Finally, done and dusted. A full on review will follow this post, as its time for me to party today. Though am still angry at myself as I was aiming at 770+, and a 4+ min of an unschedule break in the verbal session did hamper my chances in getting to that score, but still, it feels good to be in the 750 club. I'll tell you guys all, few secrets on what and how I did to get to this score, but right now, its time to party!
Thanks gmatclub! All you guys have been a tremendous support though out my painful yet rewarding journey.
Edit 2: I reply to questions, but please post them on the wall rather than sending a PM to me (Until and unless its really controversial and you don't want the rest of the world to know our wicked thoughts ). Someone else too may find your question useful.New Readers: Please check my responses too, you may find something useful for you guys in there. I'll see if I can edit and give my Reply a heading.[Edit]
The party hubs were too crowded, so am back.
To be honest, I hated reading long debriefs, so I'll keep mine short and crisp. As is, no long paragraphs. Read the P.P.S. (last line of the debrief) if you too don't like long debriefs and just want a quick answer to your question, and if the topic you want to discuss is not one of the underlined ones.
Background: Chemical Engineer, B.Tech M.Tech Dual Degree, 4 years of Exp (Shell: India, Qatar, US), B.Tech/M.Tech CPI: 7.6/10 and 8.4/10, IITK.
GMAT Experience:
1st GMAT Score: 640 Q49, V28 (Aug 2012)
2nd GMAT Score: 690 Q49, V34 (Dec 2012)
3rd GMAT Score: 750 Q51, V40 (Jul 2013)
GMAT Mock Scores:
During 1st preparation period: Did the Q/V part only.
GMAT Prep: 640 (Q49, V28), 610 (Q49, V25), 680 (Q49, V33)
During 2nd preparation period: Did the Q/V part only. At this point still, I was too over confident, and after the second gmatprep mock of 750, I was sure that I'll score over 750 so stopped taking mocks (30 days before the exam, can you believe it!) Man, I was so wrong.
GMAT Prep: 700 (Q51, V33), 750 (Q49, V42)
MGMAT: 640 (Q44, V34)
During 3rd preparation period: After 5 years of smoking continuously and a year of drinking wine almost every third day,
I completely quit smoking and drinking for 30 days to increase my comprehension level (I am writing this blog with a smoke and a glass of wine in my hand). I did the Q/V part with 30 min AWA and 30 min IR, with exactly 7-8 min break, and exactly drinking the same amount of gatorade and eating the same amount of apple in the breaks, with the same amount of lunch and fruits before the test, and yes, IN ALL THE 15 MOCKS. (I read in one of the debriefs that apple and gatorade is good to replenish your glucose level, thank you "gmatclub")
GMAT Prep:
720 (Q51, V35)
780 (Q51, V47)
760 (Q51, V42)
MGMAT:
640 (Q44, V 35)
730 (Q51, V 37)
720 (Q51, V 35)
780 (Q51, V 45)
780 (Q51, V 45) (only 3 verbal ques wrong)
770 (Q51, V 44)
Knewton:
760 (Q51, V 42) (6 verbal ques wrong)
740 (Q50, V 40) (8 verbal ques wrong)
710 (Q51, V 34) (14 verbal ques wrong)
740 (Q51, V 39) (10 verbal ques wrong)
740 (Q51, V 38) (9 verbal ques wrong)
730 (Q51, V 38) (only 5 wrong in verbal, but i guess knewton's 700+ questions were over, so the knewton guys decreased my score for getting a simple answer wrong)
So, as it is self explanatory, the difference between the 1st/2nd preparation and the third preparation is the mocks. I cannot even tell you how important it is to take mocks. Do not fret about mock exam, JUST TAKE IT! As much as possible. Learn from it, learn from your mistakes, build your stamina, rough up and tie your loose ends. Just do the mocks, as much as possible. In fact, one of the CR question I saw in the exam was directly from the GMATPrep, although with different answer choices (The "lyme disease" one). This incident increased my faith in my belief that god help those who help themselves.
The preparation:
For first test: OG12/13,
mgmat SC
For second test:
e-gmat, OG12/13, Jeff Sackmann, Kaplan Verbal,
mgmat SC
Foe third test: knewton,
mgmat books (all though i just read the maths books + advanced quant), GMAT Prep (Yes, once the gmat prep mocks were over, i read through almost all the gmatprep questions from different sources, especially manhattan. Man! Ron's explanations are too damn good.) Didn't even touch the
OG as i had done all OG12/13 questions, 3 or 4 times, each.
Although I am still angry that I could have scored 770+, I blame it to the 18C air-conditioner temperature, that forced me to take that unschedule break. Anyways, I am happy with 750.
Exam Day:
Exactly as the mocks, except for that unscheduled break. Damn!
Reviews:
E-gmat: If you are a non-native, please take this course. Let me tell you that at the start of my preparation, I didn't even know that the verb in the sentence "I was planning to abort my plane" is "was planning". For me an year back, the "verb" that I would have guessed was "abort".
E-gmat helped me build my basics. I hated language a lot, as my english was extremely poor (as you could probably guess it right now after reading my blog, actually I am not thinking about grammar at all right now), but anyways, I never gave up, and definitely could have scored in the 95-97% in english in this attempt, from 56-60% in my first attempt. Payal is a really good teacher. The only place where
e-gmat lags behind is the absence of good mocks (I personally didn't like the grockit thing, as many questions were too poorly formed in grockit, although the questions of
e-gmat were really-really good).
Knewton: Good coverage, lots of gmat like practice questions, and ofcourse 6 Mocks. Good to work if your basics are strong. Interesting thing that I have noticed is that Knewton never indulges itself on gmat sites. Everyone talks about manhattan, veritas prep,
magoosh,
e-gmat, and I have seen instructors from these groups helping everyone everywhere, but I never came across a Knewton Instructor on gmatclub or any other site.
Crux of the matter:
TAKE MOCKS! And look out for your weak areas. Only, and believe me, only mocks can help you define these areas. It will definitely help you. And remember, If I can do it, so can you. Just don't lose hope. I have never been a lucky guy (again you can guess that from my real 3rd gmat exam), so hard work was my only way out. And yes, hard work pays off, please dont shy away from it.
Regards,
Abhishek
P.S.: Not reviewing my debrief right now, will review it the first thing tomorrow morning. And will add on some more stuff, especially a couple of foolproof maths inequality solving methodology, and some tips and tricks of the trade. Till then, all the best! Perseverance is the key to success.
P.P.S.: Please ask me questions, as I am pretty sure my debrief would not able to answer all your queries. Also, instead of jotting down whatever comes to my mind, I'll like to answer your issues with GMAT from my perspective, and will hope that my help helps you a lot.