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Well the journey for GMAT success for me started with extreme frustration with my current job, where I was ready to quit it the same day.
But a sane friend of mine nudged me towards GMAT, which according to him was "shortest possible way to success" (Boy was he wrong!!!)
Nonetheless, I researched a bit about the exam, read a few reviews, took a few demo courses, and extensively researched on my chances of getting an admit (especially me being an India, which goes against the DEI score criterion of most schools), and in the end decided to do hell with it and attempt it anyway.
The prep course I got admitted to is called "TOP One Percent" (Highly recommended, especially for non native English speakers). I was also enrolled to GMAT Club Elite Test Program. I think the test program mimics GMAT exam to the closet possible, and more importantly it is almost a community effort at the exam which I can't emphasize enough how much it makes the prep period enjoyable. I had been a regular attempter of Butler Questions, Bunuel's signature collections, Bismuth's DI Collections and all. With GMAT Club community and Forum, I don't think I ever needed some physical person to clarify my doubts. And of course Bunuel and other Test Prep Guides/Moderators are always there to give you insights into which strategy to take, what alternate ways are there of approaching this question and why my approach was not the correct one.
Quant: The section which should had been the easiest for me; being an Engineer (by Education and Profession); turned out to be the trickiest to master. Initially for a month, not only was I making mistakes, I was also running drearily low on time, with average could not attempt questions being 2.5.
My two cents on how to conquer Quant; when going through the course or type of questions and tricks for the first time, spend a lot of time on it. Try and internalize the strategies, shortcuts ,get used to the different point of views for solving the questions. Try and figure out why a particular strategy is preferable over the other one, don't shy away from adapting new strategies if there is certain and quantifiable advantages to it.
After you are confident that you are down with most of the tips/tricks/traps, then only practice timed questions, be it sectional ones of the complete tests.
I made only two mistakes in my Quant section. Making silly mistakes is the symptom of over preparation. After sometime, Quant becomes a breeze and you tend to start getting lax in your attitude, as you get used to solving the whole section with 10 mins to spare. Hence don't over prepare, try and not loose focus, and always time yourself for the 21 questions. My 2 mistakes cost me dearly and pulled my Quant section percentile down to 91% and I think these two questions were the difference between my 99% and a possible 100% mark.
Verbal: Verbal is the section of struggle especially for non native English speakers. I however, was surprised to find out that this section suited me well. I think the best way to handle to section is by strategizing individually for CR and RC.
CR: Try and take in all the logic which are being mentioned in each of the answer explanations. Most of the options fade away using such logic and sometimes by using only common sense. For the doubtful two options, try and use elimination, look for extreme words, extreme inferences, generalization of facts against specific facts provided in the question stem etc. It should be a breeze.
RC: RC attempts DO NOT improve upon reading more and more (newspaper, journals etc.). You need to study more of the RC focused passages, and solve more and more questions. I went through with all the available RC passages in GMAT Club, TOP One Percent and OGs. If you have expired all of these and want more of RC passages to practice and improve, I would recommend using LSAT RC passages.
Again, I had been really relaxed whenever I have attempted Verbal, and off late I started being a bit too relaxed. As a result on the exam day I performed exceedingly well with my CR (which I had struggled immensely wit initially) and had not a single mistake on those. But I committed a blunder (almost a sin!) and marked 3 questions wrong in comfortable RC section.
DI: Someone in due course of my prep, someone once exclaimed that DI is almost an art, you can neither quantify it nor strategize for it. I tend to agree, I can not add how to improve upon it. My only insights about this newly created section are that it is a pure mix of Quant and Verbal, hence do not start preparing for it before you are done with both your Quant and Verbal. Secondly, the Data Sufficiency questions are mostly Quant questions hence prep so that you take the least time for those and with maximum efficiency. They will become your saviors in the treacherous journey that is DI. And lastly, you can improve upon your time by practicing for DI. I used to take the most time on Multi Source Reasoning, Tables and Bars/Charts. On the test day, I scored a perfect score on MSR and overall had only 5 mistakes in the DI section which was an impressive 97 percentile.
