After months of procrastinating, I decided, in August, to seriously study for the GMAT. As luck would have it, I suddenly got loaded with work and wasn't even able to dedicate an hour/ day. So, I rescheduled my exam from September 10th to October 15th - not that it made much of a difference. As usual, I just chilled out till the last week or so.. well., not really.. this time my senses kicked in 20 days or so before the test... maybe the magnitude of the occasion dawned upon me. Whatever it was, I started 'seriously' studying and managed to clock up to 4 hours of preparation on weekdays and 3 hours during the weekends. Not the prescribed amounts, but what I thought/ hoped/ knew would suffice.
I registered on Knewton.com... These classes were the best thing that could have happened for me. Not only did they keep me focused, they also kept me pumped. The Knewton staff are amazing. They are knowledgeable, active, funny and tuned to your needs. Any doubt you have will not go unanswered. Special mention to Ewan, Dave, Iwan, Joanna and Bridigette; they are absolutely fantastic.
QUANT
Apart from the Knewton classes, I studied QUANT from the IMS CAT (Management Common Admission Test, India) books. These were more than enough. For an Indian, I'm pretty average at math.. so I knew the quant portion of the GMAT would be pretty easy once I had all the basics covered.
Key topics in QUANTS:
Number Properties ** MOST IMPORTANT - Studied from IMS material
Rates/ Mixtures - Studied from IMS material
Geometry - Studied from IMS material
Probability - Didn't truest IMS material on this one.. so surfed the web.. wasted a couple of hours and then found this treasure chest.. lectures on probability ...loaded them onto my blackberry and went through 4 of them on the way to and from work and managed to finish them in 3 trips.. though these were pretty basic, they gave me all that I needed... got 6 probability questions on the actual test and I am 100% sure I got them all right.. was able to finish them in a couple of seconds too
Data Sufficiency: Just learnt the two basic rules
1. attack each statement separately, and
2. don't calculate anything!!!
VERBAL
SC: Knewton sessions, Manhattan SC Guide 4th edition. Though I managed to finish only the first 6 chapters (ran outta time) ... I was pretty satisfied since I was aiming for 40 in verbal and I had most of the basics of SC covered
CR: Went through Powerscore CR Bible on the last two days before the test.. boy how I wish I had more time.. this book was a fascinating read.. thoroughly enjoyed it.. though I was to later realise my folly of not having gone through a couple of OG questions.. See, the Powerscore CR gives you a couple of questions after each topic, so you pretty much know what to look for and how to attack. but on the real test, you don't have that luxury.
RC: Did two the last two RCs in OG 12 about 7 days before the test and answered all correctly.. so figured that's it then.. no need to focus/study/practice RCs
Practice Tests
Manhattan 1- 670 (46,35) : My diagnostic, knew where I stood..was rusty in Quants and needed to improve a bit in SC
GMAT Prep 1 - 710(49,39): One week before the test.. needed to finish off SC
Manhattan 2 - 730(45,45): Silly mistakes in Quants.. was where I needed to be in Verbal..right on track
So, though my preparation was by no means complete, it was, as I saw it, sufficient to get the 700+ score that most of us desperately seek
Test Day
Took an auto(rickshaw) to the test centre.. reached at 8 am.. took the elevator, which was one of those '80s types with the grill doors and all... that freaked me out a bit.. had an hour to spare... the bloody place was locked up.. had to stand outside .. that's when I remembered.. I had forgotten to study AWA... luckily for me, I had taken a printout of Chineseburned's AWA article the previous day while at work.. took it outta my bag and went through it a couple of times.. let it all sink in.. at 8:30 they opened the place and let us all in (10 of us). We showed our passports (mandatory if you're taking the test in India).. did the whole vein scanning thingamajig.. got our locker keys.. I had even brought my pullover along .. dress in layers
.. I asked if I could take it along with me just in case... the staff told me that the temp inside would be the same as it was in the waiting area... or as she so eloquently put it "it's same inside... are you feeling cold here? No? Then no need" .. but hey, nice lady.. So things started... AWA Argument.. froze for a couple of seconds.. then got started.. typed in a couple of ideas... then formatted the whole thing.. was running outta time so finished things of hurriedly, review for a minute and submitted with 10 seconds to spare. Next, the ISSUE... was quicker of the blocks, but got too involved and had only 2mins to review... did a bit of editing and suddenly the screen popped up "time's up" ... I was like "holy ****... Jesus ****** Christ!!!" .. after a couple of seconds I remembered that for the AWA section it doesn't matter if you've not submitted it.. so I let it go... raised my hand, prop came over and I took the break..
A bite of my energy bar, a gulp orange juice, a quick toilet break.. washed my face, drank a glass of cold water.. and was back in...
Didn't have time to draw my grid on the scratch pad.. but as it turned out, I didn't need to.. went through the quant section without much drama.. in the middle I got a question that seemed pretty easy.. got the answer in 10 seconds, clicked Next and was about to click Confirm when something in my head went "wait.. that was way too easy.. u'r in the middle of the test.. it can't be that easy".. so I read the question again.. and spotted a trap that I'd fallen for... then got the correct answer.. this was a huge confidence booster.. and I never looked back after that.. guessed the penultimate question within 15 seconds and had 2 minutes for the last.. finished it and that was that..
Break.. same as before.. and back in
Things were going off pretty well... spent a bit more on SC coz I had finished my practice exams with 5 or more minutes to spare in verbal .. this time wanted to use every minute up.. then my third rc.. passage was pretty vague.. could answer the first question.. I read the passage again .. still no luck.. again went through... couldn't make out the structure.. because the passage sorta left the conclusion open to interpretation or unresolved... whatever it was... got so damn involved that I totally forgot that I was taking a test and that I had to keep track of time.. I answered the question.. looked up.. 21 questions remaining, 23 minutes remaining "********************************" .. it all went downhill from there... I had totally lost it.. I tried telling myself to keep at it.. but I jus couldn't concentrate knowing that I had blown it.. answered the SCs .. but just couldn't focus for the CRs and the RCs... I rushed thru the remainder of the test and had 30 seconds for the last 6 questions.. guessed them all.. had no alternative....
Proceeded to the score screen.. 690 (Q 49 - 87%ile, V 34 - 68%ile)- Overall 88%ile.. I felt like a train had run right through me... the rest is just a blur.. I gained consciousness after 20 minutes, a mile or so down from the test centre .. just kicking myself for being so ***** stupid
It's all sunk in now... I'll be retaking the GMAT in the last week of November.. targeting 750+ this time.. I'll start off on my essays in the meanwhile.... one thing that I'm gonna do this time is take a practice test everyday for 5 days leading up to the test... call it stupid, call it whatever you want, I call it collateral
(It's not like you're speaking to me...)
