-
digvijayk
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 113
- Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:24 am
- Location: GMAT Strategy Kingdom
- Thanked: 43 times
- Followed by:5 members
- GMAT Score:720
Beaten by the GMAT many times, yes many times! I don't even want anyone to go through what I did. The journey began innocently enough with a wish to go to ivy league schools, equipped with the worst GMAT prep resources possible - A Barron's book and free test from a company I don't even remember. That got me a 610.
Then I prepared better and got a 680 and then to make things worse a 690, after infinite amounts of prep(yes infinite - mindless hours wasted away practicing anything even remotely GMAT-ish).
Then I decided to follow Ron and left practicing things the wrong way. Mindless practice can't do anything for anyone. It never pays, especially in case of verbal: your score is inversely proportional to the time you put in for practice!
Of course, there are still so many instructors out there who keep telling people to practice like crazy and never tell them HOW to practice!
GMAT : 720 Q48 V41
De-Brief:
My journey began by just researching what Ron said on this forum and on the Manhattan forums. I mean he has THE 800 score and obviously that didn't just come by chance. My study methods adjusted to what he said - you practice 15-20 problems a day and analyze the hec out of them till you get a takeaway, you practice under timed conditions and you learn to quit when you are stuck. That is what I did. I also developed a timing strategy and a quitting strategy based on the "Thursdays with Ron" sessions and that helped me tremendously!
There were numerous subtle points which I picked up from those videos which could fill up entire volumes.
I learnt the hard way that there never is any good reason to practice infinitely.
Main improvement was in my verbal score. My quant score has stayed the same ever since I took my first GMAT.
RC Improvement: I improved my RC by combining various tips and techniques I found on the internet, from friends and from everywhere else. The thing that mainly changed was that I started reading the passages better and eliminating more ferociously. What I mean is that while reading passages, I'd slow down around transition words and I'd just try to GET the passage as a whole, no longer delving into details. And my elimination strategy improved as I started eliminating answer choices by scrutinizing each and every word of every answer choice- earlier I used to read the whole answer choice and use that as the basis of my elimination, which is the wrong way to do things.
CR Improvement: I improved CR by simply breaking down the argument to its basic structural elements- facts, premises, background, intermediate and main conclusion- Easier said than done. But i did that in most arguments and used the negation method to solve the questions of assumption. I improved in evaluate questions by simply removing "whether" and observing which answer choice strengthened or weakened the answer choice- there will always be just one such answer choice( so no evaluating required really).
SC Improvement: I was always good at SC. It is the easiest section to improve in, but after a while you run out of exceptions and rules on SC, whereas you do not need rules on RC and CR, which is why they were easier for me to improve in as I do not like to nor am capable of memorizing rules or idioms etc. But, yes, SC was improved by watching Ron's videos, which simply showed me how to observe differences in answer choices and what those differences meant meaning-wise. This thought process helped me improve in SC tremendously.
Quant: No practice done, hence the ok score. Utilized diagrams and tables wherever necessary.
Final word on improvement- Improvements happen during the "Aha" moments where you learn something new- a new approach or a concept while analyzing after practice, "Aha Moments" rarely take place by practicing things without analysis. For instance, if I gave you an exception to a rule in SC, how many questions are there in OG testing that exception and once you grasp a concept, what use is there of practice ? So, beyond a few questions, not much practice is required.
Also, I was getting 100%s on CR and SC and a bit of variation in RC when I went for taking the test. In fact I actually did not do well on one particular RC passage in my real test, I realized my mistake while on the 3rd question- and the RC had 3 questions only, so I got 2 out of 3 wrong and still scored a 41.
Major Score Booster: Rest! Yes, I took many breaks during my preparation. That was the major change in my strategy. You need to rest. Even before the test I rested for 2 days. To answer the question which has been posted elsewhere about the resting strategy, the fact is you cannot forget anything about GMAT prep in 2 or 10 days, because there isn't much to remember in the first place! You will not forget what a median is or that angles on a straight line or within a triangle or in a semi-circle always add up to be 180 degrees. You will also not forget to be super careful while eliminating answer choices for RC passages, so why worry about missing a beat. You infact perform better when rested and that's what I did. I took planned breaks and did not practice for more than an hour or two max. I did watch online videos but I did not engage in mindless practice which I did earlier in my prep.
