Hi, everyone! I have received my final GMAT score and would like to share my experience with you, maybe you find it useful and can implement some of my advices in your studies. My score is 730 (Q50, V38), IR 7/8, AWA 5.0/6.0.
Warning: This is going to be a long post, thus, if you do not have much time, I advise you to go to Resources and Lessons Learned sections for the maximum use.
About myself:
When I studied at school, I never tried hard. Nevertheless, I had A-s in all subjects but the only measure I was taking to get to this achievement was doing my homework consistently. I did not spend extra time on reading subjects and/or doing extra exercises to strengthen my knowledge in a subject because I performed great anyway and did not need it. (Here comes the first advice: consistency is the key!) As I grew older, my memory faded due to consistent lack of sleep (again, consistency is the key!
), but my habit of putting minimum effort remained (you will become a witness of it later in my story). I entered university and became an engineer upon graduation. I still work as an engineer.
The perspective of gaining experience abroad as an engineer is also close to the minimum due to the current situation with pandemic and cost-cutting procedures in place. In addition, I do not get a sense of fullfilment from my current job and want to change my occupation. From the childhood, I was interested in finance, and I believe it can be the right choice for me. This is where my GMAT story begins...
In February last year, MBA fair was conducted here, and I participated in it. I noticed that all schools require GMAT and TOEFL/IELTS. Since GMAT seems more difficult to me, and it has 5 years validity term, I decided to start with it and to apply to school for 2020. My target score was 720 since I would like to consider top schools.
Preparation:
Part 1. How I started:
I watched several youtube videos, and in one of them a good-looking girl was telling about her awesome GMAT experience - how she scored 700 in just two months of preparation! I was so motivated after watching this video ( I will put a link below if you are interested), that I ordered
GMAT Official Guide (
OG) 2019 from Amazon straight away, and upon receiving it, started preparation with the book. First, I read instructions for each of the sections and refreshed my math knowledge. Also, I read comments on Amazon and tried to follow advices from the most useful ones. My first practice test was taken from the book, and, unfortunately, I do not know what my exact score would look like at that time, but the book scoring section suggested that my score would be somewhat intermediate. I do not know where it comes from, I have a figure of 520 in my head. Also, in the middle of my studies with the
OG, I followed the advice of Marina Mogilko (the girl in the video), and registered on this forum to find explanations to difficult questions. Since then, my preparation changed completely!
Part 2. gmatclub.com and Game of Timers
My initial plan was to take the GMAT test in August - October 2019, and I tried to follow the general advice from the girl in the video - to study everyday. After my working hours, I would have dinner and go to an empty room in my office, lock there and study till 11:30 in the evening. I had to leave after, or I would miss the last bus and would have to take taxi or walk home by feet!
Somewhen in late June - early July, I noticed a new banner "Game of Timers" on the forum, and after several days, decided to check what it was. It was a competition with a ton of prizes organized by
bb, where you had to answer questions and post explanations for them on a daily basis. Initially, I was sceptical about my chances since I knew that there were many people on the forum smarter than me, and I joined the competition several days after its beginning. But I was lucky enough and finished the contest on the 27th place, winning the free course by
VeritasPrep and two weeks of access to
GMAT Club Tests. I started with
GMAT Club Tests because it was available for a short time only. After my subscription to the tests came to an end (it was beginning of August), I took a practice test on
VeritasPrep and scored 670. Almost there! And then... my motivation was dead. I could not make myself study any more. I think it happened because of two things:
1) I was studying each day till 11:30PM in the office (~4 hours of study) for a prolonged time, and, as a result, I had a lack of sleep
2) I had a sense of fullfilment from the prize from Game of Timers, and relaxed. I did not study till December because of lack of motivation.
Part 3. Recovery and how pandemic broke my plans apart:
I recovered finally in January 2020 and renew my studies of GMAT. Finally, I scheduled an exam on 30 March, and it even gave me additional motivation as I knew where my final goal was. I finished my
VeritasPrep course, took several practice tests by
VeritasPrep (my score was ~650 though), one of free mba.com practice tests (where I scored 710), and lots of exercises on the gmatclub.com. However, several days before the scheduled exam, I received an email that it was cancelled, and my motivation faded again. The exam was rescheduled to 12 May, and I did not even enter a forum. One week before this exam, I checked my email, and learnt that the exam had to be rescheduled again! I rescheduled it to 17 June, and continued doing nothing.
