Hello All!
I gave my GMAT yesterday and scored a 710(Q49 V38). I want to take this opportunity to thank this forum and
e-GMAT team in particular for helping me cross the 700+ barrier. I wanted to give GMAT since 2012! Yup, that is when i signed up for GMAT club but as life happens, it remained a thought and procrastination dominated all the way till October 2015. More information below..
My Background:I am from India and I have engineering background(never been good at maths though - weird?
). Currently, i am working with a top notch consulting firm.
First attempt: Oct 2015 to March 2016October 2015 - I would call this the month when the foundation was laid for the 700 score. This is the time when i decided that enough is enough i have to get done with GMAT. I started with the GMAT Prep now free course and a 60 day daily e-mailer self study schedule. I was in the self prep mode and i did not want to spend on any coaching. I booked my first GMAT for January,2016 and just like most of us - I purchased Manhattan SC and Powerscore CR for my Verbal needs. I also took almost a months break from my office in December and spent significant time studying(even though i was not in India at that time, I was 'technically on a vacation'). Due to some personal 'relationship issues' I had to move my exam to March to sort things out - i also thought that this will give me some more time to prepare(Bad idea). I scored a 660 in my GMAT Prep but on the official day - i could only manage a 590.
Reason for failure?1. Fundamental were lacking - so i was in this war without a weapon - i had no strategy as such to tackle the Verbal, Period.
2. Wrong approach to the exam - you might have heard that it is ok to skip 3-4 question in GMAT and it doesn't hurt the score much? well i took the advice too far. All i focussed was on pacing and the rest is history. This is where giving a lot of timed mocks comes to rescue.
3. Rescheduling just so that you can get some more practise? not a good idea. Don't let your nerves get the best of you.
4. Should have given more mocks.
5. Should have focussed on Quality and not just quantity(i was more in the 'cover all the course and content mode').
Interim: April-May. This was the lowest time in my life because nothing was going okay in my life. It was as if the universe was conspiring against me - i was facing disappointment in all fronts: be it personal, office, my health or the GMAT. I just decided to hold on and told myself that things will get better. Also, this was the time i spent in introspection and deciding on the right approach. I took a demo in a classroom course. But, the moment the teacher set the expectation in the class that 'study this if you want to get a 650 - i decided well, not gonna work for me.
. I read a lot of positive reviews about
e-GMAT after attending some free demo classes from them i decided to trust them with my needs. I purchased their complete Live prep (including Quant and Verbal).
How to chose a course?There is no set approach, you need to ask yourself that what will work best for you. Some people are natural at self study, some need the live classroom experience, some would prefer the online live classes since they are easy to access etc.. I'll leave that to you but i'll point out how i decided on the course:
1. I learned from past experience that class room session approach won't work for me because i will not be able to go regularly and commuting itself will take a lot of time. Also 2-3 sitting in a classroom environment? nope, not my cup of tea. Not to mention, If i missed some classes then that would be the end of the world for me!
2. Online classes are always accessible and you can attend them in whatever posture you want, maybe with your dog by your side and a cup of tea every hour :D
3. The most important criteria is the value-add from content. This is where i read so many success stories from
e-GMAT, especially about Verbal - very helpful reviews
4. Only downside i felt was that i will not get real time answers to my doubt but this was a low priority for me since i generally grasp the concepts well.
Second Attempt: June-NovemberI religiously started following the
e-GMAT Verbal curriculum. Their live class were very helpful because you had to cover the weekly content before the next class so this approach helped me to push my limits. To be frank, i could not keep pace and had to jump to the next batch 2-3 times. It took me 4 months to complete the classes and most of the content but then the whole process was very helpful. I gave my GMAT a day before my
e-GMAT subscription end date!
e-GMAT teaching methodology is just awesome - it inculcates a new way of thinking in you. The importance of meaning in SC, Pre-thinking in CR, Importance of understanding and effectively reading the RC passage, common pitfalls to look out for - everything is just awesome! During my tail-end of the preparation i was consistently scoring around 39 in my Verbal mock. I prepared around a month for Quant from mid-september to mid-october. The classes and curriculum was very helpful.
Last 3 weeks:This is when i purchased the Official GMAT Question bank and the 4 additional Tests. I made it a point to practise 25 questions daily(5 each type) from question bank in a timed manner. I also made it a point to take at least one mock every week. These are a must have resources but get to them only when you are done with most prep - these should be strictly used for practise(i scored 670,670,660 in my Veritas\Manhattan mocks). After each mock i wrote down what went wrong and what i needed to improve on. The sectional score reports we get after the purchase of GMAT additional tests was extremely helpful - it gave me detailed insights on how i performed in RC vs CR vs SC.
My scores in mocks:Veritas 2-Sep14 V31 Q7 640,
Veritas 3-Oct6 Q47 V35 670,
Veritas 4-Oct22 Q48 V34,
GMAT Prep 1-Oct19-Retake 3 Q48 V36 690,
GMAT Prep 2 -Oct23-Retake 1 Q47 V41 710,
GMAT Prep 3 -Oct26Q47 V36 680,
MGMAT 4 Oct 30 660 Q44 V36
GMAT Prep 4 Nov 2 710 Q48 V39
GMAT Prep 5 Nov 10 690 Q46 V39
GMAT Prep 6 Nov 13 710 Q49 V38 (the same i scored on exam day as well - these tests are insanely accurate!)
Exam day prep: I once heard a story - there was a guy who prepared for an year and then he finally slept in the exam
I did not want to be that guy but i was close... I booked my appointment for 9 AM so i was trying to sleep early since past 3 days - did not work out well esp. on the exam day. I went to bed around 1130 PM but i was not able to sleep till 1:30 AM. At one momemt i felt that i will not get enough sleep at all but hopefully i was able to. Don't be that guy! if you think you will not be able to make it in early morning - please schedule a time for afternoon. During exam day - you need to be in positive state of mind - try to be away from negative thoughts.. meditation helps! During the exam - don't get stuck on a question else your score will suffer. Decide on an ideal time limit and just leave the goddamn question if it is troubling you - there are other ones you can solve
What went wrong?While covering the
e-GMAT course, i was barely able to keep pace with the content so i never started practising on Scholarium till the very end. This is a very beautiful platform for practise and should be used from very beginning - not to be left for a later time. Same about GMAT Club quant tests - these are really helpful and should be taken frequently. I also felt that i was a little off on pacing this time as well, I might have answered couple of questions in a hurry just because the clock was ticking and i did not want to get stuck, I also wanted to have enough time for last few questions else i might have gone in auto-panick mode. Sometimes, it is okay to take a minute or 2 extra but i'll leave that on you.
other resources:1. I read Economist frequently in the beginning and occasionally during the later months. I made it a point to read their Espresso bulletin daily though.
2. I practised the 2 free GMAT Question posted on their website every week .
3.
Manhattan GMAT App has really qood quality of questions - i practised all their Verbal questions esp. while commuting.
4. Prep4GMAT App also has good question - I used these occasionally as well - i used to practise one question daily though which used to pop up in my notification.
5. GMAT Club quant tests - took few of them - Explanations are very helpful and to the point.
Please let me know if you need any more details or inputs!
Happy Studying.
Regards,
Gauz