3 yrs,4 attempts-Finally 740:The story of my metamorphosis

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by eternal_optimist » Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:43 am
forbidden wrote:@eternal optimist
all i need to ask u is with regard to cr this time. u said dat sc concepts can be clear with the ogs wt abt cr i m really confused wrt cr ( coz the amnt of stuff available on net) rnt the ogs enough for cr as well . can u jst jot down the list of things that needs to be done , i mean wt u have reffered to in all your 4 attempts at gmat (apart frm the ogs if nything needs to be done) wrt cr.
as i said ur suggestions are like gold to me
thanks
If you read my post, what I said is that you need to really focus on "quality" over "quantity". I did not refer many questions for CR apart from the Official Guides even in my last attempt. What I did was I changed the strategy or the way I approached CR. I learnt the right way to tackle each of the different types of CR questions and then applied the strategies there. Instead of having a "question centric" approach, I developed a "pattern centric" approach . I remember question #100 from OG12. In the previous attempts I just solved this question. During the last time, I tried to look for the pattern in this question and asked myself how else can the test maker test this question, what different scenario can they give keeping the logic behind the question same . For example, I can change question#100 and give the scenario of a man who has been asked to improve his community and is suggested that if he's looking for ideas to improve his community, he should look at other communities instead of looking at his own. What would be the benefit of doing that ?
When I started approaching questions this way, I really started getting under the skin of questions and could see what the GMAC people were trying to do in questions . On the earlier attempts, I had probably finished the OG in not more than 5 days each and on the last attempt I took more than 20 days. So it is all about analysis.

@VivianKerr , Shovan85
Thanks a lot for the encouragement. :)

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by Neltranii » Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:48 am
The name is very apt. Congratulations!
Hope your optimism, dedication and thriumph rub off on us:)

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by forbidden » Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:35 am
hey thanks

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by SFtraveler » Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:26 am
Eternal_optimist, I sent you a pm...can you pm me back? Thanks.

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by eternal_optimist » Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:50 pm
SFtraveler wrote:Eternal_optimist, I sent you a pm...can you pm me back? Thanks.
Have replied to your PM. I must admit that it was a long message and have tried my best to reply to it.

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by Shoa » Mon Mar 21, 2011 1:24 am
hey...this is truly inspirational......I am sort of going thru a similar phase and u r story has motivated me...

Thanks...

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by Black Knight » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:15 am
God! I got goose bumps on reading your story. This was freakin' inspirational. Men like you inspire others to do well and give direction to the hopeless. Which schools do you plan to apply to ? I'm sure whichever school you go to , you'll be prove to be a valuable asset.

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by oregenol » Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:25 pm
Wow!! Thank you for your post. I recently bombed on the GMAT (second attempt) and your story has inspired me to keep pursuing my goal. =) Best of luck on getting into the school of your choice.

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by eternal_optimist » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:04 pm
Black Knight wrote:God! I got goose bumps on reading your story. This was freakin' inspirational. Men like you inspire others to do well and give direction to the hopeless. Which schools do you plan to apply to ? I'm sure whichever school you go to , you'll be prove to be a valuable asset.
I'm looking at 1 year MBA programs since I,by now, have quite a good amount of work experience and I don't want to be in a school for 2 years. I am basically looking at Said,Judge,INSEAD and IMD. These are the four schools I have in mind till now. Am researching on some more programs. I may probably add IESE and HEC.

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by rohu27 » Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:54 am
the first time i read it, i was too engrossed to give a comment.
Read it again today,same feeling but i will let you know this time,
Take a bow man!! You are truely inspiring.

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by nehs » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:29 am
eternal_optimist,

Brillaint, mind-blowing and extremely motivating post.

I had tears in my eyes as I read your post,especially the following lines:

"December 2008 : I was devastated after scoring a 560 on my second attempt.I didn't want to face my family,friends or anyone after getting this score. Everybody knew that I was preparing for the GMAT again and I remember how embarrassing it was for me to tell them that this time I have ended up with even a lower score than that on my 1st attempt. I could even sense some of my friends laughing at how big an idiot I was ,and my family members were almost clueless about how to react!

April 2009 : My third attempt on the GMAT. A 590! When I saw the score, I was almost suicidal.What was perplexing was that even after having done OG12, and some other books thoroughly, I scored this badly. This was the lowest phase in my life.I thought of giving up on the GMAT and was quite annoyed with life. I thought that probably the GMAT is not my piece of cake. I should rather focus on my job and be content with where I am. After all, a guy like me who has always been mediocre enough throughout his school and college life,can't think of competing with the "biggies"(that category of candidates who just study for a month or two and come out with flying colors) . A lot of confusion,depression and endless cycles of thoughts almost might have driven me mad. "


I am going through a similar feeling right now. Not able to face my friends, feeling like a loser,maintaining minimum conversation with anyone and thinking that "hey, the GMAT is not for you so move on! ".

I agree with you - not all of us are geniuses to score a 700, or 650+, in 2-3 months of prep. I had given up on my GMAT before I saw this post. I'm now thinking of taking up the battle again. Will first make myself ready to face the enemy(GMAT) and then book a date or even think of booking a date.
I'm also looking at a long term plan,may be 6 months down the line, like reading lot of books and articles as well as drilling down to basics for the Quant. I literally plan to buy a high school math book/refresher and get the concepts straight! Although, I'm inherantly good at algebra and arithmentic, I suck at word problems. so will drill right through them.
Will take it slow for the next 4-5 months, may be an hour or so, and then intensify my prep in the last 2 months leading to the test.

I also noticed that my brain absorbs materials better when I'm relaxed and fresh. No point in driving through 4-5 hours or prep like I did last time, it gets me nowhere.

ALL I CAN SAY TO YOU IS THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS.
ALL THE BEST

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by eternal_optimist » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:03 pm
@nehs and rohu
I'm glad that you found my post inspirational.It's really heartening to see that my post has been able to motivate and give hope to so many people.

@nehs
Don't give up the fight. Remember that line from the movie "Pursuit of Happyness" in which Will Smith says to his son while they're on the basketball court "Let nobody,not even me, tell you that that you CAN'T do it" ? So stay put! My only suggestion is that attack the GMAT from a 360 degree perspective and I'm sure that you should reach the level you're aiming for

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by bacchewar_prashant » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:25 pm
congrats.. What would you recommend reading for improving verbal score.

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by eternal_optimist » Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:52 am
Sorry for replying late.I have loved reading a lot of authors who have won Booker/Pulitzer awards. The quality of text in these books is quite good. Apart from that,make sure that you keep reading the editorials in good newspapers.

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:02 am
Very nice! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.
I'll definitely be posting links to this discussion when other students don't reach their target score the first time :-)

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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