I still can’t believe I’m writing this.
After getting a 775, I should feel nothing but joy, right? But honestly, it’s a mix of emotions. I’m relieved I finally did it. But also a little sad. Sad that I won’t be waking up tomorrow to solve a CR question after breakfast or time myself on MSRs late at night which has became a new norm for me over last 6 months.
This has been such a huge part of my life for months on end, and truth be told, for years in the background, that closing this chapter feels emotional.
The First Attempt (2019)I first gave the GMAT Classic in 2019, and I wasn’t serious back then. I prepped for barely a month. Mostly skimmed OG explanations and topics. Didn’t even bother exploring GMAT Club properly. I thought that as I was good at math, I’d be fine.
Score: 640 (Q49 / V28)
I remember feeling sad after seeing my score and surprised on how so many people get that coveted first digit "7" in their scorecard. But looking back, I think I had no reading discipline, no strategy, no clarity. I hoped for 700+ but did nothing to earn it.
And after that? I dropped the GMAT completely. Didn’t touch a question for years. Although I booked test dates couple of times in the interim, I never showed up at the center. One good thing that came out of this was that I at least registered on GMAT Club which became a game changer later on.
Between 2019 and now, I read 500+ novels. Not for GMAT. Just for fun. But I slowly started to see the impact as my reading speed improved, I became more patient, more analytical.
I matured. I grew at work. Got a couple of promotions. And eventually, I started thinking about why MBA, why GMAT, why now?
I realized something,
If you desperately want something, you need to let go of the rope.
(Yes, Batman from The Dark Knight Rises - that scene where he climbs out of The Pit without the rope.)
Focus Edition Prep (2024-25)I started serious prep mid last year after seeing GMAT has revised the test structure and it has dropped SC which I was never a fan of from the start. New test structure seemed more analytical than the classic edition and I related more with the test now than before although I wasn't sure about the Data Insights section at the beginning. I was reaching a plateau at my work after 7 odd years and had strong inclination to switch career paths so was juggling with few startup ideas but I decided to give one final try to GMAT before parking it forever. This time I decided to give it everything so I don't have an excuse later on - left my secure and well-compensated job, dropped intriguing startup ideas and focused on this day in and day out. I didn’t miss a single day for 6 months straight.
Started with 50 questions a day, ended with 100 a day.
Target: 695+
Expected split: Q90 / V83 / D81
Quant: The Only Thing I’ve Ever Loved HereQuant was that dependable friend. I respected it, and it respected me back. I didn’t leave any stone unturned, covered all the basics, practiced untimed, then timed. Reviewed every question because I wanted to find better solutions, not just correct ones.
My approach - Learn to solve every question in 2 ways. If one fails, the other will work.
Resources - OG, GMAT Club, Manhattan, @Bunuel’s solutions (he’s a beast).
Verbal: From Hate to Something Like LoveI disliked Verbal at the start.
CR - This time, I began my prep with Manhattan to build a strong foundation in the fundamentals. I adopted their strategy of tackling the CR questions by focusing on the question first, followed by the argument. This improved my understanding and approach and helped me shift my mindset where I started viewing this section not as a constant enemy, but as a challenge that could be understood and conquered. I then switched to LSAT CR as many of us would at some point in time in our journey and that helped me improve my analytical reasoning on why only one of the option can be a right answer and even a 90% correct option with one word off is a complete wrong answer. At a certain point I started liking LSAT CR more than GMAT CR as it seemed to have perfect reasoning to eliminate incorrect options. I started practicing tons of CR questions on GMAT Club to get myself familiar with all possible formats and traps. 12 Days Christmas Competition on GMAT Club in Dec 2024 was the first turning point for me when I was forced to write explanations for incorrect choices which helped me analyze why an incorrect option is actually incorrect. This helped me get closer to my desired score but I was still missing a key ingredient - "Pre thinking". All of us would have heard about this but it was so difficult for me to adopt this in my approach that it seemed too surreal. Luckily I stumbled upon ANAPrep CR material during their 3 day trial session and that gave me so much clarity on refining my approach. I adopted streak's method inspired by Marty Murray's article - filtered all the available CR OG questions on GMAT Club topic wise and aimed for higher accuracy at different difficulty levels. This surprisingly worked for me, as my Verbal mock scores started hitting 85+ consistently and I even got a 100 percentile in CR in one of my final mocks.
