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akashsharma0608
Joined: 26 Sep 2020
Last visit: 31 Jul 2023
Posts: 13
Given Kudos: 7
Location: India
Schools: ISB '24 (A$$)
GMAT 1: 740 Q51 V38
GPA: 4
Products:
31 Jul 2023, 05:38
Kudos
Bookmarks
My Background
Hi, I am Akash Sharma and I am here to share my GMAT journey. I recently got into ISB, India with a GMAT 740 in my 2nd attempt. I am an aerospace engineer and graduated in 2019 from Indian Science and Technology (the only space university in Asia). I was working as an ISRO Scientist for the past four years when I planned to go for an MBA and that’s how I decided to take the GMAT. My GMAT journey was quite great. Read through to see what I did to get into the program of my dreams with a GMAT 740.
Some Research and fixing the goals!
At the beginning of my journey, I researched various B-schools in India and abroad. I narrowed down my search to ISB, India and some renowned B-schools in the US. I also studied the difference between GMAT and CAT (which is widely accepted in India). Considering my work experience, I decided that the GMAT would be a more suitable test for me and began my GMAT prep in May 2022.
My first attempt – GMAT 680
After preparing for good 2 months, I decided to take my first GMAT attempt. I only used two resources to prepare for this attempt:
• GMAT OG
• Magoosh
I also solved 6 OG mocks where I consistently scored in the range of 720 to 730. However, my actual scores were a real shocker - I secured a disappointing 680 (Q50, V31) on my first attempt.
My Experience with Magoosh – Although I gave it my 100%, I ended up with a lower score. If you are self-motivated and prefer to go your own way, Magoosh can be a good choice for you. The course is priced lower than the other courses, so it was an easy grab, but it wasn’t as robust in my opinion. The realization only came after my second attempt because I could compare my experience. For someone like me who prefers to have someone to guide, Magoosh just didn’t work for me.
Mock analysis revelation - My mock scores were also elevated because of a few repetitive questions. So, my mock projection was not accurate which is why my actual score was a disaster for me. I can just say that I was underprepared and overconfident during the 1st attempt.
My Second Attempt – GMAT 740
After a two-month break, I decided to give GMAT another try. This time I went with GMATWhiz for my prep. I again gave myself 2-months to prepare and took their 2-month plan. After a short call with the Co-founder, I was immediately assigned a mentor. So, unlike my first attempt, I had someone to guide me this time – which I believed made a huge difference in my preparation.
How did I tackle Verbal?
SC & CR
Right from the start, I could see everything that I did wrong in my 1st attempt. This time around, I was progressing strategically. For instance, my accuracy in SC was poor. So, I spent the first 5 days watching SC video lessons and learned the meaning-based approach to solve SC questions. Then, I spent the next 5 days just solving SC questions to solidify this approach. The concept of breaking down the sentence and getting to the root of the author’s intent was quite great. Once I solidified my approach, my accuracy in SC improved from 60-70 to 90-100. I approached CR in a similar manner and significantly improved my accuracy.
RC
RC was a major concern for me. It was my weakest area in Verbal. I discussed my concerns with my mentor who then explained to me the various intricacies of RC. The GMATWhiz RC module is also amazing in my opinion. The many hints and tricks I learned to save time and score well in RC helped me a lot. Saquib also helped me in terms of time management.
The Involved & Evolved Reading Approach for RC – I used this approach to solve my RC questions. According to this approach, you must read through the passage line by line, and understand the meaning of every sentence instead of skimping through the passage or directly jumping to the answer choices. It takes practice initially to read the passages because it can get boring, but I can vouch for the usefulness of the approach.
I also took 36-question quizzes for enhanced practice. My mentor reviewed my performance in these quizzes. For every question, he asked me the rationale behind choosing an option - irrespective of it being right or wrong. Further, he also told me the importance of error logs and advised me to maintain them. Additionally, I also followed GMAT Whiz quizzes and directories. However, I personally feel that the Verbal course is tougher than the actual GMAT.
How did I tackle Quant?
For Quant I decided to skip the lessons and move directly to the quiz part. Being an engineer, I am pretty thorough with my concepts in Quant. Taking the quizzes helped me identify the areas where I was struggling. For example, I learned that I was weak on topics like number properties, remainder and divisibility, and some complex questions on geometry. So, I went back to the lessons from these topics and solidified my fundamentals. The Quant course in GMATWhiz was great. And more importantly, the different approaches that the course taught came in handy during the test.
