Hi fellow GMATClub-ers!
I’m happy to inform you that I was fortunate enough to score a 740 on GMAT on the first attempt with two months of intense preparation. I still remember the day when I decided that I was done giving excuses for not finding the time to study and set a date to give the GMAT two months later. The journey to the destination was definitely not straightforward. There were times when I felt I had bitten off more than I could chew by placing such a tight deadline on myself. But I persisted with my preparation primarily to ensure that I follow through on what I committed to myself. And today, when I look back, I feel that all the hard work and struggle has finally paid off. I’m extremely thankful to this community which has shared multiple success stories, which helped me stay motivated through this time. I am sharing my journey below to help other test-takers to stay motivated and eventually reach their goal.
Structure of the postHere’s a quick overview of the post. Feel free to move to the relevant section directly if you want to look at a specific aspect only. I have added some key bonus tips towards the end, which I learnt works well on the GMAT.
1. Initial prep-days and delays due to the pandemic
2. The turning point
3. Overall Strategy
4. Verbal Strategy
5. Quant Strategy
6. GMAT Attempt - Score of 740
7. Tips for GMAT Aspirants
8. Test Taking Strategy
Detailed sections1. Initial prep days and delays due to the pandemicI decided to started preparing for the GMAT in April 2020. I heard from a few friends that
e-GMAT is the best online course to take to help me get to my target score quickly, so I decided to go ahead and purchase the
e-GMAT Online course. However, given multiple other priorities on the work-front and Covid-19 pandemic, I was not able to devote the time that was required to get to my target score. Multiple months passed by and I had not completed even the sentence correction section of the
e-GMAT course. In fact I had forgotten the concepts that I had initially learnt as well.
2. The turning pointIt was December already and I had made no progress on the GMAT front. I had more than 95% of the entire course pending and given I wanted to apply in Fall of 21', I quickly realised that I had very little time to set myself up for success. The road to my target score seemed long and daunting. I wasn't able to complete even 5% of the course in the last 6+ months, how would I be able to complete the rest by March was the question I was faced with. This was
the turning point for me. I decided to take the GMAT exactly 2 months from that date (10th Dec, 2020- 10th Feb, 2021). This seemed like an insurmountable challenge but I felt that I will be satisfied if I am even able to get enough momentum going to complete the entire syllabus by then. With that in mind, I worked ahead with singular focus.
3. Overall strategyAt this point, given the limited time I had, I reached out to the
e-GMAT strategy team to understand how I could best utilise the upcoming two months to get to my target score. They reverted with a detailed plan of action, with clear objectives (target scores to be met) on each section and a detailed plan on what I should do in case I wasn't reaching the target scores. Armed with this plan, I started the course once more with renewed vigour, taking copious notes of all sections and noting down key-takeaways for every learning I had. This was greatly helpful when I went about revising my notes later on. I decided that my time was best spent focusing on improving my verbal score as much as possible and then later focusing on learning the quant concepts given my objective was to get the highest score possible in the given time.
4. Verbal StrategyFor all Verbal sections, what really helped me was a clear understanding of the concepts and good practice in application of the concepts. This was something I practiced extensively on the Scholaranium platform of
e-GMAT. I made an
error log of all the questions I had gotten wrong and those for which I took above-ideal time. I would revise this every few days. This helped me address repeated gaps in my process and conceptual skills.
SC(81st percentile): Took a Meaning-based approach rather than purely looking at questions from a grammatical point of view. Although I felt I could have done better on the exam, this was a vast improvement over my initial ability.
CR(96th percentile): Pre-Think, Pre-Think and Pre-Think! This process was a life-saver for me during the exam, where I found the CR questions in the GMAT to be relatively easier than the ones I was used to solving on the
e-GMAT.
RC (91st percentile): I consciously applied the process of distilling the entire paragraph into 3-4 key ideas that the author was trying to convey. Given I was not a voracious reader, I think the process applied in reading paragraphs helped me a lot more than any other strategy. This was one of the sections I was most worried about so I was glad I did well here.
5. Quant StrategyQuant was a section I had just two weeks to prepare for, so I decide to cast a wide net by studying the concepts of the chapters from which a bulk of the questions were expected. I focused on number properties, geometry, word problems and omitted Algebra (remembered my high-school math well, thankfully), Combinatorics and probability. The
e-GMAT's new version of the Quant section helped me get a score of Q49 even though I competed only 75% of the syllabus and did not do any additional practice. There are interactive quizzes one has to attempt right after going through a concept file, which helped clarify any misconception I had. Therefore I did not feel the need to practice additional quizzes
6. GMAT attempt- Score of 740I gave my test in-centre since I felt I would not have many distractions that way. I decided to give my weaker sections first and chose the order of Quant-Verbal-IR-AWA. In hind-sight this was a great decision since I was able to answer the quant section with my entire energy intact. I was able to pace myself well on both sections- Quant and Verbal, completing both the sections just ahead of time. This provided me with a sense of assurance and was not panicking. Now I had completed the entire exam and was awaiting my scores- mentally prepared for a score in the 600s even, since I felt the questions were much easier than I was used to. I felt I must have gotten too many questions wrong initially. But when the score flashed on the screen- I was excited!! This was a score that was the culmination of an intense couple of months and so I finally heaved a sigh of relief! So to all the aspirants out there who are worried if you can get to your target score in a short amount of time, my story is testimony to the fact that this is certainly possible with a good strategy and detailed planning to take on the exam!
7. Tips for GMAT aspirants-Set a date for the GMAT and work backwards from there to begin your preparation
-Place higher emphasis on excelling at Verbal section
-Error-logs are your best friend, they give you valuable feedback
-Take the GMAT test at the location of your comfort (varies by person but I would suggest giving it in-centre)
8. Test taking strategyUse this timing strategy to help stay on time by ensuring you have the below listed number of minutes after Question number:
Quant10 - 42 minutes
20 - 22 minutes
25 - 12 minutes
30 - [Only 1 question left]
Verbal10 - 47 minutes
20 - 28 minutes
30- 10 minutes
Thanks for reading through this long post. Hope it was useful. Please upvote if it was, and do let me know your thoughts or if you have been through a similar journey as well!