I just Beat The GMAT!

Bigred2008 wrote:I wanted to ask you a question about competency, especially in regards to quant. I am looking at taking the test in December and recently scored a 560 on a practice CAT. What areas did you focus on to improve besides numbers properties. I saw your earlier comment about having lofty expectations to score a 700+ when you realized you weren't there yet. What was in that gap between you scoring 500 and then scoring 740 that I can focus on my improvements on?

Since I have been at both the stages ,I can possibly give a good insights between the thinking process of a 550 and 700 candidate. A 550 candidates thinks linearly. For example, you teach him a formula, he'll stick to it. He'll be able to solve questions using that formula directly but the moment the question is twisted a bit, he'll be as clueless as ever. He simply won't know how to utilize the tools in his armory to solve the question. I used to think very linearly earlier which is because of superficial understanding of any concept. Later when I became better, I could connect the dots better and could think non-linearly. God bless those two Maths whiz kids in my office who enabled me to do that.
This is something similar to listening to music. All of us,at sometime or the other, would have been in the situation where just to impress our friends,we'd say that I'm a huge fan of X,Y,Z band when we would have just heard one or two songs of that band. I remember making a fool of myself as once I couldn't recognize the voice of James Hetfield even though I used to proclaim that i'm a huge metallica fan. After that when I really got interested in music,trivia about bands,music genres etc, I could start recognizing the voices of different lead singers distinctly. So even if I wouldn't have heard a Cranberries song, I could recognize the pattern in voice, drumbeats etc. So this pattern recognition is what you separates an expert in a particular field from just a novice.
The GMAT is no different.

@Rest all
Thank you for the kind words.It brings me great joy to see that so many members are able to find a new leash of energy and motivation after reading my story. I hope that all of you achieve your target scores/schools. Amen!

Hi Optimist,

Congrates for your great score and your story is truly inspirational.

I have a GMAT date on 19 Oct,2011 - and I'm in a 2 minds now - to appear for it or to postpone it.

I have been studying for it since July but my scores are just touching 600 in mocks. Pacing is a problem for me and i'm making mistakes in Quant. English is not that great either. Now, that I'm approaching the D-Date - I m not too confident on taking the exam on 19 Oct but my intitution is telling me to go with it and take the plunge. I'll learn the hard way (maybe).

I'm reluctant and cannot make a decision. Also, I think I my touching my peak and just dont feel like styuding as I have been doing this for more than 3 months now. My productivity is going down as my concentration span is very low. If I don't study- I feel guilty of not studying and when studying I'm unable to give my 100%.

I'm in a terrible state and some pointers from you will help me craft my strategy.


Thanks,
Rajat

That was one of the most inspirational stories I have ever read about the GMAT.

I am taking my 1st GMAT attempt.

Thanks for the boost of motivation and I felt a lot of the feelings you expressed while I was studying.


CONGRATS on the GREAT SCORE!

You DESERVE every you DESIRE.

I hope I can replicate your success.

rajat27 wrote:Hi Optimist,

Congrates for your great score and your story is truly inspirational.

I have a GMAT date on 19 Oct,2011 - and I'm in a 2 minds now - to appear for it or to postpone it.

I have been studying for it since July but my scores are just touching 600 in mocks. Pacing is a problem for me and i'm making mistakes in Quant. English is not that great either. Now, that I'm approaching the D-Date - I m not too confident on taking the exam on 19 Oct but my intitution is telling me to go with it and take the plunge. I'll learn the hard way (maybe).

I'm reluctant and cannot make a decision. Also, I think I my touching my peak and just dont feel like styuding as I have been doing this for more than 3 months now. My productivity is going down as my concentration span is very low. If I don't study- I feel guilty of not studying and when studying I'm unable to give my 100%.

I'm in a terrible state and some pointers from you will help me craft my strategy.


Thanks,
Rajat

You have mentioned that your scores are barely touching 600 but you haven't mentioned what is your target GMAT score ?If it is around 700, then chances are less that you'll actually be able to hit your target score.
You now have two options available with you-either take the GMAT on 19th. If you don't get a good score, you'll just curse yourself for wasting $250. Secondly, that may have a negative impact on your self confidence too as you might start feeling that you can't do it.

The second available option is to postpone it by a month.If you do that, the first thing you should do now is take one week off from the GMAT completely. Remember that you have already exhausted yourself way too much in the last 3 months and it is going to have a detrimental effect on your concentration,thought process and overall performance. You can go on a trip to some place or do some adventure sports etc. The idea is to rejuvenate yourself and to let you fall in love with life and with the GMAT again. Once you'll back from this one week break,you'll start feeling the difference in your concentration level and your understanding. Also make sure that you don't for more than 2 hours per day on weekdays if you're working. Give your mind space and let it show what miracles it can do for you. Remember that the R2 deadlines of most of the schools will be around Dec end or jan mid so you won't still miss on these deadlines even if you take the GMAT by Nov end. HTH!

