that I am already in middle level management in my company, I have very hectic work schedules. I work for around 55- 60 hrs a week including Saturdays and sometimes even Sundays too.
Hence, my debrief will be especially helpful for those, who are preparing while working full time.

First Attempt:Self Preparation

First thoughts
September 2018 and Round 1 deadlines were on the corner. Given my habit of procrastinating things, I thought of preparing for GMAT only after scheduling my appointment date on 10th Oct 2018. I had almost a month for preparations.

Initial Evaluation
First thing I did was to go through the GMAT Club to at least know how to start with. I had given CAT way back in 2006 and scored 92 percentile. And since GMAT is a little easy on Quant but very difficult (actually different..) on Verbal, the best way to judge yourself is to give mock free GMAT test from mba.com (Official website for GMAT).
I scored a 620 (Q 47, V 27). Then and there, I realized that I have to work on my verbal for two reasons.

1. Very poor score in Verbal.
2. No clue why the correct option is the only correct one even after seeing the answer .

If you can seriously work on the 2nd part on your own, then you might not need a Prep course. But if you have the slightest of doubts on your ability to improve things on your own, then you should go for a Prep course immediately. Otherwise you will be just losing your precious time and money on failed GMAT attempts.
Its absolutely OK to realise that!!!! Its absolutely OK to take help from a prep course.
But my first blunder was to schedule my GMAT test without analysing how much effort is needed to get to my target score.

Planning Strategy

First Fifteen Days: (Ignorance is bliss )

Quant
Be realistic. In my evaluation, I scored 47 in Quant. I was out of touch from Maths formulae and tricks for almost 11 years now. And here EGMAT and GMAT Club guided me. Reading various de briefs and planning strategies, I came to realise that I can improve to Q49 without much effort but then moving to Q50 to Q51 would be difficult for me at this stage. I was not ready for that as I had much work to do in Verbal.
However this may or may not be your strategy, depending on the following:

1. Your initial Quant score without any preparations,
2. How long you are away from studies and last but not the least
3. Your verbal score.

Another point should be on your radar is that which type of question you are going to skip if situation demands so. Keep track of all your errors. This will help you in those situations. For example, in my first attempt , I kept the P&C questions at bay even on my actual test.

Verbal
Actually, I had no clue regarding how to prepare for the GMAT Verbal. I bought the official guide and started solving question randomly. Given my hectic schedule at work, I prepared for two hours a day and five to six hours on Sundays.

SC: In sentence correction, I would almost always end up with the two OK looking answers but fail to select the correct one.
CR: I thought CR is more about finding out an innovative and out of the box thought out answer and I used to get confused when I saw the innovative answer options carefully crafted by test makers.
RC: I just read the passages just as I would read any article in a magazine. No strategies.

After almost weeks, there was no improvement in any of the sections. This was actually an offshoot of the way I had studied over my whole life actually. Rajat, the founder of E-GMAT made me realise this on my interview after my successful 2nd attempt. For a large part, our Indian education system is also to be blamed for it.

During my Engg days, we would study for only a week at the end, getting good scores in the semesters. Even the high school and engg. curriculum emphasises on learning concepts and application of mathematics and science but never on any literature subjects. That’s why we turned up good in Quant and average in Verbal.

With almost fifteen days to my scheduled first test, I registered for a free webinar on CR by Rajat, co founder of E GMAT.
The webinar enlightened me about the E GMAT three step approach to a CR question.
I thank E GMAT for coming up with the innovative idea of “pre thinking”, which is a must for test takers starting with the learning process.

Most importantly, we should understand the passage very precisely and the link between two statements in a passage.
The above is a simple statement but trust me, it takes a lot of efforts to get acquainted with the process.
e.g. I never realised earlier that adverbs particularly play such a big role in a passage comprehension.

Immediately, I attended a free webinar recordings for SC and RC conducted by Payal, co founder of E GMAT.
Essence of the meaning of sentence in the question and a different three step approach to RC were new to me.

