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Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
01 Jan 2021, 11:24
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In my previous post, I detailed my experience with my first GMAT attempt wherein I got shocking scores on Critical Reasoning (5th percentile!) despite nailing pretty much everything else and bagging a 720. Things didn't make sense to me as I'd been hitting 750+ quite effortlessly on my last few official mocks.
Fast forward 4-5 months, I decided to have another go at upping my score and booked both an online GMAT and an in-person GMAT in quick succession. I merely booked the online test as a practice run to the in-person attempt as I had taken a complete hiatus from GMAT prep since my first attempt - however to my pleasant surprise, I hit a 760 on my online attempt itself - Q50 V44 IR8. In the buildup to this attempt, I spent about 3 days in targeted revision of quant topics I wasn't too confident with, and skimmed through some Critical Reasoning material.
My learnings are summarized below; I hope these can help test takers aiming to cross that 750 mark:
Finally, good luck to everyone applying in these chaotic times - let's hammer it!
Fast forward 4-5 months, I decided to have another go at upping my score and booked both an online GMAT and an in-person GMAT in quick succession. I merely booked the online test as a practice run to the in-person attempt as I had taken a complete hiatus from GMAT prep since my first attempt - however to my pleasant surprise, I hit a 760 on my online attempt itself - Q50 V44 IR8. In the buildup to this attempt, I spent about 3 days in targeted revision of quant topics I wasn't too confident with, and skimmed through some Critical Reasoning material.
My learnings are summarized below; I hope these can help test takers aiming to cross that 750 mark:
- My biggest takeaway of all is don't cause on just a single attempt or two - take all 5 attempts in the year if you have to! Seriously, this is the most underrated piece of advice out there. With constant amount of prep, your GMAT score can float within a good 60-80 point range and that is a HUGE range in itself. A 30-40 point difference can end up being the difference between getting accepted and dinged. I know the standard response is that GMAT is only a small component of the overall application, but if you're part of an overrepresented demographic, good luck trying to justify an average score with the kind of competition that awaits. Don't give adcoms any questions to think about - just get a high score.
- Don't waste your time doing mock tests from unofficial sources, seriously. The official mocks are half-decent and the closest you can get to the real deal.
- A common area for screwing up is just practicing for the sake of practicing, to convince it's real work and will help you get to that 99th percentile. Nah, doesn't work that way. Your practice needs to be tailored to address your shortcomings and quality MUST be prioritized over quantity. You don't have to spend 3 months to go from a 650 to a 750. You don't even need to get material from every test prep company out there. Identify the areas you're weak at, work aggressively towards challenging yourself there, turn the timer off till things start to make sense in your head. Do what's mentioned in point #1 - the more attempts you take, the more of a chance you give yourself of getting lucky.
- If you've come from a STEM background, Quant should be straightforward. Don't settle for anything less than a 49. The objective nature of quant along with the high school level difficulty makes it easier to prep for. The only catch is that you're on a timer! Nonetheless you can probably get 3-6 wrong on Quant and still run away with a 50. Again, if you come from STEM, by all means you should be hitting those scores.
- All hail Target Test Prep. (P.S. I also rate Manhattan material for Verbal)
Finally, good luck to everyone applying in these chaotic times - let's hammer it!
01 Jan 2021, 17:54
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Congrats! Amazing score! Thank you for the debrief!
Did you end up taking the test-center based test or did you get your Online score before your in-person test?
Did you end up taking the test-center based test or did you get your Online score before your in-person test?
01 Jan 2021, 20:45
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bb
Got it before, so cancelled the in-person test
