I am a business management degree holder and I am currently running my own business in India.
I wrote the GMAT on 15th April and scored 700, V-40, M-46.
Firstly, I Thank all the fellow members and moderators at beatthegmat.com. My special thanks go to:
Ngufo – Your splendid post gave me lot of hope and inspiration.
(https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-720-95- ... t7227.html)
Calgal – For giving us the most important tip – “book your exam date and then prepare”
(https://www.beatthegmat.com/750-q48-v45- ... 27908.html)
Logitech – For excellent Math explanation
Cramya – For excellent Math and English posts.
Sureshbala – For brilliant math lessons.
Eric – For starting this website and sustaining it without loss of enthusiasm.
Last but not the least, my thanks to all the members who took time off to give their GMAT experience in “I just beat the GMAT” section. I have read all the debriefs till now and a few of them, repeatedly.
Debrief:
Unlike most of the test takers, who had a systematic way of preparing for the GMAT, my preparation was Intuitive.
I attended a crash course at 4GMAT in November and my prep started from December. Right from the start, I never had a set plan/methodology for my prep. I would sit at my desk and then decide what I should study for the day. I didn’t plan for the next day nor had an overall plan for the week/month. It was always about what I felt like doing rather than what I should be doing.
Anyways, I took my first Kaplan practice test and scored 520(v-27, m-27). Then I took a series of tests in the following days. My scores were:
Date Test Score
5th march – score800 – 600
10th march- Gprep - 640
17th march- score800 – 570
21st march – score800- 600
25th march – score800- 600
29th march – gprep - 620
15th april - Actual GMAT – 700
In all the above tests I scored around 40-46 in math and an irritating 30-31 in verbal. Even though I got scores bordering 600, I never gave up the idea of scoring 700 in GMAT. It is interesting to note in hindsight that throughout my prep I dreamt of getting 700 with a 46/40 split(yes, even the split). It was amazing to see the exact same result on my screen on the D-Day.
Back to my prep; I was very good in CR, good in RC and very bad in SC. So I decided on 1st April that I am going to do only sc till 11th April and then try a final Gprep test. Yes, It sounds crazy, but anyway I went ahead with my decision. I read Manhattan SC – cover to cover – 5 times. I took a lot of notes and created many flashcards. I covered 500 questions from 1000 sc and the complete OG 10 and 11 SC (twice).
On 11th April, the day I am supposed to take the final Gprep test, I decided not to do the test. I did this intuitively because the previous 10 days gave me a lot of confidence and hope. I didn’t want to spoil it by taking a test a get a result once again around 600. So what did I do? I stopped preparing and did nothing till I wrote the actual test.
The Actual GMAT was a nice experience. I felt really nervous and at the same time very excited. The essay questions were fairly simple and I finished them on time. I took the optional break and gulped down half a bottle of Gatorade. Went back to my cabin and started the math section. Math was tough and I should say the problems were nowhere near OG problems. It was close to Kaplan 800 or 4gmat math problems.
I struggled to finish the section and I had to guess the last one. I felt exhausted and nervousness hit me hard during the second break. I finished the remaining Gatorade and sat in the lobby. I recalled all the suggestions I had read in this forum. I closed my eyes and reminded myself that Math is over and it doesn’t matter how I did. What made matters worse was that I struggled in my strong section and I wondered how I would do in Verbal, which I am not very good at. Anyways I pepped up myself and resumed the test.
I can’t say whether English was hard, but I can say this, I got 4 RCs. 2 were business related and other 2 were very difficult (some music notes etc). I finished this section by guessing the last question.
Then, as everyone else, I went through the frustrating questionnaire just before the score.
I got the final score on the screen and I called the instructor to find out if this was the final score
My friends (I can now say with some confidence), choose your ideal score and work towards it. Don’t worry if you don’t get anywhere near it during the practice tests. Read NGUFO’s debrief and other debriefs I have mentioned above and kick start your prep.
BTW my materials:
OG 10
OG 11
OG VERBAL AND QUANT REVIEW
4GMAT MATH AND VERBAL (REALLY GOOD – WWW.4GMAT.COM)
KAPLAN 800
KAPLAN VERBAL AND MATH WORKBOOK
MANHATTAN SC
NOTES SUGGESTED BY ERIC
MY SELF MADE FLASHCARDS
Once again thank you all for the help and support. Never Give Up, Fight On. All the Best.