Test Day:
i had opted for a physical test center. Luckily my city had a Pearson Profession Test Center, which I think eased a lot of things for me. The center had the best amenities this exam has to offer: A quiet center with sound insulation, proper PCs with large enough screens that I do not need to squint to read the questions, a comfortable chair with proper back rest, and most importantly ear muffs and ear plugs (they work wonders for focusing). The only thing I could crib about was the laminated scratch pads and markers. The scratch pads when new must have been excellent, but over time with repeated use, had accumulated pockets for fine dirt, where the marker pen would not write, I had to struggle for a few minutes just to get the angle of pen and the proper area within my scratch pad to write on. After some time, I figured it out and was comfortable with them.
Exam Strategy:
Initially whilst preparing I was prepping for Quant->Verbal->Break->DI.
But upon attempting several full tests I found that, after having done Quant and Verbal and having taken the break, I would get lazy and could not muster enough effort to put into consuming the data being presented in DI questions.
Hence I changed my strategy to Quant-> DI ->Break->Verbal. The idea behind this was after having attempted Quant, I could switch to DI , which contained partially Quant and partially Verbal, which would act as the bridge between these two sections with no drastic change in type of questions being attempted. DI would be the soft landing into Verbal. And the break was timed as such because, I wanted to have done most of the heavy lifting before I could take the break and even if I get lazy somehow, Verbal won't be affected that much.
However, on the test day I ran through all the sections without taking any break in between the sections and completed the exam approximately 8 mins early (as for last attempted Verbal section I had 8 mins spare). I felt that I was in the zone after completing Quant and DI and felt that break would only disturb my concentration. Hence I sat through, felt a bit drowsy during last RC passage of the day, submitted my attempt and was elated to see the score of 725.
All the above analysis is a later outcome of days of self deliberation on what I did wrong and what were my mistakes.
Feel free to question.
But a sane friend of mine nudged me towards GMAT, which according to him was "shortest possible way to success" (Boy was he wrong!!!)
Nonetheless, I researched a bit about the exam, read a few reviews, took a few demo courses, and extensively researched on my chances of getting an admit (especially me being an India, which goes against the DEI score criterion of most schools), and in the end decided to do hell with it and attempt it anyway.
The prep course I got admitted to is called "TOP One Percent" (Highly recommended, especially for non native English speakers). I was also enrolled to GMAT Club Elite Test Program. I think the test program mimics GMAT exam to the closet possible, and more importantly it is almost a community effort at the exam which I can't emphasize enough how much it makes the prep period enjoyable. I had been a regular attempter of Butler Questions, Bunuel's signature collections, Bismuth's DI Collections and all. With GMAT Club community and Forum, I don't think I ever needed some physical person to clarify my doubts. And of course Bunuel and other Test Prep Guides/Moderators are always there to give you insights into which strategy to take, what alternate ways are there of approaching this question and why my approach was not the correct one.
Quant: The section which should had been the easiest for me; being an Engineer (by Education and Profession); turned out to be the trickiest to master. Initially for a month, not only was I making mistakes, I was also running drearily low on time, with average could not attempt questions being 2.5.
My two cents on how to conquer Quant; when going through the course or type of questions and tricks for the first time, spend a lot of time on it. Try and internalize the strategies, shortcuts ,get used to the different point of views for solving the questions. Try and figure out why a particular strategy is preferable over the other one, don't shy away from adapting new strategies if there is certain and quantifiable advantages to it.
After you are confident that you are down with most of the tips/tricks/traps, then only practice timed questions, be it sectional ones of the complete tests.
