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Apr 2301:30 AM EDT
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Struggling with GMAT Verbal as a non-native speaker? Harsh improved his score from 595 to 695 in just 45 days—and scored a 99 %ile in Verbal (V88)! Learn how smart strategy, clarity, and guided prep helped him gain 100 points.
Apr 2212:30 AM EDT
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At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
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17 Mar 2021, 19:57
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Hello everyone!
I would like to share you my journey so you can avoid making the same mistakes.
I took the test 3 times, 1 in-person and 2 at-home.
The learnings are not explained in a chronological order. I learned some stuff later in my journey that are before in my list because I think that are more important.
First of all a little bit of context. When I started studying for the GMAT I was 30 years old, also I was just starting a new job as a manager, and I’m not a native speaker. So, I was old, busy and not verbally talented (I’m still struggling with this so please excuse my grammar). On the positive side, I studied business in my undergrad which helped me in IR, and both my UG and my work experience have been quantitative intensive so I knew that Quant was going to be my best side.
Date | Exam | Total Score | Breakdown | Comments
Stopped studying during 3 months
Feel free to ask me anything!
I wish you the best in your journey
I would like to share you my journey so you can avoid making the same mistakes.
I took the test 3 times, 1 in-person and 2 at-home.
The learnings are not explained in a chronological order. I learned some stuff later in my journey that are before in my list because I think that are more important.
Student context
First of all a little bit of context. When I started studying for the GMAT I was 30 years old, also I was just starting a new job as a manager, and I’m not a native speaker. So, I was old, busy and not verbally talented (I’m still struggling with this so please excuse my grammar). On the positive side, I studied business in my undergrad which helped me in IR, and both my UG and my work experience have been quantitative intensive so I knew that Quant was going to be my best side.
Results
Date | Exam | Total Score | Breakdown | Comments
- August 2019 | Official Practice Exam 1 | 610 | Q42 V33 | Baseline
- January 2020 | In-person Exam | 640 | Q47 V32 IR 8 AWA 5 | See learnings 3 and 4
Stopped studying during 3 months
- August 2020 | Official Practice Exam 2 | 720 | Q49 V38 IR5 | I would not consider this score because I previously used this Exam, but I was a bit rusty after pausing for so many months and I wanted to practice with a full exam
- August 2020 | Official Practice Exam 3 | 720 | Q48 V40 IR4 | I felt really good after this exam. Ready for the real one.
- 10 August 2020 | At-home Exam | 680 | Q50 V33 IR8 | Nope. I was not ready. See learnings 5 and 6.
- 07 November 2020 | Official Practice Exam 4 | 660 | Q50 V30 IR4 | I totally bombed verbal because of time-management. See learning 4.
- 20 November 2020 | Official Practice Exam 5 | 690 | Q48 V37 IR6 | I worked in my time-management but I got harder Quant questions
- 27 November 2020 | Official Practice Exam 6 | 720 | Q48 V40 IR8 | By far my best verbal score, I was surprised of both this good verbal score and not able to improve the Quant Score
- December 2020 | At-home Exam | 710 | Q50 V36 IR5 | I bombed IR. The rest was good enough
Recommended resources
- The GMAT Club's Ultimate Grammar Book. I did not remember anything about verbal, even in my native language LOL. This book helped a lot of revisit basic concepts. At the time I studied only the old version was available, during 2020 they published a new version.
- Manhattan Prep's GMAT Foundations of Verbal. Very basic, perfect for my uncultured ass.
- TTP Quant. Perfect but time-consuming. At the time I used the site they didn't had the verbal module. See learning 5.
- OG 2020 Bundle. I used this guide but probably the 2019 or the 2021 guides are good too. They are all very similar and whatever that is not in the books is in the GMAT Club.
- The GMAT Ninja's YouTube Sentence Correction videos. Pure gold. Please consider to watch the videos several times. I learned more every time I watched them.
- The GMAT Strategy Podcast. Isaac have done a great job. Ideal for spend time during conmute. I specially recommend the SC, CR and RC episodes.
