Disaster spelled in 670 ways : 10 not-to-do's

Procrastination is one big problem that I have! (I am pretty pissed at SC right now so please dont judge me ). I even procrastinated quite a few times about writing my debrief here at GC about 'how I achieved an awesome score in just a little more than three weeks of prep' and 'how you can do it too'! All that stuff doesnt make sense anymore.. not for now at least!

Yes, I scored a 670 on my first GMAT attempt yesterday. It was a disaster waiting to happen, I could sense that, but for some weird reason I was still hopeful of scraping past the 700 mark. So now, instead of being a debrief, my post has become a 'what-not-to-do' summary of sorts!

BTW, if you want a little background, I am an 'Indian-IT-male'! <-- why this emoticon you say? I dont know but something tells me this doesnt help a lot in the GMAT world. Even though I knew I had to take the GMAT, for almost a year, I realized it too late that I should target the round 1 deadlines. What did that leave me with? 3-4 weeks of prep time! I wasnt quite sure how to go about it so I frantically ordered the MGMAT fifth edition Strategy Guides. It was a wise choice as it made me realize how much effort was required for the quant section. It took me two weeks to go through all the five quant strategy guides, from pillar to post, solving every example and every practice question, but I left the online question bank and the OG problem lists for the end as I thought doing them at the end would help me revise once I am through with my preparation. That time, sadly, never came - What not to do # 1

I also spent a lot of time 'collecting' resources to study from. - What not to do # 2 If you are like me, who is not 'satisfied' until he/she has all the material thats available in the world at his/her disposal, then thats something to avoid - completely! I spent some really precious hours on Google, Craigslist and what not, that would have helped my score a lot more than all the material ever possibly could have. Be content with what you have, because now I can safely say that it doesnt take a lot to touch that 700 mark atleast. (I know you wouldn't believe a 670'er saying that, but I did well on my GMATPrep atleast. Why I screwed up on the actual thing is a different story, we'll get to that later). I also had to fight a big war with myself because I wanted to order PowerScore CR, even though I had the Manhattan CR guide.

Once I was through with the 5 quant strategy guides, I shifted my focus to verbal. I always thought that SC was easy and even though I dont understand the SC jargon and mumbo-jumbo thats discussed in GC, I can still filter out the correct option 'by my gut'. - What not to do # 3. Perhaps the biggest of them all. As the test date drew closer and I frantically skimped through the MGMAT SC and CR guides, I was able to comprehend very few things and left a lot of my SC to 'gut-and-ear' technique. Disaster!

On to the tests now. As soon as I kept down the SC book, I took a test from the GMATPrep v1. The result - 600 (Q47/V26) !! I was okay with quant, or so it appeared, but I completely lost it in the verbal section. I wasnt able to complete the questions on time and that cost me dearly. I shifted my focus to SC for the next couple of days and went through OG 13 questions and came back to take the MGMAT CAT (1). Result - 660 (Q45/V35). Not bad, I said to myself. Two more days into random/unplanned prep - What not to do # 4, and two days before the actual Gmat, I downloaded the latest GMATPrep from mba.com and took the CAT - What not to do # 5 (for taking the test two days before the real deal) Result - 700 (Q49/V35). That came as a relief even though I did encounter a couple of questions that Id seen before in v1.

Then came the D-day. I realized it just in time that my test center was in Downtown and I hadnt done my parking research beforehand - What not to do # 6. I had seen the AWA template at a chineseburned post (my apologies if Ive misspelled the name) a day before - again What not to do # 7 but even then I was pretty confident I wrote a decent essay. Where I screwed up was, because I didnt take the AWA section in my limited three attempts at the mock CATs, I didnt click on the 'NEXT' button and the time got over! - What not to do # 8. I was in a state of panic as I proceeded to the IR section, which I obviously hadnt practiced - you guessed it, What not to do # 9. I felt the IR was still nothing too difficult. Long and short of it, my test got over and even though I thought I did well in verbal in the real test, my score mocked me - Q48/V35, Result - 670! As I mentioned, D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. !

But just to list a few things (very few things in fact) that Im glad I did and maybe you should too:
MGMAT Strategy Guides - I believe I owe my score, howsoever feeble it may be, to this - big time
Summaries by Slingfox, Whiplash and RC method by Rhyme - very useful, thanks guys
GMATClub quant tests - I was out of budget from my 'resource collection' spree and couldnt afford this pack. I pounced on the opportunity and took two free tests on the Sep 3rd holiday-access and boy I was glad. I was so impressed that I even thought of making random posts in hope of getting a few kudos to gain access to them but realized I was short on time anyway. Im hoping my post could get me some kudos so that I can utilize them on my second attempt

I am also grateful to Karishma (Veritas), bb and ofcourse Bunuel. I had ofcourse planned on doing, but eventually couldnt try his signature problems - What not to do # 10. Must I say!

Alas, I came back disappointed from the testing center, but was greeted by some sign of relief! I had won the Veritas Prep 10th Anniversary Giveaway that I attempted the day before. :D (Again for you SC freaks, dont argue how can I be greeted by a sign.. I dont know, I suck in SC okay?!) I took it as I sign from above as I enrolled myself into the live online course today, to gear myself up for another shot at the big guy in a month's time. Im not quitting that easy .