My GMAT Journey: From 640 to 730 in 4 attempts

Touchdown US, I was entering a new phase of my life post marriage. Having left a promising career behind in India, I was a bag of mixed emotions. I had taken a leap of faith, which was highly unlike me, who was this ambitious and independent woman with her ambitious plans ahead of her. Trusting that with hard work I can manage to make an even better career in “the land of opportunities”, I dived into GMAT preparation with over flowing confidence. “Hey, I rock at Quant” I said, I only need verbal practice, thought the newbie GMAT candidate in me. I had prepped for the arduous Common Admission Test (CAT) for Indian MBA entrances before, I thought my GMAT journey was going to be a short and sweet one. Well, I was in for surprises.

I started my preparations sometime in mid Nov 2018. I fully intended to secure an admit in sessions starting in 2019. This meant that I needed to have both my GMAT and essays ready in 2 months, since R3 deadlines for most programs was within 2nd week of January 2019. I was targeting Kellogg School of Management 1Y MBA in the top 10 schools. If not Kellogg, I was planning on being awarded a significant scholarship. Both these goals implied that I needed to have a great GMAT score, somewhere around 750.

First Attempt- 640 (Q49, V28)- Jan 5th 2019
I started by getting a grip on verbal. I practiced a lot and gave every free mock available. After each test I analyzed the solutions, then gave more tests. I was scoring an average of 740 on mocks from 800 score.com. I finally gave the two official mocks and scored 710 and 700. I was confident that I should be able to get at least 700. Of course, 640 was a huge blow.

Learnings
1. No strategy: I played my first GMAT like a “noob”. I was trying to excel at every question whether or not it was my strong area and whether or not it deserved the time I was giving it. This somehow worked in Quant but I was knocked out in Verbal. I had heard a lot on how the first 10 questions are important. So, I decided I was going to be extra careful on those but I did not incorporate that strategy into the bigger game plan. I ended up guessing a series of questions in the end. (include link to time management articles)
2. Over analysis during the test: Once a question is over, don’t analyze it. Believe that you took the best decision during that time. This was the key difference between mocks and the real exam for me. During mocks, I was focused entirely on the current question. But the during the real GMAT, my focus was just not there. This aspect needs practice and conscious mental push since the exam pressure will try to sway you on the D day.

Second Attempt -710 (Q50, V35)
A score of 640 had truly shaken me. It was much below than I had ever scored on mocks. I had a choice, to be discouraged by the low score and lose confidence or to analyze what went wrong on the test day and how that score was not a representation of my preparation. I went with latter and ordered my ESR. I had a 90th percentile in RC. On SC, I scored 50th percentile. On my favorite topic of CR, I scored 25%! This gave me confidence since I had my next task clearly cut out for me.

Preparation Strategy
I went deep into CR preparation. I did a few CR questions and decided to observe myself this time. This was crucial to identify flaws in my approach and concept understanding. I used to read the argument, understand it like a story and go straight to the options. This was a wrong approach because
a) I wasted time going back and forth between options.
b) In most cases, more than one option seemed correct.
c) I was starting to question the premises at times

One thing that CR needs is clarity. This is when I went to e-GMAT CR course again. The way the CR course is structured helped me identify the problem with my approach. Whereas the first step is being crystal clear with the premises and conclusion, pre-thinking the connecting logic between the two is a very strong tool to succeed in CR. While it seems counter-intuitive to pause and pre-think, it will save you time since you will eliminate options quickly and with surety. The latter is extremely important.

For SC, I realized that I was not answering with surety. For most SC questions, it is relatively easy to eliminate wrong options if you understand the meaning well. E-GMAT SC course focuses a lot on meaning based approach along with grammar. This is ideal since on 700+ level questions, most options are grammatically correct but the meaning is subtly different. The combination of meaning and grammar approach will never fail you.

Learnings:
1. Over reliance on strengths
My SC and CR prep bore fruits and I jumped from a V28 to V35. I scored 85th percentile in both these sections but unfortunately, my RC went down to 33rd percentile. I had been confident of my reading skills and had overlooked real RC preparation. To be fair, I had consistently scored well in RC in mocks and practice that I didn’t feel the need to allocate more time to that. This held me back, it is important to know your strength but you need to keep sharpening your skill through practice.
2. Time management is crucial
I spent a disproportionate amount of time in the first 2 sections of the verbal section. You need to keep the bigger picture in mind and even though initial questions are important, you need to be mindful of the overall time management.

Third attempt-Not giving up, but…710 (Q50, V35)
I knew that 710 would get me a foot in the door to top schools but my target was higher. Moreover, I felt that a higher score was very much within reach since I didn’t perform well in RC, which was actually my strength.

