I just Beat The GMAT!

Part I: The Encounters

I am an average Indian male working in the IT industry whose sole aim in life, till he was 18, was to get into a Tier I engineering college in India. I did just that and thought that I had achieved whatever I has set out to, academically, when I completed my undergraduate studies in 2004.

I had a brief encounter with the GMAT in late 2006, when during one of my assignments in the UK, I thought of trying my hand at it. I had no real inclination to pursue an MBA, no urge from the bottom of my heart; rather it was a casual affair with ended soon after I had spent 20 pounds on OG 11.

Again, early last year, while I was in KL on another assignment and had enough spare time, I planned to utilize my free time by preparing for the GMAT. I had already spent 4.5 years in the industry and by then, the feeling had started to sink it that if I do not get an MBA, it might be difficult for me to move up the ladder as fast as I hoped to. I became a member of this esteemed forum, read through the introductory articles, bought the 'Cracking the GMAT (Princeton Review)' and began my preparations. I could finish the book in a couple of weeks and by the time I was done with the book, I got a feeling that 'beating the GMAT' would be like taking a stroll in the park for me. However, as soon as I picked by the OG and gave the diagnostic test, I knew that its not all as simple as the Princeton Review would have you believe. The diagnostic test results showed that I was no different than "Joe Bloggs".

Back to my senses, I turned back to the site for showing me the way and got my hands onto the most trusted companions for the Verbal section:

- CR Bible
- Manhattan SC Guide

NOTE: As I am an IIM (Indian IT Male / pun intended ), my maths skills are above average and I wanted to start off with the difficult bit of the preparation.

I religiously went through both the CR Bible and the Manhattan SC Guide, two books which have really helped get my Verbal scores to the level that they are at right now.

I rate the CR Bible very highly and would recommend that people serious on taking the GMAT should not miss a single page of the book.

By the time I was done with the two books, I was already 2 weeks into my preparation. Around this time, I was putting about 2 hours every weekday and 4 hours on each day of the weekend. I picked up the OG next and solved all the verbal sections in the next 2 weeks. I averaged around 90% accuracy in the three sections.
Do note that %age accuracy is not a very good measure of your abilities as difficulty of the questions missed is unaccounted for.

At the end of the first month, my confidence in my abilities in Verbal had grown enormously and I was targeting writing the exam in a month or two. But destiny had other plans for me. The work pressure increased tremendously; I was in office from 9 AM to 9 PM and by the time I came back to my apartment, all I could do was change and get to bed.

I was really disappointed with myself that I let a good opportunity go. However, the good thing was that I had got a feel of what to expect on the GMAT and I knew that all that was needed of me was to put my head down and study.

The repeat of the above happened again in Jan 2010 when I redid all my Verbal once again but failed to keep the momentum going.

Well, the point that I have been trying to make is that I am one of the many who started off the preparations a couple of times, did fairly well for around the month and then let the momentum slip. I believe the reason for this is that my mind was content with the job that I had and the life that I was leading. My mind had been trained to believe that I had achieved what I had set out to do in life, and after a month of hard-work, I gave up. I just didn't have the fire in me to go the distance.

Part II: The Fire and The Drill

The game-changing moment came 3 months ago, when I gave serious thought on what I wanted to do, both with my career and my life. Its then that I decided that I should take at least one serious shot at the GMAT. But given my past record with preparations, I was apprehensive about the results. I knew that my attitude would fail me if pressure increased from other fronts (work etc), but I was determined to make it work this time round.

I know that people recommend preparation while continuing work, but I took the decision of taking a two months break from work so that I could focus completely on the GMAT. I had around 29 days of PTO and had a discussion with my manager of taking LWP for the remainder. My manager was really supportive of the idea and ensured that I was relieved of my tasks by the end of May 2010.

The last two months have basically involved the following (in order):

I. Get the basics in place

- Review CR Bible: I had read the complete book 4 times by the time I gave my exams; twice during these last two months

- Review Manhattan SC Guide

- Review all Maths concepts: I used Arun Sharma's 'Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT'/ available in India: some of the techniques given in this book are not found in other GMAT Quant Material. I would recommend this for anyone serious on improving their Quant scores

II. Practice OG Questions

There is nothing out there that can beat the practice that questions in the OG provide.

I did all the questions in both OG 11 and OG 12, twice over (with a gap of a month between the two attempts).
Again as all beatthegmat experts say its important that one not just solves all the sample questions but also reads the explanations (relevant for Verbal).

III. Download GMAT Prep Tests

The Holy Grail of GMAT Preparation tests (available at mba.com)

IV. Buy a Practice Test

In my opinion, it is important that one concentrates on exams from one test taker, so that one can track ones progress.
I bought the Manhattan GMAT Mock CATs, as I found in the forum that people consider it next only to GMAT Prep in terms of getting a feel of the real thing.

