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hpandey
Joined: 10 Jun 2017
Last visit: 17 Dec 2022
Posts: 10
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 137
Location: India
Schools: Sloan '22 Ross '23 Kellogg '24 Rotman '24 Tuck '24
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V40
GMAT 2: 660 Q49 V33
GPA: 3.82
02 Aug 2019, 01:36
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi folks,
Never thought I will be writing this post as I had made a mistake of considering GMAT an easy task based on my peer performance. I have reached a saturation point in GMAT, a point from where moving ahead looks tough. Following are the details of the journey so far:
1) Diagnostic in July 2017 > score 630 (Q48,V28)
2) GMAT 1 in April 2018 (with half baked prep on verbal & 8-10 days prep on quant) > score 640 (Q49, V28). I had actually purchased egmat in 2017 & the course was about to expire & I had been procrastinating the prep, so I took the GMAT date & but didn't make a good plan & also couldn't study properly.
3) Restarted my study in July 1st 2019 with new enthusiasm, took a break from work for 3-4 months (due to health issues as well) & renewed egmat subscription, my mock score in mba.com was Attempt 1 660(Q48,V33), Attempt 2 670 (Q49, V33), my GMAT 2 score 650(Q47, V33). My veritas mock test (4 tests) score have been fluctuating from 660-700 (best: Q49, V37)
Clarification on Q47, I actually applied a slightly modified trick for test-taking, leading to a 2 min extra time in the end. I also missed the last question in Verbal. I am attaching ESR for information.
Few silly mistakes I have made during the test:
1) Since the beginning, I haven't been able to connect with egmat approach to SC questions, I found the literature very useful to understand concepts but I felt more confident & relaxed when working with GMAT Ninja's approach of (Definite error & I then meaning analysis). However, i **** to new approach very late in the preparation around 9 days before the GMAT date.
2) I changed my approach to question guessing during the exam. In veritas mock tests, where I have also scored 700 (Q49, V37), I used to skip 1 entire RC due to time shortage but in actual test, I decided to not guess RCs, I rather guessed CRs & SCs to maintain the pace. I actually saw a video a day before GMAT, suggesting to not mark incorrect choices consecutively.
3) Though I had maintained the error log (especially in Quant), I didn't really get the time to practice questions for all topics e.g. I didn't practice Standard deviation, probability question (I always knew I was uncomfortable with it). I was continuously focused on a few areas (DS, inequalities in quant & verbal (RC & SC) in general).
Mistake analysis & plan ahead:
Despite the pressure of Round 1, I am assuring myself that it is not much of a damage to apply in R2 so I still have some time to improve my score. My target is 750 (Q50,V42)
1. Quant: I was dependent on GMAT club test, in which I used to score Q46-Q48, didn't practice on all OG problems. After post mistake analysis, I am going to do tough questions from OG2020. In 2-3 days
2. Verbal: I am not very sure on the right approach, any suggestions will be helpful. But, my plan is to practice more SC (using egmat Scholarnium, OGVR questions, SC question bank on GMATclub) to reduce the time taken to answer questions correctly. I haven't practice much for CR & RC from OG & OGVR, so will again revise concepts on CR & RC to increase speed. My average time for each correct question in verbal is actually 2 mins, so probably I need to improve my reading & comprehending speed. One thing, I am not sure if I should use a timer to practice OG or how many questions in one sitting. To build stamina, I am thinking of starting with 2 70 stretches daily with 8 min break. A good friend suggested my to read Newyork times to improve reading speed.
3. IR- my score stay above 7 so no worries.
4. Since I have 8-12 hours available for a month, I am planning to dedicate 1st half to quant & 2nd half to verbal as I plan to take the test in next August 16 (Any suggestions on next date?); I will take the date only when my score has improved by at least 60-70 points.
5. Mock test: planning to buy Mock test 3-6 from mba.com for the better test-taking environment. Planning to use veritas mock test more for pacing practice. I hope, a total of 7 practice test (3 veritas & 4 mba.com) will help.
My friends seem to easily cross 720 & I feel that I must be doing something seriously wrong to be not able to cross even the 700 score. Please wish me luck & evaluate my strategy. I am happy to discuss problems & approach on GMAT test. I have been thinking of hiring a GMAT tutor who can simply point me towards the right approach. Any suggestions are welcome. God, it feels good to share the GMAT experience; I am again hopeful
Thanks
Never thought I will be writing this post as I had made a mistake of considering GMAT an easy task based on my peer performance. I have reached a saturation point in GMAT, a point from where moving ahead looks tough. Following are the details of the journey so far:
1) Diagnostic in July 2017 > score 630 (Q48,V28)
2) GMAT 1 in April 2018 (with half baked prep on verbal & 8-10 days prep on quant) > score 640 (Q49, V28). I had actually purchased egmat in 2017 & the course was about to expire & I had been procrastinating the prep, so I took the GMAT date & but didn't make a good plan & also couldn't study properly.
3) Restarted my study in July 1st 2019 with new enthusiasm, took a break from work for 3-4 months (due to health issues as well) & renewed egmat subscription, my mock score in mba.com was Attempt 1 660(Q48,V33), Attempt 2 670 (Q49, V33), my GMAT 2 score 650(Q47, V33). My veritas mock test (4 tests) score have been fluctuating from 660-700 (best: Q49, V37)
Clarification on Q47, I actually applied a slightly modified trick for test-taking, leading to a 2 min extra time in the end. I also missed the last question in Verbal. I am attaching ESR for information.
