Finally, GMAT is over. Just finished it a couple of hours back. Right now I'm in office; just trying to compensate the 6 hrs that I lost for taking the exam. Still feeling a bit dizzy... but guys, I partly owe it to this forum. I have gathered a lot from this community, and if my experience can help any of u in any manner - trust me, it will be my pleasure! So here's my debrief. I will try to keep it objective, but can't give my word....... Background: Indian, Male, 32. Married for the last 5 yrs (in fact, I owe my GMAT experience to my wife). I've a sweet li'l daughter. Education: BE (JU, Kolkata) + MBA (SJMSOM, IIT-Bombay). Decent & consistent results thru'out. Experience: 6yrs into Marketing, Sales Planning, BD, Alliance in Automotive & Retail (no international exp) At present: I'm based in Kolkata (India), taking care of Marketing for a national food retail chain Why I took the plunge? I'm gonna think about that and frame a "good story" as a part of my application. But honestly - I'm looking for better career options and some global exposure. When did I start thinking about taking the GMAT? Somewhere in Oct '09. When did I start preparing? Well, in Dec I was going thru' an old version of Kaplan (2005) just to get a hang of it, going thru' various online forums, speaking to one of my closest friends (I owe this to him as well) and still deciding "to be or not to be"... Smwhere around 5th/ 6th of Jan '10 I finally decided to go for it and bought Kaplan Online Premier (2010) version. That's when I seriously started. Materials used: 1) OG 10 2) Kaplan Online Premier (2010) 3) Peterson's (nobody tells you about this; I found the Verbal & AWA sections really good. Quant was not up to the mark though. Plus, there are 9 mock tests. It's good for ppl like me, who think that practice tests help a lot) Practice Tests I took & my Scores (as far as I can remember/ check. It's not well documented): A) Kaplan - 6 Tests (660, 560, 760*, 760*, 720, 700) B) Peterson's - 9 tests (660, 640, 670, 710, 640, 700, 690, 650, 670) C) GMAT Prep - 2 Free tests (690, 710) D) MGMAT - 1 Free test (650) E) Knewtown - 1 Free test (690) F) Princeton - 1 Free test (710) G) Veritas - 1 Free test (660) My Daily Routine (Jan to mid-Feb): Office: 6 days a week, 9 am - 9 pm (incl travel) During Office Hours: 30 mins to 1 hr going thru' GMAT Club forum and solving a few Qs here and there Time with family: 9 pm - 11.30 pm Study (normal days): 11.30 pm - 2.30 am (3 hrs a day was my target. But at times used to wake up in the study room at 5 am just to realize that I've slept off from 1 am.) Study (Sundays, holidays): mock test from 11.30 am onwards. review and then study at night. almost 8 - 10 hrs My Daily Routine (mid-Feb to 3rd Mar): During Office Hours: 2 hrs going thru' various sectional tests & GMATClub forum Study (normal days): 11.30 pm - 3 am (tried really hard to keep myself awake) Study (Sat & Sunday, other holidays): mock test, review and then study at night. 10 - 12 hrs Study Methods: As I said, I believe in taking mock tests, rather than studying a lot. So that's what I tried to do - take as many tests as possible. But a few things I did: 1) Go thru' basic maths and note down a few critical formula (e.g. slope of a line, surface area of a sphere) 2) Permutation, Combn & Probability - start learning the basics and kind of going thru' solved Qs 3) Go thru' a few chapters of Wren & Martin - for english grammar & usage 4) Solve all the practice Qs in Kaplan, Petersons 5) Note down some critical Qs (SC, DS & PS) that I came across at various books/ tests etc. 6) Understand the "templatisation" concept of AWA and try to adhere to it 7) Follow the time-restrictions during the practice tests, especially for the last 5/ 6 tests Things I didn't do, BUT should have done: 1) Unfortunately, cudn't finish the OG. Completed PS. But cud do only 70% of DS and 60% of SC & CR each; less than 30% of RC 2) Started solving the 1000 SC. But cudn't go beyond the first 200. 3) Didn't document enough or make error logs 4) Didn't practised enough AWAs. In fact I wrote only 6 to 7 AWAs (in the last 10-days actually) Yesterday I took it easy. Followed the normal routine and studied for around 2 hrs in the office. But didn't study at night. Had a beer in the eve, went home, prepared the xam-kit and spent some time with my kid. Then went off to sleep. Test Day: Was I nervous? U bet it! I was nervous 'cos I was going to take a competitive exam (that too a costly one) almost after 8 yrs. I was early to the Test Center. Pre-test: going thru' the formalities. And talking to the centre head. Clarified a few doubts about the test rules. (For those who will be taking the test at the Kolkata centre, this guy is wonderful. Very cordial, helpful and friendly. He's ever smiling - helps to ease off the initial tension) AWA I was tensed since I didn't practice much. But topics were quite easy and I felt quite confident as I started the "Argument essay". As planned, I wrote down a few points about the topic on the scratch paper and followed the template. To my surprise I wrote quite a lot and finished before time. In the "Issue essay" template was not helpful. But again the topic was