INTRO:
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I just gave the gmat today in bangalore
.Testing Centre : Nettur Technical Training Foundation, Bangalore
Score: 740 ( Updated from 730 after 1 question invalidation by GMAC ) .
About Me: Indian IT Male
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I have been preparing for GMAT from approx feb.
I am currently working and I took a 1 month Loss Of Pay to focus on gmat. So it was quite an investment( no salary this month!!
).I have been on this forum for some time now. I have also asked many questions specially in probability and am quite grateful that they were prompty and quickly replied. SO i would like to give back a little bit , by sharing my experience Here.
Preparation:
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60 Day Study Plan - I started preparing from feb. I had subscribed to the 60 day gmat study plan from Beat the Gmat, so i got all the mails well before my exam. It was very helpful. It also has one motivational quote per day
.I think it is not enough in itself.(I has subsscribed quite early, so i had all the mails in gmail. The Knewton videos referenced in the mail are very valuable.)Books:
1).OG 12 - Most Important - This is the First book I Read.I kept an error log and timed my problems.Initially i took about 4-5 minutes for quant, but on second attempt my practise times went down to 1.5 - 3 minutes. That was very motivating and i recommend it for all. I used the lap timer from my nokia cell phone. I also keep an error log. The modified one by saruba and spoilt is quite good. However, I donot beieve i was able to use the logs to their fullest. I did not refer them much. I suggest if u are more comfortable with a notebook, then go for that(it will be more handy and easier to flip through.). I completed the PS+DS 3 times. The third time i went through each problem thorougly and if i felt any problem gave me trouble or was difficult i wrote my comment in a note book with the problem no. This last one helped me as i quickly revised through this a day before the exam.
I did do a lot of writing as i think it helps me remember. All through my studies i kept taking note. Though i was not able to refer them often i think the writing helped. I filled almost half of a 200 page long book and 2 small books and a small notepad
.My advise to you would be to prepare some thing that you can revise the day before.
I also took a printout of the Mgmat flash cards. I could only go through them once, but they were helpful. I also signed up for grockit only 7 days b4 the test. So i could not use it much, but i found it was great and finished the quant study plan. The game mechanics of the site are very motivating.
Verbal:
SC - MGMAT SC : Awesome. Its huge. Took me almost a week to go through it, but was totally worth it. A must have i would say.
RC : MGmat RC : It was helpful.There are some good techniques mentioned here.
PowerScore CR Bible : An awesome book, I could only read it once and i am not sure if i could practice all the principles properly, but it was extremely helpful. Very detailed , again a must have.
Because of these books I did not revise the OG verbal section much. I finished the OG RC and CR once and SC twice.
Again i did not get much time to revise, but i wrote a lot while studying and took notes. Revising these notes were helpful.
Practice Test: MGMAT and Gmat Prep.
TEST STRATEGY
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Gmat prep1 : 650
Gmat prep1 : 680
Gmat prep1 : 700(many questions repeated)
Gmat prep1 : 740 (almost all questions repeated, but did help boost my ego!!
) Yes i took the 1st test multiple times. These were mostly one after the other. And the increase in score is due to repeated questions.MGmat : 670 , 680 , 700 , 720 , 750(the day b4 the exam : This really prepped up my confidence.)
Imp Observation: The Gmat quant is easier than MGMAT quant, but if you are tense, you will make some extra mistakes and end up with the same score
. The verbal section on GMAT was a killer difficult. Except the RC , some CR and a few SC i could not make out whether i was right or wrong. Most of the times i had to Ans by the ear using my instincts. I did get some what tense, as i was focusing too much on the time left.I made this timing tabe before Verbal and Quant. They helped to keep my feet on the ground through out the exam.
The left is the number of questions and on the right the time left.
Quant
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0 - 75
5 - 67
10 - 58
15 - 49
20 - 39
25 - 29
30 - 19
35 - 9
Note for quant: There is supposed to be a 10 minute gap , but during the practise tests i
routinely found that i have to rush the last few questions. I also found that since the
initial questions were a bit easier, i was able to finish them early and got
overconfident, but slowed down and had to rush towards the end when tougher questions came.
so to compensate i added 4 minues early on. This really helped. On the actual test i had
5 minutes for the last 2 questions and it helped me keep my pace.
Verbal
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0 - 75
5 - 66
10 - 57
15 - 48
20 - 39
25 - 30
30 - 21
35 - 12
40 - 03
Note for Verbal: The Table did help in verbal , but i tended not to look much. I took my usual time reading or I just skipped. There is also a good section out there on RC Skimming or Skipping, do go through it.
However i did not have much time to practise it , so i just read all the RCs full.
I was able to complete verbal on time.
UNEXPECTED:
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One strange thing about RC. On the actual test i got an RC which was just one looong PARA. Was kind of scary, so wanted to let you guys know. Be prepared.
TEST CENTRE FEEDBACK:
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Name: Nettur Technical Training Foundation
FEEDBACK : Its Good. Many people will write many things. So I suggest you take a morning off and go visit the centre.
Its actually a BIG College with diploma courses going on. It if you get a favourable time slot , you can opt for this.
The bathroom is 1.5 min walk away at medium pace. But Facilities are good.
AWA: There is a good article at :
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6- ... 64327.html
I just took a printout and went thought it. I wrote essays with all the mock tests i took.
Final points of advise:
-> Make sure you recognize patterns in Quant, as this will help speed you up. Also, try to keep a small list of the most imp idioms, so that you can regularly revise those you are not familiar with .
-> Give it time. I studied for nearly 3 months, with 1 month only at home. Though many here have cracked it with far less effort. I guess you need to judge yourself and decide how much time you will need and then invest it.
-> Keep Calm and cool during exam.
-> Try to eat light, donot be hungry or bloated.
-> Visit the Test center once earlier. My test center was nettur in bangalore. Many people have advised against it, but I think it is quite ok. One complaint people have is the restroom is pretty far. Actually its not that far, at medium pace it is possible to walk to the restroom, do your thing
, wash your face and come back to the center in flat 3 minutes. ( I timed it ) . So its kind of ok.-> Also i had glucose powder ( glucon D ) with me and had a little in every break. I think it helped keep me alert.
-> Take some practice exams in proper simulated environment. It will help you get used to the test and reduce tension. (For me, inspite of taking 6 tests i felt a bit tense, i donot know what would have happened other wise.)
-> Donot forget to click on " Report my score " within 2 mins. ( i no it looks like a no-brainer, but the pressure of the moment may get you and b4 u know it , u r scores might get cancelled of u dont make the selection ).
-> Get an idea, which institutes and what programs in that institute you want to send your scores to. I had a general idea, but did not know about the different programmes in it. So was a bit confused. Still not sure if i sent it to the right programme
!!.-> Finally and most important : Whatever happens, know that you did u r best.
Thats all
I will end with a quote,which i got from one of the 60 day study plan mails :
"It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly"
- Regards
