Hi GC Folks,
From the first day I started preparing for GMAT, I dreamt of the day when I will see the numbers, those will bring smile to my face and a closure to all the hard work and tear and toil put during the preparation. Though the numbers were not exactly the same as I actually dreamt of the previous night of the GMAT (780 actually, but then again, I've dreamt of flying my Ferrari on moon's surface... so u get the idea
), the numbers were soothing, did bring a smile to my face and end to sleepless nights thinking about SC rules and Quant formulas. Yes, I scored a 740(Q50, V40, IR8, AWA5.5) in GMAT and am on seventh heaven right now.
I am writing this post not to tell you what to/not to read, or which books you should refer, I'm writing this to tell you what was different in my preparation and what I did to make sure my scores did not decline during practice tests. So, without further ado (yes, I learned this idiom as well.... just kidding) and not getting into much paragraph style, below are the do's and dont's I found to have worked for me:
Do's:1. Always make your practice test score log.
2. Make sure your practice test score log says things that are important. For example, my log said about each test how many questions did I select incorrect option, how many incorrect were there in first 15, what was the lengthiest sequence of incorrect answers and which section/sub-section did I commit most mistakes in.
3. Always check your correct answers as well, just to make sure that your thought process was correct and if there is a possible, shorter way of solving that type of question,
4. Put extra effort in the areas you are most weak in (For me, it was RC).
5. Always try to solve harder and harder questions (Thanks to GMATClub, you get more and more tough questions now and then).
6. When solving questions on GMATClub, use timer, its a boon.
7. Make sure that your score in each section/sub-section grows in every next practice test. This can be ensured easily by following above points.
8. On the GMAT day, keep calm and concentrate on the question in front of you rather than worry about what mistakes you might have made in any of the earlier questions.
9. If you are unable to practice questions or are losing concentration level close to your exam, take a break for a day or two, dont study at all, go have fun, watch movies or hang out with friends till wee hours.
10. If even 9 is unable to fix the loss in concentration and/or you are still unable to practice, do consider rescheduling your GMAT (I rescheduled it by a month, work took toll), if you have an option.
Dont's:1. Be open to your mistakes, but do not let them be a roadblocker.
2. Do not study for a section too long before switching to other. If you continue to work on one section for long, you may lose touch with other previously learned ones and eventually end up learning them again.
3. Dont make any section your favorite. GMAT will bring questions in front of you as equals and your favouritism may cost you big.
4. Dont fall for trap answers. This can be learned to avoid by following 5 and 6 of Do's list.
5. Dont study without a plan. You need to have a strategy for each kind of question and should know when to apply which strategy.
6. On GMAT Day, dont get stuck on any question for more than 2.5 minutes for Quant and 2 Minutes on Verbal (this doesn't apply to first question of a RC). If you are unable to solve a questions in above mentioned timeline, make a calculated guess and move on.
7. Do not get anxious when you have absolutely no idea how you are doing. Some people say that they saw a bold face CR so they thought they are doing good, some would suggest that when you see a complex probability+combinatorics questions you are doing good. Believe me, at any point in GMAT, I did not have the slightest of the hints about how I was doing, and that made me anxious. I did not lose too many points (At least I can hope so) but it may work adversely for others, so be wary.
So, that is how I made sure that I am able to score as big as possible for me. Now, I have to buy a new ultrabook (I promised myself to buy one if I scored more than 720, a kind of motivation that worked for me many times
) and I am worried about my money, hope to gather some soon and fulfill my promise to myself.
I will be more than happy to help anyone in dilemma. I may not be able to share the course material I have (mostly hard books) but I sure can share some wisdom.
Also, I struggled a lot to study for IR because of lack of resource online, only to stumble upon GMATPills collection a day before exam. I could not study much but you can, just follow the URL:
https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... -reasoning
