695 in GMAT FE ( 1st attempt )

­Hello guys, I hope you all are doing well. I am very glad to announce that I have scored 695 ( 98 pecentile ) in GMAT FE with sectional scores of Q 87, V 83 and DI 83. I appeared for an exam on 18th may 2024 and it was my first attempt. I started preparing for GMAT classic from 1st week of November and had no idea that GMAT old version is going to retire from 31st January, but after i got to know about it I decided to switch to GMAT FE and the main thought behind that was if things doesn't go well in the 1st attempt, I will not be able to reappear in the same format. Intially I was very skeptical about GMAT FE version because it felt like that I will have to start all the hard work from the scratch and whether this new version is a right fit for me or not, but as I familarize with the format I felt more comfortable with it and it's shorter duration and succinct format made it easy for me to simulate exam like environment at home to practice. So I started preparing for FE in full gear from the beginning of February.

Now, before planning the study time-table I took my 1st official mock and scored 420, it initially shattered my confidence because it seems far away from my target score of 700, but then as I analysed my performance I found that I am comitting multiple minor mistakes in my strong section that's quant and it's horrible. In verbal I am not able to get the RC questions right even after investing good amount of time on them in the test wheras in CR i couldn't discriminate between easy and hard questions. At last coming to DI I found difficult to manage time, like I was only able to attempt 12 questions in 45 minutes and what made it even worse was the poor accuracy rate which happened due to the stress that I was going through to complete the section within stipulated amount of time. So ,i made my study plan according to my test result and it eventually worked for me. My plan was somewhat like this.
Quant :
1) Do all the OG's questions initially and record your mistakes.
2) Write all the concepts that you encounter while solving the OG's question and work on the weaker one, mine was number system and modulus questions
Verbal:
1) Practice LSAT questions for RC, it increases your stamina of retaining the information. ( Due to it's lengthy nature )
2) Go through all videos of CR solving techniques available on YouTube by different GMAT institutes ( GMAT Ninja playlist on CR was very helpful )
3) Practice OG's question twice.
DI :
1) Familarize yourself with each questions type
2) Practice official questions of DI made available by GMAT (must buy)
3) Practice IR questions that was in old GMAT
4) Practice DI from all possible sources ( GMAT club has a huge pool of DI questions )
5) Don't try to solve DS questions in head ( This was the main reason behind me getting it wrong every single time )
6) Don't stress over trying to get all 20 questions right. Attempt easy one with full accuracy, guess and move on when you encounter hard one which you have no idea about how to solve or what question is exactly asking. Also I found that by regular practice I could easily attempt 15-16 questions in DI section with full attention. ( GMAT club new feature of adaptive quiz helped me a lot in that )

Finally, giving mock test after regular interval of time is very important as it acclimatizes you for the final day of examination. I gave as many as mock possible and tried all the possible orders available to find the best fit for me (Quant/DI/BREAK/Verbal). However, don't waste official mocks in doing so because they are limited and are the best way to know your level of preparation, instead go through free mocks available by e-GMAT, Global Expert, TTP etc. My score in the last 3 official mocks 3rd/4th/5th was 605/595/605.

I am sharing my journey with you on this platform because by reading others journey on GMAT club forum I benefitted a lot and I would be very much obliged if someone else could also get something useful out of my GMAT journey. 

Rahul Sharma







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