GMAT Online:720 Q50|V37(first attempt) to 750 Q50|V42 (second attempt)

Hey members of GMATClub!

I'm happy today.

Just got done with my 2nd attempt of the GMAT Online and I'm happy to see improvement.
My last attempt was on 30th Jan and I have already posted a debrief for that so I won't repeat the points that I mentioned there.

Last debrief: https://gmatclub.com/forum/official-gma ... l#p2954690

Through this post, I will try to highlight the areas that I focused on between 30th Jan and today, and how that has contributed to this improvement in my score.

But before I begin, I have a few people to thank. Thank you-

Bunuel for posting all the questions that I religiously attempted every day of my GMAT journey. Thank you for the explanations which I noted down in my GMAT-diary, a diary that I would read every night before sleeping, almost like a bedtime story.

bb for creating this Forum (read: family) and making GMAT prep material, clarifications and guidance accessible to so many people around the world. I'm sure that I speak for everyone when I say that you've changed our lives.

GMATNinja whose videos were the first thing that I looked up whenever I wanted to understand a concept clearly. The man that every serious GMAT aspirant wishes to emulate.
Also, admit it, you wanted to get a good score just because you wanted to have the chance to feature in a youtube video with Charles.

MartyTargetTestPrep KarishmaB mikemcgarry catinabox AndrewN AjiteshArun GmatTutorKnight ScottTargetTestPrep EMPOWERgmatRichC CrackverbalGMAT egmat and everyone else who commented on my posts or shared their wisdom on other posts (that I silently read ). You all have contributed in some way or the other in the change in my outlook towards this test and THAT has made all the difference.

My apologies to anyone that I might have missed, I will continue to add names as and when I remember.

Now towards the things that I focused on post my last attempt. It was pretty obvious that with a breakup of Q50 and V37, I could get a better score only by working on my verbal section.
this is where my error logs came in handy.

Though I also maintained a question wise breakup, but I'm sharing my Mock analysis below so that you get an idea of what areas I was lacking in. If you've done a good job of maintaining your error log, the toughest job of identifying where to target your efforts, becomes the easiest. The battle is already half won.



Even a fleeting glance would tell you that SC was the area that had the biggest scope of improvement for me. So that is where I focused a majority of my time and efforts. I prioritised quality over quantity, picking up questions from bb 's SC directory from those sections that I was struggling with the most.

here's a link to that directory:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/sentence-cor ... 29750.html

The last three mocks from that screenshot are the ones that I took after my first attempt. The benefits of focusing on the root cause of the problem are clear here. My scores had jumped by 30-40 points and had stayed that way consistently.

Here I would like to emphasise that the GMAT Official mocks are sooo effing important. They give you a very clear picture of where you stand and exposure to exactly the kind of questions that you can expect in the actual test.

Luckily, my experience with the online format has been great both times. This time I had no issues at all. However, due to high demand, I had to wait for quite a while before I was assigned a proctor and hence started my test 10 mins later than the scheduled time.

I have a question here. Keeping in mind the fact that I belong to the most overrepresented demographic, is 750 a competitive score? As in, will 750 alone be a factor that would make a B-school reject me? Including the top 10 US B-Schools. I don't want to undermine the value of a 750, but I also don't want my score to be the basis of me getting rejected.
I do have half the mind of giving another attempt since I only plan on applying in R1 for next year's intake and will continue to practice and prepare albeit with a lower intensity. For now, I will enjoy this score.

Please do post any specific questions that you might have and I would be glad to answer them.

Cheers
Jag