relevant to business. Here I wrote almost 5-6 points about the topic on the scratch paper and started writing. I could cover all these points well in time and finish the essay just on time. I was quite happy about the performance in AWA when I took my break (I still don't know my score, but shouldn't be less than 4.5 at least). Break 1: A quick smoke, a hurried visit to the loo and almost 7 minutes were gone when I returned to the test room. Quant: It's my strong point. And I knew I had to do well. Apart from the MGMAT test I've scored between 46 - 52. I was confident, but at the same time tensed - 'cos I knew this could actually ensure that I don't go below my min target of 670. But the 1st question itself threw me off! It took me "SEVEN" minutes to answer that. I still don't know why I kept trying once I passed the critical mark of 4 mins - that I had planned earlier. Somehow I could answer it and moved on to the next. The first jerk was never to be recovered, and add to that the fact that problems started getting tougher. Mostly from "number theory" and "inequalities". And of course a few nasty "algebra". And of course a horrific "calculation" - that again took me a bloody 6 mins. From Q No: 25 (20 mins remaining) I adopted a policy of "calculative guess" for tough Qs. The actual no of such cases could be from 3 to 5. In fact, I "randomly guessed" for two Qs - one proability and the other a word problem, since time was important. Just I tried to follow one thing "unless unavoidable don't guess 2 consecutive Qs". Still I couldn't finish the last Qs. I was kind of devastaded - never happened before that I cudn't finish Quant in time. Break 2 - Felt like scrapping the test. But kept hope. Had a smoke. Went back. Verbal - pretty similar experience as during my practice tests. It was easy to eliminate 3 options. But most of the Qs - was confused between the other two. So, went ahead with my "gut feel" (intuition) in such cases. Found it comparatively easier than the practice tests. Not too many 5-liners in SC; CR & RC were decent enough for non-native users like us. SC was getting relatively easier towards the end, making me nervous that I'm really screwing it up. Never bothered - since my Quant was already lost! CR Qs focused on "strengthening" and "underlying assumptions"; while RC passages dealt with neuro-science, history, women's lib ........ Actually, I never felt that Qs were getting tougher or something like that. I was just going thru' the motion. As during my mock tests, here too had to struggle for time. And had to hurry thru' the last 7/ 8 Qs and infact "randomly guess" the last question. Clicking for the score: I knew I screwed up! I was expecting nothing beyond 680 - 690. So didn't feel any tension etc while clicking for the score. But here too - I was thrown off! A whooping 740 (Q: 50; V: 41) My comments / suggestions: For folks who can take away a solid month or so from their commitments or can invest 4 - 5 months for the entire preparation process, you are lucky to get that opportunity! Please use it very very wisely. Go after GMAT with a vengeance, as if there's no tomorrow. For those who's working and can spend only a limited time preparing for the test, be smart in planning ur prep. Either u can prepare hard or u can practice a lot of tests. Whatever suits you. Mentally prepare urself so that u r able to switch on and off - among xam prep, professional commitment and family life. It's tough, but use your time wisely. Don't get bogged down. Strategy for the test: 1) Take as many tests as possible, just to prepare urself for the "test situations" 2) Expect a rough patch in ur "strong" areas. 3) Do not get into "test strategy" business untill who have mastered or at least reached a comfortable level with the basics. Trying to figure out tips and tricks, while u are trying to get your base strong is a death trap. Avoid it 4) Towards the end of your preparation, stay as close to OGs and GMATPrep CATs. I think, IMVVHO, that none of the test prep companies can appropriately emulate the actual GMAT material, hence their CAT material is bound to be skewed. However, a lot of the material in Kaplan is great for learning, but not appropriate for judging where your 'score' is. 5) Visit ur test cente b4hand. And get a feel of the "ambience" 6) Prepare "error logs" 7) Don't focus too much on AWA. If u r decent in English written communication, follow the template for "Argument" and invest at least 5 - 6 mins for writing down the points in "Issue" essay What else? Yes, please feel free to ask any questions you have. And, good luck with your preps! Based on this scores I have realized the following points: Verbal: Scope of improvement is much higher in the verbal section Quant: Still a little rusty when it comes to the "inequality" problems. Be prepared for "up sets" Overall: Never "let it go". Till the last Q, u have a chance to improve ur score. Utilize that! Please feel free to share any comments or advice you might have for me. Any suggestion regarding the application process (I'm planning a 1yr MBA from a good institute that has a good placement record and that accepts "late" application) is most welcome. thanks.

