My GMAT story! Attempt three: 740

Question

Click here for an OG 18 Error log that I tweaked a bit. You might find it useful

Where do I start? The most logical place to start is with my first attempt:

About Me:

Indian. IT. Male....... (Right?)
I liked math from childhood. I always had an edge over other kids in my class. I was lucky to have my uncle teach me how to use the formula (a+b)^2 when I was in 6th class. That was the turning point for my liking towards Math.

I hated verbal. I vividly remember my english teacher emptying my Geometry Box, and then slapping me with it in front of the whole class for my very poor performance in English. (Ultimately, due to some good karma in my previous life, I was one of the top scorers in English during my Board Exams in school. Oh, yes I did it rub it on my teacher's face. Karma is such a witch)

I gave my GMAT Prep Mock Exam #1 and scored a 640 Q48 V30. That was my benchmark score.

In my TIME Classes, Instructors said 700+ is a good score. And all the youtube videos have the caption of "How to Break the 700 barrier". I thought 700 is the magic number and fixed it as my target. But when people ask me what my target is, I said "740". Coz like they say "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." To reach 700, I have to aim for 740.

Chapter 1: First Attempt:

I started my prep by enrolling myself in TIME Coaching Institute (A major player for standardized test coaching in India). I dint find the course at TIME useful.
TIME is well known for producing top CAT scorers (CAT is an Indian version of GMAT). But their course structure and material is not suitable for GMAT, IMO.
CAT requires hard work. GMAT relies on smart work. So, my time at TIME wasn't useful.

I wasn't aware of e-gmat, empowergmat, veritasprep or any such prep companies. I wasn't aware of gmatclub as well. Ultimately, I started doing self-prep. I stumbled across Manhattan books. Downloaded the full book set, including Foundation of GMAT Quant. I know I am good at Quant, its the verbal part I struggle with. I hardly knew the difference between an Adjective and Adverb. My Verbal skills were worse. Did I mention about my geometry-box slap? Anyways, I started at Square One. I knew I had to build my foundation strong wrt Verbal.

I started with "Foundation of GMAT Verbal" by Manhattan. That book is a blessing in disguise. That was my bible, quran, bhagavatgita. I constantly found myself going thru that book to clear a few doubts. I spent almost 20 days to complete the SC part of the foundation book, which is just 1/3rd of the book. Anyways, it is at this time that I got acquainted to GMATClub.com. Initially, I dint find the site appealing. The UI was so boring, pretty basic(after years of FB, Insta you feel so. I blame it on them). But as I used the site more and more, the more comfortable I became that I felt its a good thing that gmatclub.com only has required features. It doesn't offer you any distraction. It helps you focus. Everything discussion is about GMAT. So, anyways, my whole preparation was centered around GMATCLUB.com. I thank the founders for gmatclub.com

It took almost a couple of months to complete the full Manhattan Set. (Both foundation books, and from Book #1 to #9. I know I took my sweet time there) I wanted to do Manhattan Advanced Quant as well. So, I pushed it to the end of my Prep. Ultimately, I never used that book. I did study through Manhattan SC Book #8. (Its a pretty long book, you'd finish reading full of Harry Potter series and GoT in the meantime) But after the first time, there were only a few occasions that I had to look up in Manhattan SC, unlike the Foundations of GMAT Verbal.

Its only after completing Manhattan books that I started with my brand new Official Guide 2018. (By that time, Official Guide 2020 was released). I started solving from Q#1. I dint have much trouble with Quant. Its the verbal I struggled with. I got most of my questions wrong in the first half of Verbal SC. The way I picked up the Verbal SC concepts was when I got a question wrong, I extensively read the experts' comments on it. If wasn't satisfied a comment, I search for more. I struggled with participles especially. The following question was an eye opener: https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-1923-the-supreme-court-declared-a-minimum-wage-for-women-and-child-24528.html The explanation given by egmat was great. That's when I realized rather than trying to learn grammar rules and apply them to questions, let me learn how the questions use grammar rules in them. I knew only a handful of rules for SC when I started with Q#1 in SC. The way I prepped SC was when I get a question wrong and I try to understand the expert's explanations.That's how I went about. It is by falling that I learnt how not to fall.

So, anyways, they say "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." Since I dint have a target time for my exam, I found myself wasting too much time. I target a particular month and found myself pushing the exam further. So, at this point of time(I am half way through OG now), I fixed my exam on DEC 2019, three months in advance back then.

I only completed my OG. My quant review & verbal review were unsolved. The prep materials I used till now were
1) Manhattan books
2) OG 2018

Once I finished my OG18, I started with mocks. I bought Veritas Prep, Manhattan mocks, Expert's Global & GMAT Exam pack 3-6. I wanted to know which one gives me more realistic score.

