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FROM 530 TO 640 TO 710 (Q49 V36 AWA 6.0): AN ARMY COLONEL’S TRYST WITH GMAT

Intro

1. This is no normal feedback; you need to read on to know why. There are a lot of lies going around about the time for preparations on the various GMAT fora. This feedback is for those who are beaten and bruised and are therefore on the verge of giving up…….. please don’t !

2. Firstly, not all of us are descendents of Einstein or Newton to be borne brainy enough to attain a score of 750 plus with a prep time of 4 weeks, as many would have us believe on these fora. I was aghast (sic) to read one person claiming to score even 790 with a week’s preps !!! This feedback is for the underdog.

3. If you are an ordinary person (like me), you need to put in some amazing amount of sustained effort to come up to the expected level, unless you have recently appeared for the Indian CAT (IIM Exams) or majored in maths/English. If you are a non-native, the odds are heavily against you, because the language used, the issues of minorities/emancipation of women/ economic related topics are heavily biased in favour of the native American (sorry, but it’s true). Lesser denizens need good amount of practice to learn that pattern!

4. It would be pertinent to read about my background to understand what I’m talking about:-

(a) Age - 44 years

(b) Profession - Colonel in the Indian Army with 22 years plus of service.
Trained helicopter pilot with 700 hours of flying experience.
Excellent diversity and extra-curriculars.

5. The last time I had a look at maths and hardcore English grammar was 27 years ago, when I left school for an army career. Many GMAT aspirants are not that old!!!I am gifted with an excellent command over English language (both written as well as verbal) and have won a number of essay writing competitions at the three service levels and written articles for a number of army magazines. But GMAT requires a whole lot of new skills to succeed. No Indian exam tests CR/grammar/RC skills as does GMAT. I (like most people) struggled with all these!

6. Let’s face it, to do well on the GMAT, you need to do well on the verbal. And doing well on the verbal means doing well on the RC (the ultimate nemesis for most), and all the high scorers invariably achieve perfection in SC (getting nearly all correct). CR falls somewhere in between.

How to Improve Score

7. Many people usually give up after the initial bad score. Well! GMAT is not a test for the weak hearted. Persistence pays and then there are no quick fix short term solutions. It you want a good score, be prepared to allot at least 3 months plus of time (6 months may be a more realistic time frame with at least 3 hours of study everyday).


8. The First Step. If you are not the intelligent variety, please be prepared for a long haul. Never take the actual test if you are not scoring in your desirable range. If the age is in your favour, then what’s the hurry? You could always wait for another year for your dream score and business school. If you are scoring in the mediocre range in the mock tests (GMAT prep/ MGMAT), you can’t expect miracles on the actual test. Your actual score will be within plus/minus 30 points of these tests. So, please plan your test date after carrying out a SWOT analysis of your actual/demonstrated GMAT skills. Sometimes, booking a date well in advance, provides direction to your regimen. Also, many of us go wrong in the selection of the right material and the sequence in which you should read it. Most of the test prep companies (in India at least) do not render correct advice on the material to be referred and the sequence in which it should be studied. I have tried to answer this question in the succeeding paragraphs for the very ordinary students like me.

Recommended Material

9. If you want a good score (who doesn’t?), stick to the proven/quality material. With my experience, I found the following material useful (and in that sequence).

10. Quants.

(a) MGMAT Guides.
(b) Total GMAT Math.
(c) OG12 & Quants Review.
(d) Nova DS course (a must for those weak in DS).
(e) Jeff Sachmann’s Challenge Sets (1000 Ques).
(f) 198 GMAT Prep (700+ level Ques).
(g) Tough/Useful Quants.
(h) GMAT Club Tests (worth it!).

11. Verbal (SC).

(a) MGMAT SC.
(b) Elements of Style (by William Strunk Jr).
(c) The Careful Writer (by Bernstein).
(d) Aristotle SC Guide.
(e) www.e-gmat.com.
(f) OG12 & Verbal Review.
(g) Powerscore SC Bible (time permitting).
(h) www.thousandsc.blogspot.com. (Very helpful)
(j) Doing Grammar (time permitting).

