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Apr 2912:30 AM EDT
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Learn how Kamakshi achieved a GMAT 675 with an impressive 96th %ile in Data Insights. Discover the unique methods and exam strategies that helped her excel in DI along with other sections for a balanced and high score.
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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.
May 0111:00 AM PDT
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May 0306:30 AM PDT
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12 May 2015, 02:00
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Hey all,
It feels great getting a dream score on the GMAT, and I wanted to share my GMAT prep experience.
Five years ago, I took the exam twice and got frustrated with my scores (640 & 680). After the second exam, I pretty much decided not to revisit the GMAT and didn't even plan on going to bschool until earlier this year. After I decided to pursue an MBA, I wanted to choose my study materials for the GMAT meticulously this time. Third time's a charm!
Materials used:
EMPOWERgmat
e-GMAT Verbal
OG 13
Manhattan GMAT CATs
GMATPrep CATs
CAT Exams:
2/24 - GMATPrep CAT 1: 660 (Q44 V33)
3/11 - MGMAT CAT 1: 580 (Q38 V33)
3/18 - MGMAT CAT 2: 690 (Q45 V38)
3/26 - MGMAT CAT 3: 690 (Q44 V39)
4/2 - MGMAT CAT 4: 670 (Q43 V38)
4/9 - MGMAT CAT 5: 680 (Q43 V39)
4/16 - MGMAT CAT 6: 720 (Q44 V45)
4/24 - GMATPrep CAT 2: 730 (Q48 V42)
4/28 - Official GMAT Exam: 750 (Q50 V41)
EMPOWERgmat was awesome for learning all the overall tactics. Reviewing the OG questions that I got right AND wrong through the videos was invaluable and helped me solidify the tactics. I loved how Max and Rich and EMPOWERgmat categorized every single question and used easy-to-follow tactics that you could implement right away. There are so many useful tactics that I picked up in this course that proved instrumental to getting my dream score on test day. More on that later.
After going over all the content and tactics on EMPOWERgmat, I supplemented my studies with e-GMAT verbal. I wanted to get more practice on CR as this was my weakest area from the get go. And e-GMAT's Scholaranium was an amazing resource center for more practice. At times, I found some of the practice questions on e-GMAT a bit too challenging, but I tried to focus on the relevant tactic to employ for every question type. I really liked how they emphasized the pre-think stage before looking at your answer choices and this technique alone helped me improve my accuracy for CR by leaps and bounds.
Test day:
My test scheduled to take place at 9 in the morning on a weekday. I arrived about 30 minutes early to allow enough time for checking in, getting settled, and familiarizing myself with the environment. The check-in process went faster than expected, and the proctor let me inside the testing room 15 minutes before the scheduled time. And boy was it hot in that testing room!
There was a pair of noise-canceling headphones at each terminal, and I didn't know until much later that it was the headphones that elevated my body heat. It was like a sauna in there and I just had to suck it up for the writing and IR sections. As soon as the IR section was over, I ran to the bathroom, splashed water on my face, and tried to calm myself down. I then came back, had a few bites of my peanut butter jelly sandwich, and gulped down the bottle of water that I brought with me.
Before entering the testing room, I asked the proctor for a pair of earplugs. Thank god. Without them, I probably would have had to battle the heat for the remainder of the exam. They were a game changer.
Math was easier than expected. I remembered how particularly hard the math section was when I took the Manhattan GMAT CATs, so it was a relief. As expected, I got about 3 difficult questions that I didn't even want to bother solving (one embedded rate question, a circle probability question, and another one). As trained in EMPOWERgmat, I triaged (dumped) them, and moved on. One thing I wanted to avoid 100% in the math section was making silly mistakes. During practice exams, I made a bunch of silly mistakes because I wrote down the wrong numbers on the pad or assumed things without verifying everything by writing everything down. To avoid this mistake, I tripled checked everything I wrote down on the pad and checked again before submitting each answer. By the time I was done with the section I had a little more than 15 minutes left.
