Finally got the GMAT done!
Phase-1: Analyse where I standI took the veritas prep free test (didn't want to waste official GMAT prep test) - received a 730. And as I thought, I was doing well in quant but really awful in verbal. I got a Q50 and V38. So now
Setting up my targets:
- Thanks to the details analysis of the score reports on gmatclub by
bb,
Souvik and many others, I knew that to score high I need to get all the first 10-15 questions correct and absolutely nail the RC section to perfection.
- Quant: get that additional 1 mark i.e. Q50 to Q51 to get those 10 extra points.
- Verbal: survive the SC and CR somehow (I did well in the RC section)
- Target Score: 770 (this score seemed reachable if I managed to get all my RC and almost all CR ans half of SC)
Setting up the resources:
- 2020 OGs + GMAT Official Advanced Questions
- Aristotle SC ebook for those 100 questions at the back
- Veritas 2 hour SC youtube video series + Veritas SkillBuilder SC PDF (has 75 questions)
- RC butler on gmatclub
-
e-gmat free resources
- Manhattan SC and CR books - 6th edition
Phase-2: Pre-OG prep [10-12 days]Since the quant section was not a problem, I decided to focus only on verbal for this phase. Completed the CR
MGMAT guide and understood basics (but still wasn't really doing well in CR). Simultaneously, I worked on the RC by solving approximately 15-20 questions a day using the RC butler project on gmatclub (was doing decent here). Next I picked up the
MGMAT SC guide and completed that (skipped the idioms chapter and also the advanced sections). This was followed by the veritas 2 hour youtube lectures and skillbuilder
(This is the best thing I ever came across during my prep. It literally changed my whole SC approach, and again thanks to gmatclub, since I came to know about this after reading a debrief on the forum). After this I was consistently getting 55-85% of SC questions correct (earlier it used to be 40-50%). Next up, was the
e-gmat free resources on SC and CR
(e-gmat's pre-thinking is really good, I mean I knew about it - but never structured my thought process). This again improved my CR ability.
Took the
e-gmat free test: 720 (Q50, V37)
Phase-3: OG prep [25 days]This was the most crucial period for me. I broke down all
OG questions in my
error log (thanks to gmatclub again for introducing the concept - I didn't use any template and created my own according to my own needs - I suggest everyone to do this!).
Daily - about 20 PS, 20 DS, 11-17RC, 13CR, 15SC questions except on the day I take mocks. (and some questions from advanced
OG - randomly, however I saw fit)
Weekly - every Saturday, I gave one test (total 3 tests: 2 official gmat prep and 1
MGMAT free test)
Quant i just reviewed only the questions I got wrong everyday (usually 2-4 in each section and mostly due to some silly error). I was doing RC really well and usually got 1-2 questions wrong and by the time close to D-Day i didn't get any wrong
(so here's the trick: If you choose an answer, you must damn well be sure to prove it in the passage - this really helped, often I used to select something and then think oh wait, I can't prove this always from the passage - so select something else). I kept making errors here and there in the CR section (improved after the
e-gmat youtube videos) but still I could feel that I was not able to do well here. I had greatly improved my SC ability due to my prep in phase-2. I realised that I get almost no question wrong in easy SC questions, only a very very few in medium, about 25-40% wrong in hard and about 50-55% wrong in very hard (thanks to gmatclub for providing the difficulty level for each
OG question).
Test-1:
MGMAT: 760 (Q51, V41) - really happy! (also since I read that it was supposed to more difficult than actual GMAT) - and indeed quant was tough - I almost ran out of time here
So now for SC I solved the 100 aristotle and 75 veritas skilllbuilder questions using all that I had learnt from Veritas video series,
e-gmat free videos and
MGMAT SC guide. got close to 85% correct.
Test-2: GMATPrep-1: 770 (Q51, V44) - yay! super excited (RC all correct and in both sections got first 19 questions correct - CR only 2 wrong, SC 5 wrong but all towards the end)
Kept working on questions daily and more importantly, review the SC and CR questions diligently each day (even the ones that I get correct)
(3 days before my actual test) Test-3: GMATPrep-1: 740 (Q50, V39) -
bummer! - but I realised that in quant all i require is extreme focus to get that 1 mark and in verbal use the "meaning" based approach in the SC and CR sections properly.
For the last 3 days I had no official questions to do - I had exhausted everything (i had planned it like this). But importantly, all I did in those 3 days was review all my wrong (and marked for review) SC questions and all wrongly marked CR questions from previous days. Also the goldmine here was the Advanced
OG questions - I reviewed all CR and SC from it. They were crucial to make me solidify meaning based tactics and also a few common idioms and other common things like: usage of "being", "like vs as", "considered", bold-face statement breakdown, etc.
D-Day - 1: Just relaxed and reviewed my concepts and reviewed about 50 marked questions. Did a sort of dress rehearsal for the next day, i.e. got ready by the time of test, calmed myself and then sat in the same place as I would tomorrow and just reviewed the material for 2.5 hours with focus (to make sure I have the required stamina for the test)
D-Day:I repeated the entire process as I had done yesterday. Calmed myself down and then internet not working! Totally nerve wrecking as the software won't start but finally got a new router (thanks dad!) and started. Completed the check-in 10 mins late (it is smooth but still time consuming and made me a bit anxious). But finally, the test started, and I was really anxious and sweating - so just sat for 2 mins and composed myself before even answering the 1st question (one of the best decision I ever made, even though I lost about 3-4 mins in total, since I could focus very well after that). Finally blazed through the quant section with 8 mins to spare (I didn't answer the last question until the last minute though, since there is no break before verbal). I knew that I should have got most questions correct (except 2 DS - of which i was unsure and only questions where I faced considerable challenge and was constantly on the back of my mind, so used those extra spare minutes to cool myself and focus again). Verbal started - and initial 7-10 questions seemed difficult than usual and ate up a lot of time (since I had to get the initial ones correct!), but then the middle 10 questions seemed a bit easier (a bit of panic here, since I though that I messed up initial questions and that is why I am being served easy questions). Again calmed myself down and kept working on the remaining test and finally was onto the last question (with 2 mins on the clock). Got it done, completed the test and the survey post that.
D-day+1: Worried and anxious about the results. But kept consoling myself saying that "I know i did quant well, and should get atleast V38 so 740 not that bad, have faith"
D-day+2: Got my result 760 - Yay!!!!!! - Q51 V41 (well really happy but just missed by 1 mark - V42 meant 770 - but anyways I was really happy)
Ending Notes:- veritas 2 hour video series for SC is essential
- use meaning based approach in all RC, CR and SC (it works!)
- for RC - try to make yourself interested in the passage and you'll automatically do good
- please please please use gmatclub discussion for each
OG question that your review - its the best! since you get a lot of perspective
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Updated on: 31 Jul 2020, 04:48
