Long story short:MBA has always been at the back of my mind however, after my undergrad, I was very keen on getting some work experience before embarking on my B-school journey. After about 8 years of working, I started to feel stagnated at my job and decided that this was the right time to do an MBA in order to pivot into management consulting which has been my long term goal.
In July of 2019, I started my GMAT prep. However, my big struggle was managing GMAT alongside work as I have a really hectic job and couldn’t take much time off work for the GMAT. I attempted GMAT thrice between October last year and January this year and scored a 660, 660 and 670. Obviously, I was devastated as I scored quite well on my mock tests back then but didn’t think I could put myself through it again so I came to terms with the 670 score.
However, a couple of months back (March 2020), Covid changed everything and I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time. This allowed me to give one final shot at the GMAT and that’s when I scored a 730.
660, 660, 670 – Where did I go wrong?I made quite a few mistakes at the start of my prep. I didn’t structure my prep and picked up multiple resources instead of focusing on one. Here is what I did:
- I started my prep with an Economist mock test to understand where I stood and got a 600 (V32 Q40). This was a bit surprising as I always thought of Quant as my strength but this proved that my concepts were rusty.
- I moved on to solving questions from
the Official Guide and got a decent accuracy; so felt confident about my prep. One mistake I made here was that I did not spend enough time reviewing my mistakes.
- Then to get a bit of variety, I took Verbal and Quant tests on GMAT Club. My verbal scores on GMAT Club were painfully low and I had heard of
MGMAT as a good resource for verbal so I moved to
MGMAT strategy guides.
- Not completely satisfied with my conceptual understanding, I picked up Kaplan Workbooks but they seemed quite basic.
- At this stage, I felt confident of giving a mock test and decided to buy the 4 additional GMAT Prep mocks. I scored between 710-730 on the GMAT Prep mocks and felt confident going into the actual GMAT.
- To my horror, on the actual test, I scored a 660 (Q44 V35) which was well below the score I was getting on the mocks and in my opinion not a true representation of my ability.
Turning point - eGMATIt was after my first attempt that I decided to go with
eGMAT.
- Before I started the course, I had a call with Shaarang from
eGMAT to analyze my ESR. While it was clear that I needed to work on RC and CR (both were around 45th %ile), what I realized after my call with Shaarang was that my timing was way off. I spent nearly 2.5-3 minutes in the first quarter and subsequently had under 40 seconds per question in the last quarter.
- I started with
eGMAT Master Comprehension module and despite my initial fears that the module might be too basic, it turned out to be extremely useful and is actually a very important pre-requisite to all 3 sub-sections within Verbal.
- Then I moved on to CR and the
eGMAT CR course is wonderful. I had heard about the pre-thinking approach before but no course broke it down and explained it as well as
eGMAT did.
- Specifically, I really liked the Application files and I would view the full solutions even for questions that I would get right to make sure that my thought process was correct.
- Then on RC, I used to struggle with focus and
eGMAT’s reading strategies were super helpful with that. Also, I particularly liked the tips on identifying wrong answer choices (Out of scope, out of context etc.)
- I went into the SC module thinking that I already am pretty good with this sub-section (I scored 94th %ile on SC on my first attempt) and will breeze through it but after going through it I realized how little I focused on meaning and felt that my SC score in the first attempt was a fluke.
From Q47 to Q50 - What did I do differently?- A thorough analysis of my ESRs (I had 3 by this time) really helped. I have attached a screenshot of how I analyzed my ESRs and identified my weaknesses. It was no surprise that I needed to sharpen my Algebra and Geometry basics so decided to give
eGMAT quant a shot.
- I feel that
eGMAT quant module is perhaps one of the most underrated parts of the course. I benefitted tremendously from this in my final attempt. Particularly the Inequalities file was extremely helpful as it was a topic that I struggled with the most and
eGMAT’s approach to inequalities is beautiful.
- Also, while I was fairly comfortable with Arithmetic, Word Problems and Advanced Topics, I still did those modules and learnt new ways of solving problems that eventually saved me a lot of time on the actual GMAT.
- With GMAT Quant, what I also feel is that the test is for future managers and business leaders so it doesn’t test advanced math topics such as Calculus etc. but rather tests your presence of mind and how good you are at finding shortcuts and loopholes in questions so another thing I did differently in my final attempt was spend a few seconds understanding the question and drawing inferences before moving to calculations. This was particularly helpful in DS questions.
Tips for future test takers:-
Have a structure to your preparation, don’t just start solving questions from the get-go but get a good command over the concepts and strategies first.
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Pick a resource and then stick to it. I felt that I was going through too many things and at times getting contradictory tips. That said, spend some time picking a resource that works for you as everyone is different (some people are more visual while others prefer reading).
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Embrace the online GMAT. I feel that there is a lot of animosity towards the online GMAT and while the online whiteboard slows you down and is something you need to master before writing the test; you need to really embrace it instead of outright rejecting it. We don’t know how long it is here to stay and seems like a safer and more convenient alternative to in-person GMAT at the moment.
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Keep your family and friends in the loop, don’t just disappear. They will only help support you and build your morale.
- Lastly,
GMAT really exposes your weaknesses so make sure that you don’t leave anything to fate. I would not focus much on some of the topics within Algebra and Geometry and be satisfied with a sub-optimal score in those sections but it was only after I mastered every single topic did I manage to get a Q50.