For verbal, it felt like SC was harder and CR easier. During practice exams, CR gave me a lot more headache than SC, so seeing lots of difficult SC questions made me feel a bit uneasy. There were two SC questions that made me scratch my head, but I tried to stick to the rules I learned and read the confusing answer choices over and over again to see if there's any shifts in intended meaning. On the other hand, CR seemed pretty straightforward, and I was able to eliminate the wrong answer choices (out of scope, 180, and warped) without too much hassle. I felt confident about RC going in and didn't come across anything that I thought was particularly tough aside from one or two questions.
Mid way through the Verbal section, I found myself picking answer choice A for 4 or 5 questions in a row. I felt a bit suspicious and apprehensive then because I thought the answers should be evenly distributed throughout. I guess GMAC could do that to you to see if you could be thrown off?
By the time I was done with the 38th question, I checked the clock and saw that I had a little more than 15 minutes left. With 4 questions left, I tried to make sure to give every last question my maximum effort. By the time I was done answering the last question, I had about 8 minutes left.
When I was done, I knew that I gave it my all, but honestly had no idea what I'd get. And before I knew it, I was staring at my dream score on the screen with a huge grin on my face!
Below is a list of a few useful tips that worked well for me.
Tips:
Try taking a few practice exams at the same time as your exam time
Write everything down on the pad to stay organized - this helps you avoid silly mistakes
Dump 2 or 3 questions per section for pacing
Read extremely carefully and do not move forward unless you've understood the main point
Eliminate 'being' in SC
Strike out 'expert opinions' in CR
Be extremely careful when your answer choice contains terms such as 'all, some, many, few, any'
Make sure to drink water and recharge by having light snacks during break
Request for earplugs
Looking back, I think I absolutely had the perfect study and practice materials and wouldn't prepare for the exam any other way if I were told to retake it.
Thanks guys and PM me if you have any questions or if I could be of any help!
It feels great getting a dream score on the GMAT, and I wanted to share my GMAT prep experience.
Five years ago, I took the exam twice and got frustrated with my scores (640 & 680). After the second exam, I pretty much decided not to revisit the GMAT and didn't even plan on going to bschool until earlier this year. After I decided to pursue an MBA, I wanted to choose my study materials for the GMAT meticulously this time. Third time's a charm!
Materials used:
EMPOWERgmat
e-GMAT Verbal
OG 13
Manhattan GMAT CATs
GMATPrep CATs
CAT Exams:
2/24 - GMATPrep CAT 1: 660 (Q44 V33)
3/11 - MGMAT CAT 1: 580 (Q38 V33)
3/18 - MGMAT CAT 2: 690 (Q45 V38)
3/26 - MGMAT CAT 3: 690 (Q44 V39)
4/2 - MGMAT CAT 4: 670 (Q43 V38)
4/9 - MGMAT CAT 5: 680 (Q43 V39)
4/16 - MGMAT CAT 6: 720 (Q44 V45)
4/24 - GMATPrep CAT 2: 730 (Q48 V42)
4/28 - Official GMAT Exam: 750 (Q50 V41)
EMPOWERgmat was awesome for learning all the overall tactics. Reviewing the OG questions that I got right AND wrong through the videos was invaluable and helped me solidify the tactics. I loved how Max and Rich and EMPOWERgmat categorized every single question and used easy-to-follow tactics that you could implement right away. There are so many useful tactics that I picked up in this course that proved instrumental to getting my dream score on test day. More on that later.
After going over all the content and tactics on EMPOWERgmat, I supplemented my studies with e-GMAT verbal. I wanted to get more practice on CR as this was my weakest area from the get go. And e-GMAT's Scholaranium was an amazing resource center for more practice. At times, I found some of the practice questions on e-GMAT a bit too challenging, but I tried to focus on the relevant tactic to employ for every question type. I really liked how they emphasized the pre-think stage before looking at your answer choices and this technique alone helped me improve my accuracy for CR by leaps and bounds.