V. Give the Mock Tests

I consider that 2 GMAT Prep tests + 6 MGMAT CATs were just the right amount of practice that I needed before I gave the real thing.

I gave the first GMAT Prep test as my first exam and used the second one as the last of the mocks that I gave before the exam, with scores of 760 and 730 in the two respectively.

My 6 MGMATs came in between the two and the scores were as follows (all tests given under timed conditions):

CAT 1 (with AWA): 650 (Q: 45, V: 34) - I gave this exam at 2 AM in the night one of the days, just don't ask me why!
CAT 2 (w/o AWA): 680 (Q: 47, V: 36)
CAT 3 (w/o AWA): 730 (Q: 48, V: 41)
CAT 4 (w/o AWA): 730 (Q: 48, V: 42)
CAT 5 (w/o AWA): 730 (Q: 48, V: 41)
CAT 6 (w/o AWA): 780 (Q: 51, V: 45)

I would consider the 3rd and 4th to be truly representative of my actual potential as during the first two I was raw and the last two were way too easy.

Another measure used by many as a prediction of your actual score is the average MGMAT Score: mine is 716. It is said that your actual score should be a little over the average MGMAT score over the 6 tests.

It is also important that a couple of these tests be given along with the AWA. I gave two with the AWA (the first MGMAT and the second GMAT Prep) and it does give you a fell of the kind of concentration required to last the distance.

V. Review the Mock Tests

The important of this one act in improving your performance in the GMAT should never be underestimated. Going through review books and solving OG practice material is one thing, while reviewing your mistakes on simulated test environment is completely another.

VI. Use the Forum 'Appropriately'

beatthegmat forum has helped me tremendously in achieving my goals till now, ie getting a decent score in the test

I found the following benefits from this forum:

- Motivation: I just Beat the GMAT! is just the place you should start with. Read a couple of stories, get the fire in your belly and kick start the preparation

- Question Review: For any questions that I had difficulties on, both in the OGs and the Mock Tests, I turned to the forum to get detailed explanations on. On all cases, the question was already posted on the forum and thats why you would find that I have mostly been a passive participant on the forum.

- Strategies/Techniques: The various articles posted by experts from various test prep company experts are an enormous source of knowledge and information. I would go through these articles during my breaks and/or just before going to bed and some of these articles have provided greater insight into the various problem solving techniques and general GMAT related strategies.

Another point that I would like to make here is that though a lot of people use the forum for getting their hands on practice questions, I am one of those who disagree with this approach.

This is discussed in detail in this article from Stacey Koprince (MGMAT): I recommend it as a must read for all newbies to the forum.

Part III: Hearbeats and More

After two months of intense preparation, I finally gave the GMAT today.

During the last year one thought has always stayed with me: The day my target score would become an expectation, rather than a hope, I would know that I am ready for the test.

Today I expected to get at least a 730 and was hoping that with a bit of luck I should be able to touch 750. I was prepared and raring to go.

I had a 10 AM appointment and reached the center an hour in advance. I was the only one appearing for the GMAT today at this center today and it helped calm me down a little - there would be no one to disturb or distract.

The AWA section was straightforward. I had practiced along the lines presented in one of the templates and used the same without expending much effort.

By the time, I came back from the first break and began the quant section, I was completely in the "zone": my only focus was the question at hand and I swiftly moved from one question to the other. After MGMAT's quant, the real thing seemed simple enough to not bother me much. I finished the section with a minute to spare.

However, during the verbal exam, I found the questions much more tougher that those either in the GMAT Prep or the MGMAT. In fact, looking back, I feel MGMAT is really not up to standard as far as the verbal on the real thing goes. The questions got increasingly tougher and I was spending more time on each question than I would have liked to. By the time I reached the 25th question, there were only 20 mins left. My heart started pounding: I had really goofed up. All the effort put in over the last 2 months would end in vain. I tried to hurry through the questions in a RC section and by the time I was at the 32 question, only 11 minutes remained. My heart beat faster than before; Luck, it seemed, had decided to turn its back on me! My only aim was to finish the test in time and make as few continuous mistakes as possible. I hurried through a question after every 2-3 that I spent time on and managed to finish the section just in time.

In the end, I was disappointed in myself because I thought that if I had paid a little attention to timing in the begining I could have done better. Still I hoped that this mistake was not fatal. The 730 score in the end came more as a relief that my efforts were not wasted. Well, the MGMAT CATs had in fact predicted my score correctly.

With the first step in my road towards an MBA degree complete, I look next to utilize this brilliant forum in my application process.

Cheers!