Thanks Optimist ! This really helps..

I need to plan my strategy more efficiently this time. This can be achieved by having a study plan for the next six weeks. I'm in the process of creating a schedule for my myself but lil confused about how many hrs to put in and what to study i.e. either Verbal or quant on a particular or lay my hands on both of them each day.

Also my weakness:
Verbal - My concentration span is very limited. I tend to loose focus very easily when something does not intrests me. This is major problem as most of my CR and RC get wrong because I read it to fast, coz i dont like the extract or skimmed thru it understanding that I have know what's in the passage, but later realise that my intrepretation was wrong. I'm able to absorb little in my first attempt of reading and have to read again and again. This leads to a loss of time

At times, when attempting a Strenghtn question - I have a conclusion and an answer choice which has to support that conclusion, but when comparing conclusion with answer choice there are lot cobwebs and cluttering in the minds that I get confused and often make a incorrect choice. This is so because of absorption of facts being little along with concentration lapse.

In Quant:
I know the basics (except probability & PnC) but the time I take before the solution strikes me for a question is long. The timer puts additional pressure on me and this add to my woes in the mocks.
My accuracy rate in DS is quite good but PS is my weak area.

Can you share some thoughts on the strategy above. This will really help me to craft a strategy for myself.

Thanks for your help !

Rajat

Please do read the personal message that I have sent. Need your advice on how to gear up for my third attempt.

rajat27 wrote:Thanks Optimist ! This really helps..

I need to plan my strategy more efficiently this time. This can be achieved by having a study plan for the next six weeks. I'm in the process of creating a schedule for my myself but lil confused about how many hrs to put in and what to study i.e. either Verbal or quant on a particular or lay my hands on both of them each day.

A good strategy is to study one area in one day or two days. Say Monday, Tuesday you study Verbal and then Wed,Thu- you study Maths and then Fri/Sat you finish the backlog in both the areas and practice more. Sunday you take an off .That's how I used to do it. Since I was working, I would put not more than 2-3 hours/day on the weekday which is not bad. Limit your time to 3 hours though .Don't go beyond that.

Also my weakness:
Verbal - My concentration span is very limited. I tend to loose focus very easily when something does not intrests me. This is major problem as most of my CR and RC get wrong because I read it to fast, coz i dont like the extract or skimmed thru it understanding that I have know what's in the passage, but later realise that my intrepretation was wrong. I'm able to absorb little in my first attempt of reading and have to read again and again. This leads to a loss of time

At times, when attempting a Strenghtn question - I have a conclusion and an answer choice which has to support that conclusion, but when comparing conclusion with answer choice there are lot cobwebs and cluttering in the minds that I get confused and often make a incorrect choice. This is so because of absorption of facts being little along with concentration lapse.

I think that the fundamental problem is your concentration level and familiarity with complex text.I would strongly recommend that you start reading the editorials of the newspapers daily. That is going to help you in reading long and complexly worded articles. I can relate to the cowebs in mind thing. I have been in a similar situation when you are reading something and then all of a sudden you wonder what the hell am I supposed to do in this question. Try calming yourself down.

In Quant:
I know the basics (except probability & PnC) but the time I take before the solution strikes me for a question is long. The timer puts additional pressure on me and this add to my woes in the mocks.
My accuracy rate in DS is quite good but PS is my weak area.

Can you share some thoughts on the strategy above. This will really help me to craft a strategy for myself.

I have replied to a similar query in the post above this. You may want to read this. Hope this helps.

Hi

Day 2 - post second attempt at GMAT. I have spent way too much energy and effort and I am not sure what to do anymore.
My story starts off in 2009 November. I quit my job because of a stress injury in the neck. I thought that this was good opportunity to get to do my GMAT. I didnt think it was going to be a difficult task. I knew two things:
a) I was weak in Math. Not your average engineer who is fairly good in math.
b) Been ten years since my last exam in college! So feel far removed from an average person taking an exam

I signed up at few coaching classes but realised that everyone was verbal heavy. They didnt really care too much about quant.
My background - degree in Botany and Environmental Science but started my own business in 2003 but had to shut it in 2009. Everywhere i went, people said i had a good profile so a a decent if not great GMAT score would get me into at least top 20 US school.

2010 i started off with the books and whole lot of prep material from various coaching centres. I got overwhelmed by Math. Verbal seemed like something that did not give me palpitations so everytime i did a verbal set i could keep cool and get a decent hit rate. So, i guess the first mistake i did - to not give verbal as much importance because i realised that the verbal section can be taxing and my speed and accuracy has dropped since then.

