Hey guys,
I gave my GMAT second attempt on 1st May and got a 750 (Q51,V39, IR 8). Some of my friends have asked me to write in detail about my study plan. So here it goes
Attempt 1 - I gave my GMAT attempt in mid-December 2015, after studying for around 2-3 months. I used to study mainly from
OG, Verbal review and free questions from Veritas and GMAT club. For CATs I practiced Manhattan CATs and GMAT Prep (4 tests), I used to get in the range of 660 to 720 in those tests. On the exam day, I was targeting 700+ but scored 680 (Q50, V31). I was disappointed to see my scores, so much so that I cancelled them. However, later my friends told me that 680 is not that bad and so I reinstated the scores
Attempt 2 – After attempt 1, I took a 2 month long break from studies due to other commitments. I restarted my preparations in March 1st week, practiced free questions from Veritas and Prep4Gmat (mobile app), along with Questions and PDFs from GMAT club. For practicing CATs , I bought Veritas (7 CATs) and Kaplan ( 5 CATs). I used to study on weekdays (almost 1 hour every day, after office) and Saturday (3-4 hours). On Sundays, I used to give Veritas CATs. After 3 weeks , I realized that my score in CATs is not improving and has plateaued at 660-680. It was then that I realized that the current strategy is not working and I need to take professional help. I searched online and found that Optimus prep on demand course was available for $100 with a 50 point increase guarantee. I bought it since the reviews were good, it was the cheapest on demand course available and I liked the 50 point increase guarantee. Post that I started to diligently watch their videos and practice class tests (since my maths was good, almost all the focus was on Verbal). I used to solve at least 30 questions (10 each from CR,RC & SC) on weekdays and around a 100 questions on weekends. By the 3rd week, I noticed that my accuracy was going up (I had a 80-85% accuracy in medium and hard questions in all 3 verbal sections). So, finally on the 4th week, I decided to take a Veritas CAT and was surprised to see a 730. I was so happy that I gave another CAT the next day, this time I gave Optimus Prep CAT and scored a 740 ( I was very happy after that). Then the weekday scheduled continued as usual and the next weekend I gave GMAT prep 3 and Kaplan, and again scored 760 and 740 respectively. (I gave CATs from 4 different companies, do get the best of each). It was on this 7th week that I decided that I should give GMAT soon now. I finally gave a few more mocks during the following weekdays and GMAT on 1st May and scored a 750.
Learning and personal opinions
1.
OG is a great book for concept building, but we need to practice timing and pacing as well. (During my 1st attempt, I used to almost always run out of time in verbal, and towards my 2nd attempt I almost always used to finish 10-15 min. early)
2.
For SC Manhattan SC is a great book. – I studied it 3 times over. It’s a very nice book and I feel it covers 80-90% of all the SC concepts we need to score high in GMAT
3.
Practice makes a man perfect – The main difference between my 1st and 2nd attempt was regular practice. Not only was I more regular during my second attempt but also solved a lot of questions.
4.
Practicing online and under timed condition is important – Again very important to develop pacing and ability to handle pressure
5.
CATs are a good way to know where you stand but they are not good for learning and concept building - I would suggest that for building concepts and learning, buy any online course with good reviews and with a good question bank. Follow their study plan and practice a lot from the question bank.
6.
GMAT Club questions can be very difficult – A week my actual GMAT, I downloaded a PDF for 100 tough SC questions from GMAT Club. Since I was scoring 740-760 in CATs at that time, I wanted to try them out. I only did first thirty questions and got only a couple of them correct. I actually got depressed post that and didn’t study anything that day or the next day. So, point is that many question on GMAT Club can be very difficult. Either don’t solve them or if you do, don’t get depressed seeing the results
7.
Kaplan CAT (Verbal) is very tough: - I gave 1 Kaplan Mock, a was surprised seeing the level of difficulty. It was way above the GMAT level in verbal. So, I would suggest not to use them
P.S. – In Kaplan mock I got a 740 (Q51, V33). I don’t know how that’s possible. Guess, they extrapolate the scores to adjust for the high difficulty level
Pasting my mock CAT results below, in case it helps someone
Date Test V Q Score
05-Mar Veritas1 31 47 640
13-Mar Veritas2 36 46 670
24-Mar Veritas 3 32 47 650
17-Apr Veritas 4 39 51 730
23-Apr Optimus1 44 48 740
24-Apr G Prep 3 42 50 760
28-Apr Kaplan 1 33 51 740
29-Apr Veritas 5 39 51 730
30-Apr G Prep 4 44 49 760
01-May Actual 39 51 750
Main Study Sources
Online practice:- Optimus Prep (on demand course), Veritas (Free questions on mobile app)
Books :- Manhattan for SC, none for RC & CR
CATs :- Manhattan (4 Mocks), Veritas (5 Mocks), GMAT Prep (4 mocks), Optimus (1 Mock), Kaplan (1 Mock)
Let me know in case of any questions, would be happy to help
Do give Kudos if this helped you
Regards,
Rahul
close
02 May 2016, 07:20
