How I improve from V30 in mock test to V41 in the real test in 1 mth

Background: I am 29 years old and currently working in a bank in Thailand.

My time constraint for MBA journey: During the past few years, I had always thought that MBA in the US was quite impossible for me because of my financial constraint. However, my long-lasting dream has become reality this June after I won a scholarship offer to study MBA abroad from a company in Thailand, but with the condition that I have to begin my master degree in 2020, which means I will have to submit the complete applications at the end of this year (only 6 months for all preparations)!!! That is a shock for me because at that time I did not even know what the GMAT test looked like, let alone rigorous MBA admission processes. With this short time span, I realize that I will have to work very hard, manage my time efficiently and sacrifice some time with friends and family.

My GMAT journey: I began my journey with the official GMAT guidebook around the end of June. I did several sample questions on all parts for a week and found that my verbal skill was weak, especially the sentence correction. At that time, when I read the question, I did not know what I should look for in the question or where I should focus my attention. I could not even understand the logic explained in answer keys. I was really lost and I thought that if this kept going on, I would not be able to get my dream score in time.

I really needed an assistance. So I researched information about both offline and online tutoring courses and found that course fees for offline tutoring service is huge and they mostly taught you quick tips to cut choices which I do not believe is a good way to tackle the GMAT test. Moreover, I would have to travel 2 - 3 hours every weekend to attend the class which is time and energy consuming. So I chose to study online. After watching a few sample video lessons, I had come to like the course from e-gmat because their approach is to understand the questions and teach structured processes on how to solve the questions, not just giving tips and tricks, so I decided to purchase the affordable verbal course from them.

At the beginning of July, in order to pressure myself to work hard, I registered my GMAT test on August, 6th, leaving me only a month to study. Before I started studying with e-gmat, I gave my first mock test on July, 7th and scored 640 with Q47 and V30. Then I input my score information in the personalized study plan module on e-gmat to let it help me calculate the time needed to study in order to get 730. It turned out that I would need to study 3 hours on weekdays and 5 hours on weekends. That is a huge amount of time for a full-time worker who has to work 9 hours a day, 5 days a week!! However, I tried to schedule my study accordingly, 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the evening for weekdays. I loaded my schedule in the morning because after work I normally got really tired and could not study efficiently. I had to wake up at 5 am every morning and that tortured me in the first week. After that, my body adjusted and it felt natural.

Throughout July, I only studied from e-gmat platform together with OG books, which really help me with all my problems I faced when solving OG questions by myself. E-gmat lessons are structured into 3 parts, concept files, application files and OG quizzes. The concept files teach me basic grammar skills and critical thinking which are usually tested in GMAT. The instructors approach questions with an understanding first then teach the 3-step method to analyze the questions and get the correct answers. After that, the application files give me sample questions about the topic taught in the concept files with detailed explanation on how to use the 3-step method. After I finished the concept and application files, I felt comfortable with how to approach the questions. Then they let me solve the questions from OG book in the OG quiz sections, which come with detailed and logical explanation for each question. I followed all these steps one by one and that made me feel so comfortable to answer questions. Moreover, e-gmat also has verbal scholaranium module which is like a warehouse of verbal questions, so I can test and time myself to simulate the real test (all questions are provided with detailed explanation).

A month passed and here came the real test day!! I chose to do the verbal part first. It felt just like I was doing the verbal Scholaranium in e-gmat and that helped me to relax. However, I made a mistake on quantitative part, staying too long on one question that I could not answer and ended up selecting choice C for the last 4 questions. This was because I never had time problem with quant in the mock test, so I did not know how to manage the time on quant part. I ended up with the score of 700 (Q44 and V41). Although I still have to study and take the test again to get my dream score, I will use the experience gained from the past test to do a better job next time.

Lessons learnt:

1. Register for the test to get the sense of pressure to really study hard.
2. Be disciplined and believe that anything is possible.
3. Make it a habit to wake up early and study in the morning because it is the time when your brain is the freshest.
4. Make sure to understand the meaning of sentences in verbal questions first before solving them. Do not use shortcuts because you might be tricked by the test.
5. Always keep track of time throughout the test.

With this coming to an end, I hope this can be a little motivation for everyone who is going for GMAT like me. We can do it. Wish you all the best. Cheers!!