Part 4. The Exam:
Closer to the exam, I had several frustrations, which changed my attitude. ~12 days to the exam, I gathered myself to study again. Also, I was complaining about myself in forum chat, when
nightblade354 recommended to join live youtube session with
thatolga93, and her success story motivated me even more. Apart from that, I received a notification from the forum, where
SajjadAhmad praised me for my question on RC and told that he liked my question, it showed what a serious person I am. The post was of 25 March, and I checked it only two months later. I was ashamed.
I studied ~10 hours a day on weekend, and ~3 hours on weekdays (because I work full-time and was able to take only one day of vacation prior to the exam). I used one-weekly access to
GMAT club tests, and three days before the exam, I took the 2nd test on mba.com, where I scored 690.
I strongly recommend not to leave your studies to two weeks before your appointed exam. My rescue was that I spent a lot of time on preparation before that, and during these 12 days was able to go through almost all topics on Quant and practice several passages a day for RC and CR.
One day before the exam itself, I found the location where my exam was held to make sure that I do not spend additional time to find it on the day of the exam. I tried not to study a lot and to have rest before the exam day, just watched a couple of webinars on Quant in youtube. However, because of excitement, I was able to sleep only 4 hours before the exam. At the same time, this excitement did not let me sleep on the exam
Finally, on 17 June, I arrived at the location and took the exam.
Resources:
Before I jump in to the discussion of my exam, let me quickly summarize the resources I used:
- OG 2020: You can find the latest version in the internet, it is updated yearly. However, I would recommend to learn/revise math here on the forum or from a course you purchase first, and then to solve questions from the guide.
- gmatclub.com - Even though I finished the book first, I could not answer correctly to many questions on the forum, and noticed that not all of the math rules are there in the OG. You can reach an average score or a score above average if you prepare using the book, but if you want a high score, you need additional resources! Here on gmatclub.com, you can find a whole variety of questions, and it is the best database to practice your skills.
- GMAT Club Tests: These tests are great, because there are more than 1,000 questions (with 50% of 700+ difficulty questions). If you link your profile to your youtube account, you will be granted with one-weekly access to tests. This is what I did.
- VeritasPrep: I had problems with theory of probability and permutation/combination types of questions before taking this course. After listening to the lectures, I made a progress with these questions and they seemed much easier to me. I find questions in their practice tests more difficult than the real exam's ones, but it is a good playground to be ready for a real exam. Also, the lectures are designed for people who do not know math at all (it was not my case, but can be beneficial for some of users). I will write a separate review on VeritasPrep as I promised to bb, if you are interested, I will update this topic with the link for it.
- mba.com free tests: These tests provide you with the real expectation of what can be on the exam. My recommendation is to take the full test (including AWA and IR) and immitate the real exam (take breaks up to 8 minutes). I would also recommend to purchase additional tests by mba.com to build your self-confidence and get used to the test.
- GMAT idiom flashcards by Magoosh: Unfortunately, I found this app in Playstore only few days before the exam, yet I found it very useful, especially in your early start of preparation for Sentence Correction.
Articles:
Exam experience:
I arrived at the location ~30 minutes before the exam. At the location, there was a strict rule to wear masks all the time. There were only two people waiting for the exam: me and another guy. As the guy arrived before me, he went through the check first, and then, entered the room to take an exam. My check took longer than his, I was nervous and asked from the Test Administrator why he spent in the room 2-3 minutes, but it took more time for me. It appeared that this guy took another exam, and I was the only person taking GMAT. I believe it was because of the pandemic, many people were still reluctant to take a test in a close space.
I went through the check, and took my place in front of a computer. I was so nervous that forgot a list of schools I was going to pick up. Finally, after 15 minutes, I memorized the schools, and started the exam in the following order: Quantative, Verbal, Integrated Reasong and the AWA. It was my usual experience during the practice tests, and I decided to follow it in the exam, too.
