My GMAT Journey (now-24th June) 760 (Q49,V44) 30/07/09

I'm actually getting lots of exercise. twice a week spinning, 3 times gym. one a week 2 hour touch rugby. Everyone should play Touch rugby. Touch Rugby is AWESOME. : )

But hey great idea on the push-ups - sit ups in the test! I might spend spend 3-4 mins ... doing some push ups/lunges and stretching - it should be a mini re-boot.
One of the most practical ideas thus far!

che,
dg

so I went through a panic session yesterday. two actually. i had another poor challenge test and then i bought some Manhattan tests. and i did not do well in the question banks.

This was yesterday. I spoke to some mates; in panic. Vented some frustration. Rationalized. I want this really bad, clearly. But I was not helping myself. I was looking at the quant questions and i was freezing. It would just be a total system crash for a couple of seconds. So I need to chill. I really do. I thought about pushing out the date again. No. I have around 9 days more. Of which the last 4 days is just doing tests. As suggested before; working on mental endurance.

The next 5 days - the plan is to drill in more still on quants. I am confident in CR,RC and I am sure that in the next 5 days SC should be okay. I have been keeping up on my fitness, in fact have not been this fit for a long time. I am going to alternate weight session with pilates/yoga for the next couple of days.

Need to chill.

che,
dg

i was devastated. 2 days ago i sat it. Got a 680.

i got 41 in V I really really bombed in my Q. I got 740 & 710 on my last 2 attempts gmatprep attempts. I thought I was going to ace it. I predicted a min Min Q46/47; V41/42.

I made a mess of my timing. I had to click through the last 3-4 questions on my quant. I am sure I got my first question in quant wrong as well.

I made a bit of a mess on timing in my verbal too. Had to guess through the last 2 questions - because of timing issues. Verbal was hardcore. RC's were really hard. I had one crazy ass long RC for my third RC and then when the fourth RC came up - it was another long crazy ass RC. What the?! Dang it! Anyway 41 was not too bad.

Another mistake I made was perhaps taking it a bit too easy, the last 2 days before the test. I really sort of chilled and the last 2 weeks - I let my fitness routine kind of lag too. Those variables might have added a bit of lethargy and consequently affected my performance. Perhaps one should only take the evening off, the day before the test and not the whole day.

I have a fairly poor ugrad so I needed a solid GMAT score. Also I am looking to get a scholarship so I think I need a min 720/730+ score for that. My WE is fairly strong.

As mentioned I was fairly despondent after my gmat. It's been 2 days. I'm back in the saddle now. I started going through GMAT Club questions again. I am working hard on my speed - looking to finish a couple of minutes before. I have also realised that most of my quant errors are in DS. So I am writing down all DS questions and then going through them again and again. Trying to get as comfortable looking at DS questions as possible. Also I focused a bit on Prob and Combinatronics for the actual. I figured that there would be 2-3 questions in those areas and they are quite straightforward. Not one question appeared. There were so many questions around number properties. Perhaps the GMAT only moves to combinatronics questions if you get most of the number prop questions right.

So four primary areas of focus:
(1) DS questions
(2) Number properties
(3) Speed/decisiveness
(4) SC


Also going to do all the MGMAT CAT tests (the quant difficulty is similar but the question type is more varied than the actual GMAT) again. Also I strongly feel MGMAT verbal does not reflect the actual test that well. RC's and CR's I mean - I suppose as long as one gets nearly all of the SC's on MGMAT CAT right - one's on the right track.

I think to get 42+ score on verbal, one can only make 1, max 2 mistakes on SC questions. They are the only ones you can definitely get right in verbal. My RC and CR have been reasonably strong thus far.

I am going to sit it again in a month.

Any tips/advice are more than welcome.

I am hoping to get a V48 Q42 split. Hopefully the work I put in - will ensure that.

che,
dg

It's over - finally. God what a mission.

Need to thank first and foremost bsd_lover from this forum. he has been a huge source of inspiration and direction through this process. would not have come anywhere close to that score without his help. thanks alot mate. real big ups.