- "Don't Memorise" YouTube videos on Permutations and Combinations. Watch them here. I was not able to understand this subject until I watched these videos.
- Manhattan Prep's All the Verbal. It helped me to improve my CR Score.
Not recommended resources
- GMAT Official Advanced Questions. I only used it for Quant and I think that TTP prepared me well enough for the 700-level problems. This was an overkill.
- Any YouTube video on RC. Just read and analyze official questions
- Any unofficial verbal question bank. None of them replicates the quality of the official questions.
- Manhattan Prep's All the Quant. TTP is better.
Key learnings
- The Official Practice Exams are GOLD. Please don’t waste them.
- Using Exam 1 for establishing your baseline is not wasting the Exam. First study the structure of the test and then use it. It provides you a realistic way to get familiar with the exam.
- Exam 1 and 2; Exam 3 and 4; and Exam 5 and 6 share a common question bank. I thought that the Exam 1 and the Exam 2 were independent so I tried to do the Exam 1 again in other account to test my time but I ended messing up how to use them. Avoid this mistake, please. Use the same account. I used the Exam 2 during this mistake so I will not publish my results of those biased tests.
- Preparing your timing is as important as preparing the contents. Before my first exam I spent a lot of time completing the TTP program (at that time TTP had only the Quant module) and I didn't practice my timing properly in a full adaptive setting. During my first official exam (640), I barely finished Quant and I didn't complete Verbal.
- TTP is an excellent resource for Quant but it is very time-consuming. Please follow the program as planned, it will be worth it. However, consider more time than expected.
- If you suck at verbal, revisit the basics SOON. I revisited the basics after I bombed verbal during my second official Exam. I should have done it earlier.
- Study at mornings, before work. I spent 1 to 2 hours every business day and 3 to 7 hours every weekend. I got the best results during the mornings because at the end of the day I was exhausted.
- For verbal not only analyze the correct answer but also understand why the other options are wrong. I spent a lot of time in The GMAT Club reading why some answers were wrong and that helped me a lot to improve in SC.
- If you plan to take the exam multiple times please buy the ESR. I bought it for my first exam. It helped a lot to see my main weaknesses and to work on them.
- Please mind the position of your hands during the at-home exam. The first time I took the at-home version the proctor interrupted me to ask me to remove my hand from my face. I usually do that when I'm focus on something. I was so scared after the interruption that I ended the quant exam with 2 minutes left that I could have used to rest.
Other considerations
- The at-home vs in-person dilemma was not an issue for me because the in-person test center at my city was closed when I booked the exam.
- I really wanted to keep studying for the test, I feel that I can improve that 710 but I was running out of time for the apps. Now I'm waiting for my results.
Feel free to ask me anything!
I wish you the best in your journey
17 Mar 2021, 20:09
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Congratulations on the 710!
And wow, what a fantastic debrief! It’s a pleasure to read. I am wholeheartedly in agreement with your morning study strategy. I’m glad you adopted it and it worked for you. It worked great for me as well.
The IR5 does not really matter. I would not retake Just for that. I am holding my fingers crossed for you!
PS. Question for you, how many questions do you think you have solved during your second Porsche? Do you think it was over 1000, over 2000, more? Also, how many practice tests did you end up taking in the second attempt
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And wow, what a fantastic debrief! It’s a pleasure to read. I am wholeheartedly in agreement with your morning study strategy. I’m glad you adopted it and it worked for you. It worked great for me as well.
The IR5 does not really matter. I would not retake Just for that. I am holding my fingers crossed for you!
PS. Question for you, how many questions do you think you have solved during your second Porsche? Do you think it was over 1000, over 2000, more? Also, how many practice tests did you end up taking in the second attempt
Posted from my mobile device
18 Mar 2021, 04:50
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Thank you for the kind words!
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I agree. I would retake it to get 730
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I think that I did over 1500 questions. Most of them from the OG Bundle (900+)
I took the Exam 1 and 2 again to practice time-management. In terms of contents it was not so useful because I saw repeated questions. The first and only all-clear exam I took to prepare the second exam was the Exam 3.