I made only two mistakes in my Quant section. Making silly mistakes is the symptom of over preparation. After sometime, Quant becomes a breeze and you tend to start getting lax in your attitude, as you get used to solving the whole section with 10 mins to spare. Hence don't over prepare, try and not loose focus, and always time yourself for the 21 questions. My 2 mistakes cost me dearly and pulled my Quant section percentile down to 91% and I think these two questions were the difference between my 99% and a possible 100% mark.
Verbal: Verbal is the section of struggle especially for non native English speakers. I however, was surprised to find out that this section suited me well. I think the best way to handle to section is by strategizing individually for CR and RC.
CR: Try and take in all the logic which are being mentioned in each of the answer explanations. Most of the options fade away using such logic and sometimes by using only common sense. For the doubtful two options, try and use elimination, look for extreme words, extreme inferences, generalization of facts against specific facts provided in the question stem etc. It should be a breeze.
RC: RC attempts DO NOT improve upon reading more and more (newspaper, journals etc.). You need to study more of the RC focused passages, and solve more and more questions. I went through with all the available RC passages in GMAT Club, TOP One Percent and OGs. If you have expired all of these and want more of RC passages to practice and improve, I would recommend using LSAT RC passages.
Again, I had been really relaxed whenever I have attempted Verbal, and off late I started being a bit too relaxed. As a result on the exam day I performed exceedingly well with my CR (which I had struggled immensely wit initially) and had not a single mistake on those. But I committed a blunder (almost a sin!) and marked 3 questions wrong in comfortable RC section.
DI: Someone in due course of my prep, someone once exclaimed that DI is almost an art, you can neither quantify it nor strategize for it. I tend to agree, I can not add how to improve upon it. My only insights about this newly created section are that it is a pure mix of Quant and Verbal, hence do not start preparing for it before you are done with both your Quant and Verbal. Secondly, the Data Sufficiency questions are mostly Quant questions hence prep so that you take the least time for those and with maximum efficiency. They will become your saviors in the treacherous journey that is DI. And lastly, you can improve upon your time by practicing for DI. I used to take the most time on Multi Source Reasoning, Tables and Bars/Charts. On the test day, I scored a perfect score on MSR and overall had only 5 mistakes in the DI section which was an impressive 97 percentile.
Test Day:
i had opted for a physical test center. Luckily my city had a Pearson Profession Test Center, which I think eased a lot of things for me. The center had the best amenities this exam has to offer: A quiet center with sound insulation, proper PCs with large enough screens that I do not need to squint to read the questions, a comfortable chair with proper back rest, and most importantly ear muffs and ear plugs (they work wonders for focusing). The only thing I could crib about was the laminated scratch pads and markers. The scratch pads when new must have been excellent, but over time with repeated use, had accumulated pockets for fine dirt, where the marker pen would not write, I had to struggle for a few minutes just to get the angle of pen and the proper area within my scratch pad to write on. After some time, I figured it out and was comfortable with them.
Exam Strategy:
Initially whilst preparing I was prepping for Quant->Verbal->Break->DI.
But upon attempting several full tests I found that, after having done Quant and Verbal and having taken the break, I would get lazy and could not muster enough effort to put into consuming the data being presented in DI questions.
Hence I changed my strategy to Quant-> DI ->Break->Verbal. The idea behind this was after having attempted Quant, I could switch to DI , which contained partially Quant and partially Verbal, which would act as the bridge between these two sections with no drastic change in type of questions being attempted. DI would be the soft landing into Verbal. And the break was timed as such because, I wanted to have done most of the heavy lifting before I could take the break and even if I get lazy somehow, Verbal won't be affected that much.
However, on the test day I ran through all the sections without taking any break in between the sections and completed the exam approximately 8 mins early (as for last attempted Verbal section I had 8 mins spare). I felt that I was in the zone after completing Quant and DI and felt that break would only disturb my concentration. Hence I sat through, felt a bit drowsy during last RC passage of the day, submitted my attempt and was elated to see the score of 725.
All the above analysis is a later outcome of days of self deliberation on what I did wrong and what were my mistakes.
Feel free to question.
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