My Experience with Mocks
I reserved the mock tests for my last month of prep. Once I took each test, I shared my scores with my mentor. I did this so we could analyze my performance in depth. In my previous attempt, I failed to analyze my mocks and that I think impacted my scores to a great extent. I would suggest everyone to make this a practice since it tells you a lot about your weaknesses and gives you time to fix it before the test date arrives.
Coming back to my experience - my mentor carefully analyzed my performance in mocks and pointed out that I was lacking in time management.
1st mock – I scored a 680. I rectified my mistakes before the 2nd mock. After my scores started to visibly improve, I decided to take my 2nd mock. I did the same thing after every mock until I reached my desired score.
2nd Mock – I scored a 700
3rd mock – I scored a 720
Finally, on my 4th mock - I got 750
My scores were climbing, and I was gaining confidence as well.
The Test Day – 2nd attempt
Finally, after 2 months of hard work, I took my GMAT exam for the second time. And I scored 740 (Q51, V38) on my second attempt! I ended up into ISB – my dream school and I cannot be happier with the course of my GMAT journey.
Mantras to score 700+ -
1. Find a mentor for your GMAT journey. Preparing alone may not get you where you wish to be. A mentor knows how to course correct at times when you feel stuck. It made a huge difference in my journey.
2. Maintain an error log so that you can identify your weak areas. For me, error logs helped to keep a check on my time and improve on it.
3. Do not leave your weak areas for the end. I worked on my issues right away and towards the end of my prep I was ready to take the mocks.
If you stayed till the end, thanks for reading till the end. I hope I could be of help to you. I’d be happy to help you further! Feel free to reach out to me in case you need any help. Stress less, work smart! All the very best.
My GMATWhiz Review – In case some of you are interested in the course I took for my prep, I would 100% recommend GMATWhiz. Their AI helped me in terms of analysis and the interface is quite good. Having a mentor to guide you at every step was the best thing about my prep journey. I found the score predictor useful – I was always aware of my prep status and knew when I had to push harder. The dashboard shows your weak areas too. About the GMATWhiz mocks, my score was close to my actual score so I can say they have done a great job with the mocks. My mentor’s role in suggesting improvements was also phenomenal.
Hi, I am Akash Sharma and I am here to share my GMAT journey. I recently got into ISB, India with a GMAT 740 in my 2nd attempt. I am an aerospace engineer and graduated in 2019 from Indian Science and Technology (the only space university in Asia). I was working as an ISRO Scientist for the past four years when I planned to go for an MBA and that’s how I decided to take the GMAT. My GMAT journey was quite great. Read through to see what I did to get into the program of my dreams with a GMAT 740.
Some Research and fixing the goals!
At the beginning of my journey, I researched various B-schools in India and abroad. I narrowed down my search to ISB, India and some renowned B-schools in the US. I also studied the difference between GMAT and CAT (which is widely accepted in India). Considering my work experience, I decided that the GMAT would be a more suitable test for me and began my GMAT prep in May 2022.
My first attempt – GMAT 680
After preparing for good 2 months, I decided to take my first GMAT attempt. I only used two resources to prepare for this attempt:
• GMAT OG
• Magoosh
I also solved 6 OG mocks where I consistently scored in the range of 720 to 730. However, my actual scores were a real shocker - I secured a disappointing 680 (Q50, V31) on my first attempt.
My Experience with Magoosh – Although I gave it my 100%, I ended up with a lower score. If you are self-motivated and prefer to go your own way, Magoosh can be a good choice for you. The course is priced lower than the other courses, so it was an easy grab, but it wasn’t as robust in my opinion. The realization only came after my second attempt because I could compare my experience. For someone like me who prefers to have someone to guide, Magoosh just didn’t work for me.
Mock analysis revelation - My mock scores were also elevated because of a few repetitive questions. So, my mock projection was not accurate which is why my actual score was a disaster for me. I can just say that I was underprepared and overconfident during the 1st attempt.
My Second Attempt – GMAT 740
After a two-month break, I decided to give GMAT another try. This time I went with GMATWhiz for my prep. I again gave myself 2-months to prepare and took their 2-month plan. After a short call with the Co-founder, I was immediately assigned a mentor. So, unlike my first attempt, I had someone to guide me this time – which I believed made a huge difference in my preparation.