My first question on Quant was about percents; although, it was not a difficult question, I was frozen in front of the monitor and sat like this for 3 minutes. I understood that time was ticking, and that sitting like that would not do me a favor. Even though I could not solve this question, I decided to approach it logically, and reduced my guessing down to 2-3 options. So, I moved on. Because it is an adaptive test, one would expect that if he were doing well, the difficulty of the questions would have risen. This was the exact expectation of mine, and my stress level increased when I faced a couple of really easy questions in the middle of the test. I was able to complete the Quant section several seconds before the timer went off, and took a break. I ate several nuts and almonds, drank water and tried to calm down. I convinced myself that even though I did not want to retake the exam because of time defficiency and high cost, failure this time did not mean the end.
When I continued with the Verbal section, I already calmed down and my impression was that the Quant section was not good enough and I had to put the best of me into this section to achieve a decent score. The Verbal seemed really easy to me, and it was the first time in my practice when I completed the Verbal section with 30 seconds in reserve.
My experince with IR on
VeritasPrep was difficult since I was not able to finish all tasks in time and had to guess several answers in the end of the section each time. Can you imagine my feelings when in the exam the monitor went off??!! I raised my hand and the Test Administrator entered the room and fixed the monitor. I continued with the section and finished it without extra difficulties. Then, it was AWA time. I read the statement, started drafting my ideas, and the monitor went off again... I raised my hand, and it took 3-4 minutes before we could figure out that the cord was not connected properly at the back side of the monitor. I plugged it in, and the monitor worked. However, I did not have enough time to discuss some of my ideas and spell check the essay before the submission. Nevertheless, I scored 5.0 out of 6.0 and think that it is still a a good score, thus, there is no need to re-take the test or the AWA on its own.
And after I submitted AWA, the culmination increased to its peak - the score was ready! I saw the score, and could not remove a smile expression from my face. It was such a relief! I did not have to study for GMAT and take the test again!
Probably, I will not order ESR (Enhanced Score Report) because I do not see a big value in seeing my mistakes as I do not have an intention to retake the GMAT.
Lessons Learned:
1. Consistency is the key! If you spend sufficient amount of time on consistent studies, your knowledge will be strong and not forgotten after couple of weeks. On the contrary, if you do sprints, you will forget everything in a blink of an eye.
2. Try to have enough time for rest and relaxation during your studies. Even though sometimes we are pushed by deadlines, lack of sleep can significantly reduce the effectiveness of your studies and your motivation.
3. Do not procrastinate and try to achieve your goals as soon as possible.
As I mentioned in my story, my exam was rescheduled two times because of pandemic, and because of that I lost 2.5 months! Let alone my demotivation period which cost me 4 months! I took an exam 4 days ago, and the situation with the pandemic in our country is worsening again. I have just checked mba.com and learned that exams were cancelled in my country for the next two months!
4. Use the forum actively and read the comments of other users to find answers to questions similar to your own or to learn cut-corners and valuable techniques. This is a big community and here you can find many bright people with different approaches to tasks.
5. Have your own
Error Log and analyze your mistakes from time to time. I was not able to do it because I have more than 60 pages of
Error Log and there are too many mistakes. However, if you have more structured approach, you will increase your knowledge on the topics that you are not good at.
6. Practice makes perfect. Although many prep companies claim that you do not need to solve many questions to score high on GMAT, my personal view is that there are different types of questions, and in order to solve them correctly, you need to know how each of them is tackled, at least for Quant section. Dedicate enough time to practice, and build understanding of different types of questions.
For Verbal section, I would recommend to stick more to
OG and LSAT questions. Questions from well-known prep companies (such as
Manhattan Prep or
Veritas Prep, for example) will also work.
7. If you feel lack of motivation, read success stories of other people, they can motivate you to your own success!
8. In the exam, do not panic if you see questions easier than the ones you took before. It does not necessarily mean that your score will be low.
Also I would like to thank
bb for founding this awesome forum, which gathered all of us and helped many people to achieve their goals. Thank you for giving me advices several times, these were very motivating and helpful!
Popular question: - Are you Russian? - No, I am not Russian.P.S. Link to the video "How I scored 700 on GMAT" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxXEyYYTTc 
21 Jun 2020, 08:03
- https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6 ... 27-80.html 
. Olga, I apologize for that, but it seems to have been for a good cause! 
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