RC - I naturally got better with time, maybe the novels helped. I trained myself such that I spent enough time to read the passage upfront that I could solve most of the questions under a min. I was hitting good percentiles in RCs just after the Manhattan fundamentals. I had to refine my approach for inferred ideas questions as sometimes I used to miss the underlying point the author was trying to make. I practiced good number of questions here that it became easy to see through the questions even without understanding full context sometimes. I even practiced sets of 5 RCs (3 sets a day) for couple of weeks to kill the back-to-back anxiety and build stamina.
One of the biggest game-changers in my verbal prep was ChatGPT. Whenever I was stuck between two close options or couldn’t wrap my head around a dense passage or tricky assumption, I’d literally walk through the question line by line with it. I’d ask, “Why is this wrong?”, “Could this be right?”, “What’s the trap here?”, and it would break down each choice, pointing out flaws in reasoning or subtle distinctions I hadn’t noticed. Sometimes when it hallucinated, I had to explain it why the recommended answer was incorrect and even that helped me become more self-aware of my thought process.
Data Insights: The Most Underestimated BeastI misjudged DI, skipping it till the end as I thought that my Quant and Verbal will help me get a good DI score. But it's little more than that like DI is Quant + Verbal + time pressure + tons of reading + confusing formats. Handling data is something what the other sections don't teach you and that definitely requires explicit practice.
I was okay with TPA and DS. But MSRs? They wrecked me. Couldn’t finish them under 8 minutes. Most of the times I panicked and made silly errors. I used to skim through all the tabs missing key words here or there and ended with incorrect options. My mocks consistently reflected this. When I started focusing on DI as a separate section, it was then that I realized that proper practice and strategy need to be followed rather than taking it for granted. I started practicing questions from DI Review Guide which helped massively in building mental comfort. These questions were tough, no jokes on that but once you push through them, mock DI questions start feeling relatively easy. I started becoming comfortable with MSRs once I started slowing down instead of skimming through all the tabs and consuming lot more time. I also started identifying few patterns which I initially struggled with like managing time in questions having 3 radio button sub-questions as it was rare that all 3 of those in a set would be tough so adequately allocating time to sub-questions improved overall time management.
The game-changer - Slow down. Stop rushing. Understand each tab. The speed comes later.
Mocks & Progression
| Date | Source | Quant | Verbal | DI | Score |
| 6/9/24 | Official Mock 1 | 83 | 77 | 81 | 615 |
| 7/6/24 | Official Mock 2 | 81 | 79 | 82 | 615 |
| 10/31/24 | GMAT Club Test 1 | 89 | 84 | 74 | 655 |
| 1/2/25 | GMAT Club Test 2 | 88 | 82 | 84 | 695 |
| 1/11/25 | Experts Global Test 1 | 88 | 78 | 84 | 675 |
| 1/30/25 | Official Mock 1 Retake | 90 | 83 | 80 | 695 |
| 2/18/25 | GMAT Club Test 3 | 88 | 84 | 87 | 735 |
| 3/1/25 | Official Mock 2 Retake | 90 | 85 | 83 | 725 |
| 3/17/25 | GMAT Club Test 4 | 87 | 83 | 86 | 715 |
| 3/26/25 | Official Mock 3 | 90 | 83 | 81 | 695 |
| 3/30/25 | Official Mock 4 | 90 | 81 | 90 | 745 |
| 4/4/25 | Official Mock 3 Retake | 90 | 86 | 83 | 735 |
| 4/9/25 | Official Mock 4 Retake | 90 | 83 | 81 | 695 |
| 4/14/25 | Official Mock 5 | 90 | 85 | 82 | 715 |
| 4/18/25 | Official Mock 6 | 90 | 86 | 81 | 715 |
My aim here was to have a decent score even on my worst day while appearing for Official Mocks, as test anxiety is real. And I attempted all my final mocks at exactly the same time as my real test to replicate test environment and acclimate my body accordingly.
I also switched my section order from Q/V/D to D/Q/V for my last six mock tests. I realized I wanted to tackle the Data Insights section while I was still fresh, rather than saving it for the end when mental fatigue started setting in. After making this change, I noticed a significant improvement and greater consistency in my mock scores.
My honest advice: Don’t underestimate the impact of section order. Experiment with different combinations during your mocks as it might just be the extra edge you need.
During my last week I brushed up few of my weaker topics and revised all my official Mocks in last 3 days in the exact section order I was attempting the real test. I intentionally planned to watch a movie in the evening a day before to take my mind off the stress and ease test anxiety. Still I could only manage only 6 hours of sleep.
Test Day was one hell of a ride... I woke up, had breakfast, reviewed my
error log. Felt good as I realized that positive things were happening around me over last few days which brought me mental peace. Was not overly confident but just calm. Reached the test center half an hour before the test started and completed all the formalities.