Here is the debrief. it's a bit all over the show.

this was my second attempt. got 680 a month ago.

i actually fell sick last night. got the flu. so got all pilled up before i went to sleep. fortunately the adrenalin during the test - kept me going. got really tired towards the end.

awa was straightforward. a template that was suggested to me was
(1)intro
(2) 3-4 points
(3) put "for example" in each para
(4) conclusion

there was not much thought put into the essays. as has been advised - having a decent length is a good idea.
i think i ticked that. got 5.5 last time so should be a similar score this time round.

the last time in my quants - i panicked. and did really poorly - got a 42 i think. spent 5 minutes on the first question and never got back into it, the whole section was a blur.

i was a lot more confident this time.

things i did which made a big difference for quant:

i did all of the gmatclub tests; twice. the tests made such a big difference. when i first did them around 2.5 mths ago - i was getting 16-19. before my first attempt at the gmat i was getting around 25-27. this time i was getting between 30-35.
i think if one wants to get above 46 on Q one should be getting at least above 28 on the club quant tests. that's a good measure i think.

as mentioned the gmat club tests made a big difference. i realized after my last attempt that the area where i was really doing badly was in DS. gmat is so much about keeping calm and focused. i was getting intimidated by inequalities and modulus signs and frustrated at the fact that it seemed so simple yet it was not clear to me straightaway. consequently i would end up spending too much on a DS question affecting the rest of the exam.

On my second round of gmatclub tests - I wrote down every question I got wrong, breaking it into PS and DS questions. By the time i finished I had this list of DS questions that I would tackle very night. I would randomly pick a few to tackle. I got more and more comfortable with DS. Just getting more methodical and working through to a solution, step by step. After a while I started enjoying it - I could see the logic flow and it was nice to get past something which had intimidated me prior.

I did the same with PS. There a certain type of PS questions that come up. Work rate/ quantity input-output/number properties/area/venn diagram/graph-xy plane questions. before my last attempt i had gone out of my way to master combinatrics. i had not got even one question last time. i did not get even one question in combinatrics this time. it seems like it hardly comes.

if one wants to do well - i thinking creating an error log is important. going through Q as well as V questions and understanding why something is a solution, the logic of it really makes a difference. understanding the variations that can occur on a type of a question as well as what mistakes can occur on them.

i started doing that alot fot both quant and SC questions. I don't think any diagnostic identically simulates the GMAT. the only thing is GMATPrep.

on that, my suggestion is to do it at least 3 times (1&2). do Gmat prep1 when you first start - so you have an understanding of where you are an initial idea of when one has to focus and then perhaps a month or more gap between each tests. my abysmally poor memory helped as each time i sat - it felt like a new test.
I got 740 in my second to last gmat prep and 710 on my last one (i was very tired and had not slept well the night before - which turned out to be a boon of an experience)


on that note - material i used
gmatclub tests (twice over)
mgmat CAT (all 6 twice over)
error log
Veritas- the books are good -they are very nice intro to gmat - the online material and CAT's are terrible - don't waste money on it.
gmatter to simulate 30 minute session of SC. I created an error log and kept looking to improve my scores. just like Q I started analyzing questions and looking for various solutions/ways to construct a correct statement. also you will find gayatri's SC notes in this forum - I found them really succinct and useful. SC is 80% about parallelism I felt.

Back to the actual exam - got through the quant - was okay. my timing was surprisingly alright. the questions seemed easy and there was only one that i blanked and could not do. i was actually a bit concerned because some of the questions seemed quite easy. i figured i had at least got a 46.

the verbal was tough. really tough. i was actually 30s late. ridiculous. i spent more than 2 mins on the first SC. timing seemed like it was going to be a bit more of an issue. oh yeah, another tip; try to practice - not looking at time when you take diagnostics - it's distracting. i think bb suggests 3 times which is prob best. 2 of the RC's and 2 of the CR's were really tough. I was actually concerned about the RC's - they had seemed tough and a couple of the options in a couple of questions were pretty tight. worked out okay.

i had hardly done any work for CR and RC - I read alot - so these areas always had been fine. SC as mentioned - error logged and started analyzing questions inside out.

my heart was pumping as i flicked through the screens after completing the test. i had had a fairly bad experience the last time when i had looked at the screen, so i was quite nervous and the bladder was full. when the score came up i was stunned. happy. as mentioned it's been quite the journey. i gestured to the moderator wildly - i did not want to click something or do something which would negate the score. lol.

anyway it's done - i am relieved. people tell me the real struggle are the essays. i had been working on my essays the last couple of months - need to abbreviate them a bit. the school i am looking to get into is mbs in melbourne otherwise agsm. logisticly it's easier and im hoping for schols. busy weekend ahead.

thanks again for all the kind words that i got from various people on the forum and BIG BIG MANY MANY kudos to gmatclub and everybody involved in creating this wonderful forum.

congrats! hard work paid off.

Congrats. That's an awesome score...1% club

Congratulations, It's amazing.

Your case has encouraged me

needless to say; like fellow clubbers looking to get some traction...
must say your helter skelter but methodical approach did cheer me up...! Good work Mate!

r u where you wanted to be?

indeed - i got a schol and start at my preferred school in 3 weeks. lol . now it really starts. the prep work is already substantial.