Initial Journey Hi, everyone! I joined dental school back in 2013 and have been in clinical dentistry ever since. However, over the years, I discovered that I really enjoyed the business or entrepreneurial aspect of my job. The excitement that came with the prospect of expanding and growing my practice and patient outreach was sometimes more for me, than what I did at the chair-side. My Head of Department, noticing my knack for the business aspect of things, encouraged me to pursue an MBA abroad. Thus, begun my GMAT journey in 2023. Except for overhearing it's name in a one-off conversation with my corporate-sector buddies, I hadn't a clue about what the exam entailed. Swagata's YouTube Debrief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBrppwqg9mI Diagnostic Official Practice Test I went through a few of the GMATNinja videos on Youtube to figure out whether my skill set had the potential to shine in this exam. Charles is a legend, he lays out even the toughest question in the simplest manner! I gave my diagnostic Official Practice test and got a score of 575 (Q74V84DI77) - 62nd percentile . Ok ... not devastatingly bad, but a huuuge leap to my target score of 90th percentile and above! My verbal skills seemed good but the quant and DI sections really troubled me. Even though I was a 99/100 kinda girl in Gen. Maths and Adv. Maths (it's the Indian equivalent of an advanced placement class) all through high school I had been out of touch with anything mathematical for the last 10 years! So, I knew, I would need professional help, self-study wouldn't cut it! Joining TTP (December, 2023) Finally, after much research on the internet and some helpful advice from a few relatives who had experience in this field, I zero-ed in on Target Test Prep (TTP) for my prep course of choice. It seemed the most reasonably priced for the kind of comprehensive course they offered. Although I subscribed to the course in September, 2023. I was unable to start my prep due to unavoidable personal reasons. The TTP team was very gracious and kind to extend my subscription to start from December instead when I actually had time for the GMAT. Thus, I began the TTP 6 months course as well as joined GMATClub in Mid-December, 2023. I followed the TTP daily study plan to the 'T', while familiarizing myself with the beast that was GMAT and it's "tricks" through the Club Forum discussion threads. I enjoyed my 6 months on TTP, studying between not more than 4-5 hours a day, because the course was easy to understand and kept it interesting through the various review tests. I had a few weak areas but still felt positive and hopeful of my performance. So far, so good. The next step? (March,2024) The real challenge came in March, 2024 when my TTP course work ended. Without a captain to steer my GMAT ship now, I felt rudderless. According to the study plan, all I had to do now was finish the OG guide and Sectional Reviews and then start practicing my Official Mock tests in the next 2 months. Being used to the Indian Competitive Exam landscape of over-cramming and over-reaching yourself to beat out the competition, this seemed too simple a plan. I was suspicious and anxious. Can it really be as straight-forward as this? Didn't I have to take all the practice tests available on the internet from all different prep companies? Aren't there 10,000 other sources I have to study from? Official Practice Tests Stagnation Turns out, it was somewhere in the middle. I gave my Official Practice Test 1 after finishing the TTP course in March, 2024 and scored 645 (Q77V90DI79) - 89th percentile. I was pretty happy about the results, my target score seemed a hair's breadth away with the strategy I was following. But it was not so, as Lennon once brilliantly observed "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination". Breaking the 90th percentile barrier seemed a Herculean task, almost turning Sisyphean after multiple attempts at Practise test 1 and 2. Seeing "645" flash everytime became a "daymare" for me. My verbal scores, although always good, were not based on a set strategy of Critical Reasoing skills, rather on my basic English skills. Futhermore, my Quant and DI scores were too volatile for my comfort. My time management on the tests was abysmal. I needed to pivot, change the gameplan, find my star quarterback. Change of strategy (April, 2024) After extensively going through success story testimonials on GMATClub Forum and Youtube, for Verbal, I decided to go through the Powerscore CR Bible. Additionally, I registered for the E-gmat free trial pack and went through the available lessons for CR. Although I still felt the TTP model of not pre-thinking my answer choices was more fool-proof but going through E-gmat's technique of