Test day:
My test scheduled to take place at 9 in the morning on a weekday. I arrived about 30 minutes early to allow enough time for checking in, getting settled, and familiarizing myself with the environment. The check-in process went faster than expected, and the proctor let me inside the testing room 15 minutes before the scheduled time. And boy was it hot in that testing room!
There was a pair of noise-canceling headphones at each terminal, and I didn't know until much later that it was the headphones that elevated my body heat. It was like a sauna in there and I just had to suck it up for the writing and IR sections. As soon as the IR section was over, I ran to the bathroom, splashed water on my face, and tried to calm myself down. I then came back, had a few bites of my peanut butter jelly sandwich, and gulped down the bottle of water that I brought with me.
Before entering the testing room, I asked the proctor for a pair of earplugs. Thank god. Without them, I probably would have had to battle the heat for the remainder of the exam. They were a game changer.
Math was easier than expected. I remembered how particularly hard the math section was when I took the Manhattan GMAT CATs, so it was a relief. As expected, I got about 3 difficult questions that I didn't even want to bother solving (one embedded rate question, a circle probability question, and another one). As trained in EMPOWERgmat, I triaged (dumped) them, and moved on. One thing I wanted to avoid 100% in the math section was making silly mistakes. During practice exams, I made a bunch of silly mistakes because I wrote down the wrong numbers on the pad or assumed things without verifying everything by writing everything down. To avoid this mistake, I tripled checked everything I wrote down on the pad and checked again before submitting each answer. By the time I was done with the section I had a little more than 15 minutes left.
For verbal, it felt like SC was harder and CR easier. During practice exams, CR gave me a lot more headache than SC, so seeing lots of difficult SC questions made me feel a bit uneasy. There were two SC questions that made me scratch my head, but I tried to stick to the rules I learned and read the confusing answer choices over and over again to see if there's any shifts in intended meaning. On the other hand, CR seemed pretty straightforward, and I was able to eliminate the wrong answer choices (out of scope, 180, and warped) without too much hassle. I felt confident about RC going in and didn't come across anything that I thought was particularly tough aside from one or two questions.
Mid way through the Verbal section, I found myself picking answer choice A for 4 or 5 questions in a row. I felt a bit suspicious and apprehensive then because I thought the answers should be evenly distributed throughout. I guess GMAC could do that to you to see if you could be thrown off?
By the time I was done with the 38th question, I checked the clock and saw that I had a little more than 15 minutes left. With 4 questions left, I tried to make sure to give every last question my maximum effort. By the time I was done answering the last question, I had about 8 minutes left.
When I was done, I knew that I gave it my all, but honestly had no idea what I'd get. And before I knew it, I was staring at my dream score on the screen with a huge grin on my face!
Below is a list of a few useful tips that worked well for me.
Tips:
Try taking a few practice exams at the same time as your exam time
Write everything down on the pad to stay organized - this helps you avoid silly mistakes
Dump 2 or 3 questions per section for pacing
Read extremely carefully and do not move forward unless you've understood the main point
Eliminate 'being' in SC
Strike out 'expert opinions' in CR
Be extremely careful when your answer choice contains terms such as 'all, some, many, few, any'
Make sure to drink water and recharge by having light snacks during break
Request for earplugs
Looking back, I think I absolutely had the perfect study and practice materials and wouldn't prepare for the exam any other way if I were told to retake it.
Thanks guys and PM me if you have any questions or if I could be of any help!
CKG
Joined: 13 Nov 2014
Last visit: 17 Jun 2015
Posts: 25
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 178
Location: United States
Concentration: Marketing, Finance
Schools: Haas '17 IIMA Babson '16 Wharton '17 ISB '17 Stanford '17
GMAT 1: 640 Q47 V30
GPA: 3.5
Schools: Haas '17 IIMA Babson '16 Wharton '17 ISB '17 Stanford '17
GMAT 1: 640 Q47 V30
Posts: 25
Kudos:
12
13 May 2015, 09:43
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schoi
Wah !!! congrats on your score. Awesome. I believe your advice comes in handy to me now.
I do have my gmat after two days. I hope/wish to cross the magical 700.
Thanks.
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