Few silly mistakes I have made during the test:
1) Since the beginning, I haven't been able to connect with egmat approach to SC questions, I found the literature very useful to understand concepts but I felt more confident & relaxed when working with GMAT Ninja's approach of (Definite error & I then meaning analysis). However, i **** to new approach very late in the preparation around 9 days before the GMAT date.
2) I changed my approach to question guessing during the exam. In veritas mock tests, where I have also scored 700 (Q49, V37), I used to skip 1 entire RC due to time shortage but in actual test, I decided to not guess RCs, I rather guessed CRs & SCs to maintain the pace. I actually saw a video a day before GMAT, suggesting to not mark incorrect choices consecutively.
3) Though I had maintained the error log (especially in Quant), I didn't really get the time to practice questions for all topics e.g. I didn't practice Standard deviation, probability question (I always knew I was uncomfortable with it). I was continuously focused on a few areas (DS, inequalities in quant & verbal (RC & SC) in general).
Mistake analysis & plan ahead:
Despite the pressure of Round 1, I am assuring myself that it is not much of a damage to apply in R2 so I still have some time to improve my score. My target is 750 (Q50,V42)
1. Quant: I was dependent on GMAT club test, in which I used to score Q46-Q48, didn't practice on all OG problems. After post mistake analysis, I am going to do tough questions from OG2020. In 2-3 days
2. Verbal: I am not very sure on the right approach, any suggestions will be helpful. But, my plan is to practice more SC (using egmat Scholarnium, OGVR questions, SC question bank on GMATclub) to reduce the time taken to answer questions correctly. I haven't practice much for CR & RC from OG & OGVR, so will again revise concepts on CR & RC to increase speed. My average time for each correct question in verbal is actually 2 mins, so probably I need to improve my reading & comprehending speed. One thing, I am not sure if I should use a timer to practice OG or how many questions in one sitting. To build stamina, I am thinking of starting with 2 70 stretches daily with 8 min break. A good friend suggested my to read Newyork times to improve reading speed.
3. IR- my score stay above 7 so no worries.
4. Since I have 8-12 hours available for a month, I am planning to dedicate 1st half to quant & 2nd half to verbal as I plan to take the test in next August 16 (Any suggestions on next date?); I will take the date only when my score has improved by at least 60-70 points.
5. Mock test: planning to buy Mock test 3-6 from mba.com for the better test-taking environment. Planning to use veritas mock test more for pacing practice. I hope, a total of 7 practice test (3 veritas & 4 mba.com) will help.
My friends seem to easily cross 720 & I feel that I must be doing something seriously wrong to be not able to cross even the 700 score. Please wish me luck & evaluate my strategy. I am happy to discuss problems & approach on GMAT test. I have been thinking of hiring a GMAT tutor who can simply point me towards the right approach. Any suggestions are welcome. God, it feels good to share the GMAT experience; I am again hopeful
Thanks
Attachments
hpandeyESR.pdf [528.1 KiB]
Downloaded 98 times
02 Aug 2019, 03:34
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Himanshu, looking at ESR, time management emerges as a crucial concern to address; in Verbal, you had less than a minute on average, for the last quarter of questions, and this reflects in your accuracy rate of just 50% in that quarter.
It does look like you're spending more time per question on SC, than one would normally expect (around 70 seconds). In fact, you spent 1:30 minutes on each SC question, despite skipping/guessing few SC questions. This tells me that for your genuine SC attempts, you actually spent way more than 1:30 minutes per SC question. That really needs to come down.
You also seem to be slightly bogged down by various strategies of tackling SC questions; strategies can only do so much; hope the concepts are water-tight Himanshu, for no strategy can compensate for lack of concepts.
It does look like you're spending more time per question on SC, than one would normally expect (around 70 seconds). In fact, you spent 1:30 minutes on each SC question, despite skipping/guessing few SC questions. This tells me that for your genuine SC attempts, you actually spent way more than 1:30 minutes per SC question. That really needs to come down.
You also seem to be slightly bogged down by various strategies of tackling SC questions; strategies can only do so much; hope the concepts are water-tight Himanshu, for no strategy can compensate for lack of concepts.
hpandey
Joined: 10 Jun 2017
Last visit: 17 Dec 2022
Posts: 10
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 137
Location: India
Schools: Sloan '22 Ross '23 Kellogg '24 Rotman '24 Tuck '24
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V40
GMAT 2: 660 Q49 V33
GPA: 3.82
02 Aug 2019, 04:26
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thanks EducationAisle for the feedback. I also believe that excessive time in SC is harming my overall verbal score. I believe that my concepts in SC are good because i know the reason for every incorrect choice. I have recently started following the strategy by GMATNinja: 1) I read the sentence to understand the meaning
2) Identify definite errors (SV, tense, pronouns (they are first target for), parallelism and comparison and obvious idioms.
3) Then i eliminate options with errors or wrong meaning
4) if i don't find any definite marker, i try to keep choice that conveys the meaning in the best possible manner.
By using this strategy, my confidence & accuracy have improved but my timings has increased by few seconds. I believe that practicing more SC questions (especially modifiers, comparison), i will be able to reduce timing.
Any further suggestions to improve timing ? Look forward to hearing suggestions
Posted from my mobile device
2) Identify definite errors (SV, tense, pronouns (they are first target for), parallelism and comparison and obvious idioms.
3) Then i eliminate options with errors or wrong meaning
4) if i don't find any definite marker, i try to keep choice that conveys the meaning in the best possible manner.
By using this strategy, my confidence & accuracy have improved but my timings has increased by few seconds. I believe that practicing more SC questions (especially modifiers, comparison), i will be able to reduce timing.
Any further suggestions to improve timing ? Look forward to hearing suggestions
Posted from my mobile device
