GMAT Online Debrief 11 May 2020: 760 (Q50 V44)

Question

Hi I took the GMAT Online on 11 May 2020 and decided to share a de-brief to help the community. I am doing this because I owe my success to GMAT Club and the community. Thank you

GMAT Online Experience My overall experience was very smooth. The scheduled time for the exam as 11:00pm. I logged into the system at 10:30pm and managed to upload all necessary documents (Passport/Front Selfie/Room photos) within 10 mins. The exam portal allows you to run a walkthrough of the experience one day before, so that was helpful as I got to know what all photos I will be required to post etc. I was allocated a Proctor within 5 mins and my exam started at 10:45 pm. Some specific things that stood out from my experience: The chat window does not always remain open. If you click on 'Chat', it notifies the proctor on the backend. Once the proctor replies to you, the chat widget opens up. The proctor seemed friendly. Did not interrupt me at all and nor asked me to show my room etc. Once I was scratching my head and the chat widget popped up. The proctor seemed to assume that I was raising my hand.

I clarified with him and closed the chat Post Quant+Verbal section, the system showed a break for 5mins (I think the GMAT website mentioned 10min so 5mins was a surprise). Anyway, I did not receive any communication from the proctor about the break pro-actively, so I sent him a message notifying that I will be leaving my desk during the break (for records) Overall GMAT Prep I prepared for GMAT starting Jan'20. During my diagnostic attempts, I realized my Verbal (especially Sentence Correction) was quite weak. So I spent 1 week studying the basics of Sentence Correction from the Manhattan book. This was my order of preparation for each section: Quant: Official Guide Questions -> Mocks Verbal: Manhattan Theory -> Official Guide Questions -> GMAT Club Practise App I had also taken the test center GMAT in December'19. I got 710 (Q50 V37) at that time so clearly GMAT Club has been instrumental for me in going from V37 to V44. Whiteboard Prep When GMAT Online was announced, I was also a little fazed with the online whiteboard thing. I spent ~14 days practicing Official Guide questions (from the Wiley website) and used the Manhattan whiteboard to practice. I realized within 5-6 days that it will be comfortable and hence registered for the exam. Closing Notes I have tried to upload my official score as proof but I guess due to limited points in GMAT Club, I am unable to. I am eager to help everyone with anything I can. Please ask me any question that comes to your mind and I will be super happy to help.

saasgrowth · Answer

I received my result on 15th May. Essentially ~100 hours post the exam.

Aviral1995 · Answer

Congrats on getting a 760!
What specific you did for Verbal on moving from V37 to V44? Can you please elaborate?

saasgrowth · Answer

The overall approach I followed to improve/prepare for Verbal:
1. Studied Manhattan Sentence Correction Book. I went through the whole theory as Sentence Correction was my weakest spot and I realized I need to get a good grasp of basic concepts (Verb/Nouns/Modifiers etc). The mini exercises in-built in the book were helpful along with the theory. 
2. Once I completed the Manhattan book, I started attempting the Official Guide questions (used to attempt 40 questions within 60 minutes). I also ensured that I maintain an error log*, so whenever I got a Sentence Correction question wrong, I used to go back to the theory (either Manhattan or simple google search) and understand why I got that wrong. That helped me detect errors faster and also not make the same mistakes again.
3. Once I completed the Official Guide, I started practicing questions from the GMAT Club Timer forum. I feel this has been the MOST CRITICAL step in my preparation. I downloaded the app on my iPad, so every night before sleeping, I used to attempt 15 questions (mostly Sentence Correction).

I continued to do 3 above and started taking Mocks towards April/May.

* Error Log: There are a tons of post on the GMAT Club around the Error Log. I got the idea from the same posts and I can vouce for it's effectiveness. I can also share my version of the error log with you, just PM me.

Hope this helps.

GMATCoachBen · Answer

aayushaeran  Congrats on your awesome score, and thanks for sharing your story!

Best wishes with everything going forward!

Harps · Answer

Big congratulations on getting 760

How did you approach CR. I find the choices very confusing sometimes, especially 700+ level questions. Any tips you can share? Thanks Posted from my mobile device

saasgrowth · Answer

Thank you.

For CR, I did not have any specific strategy. CR questions seem to come naturally to me so thankfully, I did not have to spend a lot of time preparing for it. However, a couple of pointers that might be helpful for you:

1. Read about the concept of Pre-Thinking. This concept is based on the fact that once you read the question stem, it is possible to 'pre-think' some of the answer choices and have a hypothesis in mind as to what the answer will be. This concept will require you to practice a lot of questions but is not impossible. (I solve most of my CR questions this way)

2. Read about the concept of Negation. This is helpful in case you are stuck with 2 choices.

3. One more tip: In most of the questions, definitive statements are rarely correct. In that case, look for similar statements which are not definitive but suggestive (may be, might be, possible etc.)
Let me know if you need specific help in some questions and we can get on a call. Happy to help

Harps

Big congratulations on getting 760

How did you approach CR. I find the choices very confusing sometimes, especially 700+ level questions. Any tips you can share?
Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

Harps · Answer

Great! I will surely look into Pre-thinking and negation technique. Thanks again and good luck for the applications

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi aayusheran,

Glad to see you had a pretty nice experience and congrats on an awesome GMAT score! Thank you for sharing and good luck with things moving forward.

maggieliu0903 · Answer

Congrats on your score and thank you so much for sharing! Did you receive any email confirmation when you finished the test? I took my test online on May 15th and still haven't received my score (a week has passed). Thanks!

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GMAT Online Debrief 11 May 2020: 760 (Q50 V44)

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