12. Verbal (CR).

(a) Powerscore LR/CR Bible.
(b) Kaplan Mastery (good practice “By type” of questions).
(c) OG12 & Verbal Review.
(d) www.gmat-cr.blogspot.com & 1000CR (time permitting).

13. Verbal (RC).

(a) Powerscore RC Bible.
(b) OG12 & Verbal Review.
(c) RC-99(excellent book).
(d) 1000 RC.

14. Mock Tests.

(a) GMAT Prep -2 (repeat at least once)(must)
(b) MGMAT -6(must)
(c) Veritas, Kaplan, PR, Knewton -4 (free tests) (must).
(d) 800 Score tests -6(should)
(e) Kaplan CD -3(should)
(f) Platinum gmat -1(could)
(g) F1 GMAT -1(could)
(h) Grockit -1(could)
(j) Knewton -6 (test algorithm is not good enough) (could)


15. Time Permitting.

(a) 9 Official Paper Tests, Sets & LSAT CR.

(b) MJJ.

(c) Veritas Prep mtrl (excellent material for extra practice).

(d) Deltacourse (good for PnC).

(e) Kaplan Advanced (Kaplan 800).

(f) MGMAT Archive.

16. Good & Affordable Test Prep Companies.

(a) www.e-gmat.com (excellent bang for buck for $39 for SC preps).

(b) www.grockit.com (value for money - take only the $100 basic package).

(c) Knewton (good for verbal only - their mock test algorithm sucks!).

17. That’s all about GMAT It is not necessary to go through the whole material, you must make mid-course corrections as you go along with your preps. This is the only quality/reliable prep material I found in the market - please stick to it. Many students go wrong in the selection of material and pay the price for it. The list of book looks overwhelming at first, but as you build up your pace, it wouldn’t be such a difficult task. Moreover, you could omit some of the books mentioned above.

Final Word

18. As told earlier, if you are brainy, you’d just need a week’s prep!!! But, if you are not, be prep to slog it out - at least 9 out of 10 do - you are not alone (lies notwithstanding). If I could do it at this age so can you, only if you have the patience and the determination to succeed. Following pearls of wisdom could help some:-

(a) Stick to only the good quality material (as listed above).

(b) Give adequate time to your preps.

(c) Never-never-never take the actual test if you are not scoring at least + 20 to 30 points above your desirable score (the real test rigour may bring your score down).

(d) After an honest assessment of your skills, register for GMAT early to give focus, direction and regimen to your preps.

(e) Don’t be a miser and resort to penny pinching while spending on your preps. Remember an MBA in India will set you back by 20-30 lacs, in Europe by 40-50 lacs & in the US by $ 1,50,000 (a Crore) - what are you saving for ? Do spend freely on quality material as it could mean the world to your confidence and score.

(f) If the first or the second test was a disaster, take 4 attempts (only the last 3 are reported). Is there a choice if you are not doing well? I have even seen some people take the actual test four times to gain confidence, before reporting the score - a good idea indeed!!!

(g) In the last month of your preps, build up the tempo and take a mock test every alternate day or once in 3 days to get used to the rigours of the test conditions.

(h) Take appropriate breaks in between - spread your preps - enjoy all “good things” in life to keep you on track and motivated.

(j) GMAT is all about pattern recognition - and you can only pick up the patterns by constantly practicing on the official material.

(k) If all else fails - please remember that GMAT is not the end of things in life - only one in ten gets past 700, other nine do not ! So, you are not alone. People with sub-700 also get admitted to H/W/S if you “have” it in you, else even a 800 (or a near 800 score) is no guarantee in this highly competitive world ! Unfortunately, most of us do not take failures easily. It is important to carry out a realistic assessment of your skills/ capabilities so that you are not disappointed. Others worked for their good scores, so can you.