Manhattan #1: 660
Veritas #1: 670
Expert's Global #1: 740
GMAT Prep #2: 710
GMAT Club Tests: 570 Q42 V26 ...............(Hmmmm...)

I realized Expert's Global won't suit me and never attempted EG mocks again. (So was the fate of GMAT Club Tests) I stuck with Manhattan, Veritas, GMAT Official Prep.

When my exam was a month later, I started giving mocks once in two days. I wanted to get a better timing sense and fine tune my timing strategies. Like I said, my study strategy was to learn from the mistakes I make. Even though I made FLASHCARDS, kept an Error log, made notes of important grammar rules and formulas, I never revisited them. (I don't advocate this strategy nor do I oppose it. Its just what I did) I make a mistake, I learn from it and reinforce my knowledge. That's how I went thru my prep.

Manhattan Score Range - 660-710
Veritas Range - 670-730
GMAT Prep - 700-740

The above was my scoring range. I gave my first attempt in December 2019. I went into the hall thinking 700 would satisfy me. I was so prepared for the exam environment. I bought a exam writing pad and pen similar to the one provided in the exam hall. I decided on the dress I am going to wear in the exam hall. The exam hall was 40kms from my home. So I booked an airbnb near the exam hall. I booked it for two days. I dint want to shock my body/system. So I gave myself one extra day to get used to the new environment.

When I reached my computer in the exam hall, I noticed that they provide us with noise-cancelling headphones. I tried them on and found them very uncomfortable. So, I dint want to risk it. I dint use them. (BIG MISTAKE, you will shortly know why)
I had a SC question in exam that tested on SVA. It was testing on the Verb usage with regard to compound subjects, which had "Neither/Nor." I wanted to review this topic the day before the exam but I forgot to do it. (Ultimately when I checked that topic after my exam, I came to know that I got the question wrong.)
I was solving a RC question. And I heard this constant humming sound, like when you have a fly near your ear. It was very disturbing and I realized that the guy next to me was reading out his whole RC Passage. He was humming for a full minute. I tried my noise-cancelling headphones, it was even more uncomfortable. I removed it and I had to call the proctor up and tell her the issue. She asked the guy to be quiet, yet he did the same for the next RC.

I scored a 690 Q50 V32.

A 700 would have been nice. But I am not going to reattempt it. Because its only a 3 percentile difference between 690 & 700. But I always liked the sound of "700". But when I saw my score split-up, I realized I scored V32. That was the lowest score ever. I average around V35 in my mocks. I was disheartened by the low verbal score. It rips your heart out. It is a very dreadful feeling. I can only guess where things went wrong. My exam was scheduled at 8:00 AM. I am not really a morning person nor did I give my mocks at that time. So, my mind wasn't at my peak operating capacity. And I dint get much sleep last night, I was half-awake till 4:30AM, turning and twisting around trying to get the exam out of my mind. Seems like one extra day at the airbnb wasn't enuf.

As soon as I came out of the hall, I decided I will reattempt. Factors that pushed me towards reattempt are
1) Lowest ever Verbal score
2) The ever elusive club of "700"
3) I knew I'd do better. May be, its coz of 8 AM EXAM slot

When I reached home from my exam, I scheduled my exam 3 weeks later. But this time I made sure i dint make the same mistake, I scheduled it at 12 in the noon.

Chapter 2: Second Attempt:

I wanted to get done with GMAT ASAP. So, I scheduled my 2nd attempt with a gap of 3 weeks. During my second sprint, I solved Verbal Review & Quant Review 18.
Had couple of Manhattan & Veritas mocks. No more GMAT Preps were available. Attempted the left over mocks.

But I was aware of the noise-cancelling headphones issue in my first attempt. But I dint have one myself to wear and practive. It was too costly to buy one too. I just used my over-ear headphones during all the mocks that I gave this time.

I also scheduled a GOA trip with my friends the very next day after my exam. (Big mistake)

Went to the exam hall. Used the noise-cancelling headphones. It felt great. Much more quieter. My mind was at peace knowing no f-ing bee can disturb my flow now.

Verbal went okay. My timing strategy worked well, it dint fail me. I, maybe, skipped one question in Verbal. In the 8 minute break, I was happy with my performance in Verbal. (I was happy in my 1st attempt as well, but boy, was i wrong?) And, just a small hurdle remained between GOA and me: QUANT.

