aayushkrishnan wrote:
So yes, you read that right, I started my GMAT prep around 4th February 2022. I gave the Official MBA(dot)com Practice exam( with no knowledge of the GMAT) and scored a 460. But I skipped through a lot of questions and felt I could easily learn these concepts. I am an engineering student so Math was easy for me( so I thought). I was always struggling with verbal and no matter how much I learnt the concepts and practised, I wasn't able to score well. The max I got in verbal was a V34.
So I used
OG Guides,
MGMAT Books and
Magoosh for my prep.
Here are my Mock scores:
Official GMAT Practice: 460 ( Without any prep)
Official Practice Exam 2: 580 ( After 10 days)
MGMAT Mock: 620
MGMAT Mock: 590
MGMAT Mock: 570
MGMAT Mock: 590
So as you can see my scores started to dip and I realized I was studying too much and approaching burnout so I stopped and relaxed for the last few days. My Quant scores started dropping as did my verbal scores. Since the
MGMAT was significantly more difficult, I was confident of getting a 650 or 660 easily.
I gave the GMAT on 2nd March 2022 and when I started getting easy questions, I knew something was wrong. When I got the final score, 580 I was shocked to the core, I had a Q41 and V28. I'm an engineering student currently and getting such a low score on Quant felt really bad. Even though in the practice I was scoring okayish on the RC and SC, I've always struggled with CR. Just can't find the correct answer. I am mostly able to zero in on the last 2 options but choosing the right one has always been a gamble.
I didn't understand what I should do and decided to take a break for 3 weeks.
I'm planning on restarting my prep and hope to give the exam in June this time.
Unlike in February, my college has restarted so I've got classes every day along with exams every alternate week. So there might be some weeks when I won't be able to devote as much time to GMAT prep. I am hoping to devote min. 2hrs to GMAT prep every day for 6 days in a week.
I'm aiming for ISB YLP and MiM in INSEAD, LBS, LSE and HEC.
I have a fairly good profile so a slightly average score of even a 700 should do but I'm aiming for at least a 730 or 740 to be on the safer side.
So wanted to know any recommendations on how I should tailor my prep to get at least a 720+?
Hi aayushkrishnan,
Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. The key to scoring well on GMAT is to focusing on the right aspects. First let us understand the right way to prepare for GMAT.
How to prepare for GMAT in the right way?
Before you start preparing for any test, it's important to understand the structure of the test, what is tested on it and then prepare accordingly. In this case, GMAT is a test which focuses on your application skills along with the conceptual knowledge. So, just learning the concepts and practicing questions without focusing on the right methodology will not do any good. So, I suggest you to first focus on the methodology to solve questions of a particular topic and only then move to practicing questions of that topic.
So, the right way to prepare would be to first
- learn the concepts of a topic,
- learn the right methodology to solve questions of that topic
- practice a few questions of that topic to solidify your learning and then move to the nest topic
- Repeat the process for all the topics
And working on weak areas is equally important. You move to the next topic only if you get a decent accuracy in the previous topic. If not, you revisit the concepts, fill the conceptual gaps and then move to the next topic only when you are 100% confident. There are a couple of articles which you might find helpful.
And you can go through the recording below to understand how to strategize your GMAT prep in an effective way.
What might have gone wrong?
As we have understood the right way to prepare, now let's analyze what could have gone wrong with your previous attempt. You must have learnt the concepts of the topics and you must have practiced questions as well.
But did you focus on the methodology part? Did you focus on working your weak areas? These two could be the major reasons for you not scoring well on GMAT. So, this time make sure you do your prep in the right way by focusing on all the above parameters. And regarding the resource, choose a resource which can help you with not only the concepts, but the methodology as well. And the questions to practice and their detailed solutions are equally important as the solutions help you understand where exactly you are making the mistake. And a study plan would be an added advantage as you will have clear deadlines.
You can check out the free trial of
GMATWhiz online course if you are looking for one. And regarding pacing yourself on the test, you can go through the recording below to understand a few test taking strategies.
And regarding how to proceed further and the study strategy, I think it would be better if we can get in touch over a call and discuss the same as I would like to ask a few questions about your current preparation strategy and your weak areas. You can use the below link to get in touch with me.
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24 Mar 2022, 23:52