Started with DI:
• First few questions were easy. Then hit a weird TPA quite early. And then back to back MSRs.
• I started seeing substantial non math based questions which was relatively surprising for me, but didn't ponder much on those, guessed few doubtful ones and moved on. Tried to keep pace with time throughout rather than over allocating time on any specific question.
• At the end I thought I was on track for 705+, but it was not my best DI performance.
Then Quant:
• Brutal start. Took me around 15 mins for the first 5 questions.
• For the first time throughout my prep, I had this thought - “What if I don’t finish Quant section?”
• But I pushed through thinking that the algorithm couldn't throw 21 hard questions back to back, and hoped that easier ones would follow soon.
• And I was never so right. Was able to wrap up last 16 questions in 20 minutes.
• Reviewed all the questions in remaining 10 mins and was pretty confident with all my answers before starting the break.
Had a protein bar and drank some water. I was feeling quite good, believe the overall positive mental outlook was working in my favor on that day. Zoned in for Verbal and checked in with 2 mins left.
Verbal:
• First few questions made no sense as all 5 options looked equally wrong.
• Anxiety kicked in and I thought that I might not even hit 695 with this kind of performance. But took deep breaths and trusted the process.
• Questions started getting easier and was able to make up lost time.
• And then I stumbled upon one dense passage which was impossible to understand, so I decided to focus on the gist and push through. Surprisingly, I could answer most of its questions by just reading between the lines, rather than trying to understand every word.
• My system froze on question 19 due to connectivity issues, which put me back in panic mode.
• I rushed the last few questions, had 5 mins left to review in which I changed a correct answer to incorrect at the start, and walked out certain I had messed it up.
The Score: 775 (Q90 / V85 / D90)
When I saw the number, first thought I had was - "Wait, does these section scores even add up to 775?"
As soon as I got out the test center, I plugged the sectionals into the Focus Score Calculator to validate. And it was real and I felt as if I have used up all my luck that day...
Lessons Learned• Make sure to build a strong foundation in the fundamentals before diving into full practice.
• Practice so your worst day still gives a decent score.
• Back-to-back incorrect answers hurt so don’t let time overwhelm you and be consistent by allocating enough time to each question.
• Make an
error log, even if it’s messy.
• Test anxiety is real so simulate the exact environment.
• You’re never really “ready” - if you feel 80% ready, you’re probably good to go.
• Visualize yourself getting your desired score at night before sleeping as that's a page I got from Marty's book which really helped me.
• The GMAT Club community is gold. Use it and give back when you can.
• Have a study buddy not just for accountability, but for venting, laughing, sharing, explaining. That’s how you grow. Multiple people helped me throughout my journey and I am grateful to each one of you, as this is a journey you are not meant to travel alone.
Final WordsThis journey taught me more than just Quant or Verbal. It taught me discipline, resilience, humility.
To those aiming high (715+), let me say this - You’ll need a bit of luck, more than just strong concepts. And mental calm, more than just speed.
Best debrief advice which stuck with me from the tons I read was - “I want to come out of the test feeling I gave it my best shot. Even if the test had gotten better of me on that day, it’s okay, as there’s not much I could have done differently.”
It’s not just about beating the GMAT algorithm. It’s about facing your own fears, doubts, procrastination. If you’re desperate enough, and if you truly want it, your stars will align.
Keep grinding.
Thank YouI’m really grateful to all the experts here who took the time to respond to my questions during different stages of my prep. It made the journey more meaningful and immersive.
•
bb – For contests, generosity, one-on-ones, and just being kind to this community. Without you lot of us would still be searching the right way to crack GMAT.
•
KarishmaB – For Reddit / GMAT Club / one-on-ones interactions - your way of simplifying CR and Quant is magic.
•
MartyMurray – For the mindset tips, the CR traps, and razor-sharp logic. Your
Scored 800 article via meditation is still one of my go to articles and would recommend it to anyone aiming for a high score.
•
GMATNinja – For your DI/CR YT videos which needs no elaborations and especially for your “Dad jokes” which popped up while trying to go through tough solutions had me smiling multiple times.
• Manhattan Team – Especially Stacey & Jeff. You built my foundation.
•
Bunuel,
chetan2u,
Bismuth83 – You guys are legends. One day, I hope I can thank you in person.
• And special thanks to GMAT Club community which became my second home over last few months.
If you’re on the fence, feeling stuck, feeling behind, please know you’re not alone. Most of us go through the same battles in silence. Speak up. Help others. Have fun. Get mad. Get tired.
But don’t give up...
Good luck. You got this.
And I am more than happy to help if you have any questions or need guidance, just drop me a message anytime.
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