Negation test and Pre-thinking really helped me develop the right mindset for approaching CR questions with a set structure of steps rather than random reasoning. So, credit to both the prep courses for their techniques. As for Quant, I decided to start practising GMATClub Forum Quant sectional tests while simultaenously completing my OG guides. I meticulously maintained an Error log for each and tried to progressively eliminate as many careless errors as possible. Forum tests can at first feel really intimidating and even discouraging at times because the difficulty level is much higher than that of the actual practice tests. Even so, I perservered. I followed bb 's Time management strategy After a month of this strategy, I finally broke the 90th percentile barrier in April, 2024 and achieved 695 (Q82V85DI86) - 98th percentile! The Downfall (May, 2024) Re-energized with this triumph, I double-d down on my study strategy while continuing to revise my TTP notes and take their review tests. I continued to achieve above the 90th percentile in each of my weekly Practice tests, so much so that I achieved on 99th percentile on the 5th Practice test - 705 (Q87V89DI79) in May, 2024 but I was always bothered by the variation in my sectional scores. Then came the kicker, a sudden drop to the dreaded "645" ( ) in my 6th Practice test! I needed to step back, re-group...figure out the reason. Turns out, I was burnt out, I peaked before the finish line was in sight, sprinted when I should have paced myself for the marathon. Icarian ambition was my Achiles heel. It was getting increasingly tough to keep myself motivated and self-disciplined through the burn-out. So, I took a break from everything "GMAT" for 2 weeks and just lived my life - shifted focus entirely on my patients and their treatment plans, started meditation, became more regular with my yoga practice etc. Renewed vigor (June, 2024) Re-started my prep in Mid June, 2024, didn't change my study plan but decided to change my section order in the practice tests from my usual Q-->V-->DI to V-->Q-->DI (Strongest to weakest) after listening to a panel discussion on GMATClub GMAT Day where Mr. Rajat Sadana from E-gmat mentioned that taking sections from strongest to weakest might make your scores more consistent. It worked like a charm! My sectional scores became much more predictable, my time management improved dramatically and I continued to score above the 90th percentile in all my remaining Practice tests! I finally felt I was at my performance peak and shouldn't delay sitting for the exam. Run upto the Actual Test Day (July, 2024) 10 days before the actual test day, I stopped everything and just reviewed my error logs and kept revising my Quant notes and formulae in my TTP notes. The TTP Active review sheets were God-sent! They help revise your notes in the most efficient and succinct manner. I narrowed down my absolute weakest areas in Quant and kept taking multiple GMATClub Forum custom tests for these topics ONLY, no general tests. I didn't give more than 2-3 hours a day to anything GMAT-related. Lived my normal life, didn't let myself feel like something life-altering was coming, didn't change my regular routine AT ALL. D-Day (12th July, 2024) Finally, the Day had arrived! I decided to allay my anxiousness by telling myself that I was just giving another Practice test, it was nothing different. The earth would rotate the same regardless of what my test outcome was going to be. Knowing that there were multiple attempts at the GMAT helped to soothe me further. Thankfully, my test centre was ideal with no other candidate in my time slot, a wonderful proctor and a washroom that was just a step away. So, it almost felt like I was just sitting at home giving another practice test in the silence and comfort of my own bedroom. Simulating the test day conditions with the right scratchpad and markers during my practice tests added to the level of familiarity I felt during the actual test. Lo and behold! A very happy score of 695/98th percentile (Q85V88DI80)! My final words after a verrry long post - Stay focused, don't be afraid to face and overcome your weak areas, change strategy if needed, stay flexible and pace yourself!

Congrats on the awesome score! Your hard work paid off. Good luck with the next steps .

Please share your CR Bible Notes Kudos on your successful score !!!!!

Hi! Thank you! I am sorry I don't have those notes anymore, I didn't make them myself. I actually just searched google "Powerscore CR Bible notes" and downloaded from there. I'm sure you'll find it there still.

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Journey to 695/98th percentile on GMAT FE in 6 months (1st attempt)

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