This time I practiced all sections well, but with more focus on time management. I could feel my grasp on concepts getting better and I was more sure of my answers than before. I also practiced more mental balance and composure to be less anxious during exam. In my last 2 attempts, I only utilized 2-3 minutes of the 8 minutes of break time allotted. This time I decided to deep breathe for a minute or two during the break before verbal and utilize my break well. But despite your best efforts, you cannot outrun luck. Due to a miscommunication with the test administrator, I lost 2.5 minutes on my verbal exam. All my meditation and mental calmness went for a toss and within seconds, I was hyperventilating. I was extremely disarrayed during my entire verbal section and I knew the score I would get was not going to reflect my potential. I got a 710.

1. Mental balance is key
I cannot stress this enough. If I kept my composure and managed myself well, I could have scored more. If in such a mindset, I could score a 710, it meant my target score was well within reach.
2. Always give your best no matter what
Test day would be different. Something or the other might sway you during the test. Some nagging thought, time-crunch, a complex RC and the list can go on. Do not fret over what has happened before your current question. It seems simple, it is very difficult during the exam.

Note: Since I had a compromised GMAT experience, I reached out to GMAC to inform them about it. There were a few other issues during my GMAT experience. GMAC was highly supportive and offered me my next attempt at $60. In case you don't have the ideal experience at your test center, I recommend reaching out to GMAC.

Fourth attempt, One last try -730 (Q50, V39)
I was tired of preparing for GMAT by now. I enjoyed studying for it but not getting my target score was wearing my motivation. I realized that I needed to keep going if I wanted to get into my dream school. What really helped was to visualize life after a good score, so I read a lot of debriefs and visited my target schools’ websites to get motivation. Reading other’s experiences really helps a lot. I would actually find myself teary eyed at the end of some debriefs because I could relate so much to the preparation journey.

I finally scored a 730. Q50, V39!

You are always going to be short on time: more time doesn’t mean correct answer. This is so important. The more time you give, the more you’re going to manifest ideas and thoughts that are unrelated to the question at hand. This happens especially in CR questions and RC inference questions. Trust your preparation.

Recommended resources for preparation

Quant:
GMAT Club Quant tests. They are way more difficult than the actual GMAT but they prepare you to face anything in GMAT.
The below link is a highly comprehensive list of all resources, with links. The resources are for people with varying level of comfort with different topics of Quant, so I found it very useful
https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-you-need ... l#p1130136

Verbal
a) I highly recommend non-native English speakers to use E-GMAT verbal online course. Also, if you are not a highly structured person, like me, it is a great resource to ensure you have everything you need for the exam. For me, it was a game changer for Sentence Correction. The analytics in Scholaranium testing platform help you to target your weaknesses quickly which would otherwise take you time to figure out.

b) Subscribe to Question of the day from GMAT. On verbal SC discussions, I always looked for answers by GMATNinja wherever possible. I found them very well explained. He has also written a few articles (links can be found on below URL) which were really helpful when I was starting my journey

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-ninja-s ... l#p2170874

Some good questions banks for SC and CR

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-most-com ... l#p1129824

https://gmatclub.com/forum/meaning-clar ... l#p1168341

Time management
Time management is highly important to GMAT success. And this strategy is highly unique to everyone. Posting the link to a few articles which can help you plan yours.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/timing-strat ... l#p1577505

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/gmat-timing-st ... important/

Taking mocks is the best way to identify your timing strategy. I bought GMAT official mock packages since they’re the closest to the real exam. I also bought Experts Global Mocks since I had exhausted official mocks by my second attempt. Taking mocks also helps build stamina for the main exam.


Overall learnings from my GMAT journey
1. Enjoy the process- business learnings. This is one thing that made the preparation interesting. Especially in CR, the way you are able to think from different perspectives prepares you to be a great business leader
2. Don’t take the score personally- the score is not a representative of you. It depends on a whole lot of factors which includes a certain level of luck. GMAC says the score you get is in +/- 40 range of your potential. So, if you’re stuck at a certain score, you have the potential to get a better one
3. If you have more in you, go for your target score- again and again. I had almost accepted my score at 710. Until I didn’t. I knew somewhere I could get my target score. If you have the time and resources and most importantly, the will power to try for your target score, I highly suggest going for it.


There was a moment in my journey where I had almost decided that I will apply with a 710. Keeping yourself motivated is not easy. But I guess this journey is all about how you manage your emotions and not give up. The score has really helped me with getting an admit from my dream school, Kellogg School of Management. Moreover, it helped me negotiate a $10,000 scholarship from the school as well.

I hope my experience helps people in their GMAT preparation phase! All the best to everyone, hang in there!