GMAT FOCUS EDITION - PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND RESULTS

Question

Good Morning;

Today I want to share with you my complete GMAT experience.
I took my GMAT Focus on November 10th.

I will share with you my results with percentile and number of correct answers at the end of this.
This is for everyone that thinks GMAT is something out of his/her possibility range.
Let me tell you a brief story.

I cannot define myself as a genius or an expert English speaker ( IELTS 7 ).
When I first approached GMAT seriously ( this summer ) I started to see people that were achieving 650+ or 700+ on their first attempts, my compliments .
Can you guess the score of my first Gmat attempt ?

I studied all the theory and then I took a Magoosh mock test,I got a score definitely different from what I needed .
Maybe I’m not the most intelligent person here, but for sure I didn’t give up.

I started to focus on what I was missing : English skills , time management, Verbal, Quant details.
I also studied while I was on holiday ( obviously not 10hrs a day ahah), everyday I added something to my preparation.
To cut a long story short, I understood that GMAT Focus was the best option for me and I started to focus on its topics.
Then the hard work started to pay off. I was averaging 70-75% of correct answers both on Verbal and Quant.
I have done more than thousands of questions, studied a lot of hours, and worked until last week to refine details.

First Gmat Focus attempt :  555  
Second Gmat Focus attempt :  615  
Third :  625  
Fourth :  615

I think that everyone has a goal score and Gmat is not the only way to define you as an individual but a good way to test different skills of yours, because I know that I am definitely stronger in other parts other than Gmat.

Anyway, finally on November 10th I took my Gmat Focus, I was pretty confident honestly.
My score ? Total Score : 625 (680)

Number of correct answers: 
 1. Quantitative Reasoning : 19/21 -> 81 -> 71st ( probably I missed hardest questions) 
2. Verbal Reasoning : 17/23 -> 80 -> 60th
3. Data Insights : 14/20 -> 82 -> 94th

I am so happy about my number of correct answers and of my final result, maybe for someone it is not the best, but right now I am writing this because I want you to know that you can achieve a good score also starting from a really low point ahah.

Related to preparation I can tell that Magoosh ( I bought the premium plan with Admission help, really useful and with a good price ) is really strong for your Quant preparation, days before the exam I was also achieving 100% of correct answers (on a prototype of 21 medium-hard questions), everything is explained in detail.
For the verbal part I think that everyone has to find their own way to manage different types of questions and time ( in particular if you start from a lower English level, compared to native speakers or guys with 8.5 IELTS ). I found it watching numerous ways of thinking, understanding common traps and doing sooooo many questions ahah.
Data Insights is a mixture of Verbal and Quant as you know, so I just took confidence with different questions types and watched common traps.
Anyway I hope to have alleviated your Gmat study also with a smile, remember that It’s not the only part of your application don’t worry, have fun, appreciate challenging yourself and enjoy your journey !

If you want to ask me anything about Gmat Focus, feel free to do it.
All the best and good luck for your Gmat.

Enrico.

pilot111 · Answer

Congrats Enrico!

Any tips for the DI section? How did you ensure accuracy within the time constraint? And how was the difficulty in the exam?

Posted from my mobile device

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

All the best going forward. Consider writing a profile-review.

-contact: gmatknight site | gmatclub dm

Score-Quest · Answer

Congratulations on your GMAT score! It's great to hear about your determination and hard work paying off. Your journey is really inspiring, especially for those who might feel overwhelmed by the GMAT. All the best for your applications!

Ripples · Answer

Congratulations and all the best with your Business school’s applications.

Posted from my mobile device

JayGMATFOCUS · Answer

Hi Enrico,

I wouldnt bother if your GMAT score is going to take you places or not. 
Your attitude towards challenges will definitely take you places.
Congrats on a score that you are glad about and best wishes going forward.

Cheers

Enricot03 · Answer

Thank you !

Yes sure. 
For the time question : 
1. I was struggling with Verbal, so I had to do a lot of practice to improve reading time.
I think that doing plenty of Verbal questions helped me a lot for DI.
If you improve your RC and CR you’re going to perform well also in the DI part.
I tried my best to be 100% focused while reading to avoid wasted time and trying not to focus on irrelevant detail ( for DI , Verbal is different from this point of view ), because they write a lot of stuff useless.

2. I was trying to use only 1:30 mins for DS questions to have more time for MSR questions .

3. I firstly practiced with all type of DI questions ( really important to know every single question that you can face and how to manage it in term of timing ) and then I tried my first GMAT Focus official practice to see how I was doing with strict timing.

For the other question :
Don’t worry, If you do well with Official questions you’re going to do well also on the Official test. It’s pretty similar.

Anyway I would like to thank everyone for every single kind word that you wrote me, I really appreciate, I think that this is a positive and stimulating environment and If we are here discussing or reading about this, for sure we have done something good along our journey, so I would like to do my compliments also to you all!
Keep pushing and enjoy your beautiful road .

bb · Answer

Congrats on your score  Enricot03 !

Are those results correct? You got 14 out of 20 in DI and still got 82 while you got 19 out of 21 right in Quant and only got an 81? 😱 That seems like a huge penalty for your Quant score. Did you leave a question unanswered or something?

Enricot03 · Answer

Thank you, yes they are !

Quant : No I didn't leave any question blank, with the review option I corrected a wrong answer (8th question) ( idk if this is relevant in order to understand test adaptability ). At the end I only missed the first and the penultimate question, I found my Quant test really easy if compared to Official practice, I was so confused about why I only got an 81, but that's good ahah.

DI : Here also during Official Practice I saw that with a 70% of correct answers I achieved every time these type of score (or similar), maybe It is because people in the past didn't care about IR and they completed this section casually, so now it's easy for us to achieve a greater percentile or score.

Also It's really interesting to understand difference between new and old GMAT in term of how to get a 700+ score, I was thinking that generally ( without missing easy or medium questions ) with a 70-75% of correct answers you can achieve a 700+ score ( I saw it from an analysis conducted by TTP ) , but now with GMAT Focus I think that is slightly different, or maybe I missed easy questions, who knows ahah.

I can send you any type of screen if you need.

Enricot03 · Answer

Sure, I am so sorry for my late reply, I didn't notice that I had not replied before.
Anyway, let's get our point.
Tips : 
Practice every type of question 
 1. Understand what they are asking
 2. Understand how they are asking that
 3. How much time do you need for every type ? -> At first don't worry about timing, just take confidence, then pay attention to this factor
 4. Where do you have to look to find the information that you need ? -> Do I have to read question before ? Or text? -> Pay attention to every single different type
 5. Pay attention to numerous traps that you can find in every exercise that only lead you to a time waste.
 6. Develop a strategy for every question with your answers to these questions.
 7. Practice until you are under your time constraint.

Time :
Remember that you have to do also DS questions, I managed to do every DI questions in maximum 1:30 minutes. 
Only practicing you are going to be within time costraints, after having studied every type of questions and practiced take an Official Practice Test, see how you're doing in every part of DI and work on It. Refine the details and you're going to do well. 
For my personal experience, I think that If you work on your reading skills, you can definitely improve in term of timing and efficiency.

P.S. : 
In different questions I found really useful to write with letter or something similar for key points of passage where you have to find cause and consequences, because there the problem is that you have lot of causes and you don't remember the entire reasoning.

I hope you can find something useful for you.
I didn't mention every single type of question but If you need further information you can serenely write me.

Enjoy your GMAT study.

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