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viveknitw
Joined: 24 Jun 2011
Last visit: 18 Aug 2016
Posts: 4
Given Kudos: 4
Concentration: General Management, Marketing
Schools: ISB '16 (II) LBS CEIBS '17 INSEAD Jan '16 NTU '17 Sloan '17 Said'16 GMBA '16 HKUST '17 NUS '17 Melbourne '17 Boston U '18 Tepper '18 XLRI
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V33
GPA: 3.2
WE:Engineering (Consulting)
Products:
Schools: ISB '16 (II) LBS CEIBS '17 INSEAD Jan '16 NTU '17 Sloan '17 Said'16 GMBA '16 HKUST '17 NUS '17 Melbourne '17 Boston U '18 Tepper '18 XLRI
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V33
Posts: 4
I am a civil engineer. I passed from NIT Warangal in 2010. This was my first attempt at GMAT. I decided to start preparation for GMAT in March of 2014. Planed to give GMAT by July end with ample time to apply to various colleges. I printed a 3 moth calendar on A3 sheet and pasted on my wall. I wrote whatever I did on that day on the calendar. The most difficult part was to keep myself motivated in this period. Taking out time is easy once you are motivated for what needs to be done. I was easily distracted. So I printed some posters from zenpencils and pasted on my wall. I quit drinking, smoking, facebook, watsapp and other distractions. I kept a schedule to study on weekdays and separate schedule for weekends. To increae my productivity, I read a book on Pomodoro technique. Downloaded its mobile app and used it. But to be honest even after so many sacrifices there was no significant improvement in my mock exam results. So I tried to have balance between fun and work. I watched few episodes of South Park or Game of thrones and then after refreshing did problem set. Just before sleeping I thought about things I would do tomorrow.
List Of Books Used
Verbal:
1. Manhattan Sentence Correction
2. Official Guide 13
3. Verbal Review for Official Guide 2nd Edition
4. Verbal Online by e-Gmat
5. GMAT Club Question bank
6. Powerscore for CR
7. Manhattan RC
Quants:
1. Official Guides
2. Arun Sharma Quant book
3. GMAT Club Tests
4. Veritas Prep book for DS
Test Resources:
1. GMAT prep (latest version)
GMAT Prep Test 1 -640
2. Manhattan GMAT tests (MGMATs) –
MGMAT 1 – 660
MGMAT 2 - 640
Following are how I prepared for the GMAT for various topics. It involved three steps : Concept clearing, Practise and Revision till Perfection.
Problem Solving
Concepts : I did it from Arun Sharma book for quants. It has around 17 chapters and covers all topics. I left Probability and Permutation and combinations as I was not comfortable with that.
Practise : I did all the questions of OG -13. It was sheer wastage of time though. I really advise not to do Quant from OG 13 or Quant Review 2nd Edition. GMAT Club Practice questions are really awesome. They are divided in 500,600 and 700 levels. They are tricky and by the time you complete it , you will feel confidant. Also these questions are on a tougher side. I did not encounter any very tough question in real GMAT.
Perfection : I recommend if you are doing it on Gmat Club questions, do it on beta version. There you can make notes on the wrong questions. When you are done with all the questions ( will take 15 days at least to complete) , redo the wrong questions again and do write all the mistakes you did in a separate notebook. You can refer this notebook in the final days.
Data Sufficiency
Concepts : Veritas Prep book is best for this. I got it for free from veritas prep. It is available for free download. This book is super awesome for clearing concepts. I used to get many wrong answers in DS earlier. But after reading the books I started asking myself the questions as for why certain option was there, and rethink if there was any obvious answer. This approach also helped me in Solving CR and RC Questions.
Practise : I did all the questions of OG -13. It was sheer wastage of time though. I really advise not to do Quant from OG 13 or Quant Review 2nd Edition. GMAT Club Practice questions are really awesome. DS practice questions are really tricky. Even the level 600 ones could make you think twice. But once you are done with all the questions, you will feel a new confidence seeping in you.
Perfection : Do revise all the GMAT club questions, specially that took a lot of time and ones you got incorrect.
Sentence Correction
Concepts : I was very confused for Sentence Correction. One of my friends had advised me Better Englist book . I did try that. Then I tried my so acquired knowledge on OG 13, Past first twenty questions , I could not get all correct answers. I got worried. I tried reading advices on gmatclub and came across e-gmat Verbal Course. I started doing all the videos and made notes on my pad. Each video was very concise and took just one page of my notebook. By the end of this course I had pad full of notes. I also did Manhattan Sentence Correction videos. It was like a revision of what I had already done on SC videos of e-gmat. I highlighted everything important on the book.
Practise : I did OG 13 completely once. Then after a few days, took print out of new copy and did it there. This time I marked tricks involved in all questions and how by checking a few keywords and just checking them I can find the answer fastly. Also I did all questions of gmat club question bank.