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My Experience with GMAT 740

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therockobama

Joined: 09 Nov 2009

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Concentration: General Management, Entrepreneurship

GMAT 1: 660 Q46 V35 Verified score

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GMAT 1: 660 Q46 V35 Verified score

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08 Apr 2010, 06:06

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wow, man, sudip135, awesome! It is amazing that you studied up so late. I just get so tired by 10. Spending time with kids is a priority too, so cannot study in the evening. But you showed me the light. If you want a great score, you need to put efforts in studying. No excuses.

angsh08

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08 Apr 2010, 09:43

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Hello Dada,
It is really great to see this kind of study plan because I am also always very busy in work.
I will be very happy if u can share few things about RC, whether you face problems in English ,as you are not a native speaker , or how you prepared for RC

Thanks ,
Arun

divakarbio7

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08 Apr 2010, 13:01

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Thank you Sudip!!!

Very Inspiring Debrief...

All the best for your Application process

Divakar!!!

ohfred

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08 Apr 2010, 15:27

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Amazing! Would appreciate if you could share more on the AWA.. and y insead is looking for a different profile? like whether a score of 740 is good enough for it. . . or ....

mission2009

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08 Apr 2010, 22:09

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Congratualtions on your score, your hard work paid rich dividends

jusjmkol740

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08 Apr 2010, 23:23

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RC:
1. My test experience: pretty simple and straightforward passages. Lot of fact-based and strengthen/weaken Qs.
2. My preparation: mostly during mock tests. and around 15 passages from OG.
3. My test strategy: Read passage in reasonable time (3 mins avg), read Qs, if reqd go back to the passage
4. My time strategy: 6 - 7 mins for small passage; 8 - 9 mins for big passage
5. Suggestion (Must do): complete the OG passages under time-limit. If u r very good in SC, then u can spend some more time in RC.
6. Suggestion to Improve: Reference Kaplan. Understand various types of Qs and how to answer them differently. In this forum I hv read about other books/ ref mat like MGMAT/ Power Score/ RC Bible, but never tried. Someone else might help.
7. Be cautious: specially for inference Qs. Those can be tricky
8. Reading speed: if u hv studied in english, read the english newspaper and hv read english thrillers, then speed shouldn't be a problem. But still if u wanna improve, grow the habit of reading the english newspaper daily under time-limit. still better, read obscure articles from the internet - thr's no dearth of trash articles on the net; and reading from a computer screen simulates the test situation

AWA:
1. My test experience: very easy/ generic management topics. and surprisingly i finished before time :shock:

2. My preparation: almost nothing. always skipped these during mock tests. i think i hardly tried these in 2 or 3 mock tests. in addition, wrote 3 or 4 more under time pressure. most of the times i was unable to finish in 30 mins. fifteen days before my test, i gave it a thought and realized i need to do sth abt it. so started using the template (I'm really thankful to the person who posted the template in this forum. it's a GEM).
3. My test strategy: write down the logic/ points in first 3 or 4 mins. then use the template to elaborate
4. My time strategy: there was none. i just knew that it would tough to finish in time. so after writing the intro, i would write the conclusion just to ensure that the passage doesn't look unfinished.
5. Suggestion (Must do): use the template. but be flexible enough to modify it as per your comfort level. writing the points in the beginning really helps. so devote 3 or 4 mins for this. in the Argument essay the template is most important. In the Issue essay follow the pattern: Intro-Points for ur conclusion-conclusion.

In general the verbal section is very critical for us (non-native speakers). It could help a lot to improve the score. In case you wanna know sth more specific on RC/ AWA feel free to revert.

Thanks guys!

aalba005

Joined: 01 Apr 2010

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GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V37 Verified score

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10 Apr 2010, 12:42

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Appreciate the detailed debrief, lots of good information for my own 5 week GMAT prep plan

skywalkr82

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13 Apr 2010, 20:53

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Amazing debriefs...Loved them.. I was so bogged down early in the day with my prep and was almost exhausted after long drive (50 min) to office. However, the debriefs just made me so feel so relaxed and spirited that I plan to double up my time for the prep now........
congratulations on the score and best of luck for your apps....great going

bblast

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15 Jun 2011, 11:14

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sudip->i have been searching a review on Kolkata test center.

If you are still active on this forum can u please let me know the details about the facility ?

jusjmkol740

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15 Jun 2011, 22:09

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@ bblast - sorry but what facility are you talking about? You can share the details or connect with me

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