I told my wife that there is a good news and a bad news!!!!!
The good news is that I now know how to crack the GMAT & the bad news is that it is almost impossible in these fifteen days, given the stage I am right now in.

Next Fifteen Days: (Stressful)

Without the knowledge of process, I had already wasted all the medium and difficult level OG questions from the book.
Yet, I started to apply PRETHINKING after reading the passage and it improved my CR accuracy. But my time to solve questions had increased. This led to anger and frustrations. I would shout at my wife and daughter for making the slightest noise in the house only to realise later on my own lack of focus. Focus actually comes with engagement and engagement comes with comprehension. That why a systematic approach is needed to start your preparation.
I felt like I was running a lost race. But I thank my wife for supporting me and maintaining my sanity amidst hectic project deadlines at office. She made me realise that ultimately the things that you learn in the process are going to help your career in some way or the other. Even my close friends told me that they were surprised and delighted to see a different me. And that released the pressure off me!!!
I realised that I shall at least be at an advanced stage by the time I give my first attempt and I had already made up my mind to go for a 2nd attempt if required.

Regarding Quant preparation, I think GMAT CLUB MATH BOOK prepared by Bunuel is enough to get you to a score of Q49. I thank the GMATCLUB for such amazing resources. I prepared for about a week for Quant and reached my target score in the 2nd free official test

In fact I scored a 740 Q 49 V41. No!! Ironically, that’s not the result of my efforts since last week!!!!
Actually I had seen four to five questions earlier during my benighted preparation without any structure; especially the CR questions really stick your memory. And if the seen questions were of 700+ level, that can really play up with the adaptive algorithm of the tests and give you an inflated score. So always be careful and honest with such scores!!!
Whatever it may be, my confidence was high for the test now.


Exam Day: 11th Oct 2018

The place where I stay and work is a tiring 12 hours journey to the nearest Exam centre.
But Exam Centre experience was really nice. I was the only one scheduled for the exam that day.
I took Verbal first taking the advantage of a fresh brain. But I was in for surprises.
For the first 20 questions, I was still not sure about most of the SC questions and average was around 2 mins. I was more confident on the CR questions and was taking almost three to four mins on each question.
In RC, I took a long time to read the first passage. At one point, I had to answer 16 questions with 10 mins left.
In the two RCs that came later, I neither read the passage nor the question stem; I just clicked on a random answer choice and moved on. I had saved the time for CR and SC questions and somehow finished my section. Since I didn’t practice for IR, I was not expected much out of it and the same goes for AWA.
When the score of 650 popped up, I was dejected to death.

In the next few days, few thoughts came to my mind that may be because of the time constraints I had failed to score good. May I should attempt a next one the next week for a proper timing strategy.
Fortunately, then I saw one of E GMATS you-tube debrief videos where Payal explains how timing cannot be improved without improving your ability. That is really a piece of sublime wisdom that would be stay with me forever.
I took a month’s break from GMAT as I had planned for a refreshing vacation with my family after the cracking the GMAT.

I was back in business and enrolled for the EGMAT Verbal Live Course for its rave reviews.


Second Attempt (Enlightment)

As I had already shared the story of my first attempt, we would rather share my learnings from the second one.


Sentence Correction: This is the section that you can improve the most in a short period of time. Take it for granted!!!!! You will be amazed how many new things you can learn just from a single question. Always make sure you reject a choice for right reason. Many a times I learnt new things from the same question if I take it up again and that really helps.
E GMAT is already well known for structured SC course. Since I am from a CBSE board in India, I never studied and understood English that way. Always keep a log of all questions answered wrong and their explanations.
Through practice in E GMAT scholaranium, I was consistently able to answer all kinds of SC questions in about 1 min 5 secs. And actually, that’s how your ability improves your timing.
E GMAT scholaranium is a very carefully crafted question bank with detailed answer explanations and student expert discussions. The discussions also help you to understand the various aspects of a question that you might not have thought of.
I had also gone through the various GMAT Prep free explanations from Ron Purewal and his webinar videos, whose links are already available in GMAT CLUB.

