620 (Feb2018) to 710(Oct 2018) to 730( Nov2018)

Question

First of all sincerest apologies for not giving submitting my debrief for the 710 . I had a gnawing feeling that the score was sub par for seeking an admission to the top PhD Programs. after giving the exams on 16th Oct, I went to attend the Docnet event which gave me detailed insights in the selection criteria for my target programs. To summarise that part, most of the admission managers suggested that my score should be al least above the Average GMAT scores for their past intake, if other parts of my applications were a bit weaker ( as in my case my undergraduate degree). After taking a lot of pointers from the wonderful GMATclub community and improving my score, it would have been ungrateful on my part to share my preparing and test taking experience. This is not a traditional GMAT debriefing unlike others I have read and adopted in my preps. I am focusing more on the some context driven scenarios that brought me where I am. there is a hidden point in my saga and hope it inspires people to fight against odds to succeed. For those who want to learn only what I did to earn the 700+ figure, please feel free to skip to the bottom. For those seeking inspiration against odds, please read on. Please excuse typos( I know there will be many ) it is a fairly long debrief. So here begins my story : Attempt 1 : Feb 2018 : 620( Q47, V29, IR5)

No surprises I had cancelled the score. Prep material 1. Notes based on MGMAT prep material for both quants and verbal. 2. MGMAT Tests 3. IR prep tool from MBA.com 4. GMAT prep tests ( official) Exam 1 and 2 5. OG Bundle 2018 ( all three) Exam Strategy I was initially aiming to take my weakest section first ( i.e) verbal first. so the sequence I opted for was V,Q,IR,AWA. for my exams I took. I had the 6 MGMAT tests which totally shattered my confidence in my quantitative aptitude. so the first 3/4 tests of MGMAT and 1 GMATprep test, I attempted with a mix of sequences - IR,AWA, Q, V and Q, V, IR, AWA. Thereafter, I decided to place all my bets in the V,Q,IR,AWA sequence for rest of my tests. My performance in these test ranged from 620 to 690. Key mistakes 1. Practicing without scratchpad and Wet erase pens. 2. Procrastination ( I was supposed to take my exam in August 2017) 3. Did not keep my eye on the prize ( I was oscillating between career choices and my life's priorities) 4. Did not get good night's sleep before the exam ( read the next para) Detailed Background I took all six MGMAT tests after I felt comfortable with my preps but, but I was not hitting the mark of 700. Then I gave the OfficialGMAT Prep tests and they did give me a better score in the first tries as well. This lead me to believe that I should rely on MGMATs only to challenge my concept understanding. When I was comfortable with my preparations, I booked the exam date. But as fate would have it, all things started going south couple of weeks before the exam. As a sales manager for an Indian IT company, I was caught right in the middle of a crucial deal in my accounts and I had to travel to India with the client on 6th Afternoon. So goodbye to peace of mind and hello to anxiety ! ( Oh btw, did I mention I was have drugged on sleep inducing hormones to treat my depression that was diagnosed in August 2017 ?) I thought my headstrong attitude will power me through the depression and I will succeed. And if that wasn't enough the night before my exams ( on 5th Feb around 10:00 PM) when I a was about to turn in for a good night sleep ahead of the big day, the building a few blocks away apparantly caught fire or so it seemed to me as it did. As a good samaritan, I called the fire department and that ordeal lasted for another 3 hours till they figured out that some lunatics were barbecuing in frigid temperatures of February in Espoo on their balcony. So there went my good night sleep. I still managed to get some sleep but ultimately woke up with a pounding headache. Hopped up on Panadol, I attempted the GMAT attempting Verbal, Quants, IR and Essay in that order. Half way through the first section, I knew, I had messed up and gave up almost. Still I powered through all the sections to get the dreaded 620 score. Without a second thought I cancelled the score and stormed out the centre after completing the formalities. After coming back from India, things again went south in my professional life to the extent that my depression worsened with added symptoms like Sleep Apnea, constant eye twitch and what not. In March itself I decided to quit my job and work towards my PhD. But right around the end of March, my new boss urged me to go on a medical sabbatical and get my health back. I focused on getting better, losing weight by eating right etc. I used that time to research prep materials, courses forums etc. Attempt 2 : Oct 2018 : 710( Q48, V39, IR6, AWA 5.5 ) To say that the months from Feb unto August were an uphill battle would be an understatement. I was hopped up on medicines and even if I tried to, my mind wavered way too much to focus on studies. So halfway into June I completely gave up preparing for GMAT and focused 100% on getting back to my former self mentally and physically. When the harassment at work was too much to take, I put my papers in July and after serving two month's notice period, I left my job to focus 100% on my career as an academic researcher. I joined some online courses in Econometrics, programming in R etc. to get into a studying mode. Around August 2nd week I sat down with all my resources and information collected from GMAT club and meticulously planned the approach. For eg. I took the topic wise 700-800 level question bank for quants, listed number of questions, and set a deadline by when I should complete each section post the review of theory. Finland has GMAT tests mostly on Tuesdays ( some months there are are exceptions). So I planned to take my mock exams on Tuesdays only at the same time every time so as to train my mind to wok at its peak capacity during that time of the day. Practice and Exam taking tools 1. I got myself the same pens that were available to us at GMAT test centre ( in my centre's case it was Stabilo Wet Erase Fine point) 2. I took 5 prints of check marked sheet and laminated them at local library to mimic the GMAT scratchpad ( the MGMAT scratchpad is yellow and practicing on it only did put me off a bit during the test day when I got a white scratchpad). You can say I was showing signs of OCD, but I didn't want any surprises on the final day. PM me if you want a printable version of the scratchpad. 3. MOST IMP tool ( thanks to a tip from undergrad buddy Anirudh) - Do not underestimate the power of Energy drinks