In April 2010, i was disappointed by my skills in Quant and went on a holiday to the US but took my books along. I studied intermittently for 6 months and did the basic level maths from Kaplan math workbook, Manhattan guides, etc. In Jan this year, i got 480 and was disappointed. But then i thought that this is a tough exam and needs good preparation. I joined another coaching class but again nobody helping ME.

I found people on various online communities who suggested different approaches and strategies. I have not been working for over a year now and this has also taken a toll on me. I have isolated myself from the rest of the world and intended to accomplish this before telling others.

I spent the last 3 months doing OG, Kaplan 800, some hand outs from coaching classes. I started giving equal time to both verbal and quant but eventually i spent so much time doing quant that i have no energy left to do verbal and have truly neglected Verbal.

An ex colleague who got in to INSEAD with a score of 670 said just PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Somehow, that hasnt worked too. I have a few grey areas in Quant - topics that im weak in and i get stuck in pretty much the same questions over and over again.
Frankly, I have lowered my expectation from 700 to 580! However, I feel it is still possible to get 700.

Your story is inspiring. Would be great if you can throw some light on my situation.

I think that the biggest issue here is that you have prepared way too much-for a much much longer duration that what is considered ideal. If you would have seen my journey, you would notice that my duration was almost similar to yours but the fundamental difference is that unlike you ,I didn't keep on preparing for the GMAT for the entire duration. Rather, I realized well on time that my competency level is not good enough. So the first thing you may want to do is determine whether you've the foundation to score well or not. Otherwise months of preparing wouldn't necessarily be of much use.
You might also want to take some one-on-one tutoring with some credible tutor(like Ron).He should be able to tell you where you're going wrong and how should you go from here.
And I don't see a reason why you should be lowering down your target score to 580. With that kind of score, you'll have a hard time getting through the top 50 schools. When do you plan to take the GMAT now, by the way ?

I think that the biggest issue here is that you have prepared way too much-for a much much longer duration that what is considered ideal. If you would have seen my journey, you would notice that my duration was almost similar to yours but the fundamental difference is that unlike you ,I didn't keep on preparing for the GMAT for the entire duration. Rather, I realized well on time that my competency level is not good enough. So the first thing you may want to do is determine whether you've the foundation to score well or not.
SO, what does one do for improving the foundations? I think i have improved my foundations. However, i might agree to what you said earlier on about thinking 'linearly'. I might want to develop a well rounded approach to Quant.

Otherwise months of preparing wouldn't necessarily be of much use.
You might also want to take some one-on-one tutoring with some credible tutor(like Ron).He should be able to tell you where you're going wrong and how should you go from here. - Im not sure about an online one on one tutoring. How does that work?
And I don't see a reason why you should be lowering down your target score to 580. With that kind of score, you'll have a hard time getting through the top 50 schools. When do you plan to take the GMAT now, by the way ?
I want to give it in two months- December mid for sure. I dont want to lower my expectation but frankly i think a 600 is better than 500. Id really like your suggestion on a workable strategy. What was it that you did differently that you scored a 700+ ?

it inspire to run with gmat....

Awesome quote! I will use it for my own motivation!

Thanks! I have found your story very inspiring!

nonetheknee wrote: Im not sure about an online one on one tutoring. How does that work?

I'm not sure how does online one on one tutoring work. I'd suggest that you post your query on the "GMAT strategy" forum to get a response.

I want to give it in two months- December mid for sure. I dont want to lower my expectation but frankly i think a 600 is better than 500. Id really like your suggestion on a workable strategy. What was it that you did differently that you scored a 700+ ?

I think that my entire post was about that only-what did I do differently to break the 700+ barrier.However, I understand that you don't have a long term plan as I did. I'd suggest you to work on the ten points I have mentioned at the end of the post. Think about them and see how much of what I have mentioned are you doing and then work towards your goal after having better crafted your strategy.

I just gave GMAT today with a dismal 560. This was my second attempt. First one was on June 27th 2011 with 580. I thought to quit today, thinking GMAT is not my cup of tea. Was looking for some people who could achieve 700+ score and were with <600 scores and here you are as an awesome motivation for me.

Thanks a lot for such a wonderful and motivational debrief. I am starting over..........

dadesai wrote:I just gave GMAT today with a dismal 560. This was my second attempt. First one was on June 27th 2011 with 580. I thought to quit today, thinking GMAT is not my cup of tea. Was looking for some people who could achieve 700+ score and were with <600 scores and here you are as an awesome motivation for me.

Thanks a lot for such a wonderful and motivational debrief. I am starting over..........

Great. Your scores almost resemble mine. Just be motivated, work the right way and victory will be yours.