Hello All,
Ever since I joined GMATclub , I used to read the experiences of the achievers on a continuous basis and wished to write someday in this forum .And finally the day has arrived.Yesterday night I gave GMAT exam and just fell off my chair when I saw the score,750.I just could not believe my eyes. First of all thanks to GMATclub for making this possible for me . My breakup is :-
Q - 51 (99 Percentile )
V -41 (93 Percentile )
Total -750 (98 Percentile)
Now I must share my GMAT journey with you all.
About my preparation
I joined GMAT club on 24th April 2007,the day when I thought of preparing for GMAT.As I had no idea about the exam , I spent few days googling a lot to find as much information as possible. One of my friend recommended KAPLAN 800. I started going through it and at the same time started solving verbal question on GMATclub. Initially I spent about 2-3 hrs per week till 18th June when I fixed my appointement. This was the date when I got serious about GMAT.After this date, I used to give 8-9 hrs a week .I also bought OG11 which as no doubt is simply great and must buy book.
Overall , the material I used was:-
KAPLAN 800 GMAT ( covered all the chapters)
OG 11 (did each and every question in Verbal section and 50% in Quant )
OG 10 (SC's and RC's )
Manhattan SC book (ultimate one for SC's and must buy book )
Amateurs gmat notes 2006
Sahil Notes
Spidey Notes
Tests I took :-
GMAT prep 1 (when I started my prep ) :- 670 (It's ok type score to start with)
Power prep 1 ( 1 week after GMAT prep 1) :- 680 (improvement of 10 points in 1 week.Not Bad)
Paper Tests (gave 7 of them )
GMAT Prep 1 again (somewhere in middle of june):- 760 (Yee Haw ! I am on track.)
Power Prep 2 :- 750 (Man , you should cotinue the same way...)
Kaplan Test 1 (10 days before the actual GMAT) :- 610 (I felt disappointed. Thought it to be a bad day)
Princeton Test 1 (9 days before) :- 660 (one more bad day..HUH)
Cambridge Test 1 (8 days before ) :- 710 - 750( Not so bad day , but still ...)
Princeton Test 2 (7 days before) :- 660 ( What the hell I was doin wrong ? )
Cambridge Test 2 (6 days before) :- 710-750 (........)
Kaplan Test 2 ( 5 days before ) :- 590 (by now I had lost my confidence and even 700 was looking a distant dream not to talk of 740+. I was so disappointed that I even thought of cancelling my appointement. But numerous posts on GMATclub suggested not to go by Kaplan scores as Kaplan tests are way tough than actual GMAT.I thought to give GMATprep 2 as it is considered the most accurate indicator of one's performance. I decided to continue with this beast called GMAT only if I score 740+ in GMAT Prep 2)
GMAT Prep 2 (same day as Kaplan Test 2 ) :- 760 (Once again my faith restored, brain muscles got stronger , blood started flowing rapidly and once again I was back in confidence
)
Kaplan Test 4 (2 days before ) : - 660 (This was the only full length test (including essays) that I gave just to gauge my stamina and felt happy to cross the 650 barrier in kaplan )
Last 2 days
Woke up at 11:30 am IST .Went to office at 12:30 am. As usual didn't do any work
. At 8 pm , went with my girl firiend to chill out.Took dinner at 10 .Went for a game of tennis at 11 pm .Came back at 12 and went through Idioms list for half an hour. And finally bid goodbye to my office and left for my room and had a peaceful sleep. Next day (The D-Day) woke up at 1 pm . Got ready at 3:30 and reached th exam centre at 4:10 pm.My appointement was from 5:30 but examineer offered a slot from 4:30.I agreed and rest you know......
As I am engineer, my Maths was always good and it was English which tortured me like anything. So, 90% of my preparation time was devoted to Verbal .For AWA, I didn't put much effort.Just wrote some 3-4 essays to get an idea.
Some useful tips:-
1)DO use Manhattan SC book for SC prepartion
2)Do learn the list of idioms given in Manhattan SC book
3) Devote sufficient time to analyse the explantions of verbal questions .Even analyse the questions which you get correct. That may offer you an altenative explanation or a diffenet approach to solve a problem.
4) Remember GMATprep scores are almost accurate indicators of one's actual performance.
5)Don't get disheartened by your scores in other online tests. Scores vary a lot and these tests should be used just for the sake of building the stamina and getting acquainted with different types of questions.
6)Last but not the least , BELIEVE IN YOURSELF and world will be yours
About Me
Male,23,Indian,Decent College, 2.5 yrs experience in reputed software company. Targetting top 15 colleges.
For any queries don't hesitate to mail me. And once again .THANKS GMATCLUB MEMBERS. YOU GUYS ROCK
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Just now received my AWA score .It is 5.0.
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Updated on: 26 Jul 2007, 03:10