and munching a banana in the 8 min break . I practice my mock GMATs with lower dose of energy drink that I intended to take on my GMAT test day. I used to take a double shot espresso 20 mins before starting the exam, take half a can of energy drink - NOCCO FOCUS 330ml in the first break and a banana in the first break. Completed the remaining half of the can and take some water in the last break. Prep material 1. E-GMAT Verbal Online course ( brought predominantly for SC and CR as well as practice on Scholaranium) 2. GMAT club Math book and posts from Bunuel for alternative Explanations. 3. My notes from first attempt 4. 700-800 collection ( for SC, CR and Quant) 5. gmatclub Quant quizes - ALL of them ( MOST IMPORTANT resource in my opinion) Prep Strategy Week 1 : Quant Theory followed by applying learnt concept from 700-800 Quant questions bank, then doing Error Analysis and Timing analysis. For each question where either I exceeded the 1min 45 second mark or l got wrong, I looked up the alternative solutions on gmatclub. I built and topic wise error logbook where I wrote the question as well as alternative approaches. I completed the entire Quant question bank in the first week. Week 2 onwards: My typical day starting from Second week of Sept until Oct first week ( except Test Taking Tuesdays) started with light exercise, then breakfast + review of quant theory notes followed by gmatclub quant quiz ( 1 per day from 9:00 am to 10:00 am) followed by detailed error analysis and error log book entries. This took up my time unto lunch. Post lunch, all my time for SC in Week 2, CR for Week 3 and RC for Week 4. I used the same approach. Topic wise theory first on E-gmat's platform followed by solving 700-800 question bank and the OG questions ( as part of E-GMAT's practice at end of the topic. I started using Scholaranium diligently later in my prep ( maybe towards the end of Sept). I guess my weakness was SC and focused a lot of energy in that part. I could not even complete the remaining part of scholaranium for CR as my accuracy in the 700-800 level and OG was close to 90%. 1 week before the Exam : I did not invest anytime in learning any new concept / theory. Practiced and focused on what I had learnt till that point. I reviewed my notes, error logs from both quant and verbal. This time coincided with Navratri ( Indian festival from 8th Oct to 18th Oct) where my family keeps a complete fast taking only water and fruit juices.. I too kept the fast even on my GMAT test day (16th Oct) In stead of being detrimental, fasting proved to be advantageous as I felt lighter and more agile physically and mentally. ( I am not recommending that you do this , this is just a personal anecdote) 1 day before the exam : I spent my time relaxing binge watching animated movies and TV series, playing guitar intermittently. In the afternoon, went to a beach nearby, meditated, and solved some CR and SC questions at the beach. (what I mean to say is go to the place where you feel relaxed, do things that make you happy and meditate and review your battle plan for the next day) Exam Strategy Learning from, my last mistakes, I made it a point to start with the section that required my fresh mind. So my sequence for all the practice tests and GMAT was - Q,V, IR, AWA and I did not experiment with alternatives. I spent significant amount of time on the first 15 questions reaching half way mark for quants ( i.e 16th question at around 30- 32 min mark). Other than that I didn't take any additional precautions or do any special preparations that were'nt common sense. I told my wife jokingly, no matter what happens, I AM not going to be a Good Samaritan for this day. Even if all hell breaks lose, I will focus only on my peace of mind and get my good night's sleep. Special Section : How does did I fare in my Practice tests vs Actual GMAT ?? I gave all the GMAT preps test from 1-4 with my score progressing in the following sequence : 700, 720, 720, 730 respectively. I had a gnawing feeling that my score will have a major deviation from my practice tests. I did look up on various forums for the answer to same. Well here is what I found out. My quant performance was accurately represented by my median score on Gmatclub tests. My verbal score and overall GMAT score was in the nearly +/- 20 points of my lowest and highest score on GMATprep tests ( and for each of the tests, I had mimicked near to exact test day scenarios) Test day experience My test was at 9:30 am and the test centre was nearly 15 kms from my place. I woke up at 6:30 am and did some light exercises to get the blood pumping. As I was still fasting, I took half a glass of Avocado + banana smoothie for my breakfast. Just before leaving for the exam centre, I gulped down my first can of energy drink. I reached the test centre at 8:30 am. I had brought along in addition to my college list and identification, my fav energy drink ( I had removed the fizz overnight and transferred to a water bottle), 80% Cocoa chocolate, a Banana. I had a double shot espresso at the cafeteria and added to bites of chocolate to make me wide awake and alert. I signed in at The Center and started my exam at 9:30. I could figure out exactly where I was going wrong in the quant section. I completed the first 15 questions with clock reading 34 mins remaining. I kept going on facing conceptual gaps in a couple of questions which took me a bit more than 2 mins. However, I managed to complete the section with a little over a minute to spare. Break 1 : Got my Scratchpad replaced, took my first second half of energy drink and gobbled up the banana. I quickly went to the restroom and returned with just 56 seconds remaining in the break. I sat down and relaxed and waited for the clock to run out. I started my verbal section when the clock read 5 seconds. my First half of verbal section was going very well. just half way down, l was fighting two pronged battle against harder questions and my bladder control. I attempted the last 12-14 question doing a wee -wee dance in my chair

