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mvikred
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:40 am
- Location: Mumbai, India
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Having read so many stories here, I always wondered if I'd be sharing my experience here. I'm glad to share with all the BTG folks that I did get a pretty decent score. After struggling with it and fighting it for so much time, I am happy to plug one weak area of my profile.
I have to mention here that this was my third attempt. Last time I wrote GMAT (2 years back), I barely prepared and to be very frank never respected the exam. Thought it was a piece of cake and all I had to do was to show up for the exam and own it. The first time, the exam owned me .... totally. Adamant that I was (also over confident), I reappeared for the exam within a month and guess what? ... The damn exam owned me once again. No surprises there. I had not prepared for the exam once again. My priorities were all messed up. Eventually I decided to focus on my career and gave up on GMAT .. for some time.
In the two years since then, I've started working with Deloitte, got promoted once, got married, flew every weekend between two cities for almost a year, and moved to a city with my wife. With so much going on, I was just not sure when to take the GMAT again. Finally, it struck me that I had to get my MBA now. Thats when I seriously relooked at GMAT. I set my self end of September as a deadline (Got pushed to Mid October because of an engagement). I took two weeks off in August and started preparing seriously. I knew that I could not do the same mistakes that I did in the past and that this would be my last shot and I had to make it count.
As I went through GMAT club forums and BTG forums, I came across e-gmat. I took a decision that very moment and signed up for their online course. That course really helped me out. Also signed up for the MGMAT tests. Those two weeks in August gave me a lot of confidence. First week of september I took my first practice tests on MGMAT. Scored a 670. I was a little disappointed. But realized that it was my first test and it would only get better. Scored a 690 on the 2nd MGMAT test. Happy with the score improvement, I took a GMATPrep prac test (the older version). Scored a 720. I knew I was right on track. Encouraged I took an MGMAT test the next day. Scored a 740. I was on top of the world. I was ready for GMAT. I took all these tests in the first week of September.
Right at the time I decided to take a date, I had to be present at a board meeting of an engagement. It was one of those times when the engagement managers and partners make you feel like you are an in-disposable resource and they really needed me. So I decided that I still had some time and pushed the GMAT by another two weeks.
Three weeks of intense work and we were done with our engagement. Immediately I book a date on 15th of October. I was still on a high of my previous 740 and thought I just had to get back to the exam mode. On 2nd October, I took a 4th MGMAT test. My score dropped to 680 (this number is annoying - seems like a threshold that annoys a good number of GMAT givers). As I sat back and thought to myself the possible reasons for not score above 700, I identified a very important trait of mine.
I am a 'muscle memory' guy. When I practice for my drums, I do an exercise multiple times, until a point when I am not consciously thinking about the groove any more and my body just responds at the mere thought of it. I realized I had to do the same for GMAT. And I knew I wasn't there and 2 weeks was all I had to get there.
I went through the entire e-gmat course once again. Went through the entire MGMAT SC book. Did the e-gmat course once more. Started solving the GMAT 12th edition and GMAT verbal review 1st edition. I kept at it every single day until last week. Last week on Tuesday I took my first practice test (and the last on MGMAT), I scored a 700. Was glad that it was not below the 700 mark. But was not happy about it either.
Realized that I had some more work to do. Did the e-gmat course once again and did the MGMAT SC once again. Also took a week off. For 7 days I ate verbal, dreamed of verbal, and slept with verbal. I have to tell you that I did not revise .. not once for my quant. In the first test I scored 700, I realized that my mind's analytical ability was down as I approached the last 20 questions. I was not able to put things together and think them through. That's where I needed the muscle memory to kick in. Take decisions sub consciously and not let me think so much.
In the process I came across the new GMAT Prep version. Downloaded it and did the first test again. Scored a 700. I must tell you, this was the time when I was really disappointed. I had done one of the GMAT Prep tests and here I was doing it again and even with a few repeat questions I scored a 700. My verbal score was 35 or so. Finally after thinking about nothing but verbal, I gave my last GMAT Prep test. This time, I scored a 740. I was happy. I did not want to give it up there. I somehow felt that the last test was easy and it was not a true representation of how I would perform on the test day. I found the additional questions that I could buy on GMAT. I bought them and on 12th, 13th, and 14th, I solved all the verbal questions on the add-on pack.
On 14th afternoon, I solved all the hard CR and SC questions from the add-on pack of the GMAT Prep software and scored an accuracy of 98%. This was under no stress and I had solved over 40 questions at a stretch. I was relatively confident at this point.
Test Day. 15th October. Everything went smoothly until Verbal just as I had expected. Come verbal and I felt fairly confident for the first 15 questions. Just as last two times at this point my mind starts playing tricks. Its tired and it looks at every other option and thinks its the right answer. However, this time I was prepared. I was going by instincts. There were a couple of questions, where I was dancing between two options and taking way too much time. But my instinct (read my muscle memory) was saving me big time. I was still not sure when I finished the last question. I went through the rest of the screens quickly to see my score. I was really not sure how it had gone. I was not at all sure about my verbal. However, I knew it wouldn't be as bad as a 680. And there it was .. a 730. It was a relief. It really was .. to see a score above 700.
