Hello world,
I gave my first gmat on 18th of Oct,2018. I scored a 690: Q49 V35 AWA 5 & IR 8 and was pretty much heartbroken on seeing that score; My gmatprep scores will further show you why. I have attached my ESR at the end but I would suggest anyone who wants to help me to read what I have written about my prep Background: Indian, Just completed my Bachelors in Technology and have started a job in an MNC. I prepared for gmat in the 1.5-month gap I had in between my college final exams and the joining date for my job.
Materials I have or used :
OG 2018 and Verbal Review 2019: Finished completely (only once)
E gmat prep: Studied SC and CR from there ( Didn't have time to revisit the videos or use scholaranium so have just seen them once ) This was my only source of prep for verbal along with some
magoosh blogs(love each one of them) I studied at the end of my prep. They were mostly blogs on that v which and so on. Also studied a little on idioms from
magoosh idioms book, it was indeed very good and informative. For RC, didn't study the theory from anywhere, just used my CR skills to pass through them. Combining RC's from
OG and Verbal Review, I would say I had 90-95% accuracy in Easy-Medium RC's and 80% on the Harder ones(700+).
gmatclub tests : Just managed to attempt 6 quant tests but I revisited every wrong and flagged questions. My scores were Q47,48,49,50,49,50 (Just used Gmat quant club guide to study quant sinceI have a pretty solid base in maths) Although now I feel I took quant a bit lightly since the quant I encountered in my GMAT was much harder and had very lengthy questions.
MGMAT: Just have attempted 2
mgmat and scored 680( gave it in the initial stage of prep) and 720 (gave it 2 weeks before my exam). Have 4MGMAT mocks left.
GMAT prep: Now here is why I was shattered on test day. This has been my performance on gmat prep. I have used 5 mocks once and have 1 mock that I haven't used at all.
GMATprep1: 720 - Q50 V37 ( Gave it 2 weeks after I started my prep )
GMATprep2: 720 - Q50 V38 ( Gave it 1 week after mock1)
GMATprep3: 770 - Q51 V42 ( Gave it 2 weeks before my actual GMAT)
GMATprep4: 740 - Q50 V40 (Gave it 1 week before my actual GMAT, had 2 questions wrong on quant )
GMATprep5: 740 - Q51 V40 (Gave it 3 days before my Gmat)
GMATprep6: Not attempted yetIn the last 4 gmatprep mocks, I would say out of all my verbal mistakes, 75-80% of them were SC while the rest RC or CR, varying from exam to exam. Usually had I would have either 2 rc 1 cr wrong or 1 rc 2 cr and around 5-6 wrong in SC. I tried a lot to improve my SC but for some reason, it has been very hard to improve. Although I would say I have loved
Magoosh content, esp the blogs and idioms book.
Manhattan SC/RC/CR book 6th Edition : Yet to touch them
GMAT ninja videos on SC : Added to watch list and will watch them soon. Didn't have time before I gave my GMAT.
Time in hand : Now that I have started my job, I would say I can give 2-3 hours per day to my gmat prep everyday on weekdays and 8-10 hours on weekend.
I haven't decided when to give my next attempt and I want to give it my all. I don't want to give it a third time. I want to conquer this in the second attempt.
I want to reach a minimum of 740 and I know I can get Q50 V40 if I study smart. I want to focus on SC alot and work on my quant side my side seriously too. I doubt if I even saw more than 4-5 easy questions on my gmat quant. Meanwhile on gmatprep, even on gmatclub I saw atleast 10 questions that I would say were rather short and easy to do.
Anyway, I'm done with my story and eagerly waiting for your advice, be it from BB himself or from a new member. I just feel constantly restless and I won't be completely stress-free until I reach my goal.
ESR attached below.