I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello everyone on this forum. I am still on cloud nine and thought I will share my experience and things that worked for me while they are still fresh in my mind. This may be a long post so be patient..

Background:
I am a non-native with a BBA. I have been working as a financial analyst for one of the top firms in NY. I need an MBA to get into M&As and am targeting Columbia, Yale, Stern. Other than that I am convent educated (a Dipsite to be more precise) and keep really high standards for myself.

My preparation:

From the onset, I set out to score 750+, for nothing less would make me happy. I don't intend to be arrogant; it's just that I set my own goals and strive to achieve them. Back in school, when my friends aimed for Engineering and Medicine, I strived to get into one of the best BBA schools. Doing so makes me happy.


Panic in the first attempt (690, Q50, V32): I started my GMAT preparation in June, did MGMAT SC, powerscore CR, finished OG 11 and OG 12. I did 3 mock tests - 2 from MGMAT and 1 from GMATPrep. I was scoring about 720 in the MGMATs. However, I panicked in my verbal section and this dropped my verbal score down to 32. I was very angry with myself for I should not have attempted the exam till I had scored 750+ in the mock test. I decided to approach the GMAT more methodically the next time.

Second attempt- Crafting a strategy: It was clear that I needed to focus on Verbal. I read somewhere on this forum about a divide and rule strategy suggested by egmat. It made sense. I registered for their course and attended their live session to understand their approach in more detail. I looked up my previous mock test scores and realized that I needed to improve the most on my SC, and then CR. RC needed some improvement but not as much as CR. I devoted the next 2 weeks to improve SC; read the MGMAT SC again for the first 5 days and then did the eGMAT SC course for the remaining. Gave MGMAT mock (#3) and score 36 on verbal (12/15 SC, 8/14 CR, 8/12 RC). Was happy with my progress. Devoted the next 5 days to complete the egmat SC course. Then spent the next 10 days on CR (Powerscore and eGMAT) . Gave the mock test on 18th August and scored 39 (12/14 SC, 11/14 CR, 9/12 RC). Was happy to see that I was progressing. Decided to concentrate on RC for the next 10 days. Re-did OG 12 and Verbal review, looked for explanations on questions that I was not sure of. Reviewed my mistakes in the mock test. This time I scored 42, with very few mistakes (5 or 6 incorrect). I still had a couple of weeks before my exam. I revised my mistakes on the mock, the egmat course, certain sections of the MGMAT SC guide, and did OG(only the toughest problems) once again. I also spent some time on number properties to further improve my quant.

The D-day:
I did the regular stuff, made sure that I had a good sleep, did an ok breakfast, reached the center in time, and kept a cereal bar. I had a frappe to inject some extra caffeine in me. I also drank plenty of water to keep myself hydrated.

What worked for me

1.Well defined goals: I had defined byte sized goals for myself and had reasonable expectations of score increase. This helped me in 2 ways. One, it provided feedback that I was going in the right direction and second it incentivized me to do better. Every time I achieved a goal in Mock, I would reward myself either with a new dress or with a fancy dinner. This motivation helped a lot.
2.Defining a schedule: This is something that I am good at and I can recommend everyone. One take away that I would recommend is that keep 40% buffer while defining a schedule. This would allow time to be devoted for deep dive and same day revisions.
3.Taking vacation: I had 10 vacation days left. I took a vacation (2 days) every time I started revising a new section. This gave me a jump start and I was able to make a lot of progress early on. Again, this leads to positive reinforcement.
4.Revision: I recommend that you revise whatever course you do. Revise OG and verbal review twice. I did not study any new material in the last 15 days (other than the last GMATPREP) and I am glad for the same.

I still have my fingers crossed for my AWA although I think that I did pretty well. I will start my application next week and will look to interact with you then.

Congratulations....Its a awesome score...

Was the real exam tougher ,easier or same as gmat prep and OG.....?

Many congos for this awesome achievement. How did you improve Quant from 50 to 51. Any specific material that you referred ?

awesome score and gud suggestions...luv the way u've put it.
If you cud elaborate a lil abt ur test experience wud b great....Prep Vs ACtual etc...

Thanks everyone Actually I was surprised to see BTG email in my inbox today - felt honored that Eric (and the team) found my post "must read". Thanks BTG Team.

gmattaker20 wrote:Many congos for this awesome achievement. How did you improve Quant from 50 to 51. Any specific material that you referred ?

I focused on not repeating my mistakes...If you are already at 50, you pretty much know all the material. For me, after my first GMAT, I practiced solely from Grockit (part of my e-GMAT package). They have some good difficult questions. However the key to improving from 50 to 51 is not repeating the mistakes that you made earlier.

@ram2, Actual GMAT was pretty similar to GMATPrep. RC passages were slightly longer than ones in GMATPrep. But they essentially tested the same concepts that are tested in GMATprep.

As far as SC goes, the questions were very similar to the official questions. I recommend that you do both OG12 and verbal. There were 1-2 questions in which I was a bit confused between 2 answer choices and could not pin point the exact grammatical error in one of the choices but I could catch that this choice changed the intended meaning...definitely the e-GMAT process came in handy here...I know there is a lot of discussion about the change in SC. Personally its not a very drastic change. Just follow your logic...

So overall I felt that the difficulty level of actual and GMATPrep to be comparable. The only problem with GMATPrep is that while taking these tests, you may have already seen those questions earlier. Other than that the test is pretty logical...

Congratulations eastcoastrocks on your score and thanks so much for the information.
When you say "Revise OG and verbal review twice", you mean "The Official Guide for GMAT, Verbal Review" right?

Pardon me, I am new to this forum.

Thank you !!!!!!

@GiveHelpLearn: Yes, OG means Official Guide for GMAT.

Awesome score. It is nice to hear that a strictly defined schedule can really work.

Good luck with your applications

Congrats.

Can you tell me the difference in your approach to verbal section in the two attempts?

@east coast rocks : Thnks a lot for sharing ur exp...Gud Luck with ur apps

Awesome score! Your prep methodology and results give me lot of motivation to go ahead with my GMAT retake plan. Congrats once again

Have you completed your application to Columbia. how was the experience. I am planning to start my essays. any tips.

Another great debrief. I am starting to love this forum.