G-Day:
I was a bit nervous the night before, not because I thought I wasn't going to perform, but because I knew that this was the last time I was taking the GMAT and that whatever score I would get, I would have to live with that score without another attempt. Rested, talked to my friend till about 4 in the morning then dozed off. Woke up around 11, deliberately forcing myself to rest a bit more. Got ready, the test center was a bit far and I had already called a cab. My bag of goodies - passport, red-bull and 2 snickers had been packed 2 days ago - was ready. I reached the test center without fuss and handed over my passport to the invigilator. He recognized me from a few months ago and I told him I am going to get a great score today. Filled up the paper work just in time to start the exam. Breezed through the essay and the IR section. Took a break, but did not eat anything, just drank a few sips of water. Started with quant. Found some new kind of questions in the quant section - There was a question on a graph, kind of like an IR question, and I did not get either head or tail of that question, so guessed and moved on. I left(guessed) at least 3 questions in the quant section which I know I got wrong too. Anyways, used the back-up methods whenever required. Took the break and munched on one and a half bars of snickers( there wasn't any time to finish both bars) and a can full of red-bull - the best lunch ever! Went back and literally breezed through the entire section without getting stuck. The only time I paused was when I realized during the 3rd question of an RC passage that I had answered the previous 2 questions incorrectly, which meant my score must have dropped by at least 20 points. But I knew I was doing well. Finished the verbal section with 3 minutes to spare. Clicked through the rest of the pages- GMAC have most of my info by now so did not need to fill anything up. Clicked on "report score" and saw the 720. Did not even care to look at the score break-ups. Did not care. Got out and called up my girlfriend and then my mum. Done with the GMAT forever.
The timing strategy given by Ron and the MGMAT tests are all that you really need to succeed. Do not take infinite tests, I was scoring in the 750-760 ranges but the tests were repeats for me, so the scores were inflated and that is why I haven't put them up here.
That's all from me. All I have to say is that, please just rest, relax and learn concepts and traps, not rules or formulae, you don't need them on the GMAT. Adios Amigos!
Then I prepared better and got a 680 and then to make things worse a 690, after infinite amounts of prep(yes infinite - mindless hours wasted away practicing anything even remotely GMAT-ish).
Then I decided to follow Ron and left practicing things the wrong way. Mindless practice can't do anything for anyone. It never pays, especially in case of verbal: your score is inversely proportional to the time you put in for practice!
Of course, there are still so many instructors out there who keep telling people to practice like crazy and never tell them HOW to practice!
GMAT : 720 Q48 V41
De-Brief:
My journey began by just researching what Ron said on this forum and on the Manhattan forums. I mean he has THE 800 score and obviously that didn't just come by chance. My study methods adjusted to what he said - you practice 15-20 problems a day and analyze the hec out of them till you get a takeaway, you practice under timed conditions and you learn to quit when you are stuck. That is what I did. I also developed a timing strategy and a quitting strategy based on the "Thursdays with Ron" sessions and that helped me tremendously!
There were numerous subtle points which I picked up from those videos which could fill up entire volumes.
I learnt the hard way that there never is any good reason to practice infinitely.
Main improvement was in my verbal score. My quant score has stayed the same ever since I took my first GMAT.
RC Improvement: I improved my RC by combining various tips and techniques I found on the internet, from friends and from everywhere else. The thing that mainly changed was that I started reading the passages better and eliminating more ferociously. What I mean is that while reading passages, I'd slow down around transition words and I'd just try to GET the passage as a whole, no longer delving into details. And my elimination strategy improved as I started eliminating answer choices by scrutinizing each and every word of every answer choice- earlier I used to read the whole answer choice and use that as the basis of my elimination, which is the wrong way to do things.
CR Improvement: I improved CR by simply breaking down the argument to its basic structural elements- facts, premises, background, intermediate and main conclusion- Easier said than done. But i did that in most arguments and used the negation method to solve the questions of assumption. I improved in evaluate questions by simply removing "whether" and observing which answer choice strengthened or weakened the answer choice- there will always be just one such answer choice( so no evaluating required really).