How did I tackle Verbal?
SC & CR
Right from the start, I could see everything that I did wrong in my 1st attempt. This time around, I was progressing strategically. For instance, my accuracy in SC was poor. So, I spent the first 5 days watching SC video lessons and learned the meaning-based approach to solve SC questions. Then, I spent the next 5 days just solving SC questions to solidify this approach. The concept of breaking down the sentence and getting to the root of the author’s intent was quite great. Once I solidified my approach, my accuracy in SC improved from 60-70 to 90-100. I approached CR in a similar manner and significantly improved my accuracy.
RC
RC was a major concern for me. It was my weakest area in Verbal. I discussed my concerns with my mentor who then explained to me the various intricacies of RC. The GMATWhiz RC module is also amazing in my opinion. The many hints and tricks I learned to save time and score well in RC helped me a lot. Saquib also helped me in terms of time management.
The Involved & Evolved Reading Approach for RC – I used this approach to solve my RC questions. According to this approach, you must read through the passage line by line, and understand the meaning of every sentence instead of skimping through the passage or directly jumping to the answer choices. It takes practice initially to read the passages because it can get boring, but I can vouch for the usefulness of the approach.
I also took 36-question quizzes for enhanced practice. My mentor reviewed my performance in these quizzes. For every question, he asked me the rationale behind choosing an option - irrespective of it being right or wrong. Further, he also told me the importance of error logs and advised me to maintain them. Additionally, I also followed GMAT Whiz quizzes and directories. However, I personally feel that the Verbal course is tougher than the actual GMAT.
How did I tackle Quant?
For Quant I decided to skip the lessons and move directly to the quiz part. Being an engineer, I am pretty thorough with my concepts in Quant. Taking the quizzes helped me identify the areas where I was struggling. For example, I learned that I was weak on topics like number properties, remainder and divisibility, and some complex questions on geometry. So, I went back to the lessons from these topics and solidified my fundamentals. The Quant course in GMATWhiz was great. And more importantly, the different approaches that the course taught came in handy during the test.
My Experience with Mocks
I reserved the mock tests for my last month of prep. Once I took each test, I shared my scores with my mentor. I did this so we could analyze my performance in depth. In my previous attempt, I failed to analyze my mocks and that I think impacted my scores to a great extent. I would suggest everyone to make this a practice since it tells you a lot about your weaknesses and gives you time to fix it before the test date arrives.
Coming back to my experience - my mentor carefully analyzed my performance in mocks and pointed out that I was lacking in time management.
1st mock – I scored a 680. I rectified my mistakes before the 2nd mock. After my scores started to visibly improve, I decided to take my 2nd mock. I did the same thing after every mock until I reached my desired score.
2nd Mock – I scored a 700
3rd mock – I scored a 720
Finally, on my 4th mock - I got 750
My scores were climbing, and I was gaining confidence as well.
The Test Day – 2nd attempt
Finally, after 2 months of hard work, I took my GMAT exam for the second time. And I scored 740 (Q51, V38) on my second attempt! I ended up into ISB – my dream school and I cannot be happier with the course of my GMAT journey.
Mantras to score 700+ -
1. Find a mentor for your GMAT journey. Preparing alone may not get you where you wish to be. A mentor knows how to course correct at times when you feel stuck. It made a huge difference in my journey.
2. Maintain an error log so that you can identify your weak areas. For me, error logs helped to keep a check on my time and improve on it.
3. Do not leave your weak areas for the end. I worked on my issues right away and towards the end of my prep I was ready to take the mocks.
If you stayed till the end, thanks for reading till the end. I hope I could be of help to you. I’d be happy to help you further! Feel free to reach out to me in case you need any help. Stress less, work smart! All the very best.
My GMATWhiz Review – In case some of you are interested in the course I took for my prep, I would 100% recommend GMATWhiz. Their AI helped me in terms of analysis and the interface is quite good. Having a mentor to guide you at every step was the best thing about my prep journey. I found the score predictor useful – I was always aware of my prep status and knew when I had to push harder. The dashboard shows your weak areas too. About the GMATWhiz mocks, my score was close to my actual score so I can say they have done a great job with the mocks. My mentor’s role in suggesting improvements was also phenomenal.
31 Jul 2023, 06:59
Kudos
Bookmarks
Gratz on the 740. Nice Q51. Consider writing a profile-review if you have the time. All the best going forward.
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