Perfection : Verbal 2nd Edition was perfect to complete the preparation. I used all the tricks I had learned earlier. I also downloaded from youtube videos by e-gmat for all 113 questions. Each video was 5-6 mins long but was really very helpful. In a week time I had marked all useful tips on the book pertinent to each question.
Critical Reasoning
Concepts : Powerscore is the best book I think for Concepts. The question in the end are also good to clear the concepts. I did revision of CR from e-gmat videos.
Practice : OG 13 , Verbal 2nd Edition , and Manhattan SC End Chapter Questions.
Perfection : Did Gmat Club Questions and revised the ones I did wrong.
Reading Comprehension
This was my weekest area. I could not concentrate long enough to understand the passage completely. Since my study hours used to be just after office from 8pm to 9.30 pm I started feeling asleep. I am seriously telling. I used to sleep in between while reading the passage. Sometimes I just used to go away and come back later and resume with other questions. I was getting only 20-60 % correct answers in OG 13. Sometimes even all wrong answers. This was really frustrating. I tried tricks shared on gmat club by rhyme but each trick had its own benefits and limitations. If I made notes it took a lot of time. If I just skimmed the passage I would not get the correct understanding. Also since RC was my least favorite topic I kept it for the end.
I had started my preparations in April beginning and had scheduled my exam in July end. 4 months seemed fair. By the time I reached RC preparations it was already mid June . I wanted to keep July for giving tests and analyzing. I gave my first test in May last week on the gmat prep software. I got 640 (v49 – q26). I did some bit of analysis. It was a kind of disaster. A week later of preperations I joined MGMAT Test Series and gave my first MGMAT 1 . I got 660 (got v -37 and 1-43) . I had mixed feelings. I had crossed v-35 limit but overall performance was bad. Some more days of revision and I gave again: got 640 (v-32, q46) . It was july 15 by then. I was super low on confidence. I decided I will reschedule my exam. I rescheduled it to Oct second fryday. I had around 60 more days to prepare. I decided I would do all 1300 question of gmat club. (PS – I started late with gmatclub questions). So this was a daily activity now. I was doing around 10 quizzes daily of 5 questions each. It took some time to get used to it but in 20-25 days I was done with all questions. I had kept Sept end for practice test and revision but I was sent to construction site ( I am a civil engineer) and thus all my leaves got cancelled and I had to move to different city. For twenty days. I had to take all my books. In the night in my hotel room I used to sit at night and do the revision work. Since I did not get any free time in day and at night I was in no mood for giving mocks I did not give any other mock tests. I came back to home on 8th Oct. On 10th Oct I had my test.
I just revised all I had written in small notebook of revision. My one friend had given a month back and got 640 and so I thought 640 would be what I will also get, since I got this score in two of my three tests (*u see the median score). I just went to the test centre to get an experience so that next time I could do better.
I stay in a city that doesnot have a gmat centre. I went at night to the other nearby big city.
Stayed in the hotel. The test centre was near by. I had an exam in afternoon. I had a light breakfast as lunch. Went to exam centre at 1 pm. It was in a busy mall. I felt weird at first. But I calmed myself. At 1.30 pm we ( four ppl) were given instruction and by 2 pm our exam had started.
The room was too cold. I asked the instructer to decrease the temperature. The first section was AWA and I wrote something something. I had not prepared for this part. Then came IR- Honestly for 10 minutes I wondered what the question was about. Then I felt it was better to guess. I kept guessing all the problems , just did the one which involved quant. I was not at all prepared for this.
Then came Quant. Question were relatively easy. There were a few questions of Permutation and combinations which I felt tough. All else were easy. Even DS looked straight forward. In the end questions were very time taking and I felt better to guess. The last question was super easy and I was left with three minutes. I submitted and went for the break. I saw one fellow eating snickers and other having red bull. I felt I should also have brought something since I was fully exausted by then. I just wanted to finish the exam and go.
Verbal started with CR. It was one my comfortable area. I was lucky it did not start with RC. I kept solving the problems and SC questions seemed staright forward. RC passages came in the end and by that time I was fully drained of energy. I just read the passage and guessed the answer. I made sure not to choose the most obvious answer and think why are you here in the passage. Finally I complete the verbal part with 3 mins to spare. And pressed the submit button.
To my surprise I got 700 ( q50, v33). In IR I just got 3. AWA I got 4 .
PS : I did not buy any book except OG-13. I just downloaded soft copies of various books and got their spiral binding in a near by shop. I got GMAT Club Membership free when I purchased Verbal Online from e-GMAT.
