Hi,
Since I took and learnt a lot from this forum, I feel I should rightfully write my own debrief of a journey from 700 to 720 to 760.
Round 1 - Journey of 700 (Q49, V36) | Total preparation time - 1.5 months
I started my preparation that GMAT should not be that tough for an IIT grad. Quant should be a cakewalk while Verbal will be a bit difficult, however, with time that hurdle can be captured as well. So I started with Manhattan SC guide, along with basic revision of math concepts. I solved the
OG along with Verbal and Quant review. Re-solved the
OG Verbal 7 days before the exam. I started giving me mocks and used to get a score of around 680-700. Thus, I already went for my exam with not a lot of hope. Sadly, the result was 700. The main issue - my strategy of solving verbal questions was incorrect.
Round 2 - Journey of 720 (Q48,V41) | Total preparation time - 2.5 months
After my round 1, I decided that I need to give it again with more focus on verbal. To do this, I went through the below resources:
- CR Bible (Good book)
-
e-GMAT Verbal course (I would highly recommend it if you want to do good in verbal and are at a stage that you are unable to cross the V40 bar)
This time, I did not pay a lot of attention to Quant. Focused on verbal, and somehow messed it up in Quant.
My mocks were coming in the range of 740-750. So I was quite confident when I walked into the exam centre. I was really happy with my verbal score. However, I knew I could do a lot better in Quant. I left the exam centre with a heavy heart.
Round 3 - Journey of 760 (Q50,V41) | Total preparation time - 25 days
I took my own sweet time to decide if I want to do the test again. Wasted around 10 days doing that. Then I started focusing on my quant again. I did the entire Manhattan
advanced quant. Then on 1 weekend, I revised all my verbal concepts and strategies from
e-GMAT. I used Scholaranium effectively. I gave one mock and got a score of 750. However, since some of the questions were repeat, I thought of it as an inflated score. So I decided to not give any more mocks. Exam day, I was super happy to see my score. My Quant and Verbal had gone really well, and the score reflected that.
My only suggestion to all - Be persistent if you haven’t achieved your target score and feel that you can do a lot better.