Resources: E-gmat, OG 18, Ron Videos, Manhattan SC guide, GMATPREP

Critical Reasoning (Don’t look for shortcuts & tricks in CR. There is none)
Most Important: Understand the passage precisely along the lines of author’s reasoning. You might have heard of it earlier too, but it is easier said than done. EGMAT specially provides you that platform through pre-thinking and scholaranium questions where you can apply the process of critical thinking. But it is YOU who has to make that effort to understand the reasoning. It takes time initially and the time taken to solve a question reduces drastically later on with practice.
Also it is very important to find out your weakness.
E.g. For me, I understood the passage thoroughly but didn’t pay proper attention to the option choices which are also as convoluted as the passage in tough CR questions. And it took me some time to realise that.

Resources: E-gmat, OG 18, CR Bible, Ron Videos, GMATPREP

Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension is a skill that takes a long time to improve from your present level.
Here Again, the most important thing is to read slowly, understand and infer maximum out of it.
E-GMAT provides the structured strategy which might seem boring at first but trust me that is the way to start reading.
You may exhaust all contents for RC available in different forums.
Hence I rather found it useful to read at least eight articles from the economist every day, applying the process.
That’s precisely, it takes time to apply the process and if you start with OG or GMAT Prep passages , we would end up soon, improving a little.
E GMAT Verbal webinars for RC are the best. I made it a point to watch specific parts of the recording every day till I was comfortable with the process.
Another important thing is that students tend to neglect RC and concentrate on SC and CR.
It so happens because improvements in SC and CR are faster and in that order.
But improvements in RC takes time and students get frustrated.
But when it improves, it will add value to your CR and as well as SC approaches and reduce the overall time in Verbal considerably.
Seriously I don’t think you can get into 700s without improving in RC.
You ll get to 680 or 690 max.
Resources: E-gmat, OG 18, Economist, Scientific American,



EGMAT: I thank E-GMAT for being my mentor & my guide throughout this journey. E GMAT makes you follow a structured yet flexible approach, different for different people. A must for especially the non native test takers!!!! There are a few things that I really liked about E GMAT.

1. Structured Plan.A student in college or just passed out of college, preparing for GMAT without a job can study for long hours everyday and scored great within two or three months of study. But, for a working married professional in middle management like me, sparing more than 2-3 hours a day is impossible. And a longer period approach (six months) in my case requires a structured approach. Otherwise you start strong and somewhere in the middle, there is a chance that your preparations fizzle out. EGMAT came in very handy with my plan.

2. Scholaranium. This is one of the best platform to apply your learning and understand your weaknesses. The background analytics specifically spots out your weakness in certain types of questions and you need to work on that.
It is true for everyday life and GMAT is not different. Its worth mentioning that I didn’t work out a single OG question during my preparations for my 2nd attempt nor had I open the OG book even once. Such is the power of scholaranium.

3. Verbal Workshop. Because of my hectic schedule, I had actually planned my 2nd attempt in around Aug 2019 near to the Round 1 applications deadlines. But on 1st March 2019, I got an order that I would be transferred to a new city in Western India within two months. I decided that I have to give the test within a month as having a family and a daughter at school, I would need some time to prepare for the transfer and it won’t be easy to start studies again in anew place amidst all other important things.
Here, Verbal Workshop came in handy. I was at V34 and my RC was particularly weak on tough RCs.
I realised that I had significant conceptual gaps in my understanding, which otherwise you won’t realise on your own.
I credit the Verbal Workshop for my improvement V 33-34 to V37 in a few days.
On hindsight, I now know that my preparation would have been on a wrong direction, if I didn't attend the Verbal Workshop.

4.RC webinars(both the free and the paid ones): They are just great. But it also depends on which expert is conducting the webinar.

