Hello everyone,
My name is Shino and I took my GMAT just a few weeks ago on the 13th of December and secured a 760 with a V47 / Q48. While you might have seen me share my experience on a GMAT Club Webinar with Arun last week, I also wanted to document my experience & share it here in case it benefits even one more new aspirant.

From the very beginning, I knew that I needed additional help to give the GMAT my best shot, but as someone with a 9 to 7 job (yeah, long, long work hours!), I did not have the comfort to choose a live training option. You know how it gets when work life takes up most of your day - some days you can sit down and study for long hours, but others, you can’t even focus for a few minutes.
Early in my prep (around May this year), I realized that questions from the official database were all I needed to work on and I had an inherent interest in tackling them. Keeping this in mind, I decided to just pick a good video course that could go hand-in-hand with my preparation using the official resources. This is when I discovered the Crackverbal self-paced course and thought I could give it a shot after giving the trial.
I think this was a really good decision for me as the program came with a simple to follow study plan and the course videos dealt with only what needed to be learnt and understood from the GMAT perspective. I started spending about 3 to 3.5 hours daily (usually between 7:30 / 8 pm to 11 pm) pretty much every single day.
Honestly, getting into this kind of a routine was great for a few months but then around September burnout hit me hard! I could not study at all for a complete month and this really made me feel down and disappointed.
I restarted my prep in October and decided that I would dedicate 2 hours of my time every day to studying for the GMAT. I also had a clear rule that I would revise prior concepts daily. What I mean by that is that if I was planning to study Modifiers one day, I would start by revising previously learnt topics such as Subject Verb Agreement, Pronouns etc., and then move on to the main topic, Modifiers. This helped me keep refreshing the foundational concepts even though I had lost a month.
And you know what? With just one round of revision, it was all back! You know that riding a bicycle analogy, I actually felt that while I settled into my new prep routine.
From October to December 2022, I kept up my routine and studied consistently as much as I could.
Eventually, I started taking official mock tests and my scores were usually between 710 to 780. This was a huge confidence booster for me and I felt ready to take the actual test.
I decided to take the test-center based version of the test and got a slot in Chennai for 11:30 am on the 13th of December. Not wanting to leave anything for the last minute, I reached the city a day before and even with the flux of traveling, I was able to get in some last-minute revision. GMAT prep had become such an integral part of my life that I didn’t need to stress about it at all!
On the day of the test, I started with the Quant section. I was following a post on timing strategy I found on GMAT Club but I seemed to have made a miscalculation with my time. Around the 8th question mark, I thought I missed something and almost fell into panic mode. But I kept myself calm and somehow made it to question 25 with 10 minutes to spare. It was perfect!
Unfortunately, the last few questions surprised me as they were really wordy and loaded with a lot of information. I kept my head down and kept answering them nonetheless but when I reached question 30, I just had 3 minutes left. I did not have too much time to think about the last 2 questions so ended up guessing on both of them.
As an engineer who prides himself in his math skills, guessing in Quant and running short of time had never occurred in any of my mocks and I felt that I had messed up badly.
After feeling a little let down by my attempt at the Quant section, I decided to take the optional break to just pause and reflect. I realized that I needed to break the V40 barrier if I wanted to get a decent composite score. The game was still on and I had chances to make it!
When I went into Verbal, I just kept my eye on crossing the 710 mark. I kept reminding myself that even if this didn’t work out, I could simply come back and reattempt the test. The verbal section felt like a breeze and I didn’t strain myself at all. By the time I reached the last two questions, I had a lot of spare time left. This has not even happened during my mocks!
When I completed everything and braced myself for the results, I was expecting a max score of 730 but looking at the 760 was a sweet surprise!
I felt a sense of relief wash over me - I no longer needed to study and re-take the GMAT. I could finally leave this routine part of my life behind!
My strong belief that if I put my mind into strategic practice and preparation for the test, I would be able to attain my objective was reaffirmed. And I couldn’t have been happier.

To everyone here who is planning to prepare for the GMAT, my honest suggestion is that you should try and make GMAT prep a part of your normal life. Inculcate a habit of reading since that will certainly give you an edge over RC. Finally, don't aim for 100% accuracy in your attempts on the questions in SC - anything over 70% is good!
I wish all of you the very best. And I hope you are able to achieve the goals you set for yourself.

Shino Shibu