(l) Have confidence and self belief - I didn’t get deterred by the first poor score, and by the dint of my hard work and determination prevailed over GMAT. I logged more hours studying than did my daughter studying for her class 11th. The soldier in me never gave up. So, please soldier on and you can win too!

(m) And yes, I did not drink Gatorade or Red Bull or any other fancy performance enhancing drug…..such useless discussions are at best distracting. A gallon of Gatorade (and what have you!) will not get you an 800 if you are not well prepared and lack the required skills!!! GMAT is a unique & foolproof test which has much more depth than you can see at the first glance.

19. Scores. These are my mock test scores of the last 4 weeks:-

(a) GMAT Prep 1 - 740 (Repeat 760).
(b) GMAT Prep 1 - 760 (Repeat 760).
(c) MGMAT 1 - 730.
(d) MGMAT 2 - 740.
(e) MGMAT 3 - 660.
(f) MGMAT 4 - 720.
(g) MGMAT 5 - 680.
(h) MGMAT 6 - 760.
(j) Knewton - 660 to 720.
(k) PR - 710.
(l) Grockit - 740.
(m) Veritas - 710.
(n) Kaplan - 680.
(o) Platinumgmat - 720.

20. The Test Day. I was fully rested and mentally prepared for the test. I reached the test centre an hour early….and let my wife do the driving to keep my nerves cool….a bad traffic en route can just put you off! Essays were well composed and set aside quickly without much ado. Don’t waste too much time on them, but do type in a couple of essays with GMAT Prep/MGMAT mock tests to get a hang of things and to get your format right. I was well prepared for the quants…and wanted to nail the first 10 questions to reach harder questions quickly. After the initial rush, the level of difficulty settled down…no question was new…and if you want a score of 49 plus you will encounter all advanced concepts as was the case with me. Some ques were rather too easy (probably being the experimental ones)…don’t get distracted….or start judging your performance. You will be tested on a pre-set level of skills with each type of difficult concept (mainly the difficult advanced concepts) to lay claim to a good quants score (49 and above). I got about 3 PnC ques, which I pretty much set aside with great ease, then got couple of questions on progressions, sets, coord geometry, estimation, geometry, tricky DS(I quickly saw through the traps therein) et al. I was lagging behind by 5 mins around ques 10 as the aim was to get the initial ques right, then built up the pace without compromising on accuracy…got over with it with 6 mins to spare. Took the 8 min break and resumed the Verbal section. Again it started with a couple of SC ques, which I nailed (SC being my strength), then encountered some tricky CR and RC passages, which I found to be a tad tougher than GMAT Prep and other test prep material I had ever seen before, with a number of close ans choices….the feel of the ques was similar to that of the released official material. I can’t emphasise enough the importance of sticking to the official material in the last couple of weeks in your preps to get used to this pattern. I finished the test with 5 mins to spare.

I slackened down a bit in the verbal section in the last 7-8 ques in the actual test, which probably explains my low verbal score vis-à-vis the mock tests. I was consistently scoring above at least 40 in the verbal throughout. V36 was, therefore, a bit of a dampener. I was pretty comfortable throughout the test with no undue worries as I was pretty confident of a 700 score ab initio. I never took any books to the test centre and spent an hour chatting with my wife, who took a day off from work to be with me (love her for that!). 710 is not a great score but for an old man (hello!!!) like me, it is adequate with my strong service credentials and extra-curriculars.

I have all material listed above, in fact virtually everything on the GMAT to score 800 (plus almost 5-10 GB of GMAT software), which I want to sell (preferably to a person in Pune, the place where it is lying right now). The buyer will also get free advice on the GMAT preps.

I can be reached at hs_parmar15@yahoo.co.in

The views expressed are entirely mine and helped me in my preps. You can configure your preps suitably based on your own requirements in life, availability of time and money, level of skills, expectations, capabilities, and the desired GMAT score.

Hope this helps!

All the best to all of you for your preps. God bless!!!