Things I think I should have done
• Should have given all tests of Gmat prep and MGMAT
• Should have given full length test to prevent fatigue at the end
• Should have given verbal test more
• RC – should have practiced better
• Should have a buffer time, not everything will happen as you would have planned
• Number of Questions solved is not important, rather the learning from each question is important
• Should have done IR Course which I had bought as a part of Verbal online Course
• Should have had a better error log, believe me it is a bit time taking but return of investment of time is a lot
Things that worked for me
• I was very calm before the exam. I really did not have much expectations.
• I had invested some time daily on the preparation of GMAT
• Had revised my error log
• Gmat club support staff and e-gmat support staff were very prompt in solving any querry.
I would really request seniors to help me on how and which colleges I can apply to with this score.
Feel free to PM me for any help or soft copy you need.
please add kudos to my post if you found it useful
List Of Books Used
Verbal:
1. Manhattan Sentence Correction
2. Official Guide 13
3. Verbal Review for Official Guide 2nd Edition
4. Verbal Online by e-Gmat
5. GMAT Club Question bank
6. Powerscore for CR
7. Manhattan RC
Quants:
1. Official Guides
2. Arun Sharma Quant book
3. GMAT Club Tests
4. Veritas Prep book for DS
Test Resources:
1. GMAT prep (latest version)
GMAT Prep Test 1 -640
2. Manhattan GMAT tests (MGMATs) –
MGMAT 1 – 660
MGMAT 2 - 640
Following are how I prepared for the GMAT for various topics. It involved three steps : Concept clearing, Practise and Revision till Perfection.
Problem Solving
Concepts : I did it from Arun Sharma book for quants. It has around 17 chapters and covers all topics. I left Probability and Permutation and combinations as I was not comfortable with that.
Practise : I did all the questions of OG -13. It was sheer wastage of time though. I really advise not to do Quant from OG 13 or Quant Review 2nd Edition. GMAT Club Practice questions are really awesome. They are divided in 500,600 and 700 levels. They are tricky and by the time you complete it , you will feel confidant. Also these questions are on a tougher side. I did not encounter any very tough question in real GMAT.
Perfection : I recommend if you are doing it on Gmat Club questions, do it on beta version. There you can make notes on the wrong questions. When you are done with all the questions ( will take 15 days at least to complete) , redo the wrong questions again and do write all the mistakes you did in a separate notebook. You can refer this notebook in the final days.
Data Sufficiency
Concepts : Veritas Prep book is best for this. I got it for free from veritas prep. It is available for free download. This book is super awesome for clearing concepts. I used to get many wrong answers in DS earlier. But after reading the books I started asking myself the questions as for why certain option was there, and rethink if there was any obvious answer. This approach also helped me in Solving CR and RC Questions.
Practise : I did all the questions of OG -13. It was sheer wastage of time though. I really advise not to do Quant from OG 13 or Quant Review 2nd Edition. GMAT Club Practice questions are really awesome. DS practice questions are really tricky. Even the level 600 ones could make you think twice. But once you are done with all the questions, you will feel a new confidence seeping in you.
Perfection : Do revise all the GMAT club questions, specially that took a lot of time and ones you got incorrect.
Sentence Correction
Concepts : I was very confused for Sentence Correction. One of my friends had advised me Better Englist book . I did try that. Then I tried my so acquired knowledge on OG 13, Past first twenty questions , I could not get all correct answers. I got worried. I tried reading advices on gmatclub and came across e-gmat Verbal Course. I started doing all the videos and made notes on my pad. Each video was very concise and took just one page of my notebook. By the end of this course I had pad full of notes. I also did Manhattan Sentence Correction videos. It was like a revision of what I had already done on SC videos of e-gmat. I highlighted everything important on the book.
Practise : I did OG 13 completely once. Then after a few days, took print out of new copy and did it there. This time I marked tricks involved in all questions and how by checking a few keywords and just checking them I can find the answer fastly. Also I did all questions of gmat club question bank.
Perfection : Verbal 2nd Edition was perfect to complete the preparation. I used all the tricks I had learned earlier. I also downloaded from youtube videos by e-gmat for all 113 questions. Each video was 5-6 mins long but was really very helpful. In a week time I had marked all useful tips on the book pertinent to each question.
Critical Reasoning
Concepts : Powerscore is the best book I think for Concepts. The question in the end are also good to clear the concepts. I did revision of CR from e-gmat videos.
Practice : OG 13 , Verbal 2nd Edition , and Manhattan SC End Chapter Questions.
Perfection : Did Gmat Club Questions and revised the ones I did wrong.
Reading Comprehension
This was my weekest area. I could not concentrate long enough to understand the passage completely. Since my study hours used to be just after office from 8pm to 9.30 pm I started feeling asleep. I am seriously telling. I used to sleep in between while reading the passage. Sometimes I just used to go away and come back later and resume with other questions. I was getting only 20-60 % correct answers in OG 13. Sometimes even all wrong answers. This was really frustrating. I tried tricks shared on gmat club by rhyme but each trick had its own benefits and limitations. If I made notes it took a lot of time. If I just skimmed the passage I would not get the correct understanding. Also since RC was my least favorite topic I kept it for the end.
