I just Beat The GMAT!

Moderate preparation levels; moderate practice levels - and here I am giving a debrief of GMAT #1.

Preparation :
I booked my exam for August 23, 2011, giving a complete 3 months for preparation. And I felt confident about my plan in mind. Until the big health blow and project deadlines in office broke my regular study hours. To see my progress levels, you can take a look at my blog https://thembaodyssey.blocked/.

Getting a good 41 days of preparation did not really get me reach my target. There was a good level of break here and there in between my prep schedule which ultimately lead me to think that I will not be able to score as much as I targeted. In course of my preparation, I realized, I was always scoring well in SC, as compared to other sections. Math is never my cup of tea, and this was something that hit me hard on my score. I would not say my verbal was too good, but at least I found it better than my Math score.

As with everyone else, RC is the weakest area, where I could not find much room for improvement, even after trying out different strategies. How much every modes I try for RC, during the test, all that stays in my mind is that I quickly finish off that particular RC quickly and move on. It came to me as a big blow on my G-Day.

Though my target score is very high, I consistently scored between 600 and 660 in all my practice tests. It was already a disappointment for me, as it is said, whatever you score in your practice tests is close to what you will score on test day. And something kept telling me, that I will score 650.

The Day:
My exam was scheduled at 10:00 am in the morning at a center just 11 km away from my house. So I decided I will start 2 hours early keeping in mind the traffic constraints. I started at 8:10 am hoping to reach at least half an hour before the scheduled test time. And to my disappointment, the traffic blocked me from all sides. Whichever different route I took, it was full of vehicles blocking the road. The biggest mistake I did was to drive my bike that day to the test. I reached the exam center sharp at 9:57 am, having informed the test center of my situation. I finally reached the center totally exhausted. And to my disappointment, the lift was nowhere close to stopping, when I reached the building.

The center was in the 6th floor and to add to all the traffic tragedy, I had to walk up all 6 floors by stairs. By the time I reached the 6th floor, my knees went shaky. I spoke to the center official, and I drank some water, and got ready for the test in the next 5-7 minutes. Given all the confusion, my mind was totally blocked, and was not functioning as much as it did during the practice tests. With just a few points to highlight my point of view on the issue and argument, I took a quick break of 5 minutes, had some fruits, and had water and started off with the Math section.

Math seemed good initially, but slowly the tiredness started creeping in. Towards the middle of the Math section, I was totally blank, and could do nothing but skip questions to compensate for the time loss. And so many DS questions at a stretch took a toll on my concentration levels. I have a mindset that I am weak in DS, and this added to the bad moments. I was sure that my score was going down towards the end of the Math section

The break after the Math section, boosted me up at little, and verbal started off well. Though I took my chances on 1 or two questions, here and there, I was not completely off at any point of time. And I was sure that my score was not going to touch my target score.

And after scrolling through the pages after the test, I got my score.

A 650 with Q-44, and V-35 --- A mind game.. That's what I thought, and that's what I got.

Obviously not satisfied with my score. I have scheduled my GMAT #2 for October 31, 2011. Hope things work well this time. I am meanwhile taking a short break off preparation, reading through articles here. I would love it if you guys can help me out to reach my target score this time. Tips please.

Hi,

I see that you are having problem with RC. Have you tried the STOP strategy by Veritas? I find it simple and good. It is helping me.

I approach RCs like this: They are a gift in the exam. You don't need to know any prior rules, formulas etc. ALL the information you need is present in front of you. What is stopping you from solving the questions - YOURSELF.

We need to improve our comprehension power. Read articles on Newyork times, Newyorker etc. Most importantly don't feel like "ek aur RC agaya" in the exam. I also love RCs because they give us lot of knowledge

I think we can improve in quant by doing LOT of practice and following simple things like, checking the question again before marking the answer etc.

HTH,
Prodizy

Hi,

I took the GMAT three times. The first two ended up with exactly the same score 660. I did something different to prepare for my third attempt and shared it in the following post. If you happen to have heavily relied your study, particularly your practice tests, on prep tests from test prep companies. You need to stop doing so, and start focusing on OG and GMATPrep when taking practice tests.

Why?? Click here ...
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-660-qua ... tml#399459

Hi Kruthika,

I took my Test on the 24th and That was my second attempt. I got a 660(Q47, V34), in my first attempt. So seeing that we are on the same boat. Scroll down a little in the forum and You will find my debrief. After reading that if you have any specific doubts feel free to ping me.

Also we don't need a lot of time for GMAT preparation. I was under that notion too. I started preparation for my GMAT 2 in june and could manage just about 2 hours a day including the weekends. Even in the last week when I took off from my office I managed to stufy just about 4 hours a day and It was enough. Instead of focusing on solving a lot of questions try to plug in the weaknesses. My strategy for RCS was that I would read and understand the passage and only then would I go ahead and solve the questions. Fortunately I can solve most SC questions under 1 minute time so that helped me in my timing.

ALL THE VERY BEST.

DON'T GIVE UP

Hi

Well the good point is you are very near from your target score just 60 - 70 points more....at your stage though it might look difficult but its easy....

You know where you stand and your weaknesses just work on verbal a bit practice little more....give yourself some rest....

Also 650 is a very good score, it can be low to your standards...


Happy studying

Chaw