I wanted to boost my sugar levels during the break. So, I ate snickers & coconut water(someone suggested it here in gmatclub.com) before I started my exam and during each of my breaks. BIG Mistake, Half way thru Verbal & Quant, I am holding my legs tight trying not to pee myself. This happened during both of my attempts. Guess I overdid with the coconut water. What's worse is, one other guy did the same and I am already in the restroom relieving myself.. I was in there long to let so much coconut water out of my system, that the other guy went to continue his exam without relieving himself. (There was only one restroom in the exam center. I pity him. Wherever you are, I am sorry)

I started well with Quant. I was floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. The flow was smooth. No hiccups. And then, I was solving a question, maybe 8th question I guess, and clicked "Next". The confirm answer dialog box popped up, I clicked "Yes". Then I realized I answered it wrong. I left out the important constraint given in the question. X was an integer. During my practice, I constantly made the mistake of considering a variable as only an integer that I put so much efforts in remembering that a variable could be a fraction. But in the exam it backfired.

The worst thing that could happen to you in exam hall is you realizing "then & there" that you answered a question wrong.(apart from someone humming in your ears). That puts extra pressure on you, as if already existing pressure isn't enough. That triggered the first block in the series of Dominoes. By the time I was done with Quant, I knew I got 3 questions wrong when I clicked "Next". I also skipped two-three questions to keep up with my pace and timing strategy. And the last question in Quant, I cudn't solve it. It was a P&C question. And I was comfortable with that topic. But, I had to guess.

So, in the 8 minute break between Quant & IR, I couldn't get that last question out of my mind. So, I ended up solving it mentally in the 8 minute break and realized my guess was correct. (LUCKY ME!) That was a positive thing that I took over when I went in for IR & AWA.

Finished my exam. Clicked "Submit". Scores popped up.

700................... Yay!
V38..............................Yay!
Q47.............................wtf?

So, yeah.. second attempt 700 Q47 V38.

First attempt : I failed in Verbal
Second attempt: I failed in Quant.

Did I say I love math? I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I retire from GMAT with Q47. I was far happier with the score in first attempt. At least, I got Q50.

On the ride home, all the Quant questions came to my mind, and I realized the questions that I skipped could be solved easily with $(a+b)^2$. (Did I tell you that that's the formula which triggered my love affair with math? Seems like we broke up)

I knew a third attempt is on the cards. It's not the score that is at play. It is my ego, which is bruised. No matter the overall score, I need a Q50. That's all I cared for in my 3rd attempt.

Oh, I did go on the GOA trip the next day. And, it sucked!

Chapter 3: Third attempt:

They say third time is the charm, right?

Do you also know the story of scientist who tried to fuse tomato & potato plant? The story goes like this: A scientist on observing a potato plant, realized the top half of the plant, the part above the soil, doesn't have much use. He observed a tomato plant, realized the bottom half, the one below the ground, doesn't have any use.

A wild idea struck his mind. What if he could fuse both? A plant that has tomato at the top and potato at the bottom. Well, he modified the gene code and fused them together. Planted a field full of such seeds. Asked the farmer to take care of it. Visited after a month. He was in for the shock of his life!

The plant turned out to have top half of potato and bottom half of tomato.. Just the useless portion of both plants.

It was this fear that I had all along during the time leading to third attempt. Either my 3rd attempt could be fuse the best of first and second, Or the worst of first and second.

I was back from the GOA trip. I was mentally burnt-out as well. A month went by, I dint fix my exam. I dint touch my books. Then I knew the only way I will start preparing is when I have an exam date. I fixed my exam a month later. Somewhere in March.

I still dint find the motivation to study. The exam date was nearing. Two weeks from the date of exam, I realized I wasn't ready and, I postponed the exam 4 weeks later. Spent 8k for postponing.

I am almost out of prep materials now. Luckily, GMAC released "Official Advanced Questions". The Question Pack 1 from GMAC was also unsolved. I dint have any reliable mocks.

Two weeks from the exam date, I had only finished "Advanced Questions" and dint have the confidence to take the exam. So, I decided I will postpone it again. I don't have much of an income. And an additional 8k was too much. Still I went ahead and postponed. But the postponing charges turned out to be 0.00$. I wasn't charged.

I dint know why. I thought it must be a bug in their software. I received a mail couple of days letter, saying we can reschedule the exam for free until further notice due to Covid-19 (something good that came from the virus?). Well, I was lucky, right? Nooo! It is free now. Which means I can postpone it "n" number of times.