SC Improvement: I was always good at SC. It is the easiest section to improve in, but after a while you run out of exceptions and rules on SC, whereas you do not need rules on RC and CR, which is why they were easier for me to improve in as I do not like to nor am capable of memorizing rules or idioms etc. But, yes, SC was improved by watching Ron's videos, which simply showed me how to observe differences in answer choices and what those differences meant meaning-wise. This thought process helped me improve in SC tremendously.
Quant: No practice done, hence the ok score. Utilized diagrams and tables wherever necessary.
Final word on improvement- Improvements happen during the "Aha" moments where you learn something new- a new approach or a concept while analyzing after practice, "Aha Moments" rarely take place by practicing things without analysis. For instance, if I gave you an exception to a rule in SC, how many questions are there in OG testing that exception and once you grasp a concept, what use is there of practice ? So, beyond a few questions, not much practice is required.
Also, I was getting 100%s on CR and SC and a bit of variation in RC when I went for taking the test. In fact I actually did not do well on one particular RC passage in my real test, I realized my mistake while on the 3rd question- and the RC had 3 questions only, so I got 2 out of 3 wrong and still scored a 41.
Major Score Booster: Rest! Yes, I took many breaks during my preparation. That was the major change in my strategy. You need to rest. Even before the test I rested for 2 days. To answer the question which has been posted elsewhere about the resting strategy, the fact is you cannot forget anything about GMAT prep in 2 or 10 days, because there isn't much to remember in the first place! You will not forget what a median is or that angles on a straight line or within a triangle or in a semi-circle always add up to be 180 degrees. You will also not forget to be super careful while eliminating answer choices for RC passages, so why worry about missing a beat. You infact perform better when rested and that's what I did. I took planned breaks and did not practice for more than an hour or two max. I did watch online videos but I did not engage in mindless practice which I did earlier in my prep.
G-Day:
I was a bit nervous the night before, not because I thought I wasn't going to perform, but because I knew that this was the last time I was taking the GMAT and that whatever score I would get, I would have to live with that score without another attempt. Rested, talked to my friend till about 4 in the morning then dozed off. Woke up around 11, deliberately forcing myself to rest a bit more. Got ready, the test center was a bit far and I had already called a cab. My bag of goodies - passport, red-bull and 2 snickers had been packed 2 days ago - was ready. I reached the test center without fuss and handed over my passport to the invigilator. He recognized me from a few months ago and I told him I am going to get a great score today. Filled up the paper work just in time to start the exam. Breezed through the essay and the IR section. Took a break, but did not eat anything, just drank a few sips of water. Started with quant. Found some new kind of questions in the quant section - There was a question on a graph, kind of like an IR question, and I did not get either head or tail of that question, so guessed and moved on. I left(guessed) at least 3 questions in the quant section which I know I got wrong too. Anyways, used the back-up methods whenever required. Took the break and munched on one and a half bars of snickers( there wasn't any time to finish both bars) and a can full of red-bull - the best lunch ever! Went back and literally breezed through the entire section without getting stuck. The only time I paused was when I realized during the 3rd question of an RC passage that I had answered the previous 2 questions incorrectly, which meant my score must have dropped by at least 20 points. But I knew I was doing well. Finished the verbal section with 3 minutes to spare. Clicked through the rest of the pages- GMAC have most of my info by now so did not need to fill anything up. Clicked on "report score" and saw the 720. Did not even care to look at the score break-ups. Did not care. Got out and called up my girlfriend and then my mum. Done with the GMAT forever.
The timing strategy given by Ron and the MGMAT tests are all that you really need to succeed. Do not take infinite tests, I was scoring in the 750-760 ranges but the tests were repeats for me, so the scores were inflated and that is why I haven't put them up here.
That's all from me. All I have to say is that, please just rest, relax and learn concepts and traps, not rules or formulae, you don't need them on the GMAT. Adios Amigos!
Last edited by digvijayk on Sat Aug 02, 2014 11:52 am, edited 2 times in total.