I hope there are a few things that you guys can pick up from what I wrote above. Cheers !!
ps: Pardon the language. I quickly scribbled this after I came back from the test center. Did not proof read it before hitting 'Sumbit'
I have to mention here that this was my third attempt. Last time I wrote GMAT (2 years back), I barely prepared and to be very frank never respected the exam. Thought it was a piece of cake and all I had to do was to show up for the exam and own it. The first time, the exam owned me .... totally. Adamant that I was (also over confident), I reappeared for the exam within a month and guess what? ... The damn exam owned me once again. No surprises there. I had not prepared for the exam once again. My priorities were all messed up. Eventually I decided to focus on my career and gave up on GMAT .. for some time.
In the two years since then, I've started working with Deloitte, got promoted once, got married, flew every weekend between two cities for almost a year, and moved to a city with my wife. With so much going on, I was just not sure when to take the GMAT again. Finally, it struck me that I had to get my MBA now. Thats when I seriously relooked at GMAT. I set my self end of September as a deadline (Got pushed to Mid October because of an engagement). I took two weeks off in August and started preparing seriously. I knew that I could not do the same mistakes that I did in the past and that this would be my last shot and I had to make it count.
As I went through GMAT club forums and BTG forums, I came across e-gmat. I took a decision that very moment and signed up for their online course. That course really helped me out. Also signed up for the MGMAT tests. Those two weeks in August gave me a lot of confidence. First week of september I took my first practice tests on MGMAT. Scored a 670. I was a little disappointed. But realized that it was my first test and it would only get better. Scored a 690 on the 2nd MGMAT test. Happy with the score improvement, I took a GMATPrep prac test (the older version). Scored a 720. I knew I was right on track. Encouraged I took an MGMAT test the next day. Scored a 740. I was on top of the world. I was ready for GMAT. I took all these tests in the first week of September.
Right at the time I decided to take a date, I had to be present at a board meeting of an engagement. It was one of those times when the engagement managers and partners make you feel like you are an in-disposable resource and they really needed me. So I decided that I still had some time and pushed the GMAT by another two weeks.
Three weeks of intense work and we were done with our engagement. Immediately I book a date on 15th of October. I was still on a high of my previous 740 and thought I just had to get back to the exam mode. On 2nd October, I took a 4th MGMAT test. My score dropped to 680 (this number is annoying - seems like a threshold that annoys a good number of GMAT givers). As I sat back and thought to myself the possible reasons for not score above 700, I identified a very important trait of mine.
I am a 'muscle memory' guy. When I practice for my drums, I do an exercise multiple times, until a point when I am not consciously thinking about the groove any more and my body just responds at the mere thought of it. I realized I had to do the same for GMAT. And I knew I wasn't there and 2 weeks was all I had to get there.
I went through the entire e-gmat course once again. Went through the entire MGMAT SC book. Did the e-gmat course once more. Started solving the GMAT 12th edition and GMAT verbal review 1st edition. I kept at it every single day until last week. Last week on Tuesday I took my first practice test (and the last on MGMAT), I scored a 700. Was glad that it was not below the 700 mark. But was not happy about it either.
Realized that I had some more work to do. Did the e-gmat course once again and did the MGMAT SC once again. Also took a week off. For 7 days I ate verbal, dreamed of verbal, and slept with verbal. I have to tell you that I did not revise .. not once for my quant. In the first test I scored 700, I realized that my mind's analytical ability was down as I approached the last 20 questions. I was not able to put things together and think them through. That's where I needed the muscle memory to kick in. Take decisions sub consciously and not let me think so much.
In the process I came across the new GMAT Prep version. Downloaded it and did the first test again. Scored a 700. I must tell you, this was the time when I was really disappointed. I had done one of the GMAT Prep tests and here I was doing it again and even with a few repeat questions I scored a 700. My verbal score was 35 or so. Finally after thinking about nothing but verbal, I gave my last GMAT Prep test. This time, I scored a 740. I was happy. I did not want to give it up there. I somehow felt that the last test was easy and it was not a true representation of how I would perform on the test day. I found the additional questions that I could buy on GMAT. I bought them and on 12th, 13th, and 14th, I solved all the verbal questions on the add-on pack.
On 14th afternoon, I solved all the hard CR and SC questions from the add-on pack of the GMAT Prep software and scored an accuracy of 98%. This was under no stress and I had solved over 40 questions at a stretch. I was relatively confident at this point.
Test Day. 15th October. Everything went smoothly until Verbal just as I had expected. Come verbal and I felt fairly confident for the first 15 questions. Just as last two times at this point my mind starts playing tricks. Its tired and it looks at every other option and thinks its the right answer. However, this time I was prepared. I was going by instincts. There were a couple of questions, where I was dancing between two options and taking way too much time. But my instinct (read my muscle memory) was saving me big time. I was still not sure when I finished the last question. I went through the rest of the screens quickly to see my score. I was really not sure how it had gone. I was not at all sure about my verbal. However, I knew it wouldn't be as bad as a 680. And there it was .. a 730. It was a relief. It really was .. to see a score above 700.
I hope there are a few things that you guys can pick up from what I wrote above. Cheers !!
ps: Pardon the language. I quickly scribbled this after I came back from the test center. Did not proof read it before hitting 'Sumbit'
Last edited by mvikred on Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
Any tips to push the accuracy in upwards of 90% in CR?