Every time when the exam is two weeks far out, I ended up postponing. I did it like 4-5 times. I said to myself this can't go on. The only way to stop this is to let people know that I have my exam on this date. So that I will be held accountable by someone. So, I started telling people voluntarily that this is wen my exam is.
Even then, I postponed my exam twice. Coz GMAC recently released Question Pack 2. And, I wanted my third attempt to be the final one. I wanted to exhaust all the resources, leave no stone unturned, give myself the satisfaction that I have exhausted all the possibilities and there is nothing I'd do after my 3rd attempt.

The only thing that stopped me from pushing the date further was the R1 deadlines.

June 25 was the Final D-day. Even then I had this fear that I will postpone it further. But thank god, I dint.

Also, I received a mail from GMAC that test-takers are to wear a mask and take the exam. What? I was practicing my mocks with the headphones on. I wear spectacles. And now, I started practicing mocks with Face Mask on. It was really difficult in the beginning. To make it easier, I studied with my face mask on. By the 3rd mock, I was comfortable wearing it.

I concentrated specifically on scoring Q50/51. And the only way I'd achieve it is to avoid silly mistakes. I needed rigorous practice. I signed up for GMATClub Quant. One month from the date of my exam, everyday I gave 1 Quant mock from GMATClub. Wow, those mocks brought out so many of my silly mistakes to the surface.
I am really thankful for the question makers. I guess its Bunuel & bb.

So, 6 months later from my 2nd attempt. I gave my 3rd attempt.

Things I used for my preparation in this period:

1) Only Kaplan and Princeton-Review mocks were left. I attempted them. Scored an avg of 710-720.
2) Question Pack 1 & 2
3) GMAT Advanced Official Questions.
4) One GMATClub Quant mock everyday for the last 30 days.

Went into the exam hall. It was empty this time. People took it online I guess. I prefer offline coz I wanted my 8 minute break in between. Also, I was careful this time not to have coconut water. What's the alternative? Just chocolates. But solid foods take long to get into your system. Somehow, "Red Bull" struck my mind. I dint want to have any surprises in the exam hall. So, I practiced couple of my mocks, having Red Bull during the breaks to see if it really suits me. It worked like a charm.

Verbal - I did okay. I skipped 2-3 questions in the final part of my exam. I was running out of time. My timing strategy worked great for the most part, except the final part. (My ESR showed that the 4th part had 50% right-50% wrong)

Quant - I was satisfied with my performance. I dint make any mistakes that I realized then and there. Though I had one small hiccup, I had to skip Q#8 that tested on sum of terms of GP. (I vaguely rmbrd the formula and dint want to risk it. So, skipped the question).

No holding in the pee this time. A small quantity of REDBULL did great. My IR was very easy. AWA was okay too. I finished AWA with 2 minutes to spare. I dint wanna click on submit. I feared another disappointment waiting for me behind the screen. I dint have ANY mental strength left to do Attempt #4. This is where I admire people like souvik101990 . It takes a lot of mental strength and perseverance to attempt it again. It shows a lot about their character. During my journey, I respected people who attempted 6,7,8 times more than those who scored 780 in the first attempt.

I let the time run out. I enjoyed the "loading" icon & "submitting your answers" text. Coz I knew the results will be out the next second. And, if I wanna be happy, now is a great time before the results are out.

740........... I let out a big sigh. A fist bump. Clenched my teeth. Mumbled a "yess!!".. This was the score that I said to people that I targeted. I always dreamt of this moment. I quickly checked my Quant scores.
Q50.......... Thank God! How about Verbal?
V40.......... Thank God again!... I dint wanna bomb IR. Checked and saw that I scored a perfect 8. (I scored 8 all three times)

So, as I left the exam centre, I saw that the proctors were waiting for me to be done with my exam. Seems like I was the only one that scheduled an exam at the center that day. I thanked them and offered to take them for lunch.

Oh, the Hotel that I booked this time for 2 days, the moment that I checked-out and left for the exam, the area was declared a red-zoned and was under containment. And, when I reached the exam hall, one other guy was denied admission because he was from a Red-Zone and had to undergo a 14 day quarantine. I jumped a lot of hurdles that day, I guess.

"Whatever happens, happens for my good" -- I try to have that attitude in my life during hardships. During my first two attempts, I used to think what good is gonna come out of this. If I had an average score in my Verbal or Quant in any of my first two attempts, I gladly would have settled for them, would have taken the 690/700 with both hands. But seems like there was a reason why I bombed one or the other.

740 Q50 V40. But I impatiently waited for my AWA score. I had to wait for 7-10 days. But the score was out in 2 days. (Maybe, they had few AWAs to evaluate). I scored a perfect 6.0. (The first two times I scored a 5.5. Guess everything happens for a reason)

I also got my ESR for all three attempts. I am a number person. Even though ESR dint matter much, I just wud love to look at the numbers. The Quant was satisfactory. I had 3 questions wrong I guess. Verbal, on the fourth section, I had 50% right.

