Hello everyone,
I have been preparing for GMAT since January 2017. I gave my actual exam on 4th of April and scored a 630 (Q47, V29) IR 6 and AWA 5. I was really nervous on the test day and overshot the break before my verbal section. This probably screwed up my verbal score because I used to score a 35ish during my mocks.
I used the following resources for my first attempt:
1.
Magoosh Online full course
2. Manhattan Review CR Guide
3. Manhattan Review Math Study companion
4. Powerscore CR Bible
5. Kaplan Online question bank
The issue with
Magoosh mocks was that they included only the Math and Verbal section. Hence, I never accounted the fatigue of AWA and IR on my test scores. However, with the new GMAT rules, I should be able to do better. I gave 6 Kaplan mocks as well (all under test conditions). My scores ranged from 610 to 710. Hence, I was really unsure of my test performance on the D-day.
I understand that I committed 2 major mistakes during my first attempt:
1. Never touched the
OG2. Did not use gmatclub forum
3. No proper grasp on verbal
I was completely lost after the 630. Even though I absolutely detest coaching institutes, I joined a local branch of Princeton Review in India for a 3 month course. I did the following during my 3 months:
1.
OG 2017
2. Official Quantitative Review 2017
3. Official Verbal Review 2017
4. Princeton Materials
5.
MGMAT SC guide
6.
MGMAT RC guide
My test scores scores in July 2017 (all given under test conditions):
1.
Manhattan Prep (V34, Q28) : 520
2. Princeton (V34, Q41) : 620
3. Princeton (V38, Q39) : 630
4. GMAT Prep1 (V35, Q45) : 650
5. Princeton (V33, Q48) : 650
So I was stuck at a 650. Somewhere I knew that I had to revisit both my verbal and quant basics again to cross 700. In order to do so, I chose the following:
1.
Egmat Verbal online course
2. GMAT club
I spent the whole of August going through
Egmat course. While CR and RC strategies were familiar to me, I discovered the importance of meaning on GMAT SC questions. Moreover, I learned all about Modifiers through this course. Overall, my confidence in verbal grew. I used
Egmat’s scholaranium software to solve only medium and hard difficulty level questions. My accuracy hovered around 70% on each of SC,CR and RC.
For quant, I started going through “GMATCLUB Quant Megathread”. I learned a lot from Veritas prep blog and discovered a lot of mistakes in my approach. My math notes grew from 4 to 20+ pages. As I had already booked my test date (26th October 2017), I didn’t have the time to go through all the 20+ math topics on the website. I am still left with few topics such as Combinatorics & Probability. NB: I know the basics of the remaining topics but I am not confident on all of them.
In order to experience actual gmat questions, I even bought GMATPrep exam pack 1 and 2. I already have bad experience with low quality exams such as Princeton Review. The questions are not actual representative to those on the GMAT and explanations are absurd.
With exactly one month to my second attempt, I began a regular drill of solving GMATClub Test every alternate day and keep practicing verbal from various trusted sources. I exhausted all the medium and hard difficulty level questions on
egmat, started solving LSAT CR on GMATClub and used Vertias Prep free question bank for SC and CR.
These are my GMATPrep Test scores (all tests are given under timed conditions):
October 2 : 700 (Q49, V35)
October 9: 710 (Q48, V39)
October 15: 690 (Q49, V35)
October 21: 700 (Q50, V34)
So with an average score of 700, I went to the test center on October 26th with a calm and composed mind. In all my practice tests, I chose the Verbal, Quant, IR and AWA order and I did the same for my actual exam as well.
Surprisingly, I couldn’t understand my first CR argument (3rd Verbal question). I know how making mistakes in the first 10 questions can thwart my score. I had no other choice but to guess and move on. I almost completed the rest of Verbal section on time and guessed on second-last Boldface question. I thought I had done a decent job.
The quant section began with two questions (Stats & geometry) that stumped me. I read the question so many times that I still remember the exact stem. I tried every strategy from POE to picking numbers, but all in vain. I had to guess and move on. Even though I knew only a miracle could save me, I kept a calm mind. I finished the section on time.
Result was 660 (Q47 V34). I stared the screen in disappointment and cancelled the score. I scored lower than my lowest score on practice tests. Even tough GMAT told me that I improved only 30 points in 6 months, I think I deserve much more.
So, it has been 10 months since I first solved a GMAT question, almost thrice the ideal preparation time. I have committed a lot of errors in approach to the exam and strategies. I have burnt a lot of money as well. Moreover, with a 93,93 and 8.9 in 10th,12th and college respectively, I am not used to the humiliation that GMAT is making me go through right now.
My aim is to score a Q50 and V40 in order to get into a top MBA program and I will not settle for anything less.
Please suggest me ways to improve my score. I have attached my 660 ESR for understanding.
Thank you all.
From your ESR, we can see that in verbal, there is an obvious time management issue. When you give it more time, your accuracy improves; when you reduce the time you give to it, your accuracy declines. You just need to practice all question types under the ticking clock pressure. Learn to use your time efficiently and that's all you need to do to improve your Verbal accuracy.
There is a similar trend in Quant as well. You are taking far less time in PS questions and making far more errors in them. Usually, people see better accuracy in PS since there are fewer pitfalls in it. Perhaps you are overlooking basics when you are cutting corners time-wise.
Review your practice tests and find out why you make mistakes in PS questions.
To save time, take a proactive approach in all questions. Here are some posts discussing this.
close
29 Oct 2017, 01:08
660 ESR.pdf [396.69 KiB] 
