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Hi All,
I wanted to share my journey on the GMAT Focus.
My background: Mechanical Engineer
Something to note before proceeding: I have given CAT twice and scored 97.85%ile and 99.47%ile respectively, however I do feel GMAT was a complete game alltogether.
I did try to studying for GMAT a few times last year and gave up after a few days each time, because it'd been a few years since I graduated and it was hard to cope up while working.
Being the project manager, I then put a plan together.
Step 1: Take a blind GMAT test (one without prep)
Step 2: Analyse
Step 3: Preepare
Step 4: Achieve my dream score on GMAT
It didn't turn out to be that simple.
Now if we talk about my actual journey, then I gave an official mock a couple of weeks before my official attempt on 12th Jan, scored 715. This made me feel pretty confident about my first blind attempt.
I took one more mock 2 days before my blind attempt, scored 655. This was a big mistake since it demotivated me a bit too much and ended up affecting my blind attempt where I scored 615.
I analysed my strengths and weaknesses and then prepared for 4 months.
Quant: I used Manhattan Prep Quant Foundation and All the Quant books for studying concepts. I was pretty confident about my quant skills, so just studied concepts there. Solved all the OG questions (Main and Quant Review books)
Data Insights: I again solved all the OG questions, and this was the best decision because I think most of the questions were unique. I've been dealing with data for the past 5 years but a lot of those OG questions left me completly speechless.
Verbal: I tried Manhattan Prep books, but sadly it didn't work that well for me, could barely finish foundation. I also purchased powerscore RC and CR book. I read the whole CR book, feeling confident about my verbal skills but actually it didn't help me much on mocks. This is the point where I realised categorising questions is all too difficult for me. I am very analytical, so I wasted too mcuh time in categorising things rather than trying to focus on the question at hand. That's when I stumbled across GMAT Ninja video. I absolutely loved them, they taught me very well what not to do. I followed it throughly and that started improving my score.
Even during my prep phase my score fluctuated between 585-725.
I took my next attempt thinking this is it. But only scored 675. It was a good score but I knew I could do better.
When trying to find what I missed, I realise my competitive nature was what was stopping me from getting my dream score. On each question, I'd analyse if this got harder or easier to see whether I was on the right track. That gave me anxiety when I felt the question got easier. This wasted a lot of time and overall didn't let me reach my full potential.
So, my idea was then to focus on mindfullness instead. I started morning walks, 5 mins pranayam in the morning and did things that made me happy (like watching anime, board games and good food - this one always made me the happiest). Since I felt my basics were already strong enough I didn't study any further. I only took one mock between my 2nd and final attempts where I scored 745. I pretty much thought it was a glitch since my highest so far was 725 while preparing.
I took my fianl attempt. I was surprisingly relaxed because I told myself: you ahven't prepared so don't expect. I had already made up my mind that it didn't matter what I score. And funnily, I scored 745 (something I didn't think I'd achieve without prepping but I did). Just think of it as a game, one question at a time.
Things I spent a lot of time researching and experimenting with and what worked for me:
Preparation: During my 4 month prep, I focused on the concepts during the first month. I'd study a couple hours before and a couple hours after work. Mon-Fri. On weekend, 90 mins sessions with 30 mins break. I'd have 6-7 of those sessions minimum.
After that I focused on practising, I practised 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour during the lunch break and 1.5 hrs in the evening. I only focused on OG questions because nothing came close to them.
Practising: I'd solve an OG question online, then immediately analyse solution no matter I got that right or wrong. I never timed myself because I wanted to learn as much as I could.
OG questions are really close to what you would see on your official exam.
Mocks: Retaking OG mocks 1-2 would give you a lot of repetitive questions. But retaking mocks 3-6 would give you barely any repetitive questions since I believe they have a larger pool, plus they only let you retake them once. I found the solutions to almost all OG Mock questions on GMAT club. The responses were pretty helpful. I focused on quality rather than quantity during practice.
A very important learning, never take a mock within 4-5 days of your official exam. If you score well, you'll be tempted to get each question right because "you should know this". If you don't score well, you'll keep feeling you're not doing well here as well.
Timing: Timing strategy matters a lot. I didn't pay that much attention to timing during my 1st and 2nd attempt, but followed it strictly during 3rd attempt. This article https://www.kaptest.com/study/gmat/gmat ... Oub-oKSup1 was an absolute lifesaver. I followed the sectional timing strategy rigidly.
Exam patterns: Number of questions you get wrong matters less than when you get them wrong. I feel getting the early questions wrong tanked my score a lot. Also, GMAT DOES NOT forgive you for getting and easy question wrong. You can score higher even when you get the same number of questions wrong.
What to do during official exam break: I did a lot of research on this. The thing that worked for me was a piece of dark chocolate. one before the exam and one during the break. It might just be the placebo effect, but that worked for me. I followed the boxed breathing technique for 5 mins during my break, that helped me clear my mind and focus on the next section.
If you have any questions, I am more than happy to answer.
All the very best!!
I wanted to share my journey on the GMAT Focus.
My background: Mechanical Engineer
Something to note before proceeding: I have given CAT twice and scored 97.85%ile and 99.47%ile respectively, however I do feel GMAT was a complete game alltogether.
I did try to studying for GMAT a few times last year and gave up after a few days each time, because it'd been a few years since I graduated and it was hard to cope up while working.
Being the project manager, I then put a plan together.
Step 1: Take a blind GMAT test (one without prep)
Step 2: Analyse
Step 3: Preepare
Step 4: Achieve my dream score on GMAT
It didn't turn out to be that simple.