I had started my preparations in April beginning and had scheduled my exam in July end. 4 months seemed fair. By the time I reached RC preparations it was already mid June . I wanted to keep July for giving tests and analyzing. I gave my first test in May last week on the gmat prep software. I got 640 (v49 – q26). I did some bit of analysis. It was a kind of disaster. A week later of preperations I joined MGMAT Test Series and gave my first MGMAT 1 . I got 660 (got v -37 and 1-43) . I had mixed feelings. I had crossed v-35 limit but overall performance was bad. Some more days of revision and I gave again: got 640 (v-32, q46) . It was july 15 by then. I was super low on confidence. I decided I will reschedule my exam. I rescheduled it to Oct second fryday. I had around 60 more days to prepare. I decided I would do all 1300 question of gmat club. (PS – I started late with gmatclub questions). So this was a daily activity now. I was doing around 10 quizzes daily of 5 questions each. It took some time to get used to it but in 20-25 days I was done with all questions. I had kept Sept end for practice test and revision but I was sent to construction site ( I am a civil engineer) and thus all my leaves got cancelled and I had to move to different city. For twenty days. I had to take all my books. In the night in my hotel room I used to sit at night and do the revision work. Since I did not get any free time in day and at night I was in no mood for giving mocks I did not give any other mock tests. I came back to home on 8th Oct. On 10th Oct I had my test.
I just revised all I had written in small notebook of revision. My one friend had given a month back and got 640 and so I thought 640 would be what I will also get, since I got this score in two of my three tests (*u see the median score). I just went to the test centre to get an experience so that next time I could do better.
I stay in a city that doesnot have a gmat centre. I went at night to the other nearby big city.
Stayed in the hotel. The test centre was near by. I had an exam in afternoon. I had a light breakfast as lunch. Went to exam centre at 1 pm. It was in a busy mall. I felt weird at first. But I calmed myself. At 1.30 pm we ( four ppl) were given instruction and by 2 pm our exam had started.
The room was too cold. I asked the instructer to decrease the temperature. The first section was AWA and I wrote something something. I had not prepared for this part. Then came IR- Honestly for 10 minutes I wondered what the question was about. Then I felt it was better to guess. I kept guessing all the problems , just did the one which involved quant. I was not at all prepared for this.
Then came Quant. Question were relatively easy. There were a few questions of Permutation and combinations which I felt tough. All else were easy. Even DS looked straight forward. In the end questions were very time taking and I felt better to guess. The last question was super easy and I was left with three minutes. I submitted and went for the break. I saw one fellow eating snickers and other having red bull. I felt I should also have brought something since I was fully exausted by then. I just wanted to finish the exam and go.
Verbal started with CR. It was one my comfortable area. I was lucky it did not start with RC. I kept solving the problems and SC questions seemed staright forward. RC passages came in the end and by that time I was fully drained of energy. I just read the passage and guessed the answer. I made sure not to choose the most obvious answer and think why are you here in the passage. Finally I complete the verbal part with 3 mins to spare. And pressed the submit button.
To my surprise I got 700 ( q50, v33). In IR I just got 3. AWA I got 4 .
PS : I did not buy any book except OG-13. I just downloaded soft copies of various books and got their spiral binding in a near by shop. I got GMAT Club Membership free when I purchased Verbal Online from e-GMAT.
Things I think I should have done
• Should have given all tests of Gmat prep and MGMAT
• Should have given full length test to prevent fatigue at the end
• Should have given verbal test more
• RC – should have practiced better
• Should have a buffer time, not everything will happen as you would have planned
• Number of Questions solved is not important, rather the learning from each question is important
• Should have done IR Course which I had bought as a part of Verbal online Course
• Should have had a better error log, believe me it is a bit time taking but return of investment of time is a lot
Things that worked for me
• I was very calm before the exam. I really did not have much expectations.
• I had invested some time daily on the preparation of GMAT
• Had revised my error log
• Gmat club support staff and e-gmat support staff were very prompt in solving any querry.
I would really request seniors to help me on how and which colleges I can apply to with this score.
Feel free to PM me for any help or soft copy you need.
please add kudos to my post if you found it useful
18 Oct 2014, 13:01
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations on pulling that rabbit out of your GMAT hat, viveknitw! Sometimes, a calm, relaxed approach to test day is all you need to pull a few extra points, and it's always fun to see somebody outperform their mock tests. The world would be a happier place if that happened more often.
Good luck with your applications!
Good luck with your applications!
18 Oct 2014, 15:38
Kudos
Bookmarks
That is a rare situation! Congrats. Fe are able to get a higher score on the real thing!
