I started preparing for GMAT exactly 25 days before my final exam. And my score increased from 650 to 780 in the same period. For those of you who wanted to know if it can be done, the answer is yes. Below is my story. I shall type quickly, so please pardon the poor structure or grammar if it bothers you.
Mock test results and timelines:10/1/15: Veritas Prep test: 670 (not counting this as official score as the test can't be relied upon)
13/1/15:
MGMAT: 650 Q 50 V 31
17/1/15:
MGMAT: 680 Q 48 V 34
21/1/15:
MGMAT: 670 Q 50 V 33
26/1/15: GMAT prep: 720 Q 50 V 36
29/1/15:
MGMAT: 760 Q 49 V 44 (saw a lot of repeat questions here)
2/2/15: GMAT prep: 750 Q 51 V 40 (built up my confidence)
4/2/15: Official GMAT: 780 Q 50 V 47 IR 8 (wish I got a 51 in Quant)
Background:Story of extremes - Extremely strong in quant, extremely weak in verbal. Hence, I spent 90% of my time studying Verbal. Only in my spare time, did I study quant/AWA/IR.
Story:I Knew I only had 3 weeks to prepare for GMAT, so took it very seriously from the beginning. I set my initial target at 750 as this seemed a number most B schools are happy with. Purchased the Official GMAT book and started studying. 3 - 4 days into the preparation, I took my first mock. Scored 650. Was disappointed. A couple of days later - 670. Felt worse. But from these 2 tests, I learned a lot. First, I am good at quant so no need to study for it. Second, while verbal scores were poor, I realised my CR was strong, and I used to get just 2-3 questions wrong (out of 13). My weak spots were SC and RC. RC was weak because it took me a lot of time to complete the questions. In fact, I remember that my RC from the
OG was pretty strong when I didn't time myself. SC on the other hand was just plain POOR - I used to get 30-40% in my tests.
Key tip: Take a lot of practice exams. Otherwise you will never find out your weaknesses. I am also aware that people feel a poor score will lower their confidence. For these guys - you need to be more positive. Doesn't matter if you do badly in mocks. What matters is the real exam. Id rather get 400 in all practice tests and 800 in the real one than 730 in practice as well as mocks. Another reason why practice tests are important is because they help with your timing. My timing was a mess. I still remember leaving questions in a mock. But I improved so much that I completed quant in 50 minutes and verbal in 64 minutes in the real exam. I submitted before time and people looked at me as if I am a dumb ass who didn't care about the exam.
Next step was to focus on improving:
1. RC timing
2. SC
Methods:
1. Practice lots of comprehensions in a timed environment.
2. Apply brutal force to get SC correct
Slowly but surely, scores improved and eventually I ended up scoring more in verbal than quant (percentile wise).
Resources used:Quant:
I hardly put in any time for quant. Reviewed concepts from 2 sources:
OG and Bunuel's threads on gmatclub.
One of these is mentioned below, must check out others too:
math-coordinate-geometry-87652.htmlIn spare time, or before going to sleep, I practiced a few questions from this thread:
100-hardest-data-sufficiency-questions-162413.htmlYou'll understand the tricks the GMAT uses. Even if one knows everything, there are lots of times, when one makes careless mistakes. By doing questions on this thread, these can be limited. This isn't the thread if you want to improve your quant. Sorry.
Verbal:
As mentioned, my weak spot. Worked hard on this. Bought the
MGMAT Verbal, but it wasn't extremely helpful. My best buy would be
MGMAT SC book.
1. SC:
Studied
MGMAT SC and practiced every question I could get my hands on. Literally. This included all questions from
OG,
MGMAT online prep, GMATprep questions, tests, 2 - 3 forums resources on this website (especially the one with 700-800 level SC questions).
2. RC:
No need to study. Practiced a lot. All questions from
OG,
MGMAT online prep, GMATprep questions, tests, 2 - 3 forums resources on this website (especially the one with 700-800 level RC questions).
3. CR:
No need to study here either. Didn't practice much. In fact, didn't even complete the
OG questions. I'd say 90%
OG questions, all GMAT prep questions and
MGMAT online prep. Otherwise, was consistent in the tests.
AWA:
Only started 10 days before exam. Practiced 3-4 essays.
gmat-how-to-score-a-6-0-on-your-awa-154985.htmlawa-compilations-109-analysis-of-argument-essays-86274.htmlIR:
Only studied the questions in the GMAT prep software. Found timing the only difficult element of this section. Did this section in 3 - 4 of the full length tests only.
Exam day tips:Step it up guys. This is the only one that matters. Be focussed and give it your best shot. Real exam is much simpler than the practice exams in
MGMAT. Period. I don't think anyone can argue on this front. The difficulty level is similar to the level on the GMATprep software. I was much more serious in the official GMAT than in my practice exams, for which I didn't care much. FYI, it takes time to get comfortable with the pen and "paper" in the real exam!
Good luck to everyone.