Now if we talk about my actual journey, then I gave an official mock a couple of weeks before my official attempt on 12th Jan, scored 715. This made me feel pretty confident about my first blind attempt.
I took one more mock 2 days before my blind attempt, scored 655. This was a big mistake since it demotivated me a bit too much and ended up affecting my blind attempt where I scored 615.
I analysed my strengths and weaknesses and then prepared for 4 months.
Quant: I used Manhattan Prep Quant Foundation and All the Quant books for studying concepts. I was pretty confident about my quant skills, so just studied concepts there. Solved all the OG questions (Main and Quant Review books)
Data Insights: I again solved all the OG questions, and this was the best decision because I think most of the questions were unique. I've been dealing with data for the past 5 years but a lot of those OG questions left me completly speechless.
Verbal: I tried Manhattan Prep books, but sadly it didn't work that well for me, could barely finish foundation. I also purchased powerscore RC and CR book. I read the whole CR book, feeling confident about my verbal skills but actually it didn't help me much on mocks. This is the point where I realised categorising questions is all too difficult for me. I am very analytical, so I wasted too mcuh time in categorising things rather than trying to focus on the question at hand. That's when I stumbled across GMAT Ninja video. I absolutely loved them, they taught me very well what not to do. I followed it throughly and that started improving my score.
Even during my prep phase my score fluctuated between 585-725.
I took my next attempt thinking this is it. But only scored 675. It was a good score but I knew I could do better.
When trying to find what I missed, I realise my competitive nature was what was stopping me from getting my dream score. On each question, I'd analyse if this got harder or easier to see whether I was on the right track. That gave me anxiety when I felt the question got easier. This wasted a lot of time and overall didn't let me reach my full potential.
So, my idea was then to focus on mindfullness instead. I started morning walks, 5 mins pranayam in the morning and did things that made me happy (like watching anime, board games and good food - this one always made me the happiest). Since I felt my basics were already strong enough I didn't study any further. I only took one mock between my 2nd and final attempts where I scored 745. I pretty much thought it was a glitch since my highest so far was 725 while preparing.
I took my fianl attempt. I was surprisingly relaxed because I told myself: you ahven't prepared so don't expect. I had already made up my mind that it didn't matter what I score. And funnily, I scored 745 (something I didn't think I'd achieve without prepping but I did). Just think of it as a game, one question at a time.
Things I spent a lot of time researching and experimenting with and what worked for me:
Preparation: During my 4 month prep, I focused on the concepts during the first month. I'd study a couple hours before and a couple hours after work. Mon-Fri. On weekend, 90 mins sessions with 30 mins break. I'd have 6-7 of those sessions minimum.
After that I focused on practising, I practised 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour during the lunch break and 1.5 hrs in the evening. I only focused on OG questions because nothing came close to them.
Practising: I'd solve an OG question online, then immediately analyse solution no matter I got that right or wrong. I never timed myself because I wanted to learn as much as I could.
OG questions are really close to what you would see on your official exam.
Mocks: Retaking OG mocks 1-2 would give you a lot of repetitive questions. But retaking mocks 3-6 would give you barely any repetitive questions since I believe they have a larger pool, plus they only let you retake them once. I found the solutions to almost all OG Mock questions on GMAT club. The responses were pretty helpful. I focused on quality rather than quantity during practice.
A very important learning, never take a mock within 4-5 days of your official exam. If you score well, you'll be tempted to get each question right because "you should know this". If you don't score well, you'll keep feeling you're not doing well here as well.
Timing: Timing strategy matters a lot. I didn't pay that much attention to timing during my 1st and 2nd attempt, but followed it strictly during 3rd attempt. This article https://www.kaptest.com/study/gmat/gmat ... Oub-oKSup1 was an absolute lifesaver. I followed the sectional timing strategy rigidly.
Exam patterns: Number of questions you get wrong matters less than when you get them wrong. I feel getting the early questions wrong tanked my score a lot. Also, GMAT DOES NOT forgive you for getting and easy question wrong. You can score higher even when you get the same number of questions wrong.
What to do during official exam break: I did a lot of research on this. The thing that worked for me was a piece of dark chocolate. one before the exam and one during the break. It might just be the placebo effect, but that worked for me. I followed the boxed breathing technique for 5 mins during my break, that helped me clear my mind and focus on the next section.
If you have any questions, I am more than happy to answer.
All the very best!!
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15 Aug 2024, 08:57
Kudos
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Hi aayushipt,
Congratulations on your impressive journey and achieving your dream score on the GMAT! Your story is truly inspiring, and it's great to see how you adapted your approach to overcome challenges along the way.
I noticed you mentioned only the official mock tests in your post. Do you have any information about how the Expert Global mock tests and GMAT Club mocks compare to the actual GMAT Focus test?
Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with this community. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!
Congratulations on your impressive journey and achieving your dream score on the GMAT! Your story is truly inspiring, and it's great to see how you adapted your approach to overcome challenges along the way.
I noticed you mentioned only the official mock tests in your post. Do you have any information about how the Expert Global mock tests and GMAT Club mocks compare to the actual GMAT Focus test?
Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with this community. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!
15 Aug 2024, 09:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
Wow! Amazing score ❤️❤️❤️
Great job leveraging the M-books.
Crazy score. Did you take a break between your first attempt in Jan and then you started studying again? Did you change things much and start from scratch or?
Posted from my mobile device
Great job leveraging the M-books.
Crazy score. Did you take a break between your first attempt in Jan and then you started studying again? Did you change things much and start from scratch or?
Posted from my mobile device