and I thought

I messed up again my chances. In the hindsight I think I completed the verbal in a hurry and had about 5 mins to spare. I took the second break, and nothing much special in IR Section. I had skipped the MSR questions. For AWA, again nothing special. I found 4 assumptions and provided the gaps and ways to mitigate criticism. All in all I wrote about 5 paras. and did a quick skim of the para and corrected the grammatical error where I could spot them. I was happy to see the 710 figure on my screen. But what disheartened me was my Quant percentile ( which was just 67 and in no way close to the range required for my target colleges) I accepted the score and waited for 24 hours to get my ESR to analyse my performance on the GMAT. I knew for sure, I could get at least 720 if I appeared again. It was a big question that should I go with 710 or should I invest my time and additional 250$ to improve the score ? Attempt 3 : Nov 2018 : 730( Q49, V39, IR7, AWA -- ) I got the definitive answer from the admissions panel at DOCNET event in Copenhagen. One of them advised me that if I feel confident that I can improve my score, I should attempt it again. According to her, most of your other application parameters are constant. The quickest and easiest positive change to your profile you can get in short time frame is your GMAT score. Those who improve the score by a point of 10 or more on their 700s is viewed upon favourably by most of the colleges. After coming back from Copenhagen, I booked my test date for 6th Nov. I just reviewed my notes, solved the questions where my ESR showed that I had lower accuracy. From 2 days before to the final Day, I followed every step from my second attempt to the dot. Nothing much changed during the test taking as well. I was expecting a V 40 but when I got V39, I was a bit disappointed. But none the less, I saw the 20 point increase and a better IR score of 7 from 6 I did not have much to complain. Hope this debrief helps and motivates those who had lost confidence in themselves and are fighting depression as I was. The 700+ scores did wonders to my state of mind and made me believe in my capabilities once again, something that was systematically destroyed in the toxic work environment I was in. Best of luck to all of you and feel free to drop me a pm if you need any help in customising your prep. I might not be able to upload my notes as it might contain copyright material from some of the prep companies or publishing houses. I am attaching few of the resources I used from gmatclub:

u1983 · Answer

Congratulations

HardikL ...... This is an amazing story of determination. All the very best for the next stage of the process.

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620 (Feb2018) to 710(Oct 2018) to 730( Nov2018)

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