GMATCLUB: They say, “there is nothing free in this world and everything comes with a price tag.” If it is true, then GMAT CLUB is out of this world. Words fall short to describe my tribute to this amazing club where you first start with your baby steps on your GMAT journey.

1.Quant: Don’t look for anywhere other than the free resources of GMATCLUB on Quant preparation if you are aiming at Q49 or less. For more, I can’t guide you as I had not prepared to score more than Q49.

2.Verbal: Apart from the guidance from EGMAT experts, I shall also be highly indebted to GMAT NINJA, experts from Manhattan Prep, Veritas Prep and Magoosh who have selflessly devoted their time and efforts to guide idiots like us  in our preparations. And without this platform, it would have been impossible.

3.Introducing Ron Purewal: If Ron is Dronachrya, then I am an odd version of Eklavya. (A Non Indian can google the terms). I have learnt so many things from Ron (Demi God in GMAT) without him knowing my existence. It is through this platform I came to know about him, whose explanations touch upon the psychological aspects of the GMAT. Through his words, I have found a meaning out of all these struggles and it made me enjoy this otherwise arduous journey. In one of his free videos, he talks about looking at failures as opportunities to learn and thinking about test day as a chance to show off how hard you've worked! Just check out his profile.


Mock Tests

GMATCLUB tests are best for Quant.
Use the official mock tests.
My GMATPREP scores during my preparation: (I had used the free tests in my first attempt, So I bought Exam Pack-1)
GMAT prep 1 -730 (inflated scores!!)
GMAT prep 2 -760 (inflated scores!!)
GMAT prep 3 – 710
GMAT prep 4 - 730

EXAM DAY 05th April 2019

I caught fever just the day before exam because I travelled to my exam centre overnight in a highly cooled AC two tier berth in a train and caught cold. I was very tense and I thought this will screw my efforts for the last five months.
I took my GMAT taking paracetamol tablets wearing a sweater in April and guess what!!!! Fever didn’t have much of an impact and that’s the power of improved ability. It might had a -ve 10 effect on my score but not more.

Quant: I started with Quant this time. I feel working with Quant question is a good warm up for CR inference and arithmetic based questions that later come in Verbal. Quant was a little more difficult than my first attempt may be because there were very few questions from my strong sections like geometry and number properties and more questions from Permutations and Combinations (around six).
But I was still satisfied with a Q49 with a two week study using the extremely useful GMAT CLUB Quant question bank which comes complimentary with the E GMAT Verbal Live package. However I finished the section with five minutes left. I finished with six minutes still in hand.

Verbal: As expected, Verbal Section takes you for a toss. And be prepared for that beforehand.
GMAT spends around $3000 on each question and its there on the screen for you to see.

My personal strategy :

SC questions within 1 min 5secs.
CR questions within 2 mins.
RC questions around 1 min 50 secs.

You would have to act on your own strengths and not mine. There will be 65 mins for 36 questions for all of us. Now how you distribute the time is the thing you need to work on.

Nevertheless, I finished with five minutes to spare here too.

IR: I had not studied a single min except for answering in the mocks. Got 6 out of 8. Satisfied.
AWA: I read good reviews about the Chinese burnt template available in GMAT Club. But I didn’t have time for AWA preparation and as such, got an avg 5 out of 6.

IF you don’t have time to read the above, just read this.

1. Don’t neglect RC. Without acing RC, 700 is a dream. I realised it quite late into their preparations.
2. Prepare your own strategy after giving a few mocks.
3. Prepare your plan B for the test. Find what area you make most mistakes. Make a list of question types that you can skip if situation arises.
3. And remember consistency is the key at least for Quant.
6. Make a note of your mistakes and try to extract maximum out of it. Revisit your mistakes every now and then so that you never repeat them in future again.
7. In a timed environment, don’t fall in love with a question. For me, it was particularly difficult to leave a CR question if I had understood the passage but still confused with the choices.
8. Practise a Kapaalbharati (yogic purification) everyday in the morning, even just before the test. It helps.

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