My journey to 740 was relatively a easy one compared to other people out there. A lot of people put in so much hard work, review where they went wrong, review the incorrect questions, flash cards etc etc. A read thru souvik101990 blogs makes me guilty of how I got things easy. I applaud their efforts. I admire them. But in terms of the efforts, I can't be compared with such people. I think luck had a huge role in my score.

GMATCLUB.COM played a pivotal role in my prep. I'd like to give something back. The below is purely my opinion. It worked for me. I am not advocating anyone to follow the same.

Materials I used for my study:

1) All Manhattan books. Starting from Foundation of GMAT Quant & Verbal. Except Manhattan Advanced Quant
2) OG 18, Quant Review 18, Verbal Review 18.
2) GMAT Question Pack 1 & 2
3) GMAT Advanced Official Questions
4) AWA - https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6 ... 64327.html
5) IR - I dint devote any time specifically to IR. I only solved them in mocks.
6) RC - I solved 2 RCs everyday using RC Butler page. And practicing it everyday made my RC skills stronger and I was more confident of RC than Quant.

I learnt from the mistakes I made. I learnt things from the questions I solved.

Mocks: (I have ranked them based on their Quality. The top most is what I'd prefer) I am not going to rank GMATClub mocks. They deserve special mention.

1) GMAT Exam pack 1-6
2) Veritas Prep ------------- Closest to the actual mocks
3) Manhattan ----------------Quant is 2x difficult. But if you want to put yourself under rigour, get them.
4) Kaplan--- Only if you have exhausted the above. RCs are good. 3-4 times more difficult than what you see in actual GMAT. Get them if you want to test your RC skills
.
.
.
100) Princeton Review------- The verbal questions are below average. The scoring algorithm is below average at best. In one of the mocks, I got 2 Quant questions wrong and ended up with Q44.

GMATClub Verbal Mock: I only gave one Verbal mock. I dint find them up to the mark. Maybe, that particular mock was a bad apple. Maybe, it wasn't a representative sample. The questions were below average.

GMAT Quant Mock: Mandatory if you are looking to score Q51. Practice them if you want your GMAT Quant to be a breeze. You can learn about the nuances and learn about the silly mistakes that you make. The only improvement I'd suggest to the makers is, as I went thru the mocks, I got used to the twists and turns of the questions. I was able to predict the checkpoints. Maybe, it is coz all the questions are made by a few authors. Questions from a different mind will definitely add variety to the question bank.

DO PRACTIVE SKIPPING QUESTIONS DURING YOUR MOCKS. IT IS A USEFUL SKILL THAT WILL HELP YOU IN YOUR GMAT

My Advice: There are lot of resources out there. Don't try to absorb all the youtube videos and materials. Choose and streamline your resources. I deliberately removed GMAT related videos from my youtube feed. There are enough OG questions. Try to extract as much as possible from them. Mostly, your prep won't need more than that. The explanations by experts given under the OG questions teach you more than any book could teach you.

Do PM me, if there's anything that I'd help you with. There's a lot of debt that I owe to this community.
Thanks Guys!

VeritasKarishma Thanks a lot for replying to my Verbal Questions. I dunno how you reply to every post mentioning you. Great job.
GMATBusters Thanks for providing me with GMATClub Tests.
daagh your explanations are great
GMATNinja I am a big fan of your humor. Not only in the video lessons, but you include them in your explanations as well. I search for your explanations in every post just to make my prep less serious..
Bunuel bb Your minds are a puzzle to me. I dunno how you think of such amazing questions. Great work!

PS: If anyone'd help me with college admissions, that'd be great!

bb · Answer

WOW! That's an awesome score!!! Congratulations! Fantastic job!
Where are you thinking of applying?

Gowtham91 · Answer

coreyander It is a beautifully written debrief. I had fun reading it. I loved the fact that you kept on pursuing even after reaching 700 mark. Congratulations for an incredible score. All the best for your applications

souvik101990 · Answer

Congratulations on the incredible grit! I am happy you found so much help from GMAT Club and decided to share your success here. Would you be open to do a video debrief with me on the GMAT Club YouTube channel?

SRH750 · Answer

coreyander I am extremely happy for you !! Congratulations. Could you provide more details about Foundations of Verbal book? I would like to know how this particular book helped you in raising your verbal score. Looking forward for your reply.

TIA

TIA

KarishmaB · Answer

Congratulations coreyander ! Excellent score! Best wishes for your applications! You can get a profile evaluation from our experts here: https://www.veritasprep.com

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