I just Beat The GMAT!

I just got the official score email. Here's the final score:

(V47/99%) (Q50/90%) (Overall 770/99%) (AWA 6.0/90%) (IR: 7/82%)

As promised, I am writing my GMAT journey and preparation tips.

THE MBA JOURNEY
Its going to be a long post so get your granola bars and your gatorade and hang on tight.

My journey towards an MBA was propelled by three different events. Without going into too many details, on April 28, 2012, I decided that I was going to apply for an MBA the coming year. At this point, I was as green as they come with regards to what getting an MBA entails. After going to mba.com and some other sites, I somehow ended up at catprep.com website and took their free demo GMAT test. After taking the test, in which I had no idea what DS or CR or RC was, I ended up with this score:

Q:34
V:17
for a total of 460.
I didn't even know what 460 meant. I looked around and found out that this was a Needless to say, even though this was a diagnostic (and probably not all that accurate), I was pretty devastated. However, this just made me even more determined. By luck or by destiny, I found a couple of things that would be instrumental in my prep. First was twinnsplitter's debrief at urch. The second was becoming a member of beatthegmat.

In the next few days, I got the first book for my GMAT preparation, the Powerscore LSAT LR Bible. I would read this book for 30 minutes everyday. In addition to that, I started visiting the forum regularly. Then, I took was the next big step in my journey. I was getting such incredible knowledge from the forum. I had always been a silent observer on any forum I have ever joined, but for some reason I felt compelled to post my first post. Believe it or not, it was huge for me. I posted 4-5 more replies that day. By this time, I had gone through the first half of the LSAT bible and looked at the BTG flashcards, so I started answering math and CR questions on the forum.

On May 18, 2012, I thought that since my work was going to be really busy, I should give myself 3 months to write the exam. So I registered to write the exam for August 18, 2012. The first thing I did, (which I suggested each of you do early in your preparation), is give the GMATPrep exam, to see where I was at that point and whether I had improved from my 3 week old score of 460.

I ran out of time on the exam on the quantitative part, so I guessed the last 5 questions. In verbal, the story was a little better as I was able to pace much better. I ended up with the following score:
GMATPrep 1: Q49, V47 - Total 770.
I didn't know what to make of the score, but I reviewed my test and realized a couple of things:

1. I had 9 questions incorrect in Math out of 37 (and 3 of the correct ones were guesses). So, I needed to work on Math a lot more.
2. On verbal, I had made no mistakes in CR and RC (though I did have a few guesses in the exam), and the score had dropped solely on the basis of SC. I would need to work on sentence correction.

For math and for verbal, I bought OG12. I started off with tackling math first.
Over the next month or so, I would become intimately familiar with OG12 math. I didn't touch sentence correction until a month later. I found the Math Review in OG12 and GMATPrep software sufficient for my preparation. If I didn't know a concept at any point, I would either scour the BTG posts, or just search on the internet. I have never been partial to a single source of knowledge in my life and this was no exception. I would grab knowledge from wherever I could get.
For the next month, I did OG SC and CR. I think I did 3RCs. I never got any wrong, so I figured why waste the time. I would always make some mistakes in SC (typically got 90% right), so I bought MGMAT SC guide to fill that gap.

In the final month before the exam, I was exhausted at a point, the combination of work + helping out people + GMAT prep was tiring me out. So, I stopped prepping for a few days and just relaxed. This helped me take a much needed mental break. In the ensuing 3 weeks before the exam, I would go on to:-
1. Become the top member on BTG. (A big change for someone who had never posted online a couple of months ago).
2. Start tutoring people for GMAT, one offline, and one online.
3. Redo the entire OG (By entire I mean, the last 80 questions in DS and PS, last 50 CR, and last 5 RCs).

In the final week before the exam, I took my third MGMAT test, I scored a 780, I was satisfied with my score.

At this point, I was doing really well in my practice, I had the streak of around a 100 quant questions without a single mistake.

Two days before the exam: I took my final GMATPrep that I had been saving. I scored a 780. I was happy, but I understood the implications. The IR questions had repeated from three months ago, so I was able to do all of them correctly. Also, at this point, I thought of doing some AWA practice. I bought the GMAT Write thing from mba.com. I got 6 on all things so I finalized my template, and figured that was enough practice for AWA. Being good in CR, and posting in BTG had done two things.
It had improved my typing speed and I could find flaws in arguments in an instant.

The day before the exam, I didn't do any studying. However, I would do something that I would come to regret later. Since I didn't have anything else to do, I grilled some chicken breasts in the afternoon. To my dismay, I didn't cook them properly and I would end up getting food poisoning later that night. Several bouts with stomach-ache and pain later, in which a bottle of pepto would end up getting consumed, I finally was able to go to sleep at 3am at night. My alarm woke me up at 5am, after a couple of hours. I still wasn't in the best of shapes but the pain was somewhat manageable. I popped in a couple of Advil and was on my way.

I arrived at the center at 7:30am, and after id and scanning, began my test at 8am. There were bouts with sharp pain and waning concentration due to sleepiness owing to a maniacal concoction of insomnia and Advil. I'll keep those details to myself. To cut the long story a little short, just before noon, I was out of the test center with a 770 report in my hand. I called my folks, texted my students and was back on my way home.

So this was the journey, or the long and short of it.

Here are the books and links I used to prepare for the various parts of the exam (In order of their appearance in the exam).

PREP TIPS
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AWA:
1. A couple of days before the exam, I scoured the site and created my own template based on the comments. The next thing I did was that I bought GMAT write, wrote my first full essay and got 6.0 on the essay. I re-read my essay to find a few spelling errors. I made a mental note of checking my essay before submission during the real thing.

For the AWA, I would say the most important things are:
1. Have a good introduction and a conclusion.
2. Use your sentence correction knowledge to write active, concise and parallel sentences. Use your not only.....but also, and your either......or's. I did. Also, remember that concise does not mean short or simple. Use modifiers and write long winded complex sentences to show your knowledge of the language.
3. For the body, write three paragraphs, discussing only one major flaw in the argument in each.
4. Give examples in each of these 3 paragraphs.
5. Always show how the author can make his argument stronger. Don't just dismiss the argument nonchalantly.
6. Have your own template and practice writing it at least once.
7. Have fun with it.

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IR:

The only thing I did for the IR were the free questions on GMATPrep and sample questions from mba.com.

If you feel like getting more practice, do the 50 questions which come free with OG13, or you can buy the pack at mba.com.

I don't think IR will matter a lot in the coming few months or even a few years, as b-schools get a handle on how to interpret and correlate it.

For IR the most important things are:

1. Do the practice questions within time.
2. If you have no idea about a question, skip and move on.
3. The IR part is non-adaptive, so try to answer the questions that you can.
4. Have fun with it.
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Before starting off your prep, take a full GMATPrep exam to diagnose your current level and note where you need to improve. There seems to be a misconception among people that they need to "save" both the tests for accurate representation of what they are going to get. Things could not be further from the truth. I would strongly advocate taking the test to measure your speed and start preparing for the exam with the right mindset. You can save the other exam for later. If you need more practice, MGMAT exams are free with any of their guides.

Quant:
Quant in GMAT is all about executing a game plan. You should have a plan for the best and the worst days. I had a pretty horrible day before and during the exam. But I was mentally prepared for anything. Make planning your friend. GMAT is a reasoning exam above all. However, you need to and should have standard ways of solving or recognizing how to proceed towards a question. If you have no idea, be prepared to skip by guessing intelligently. Learn to backsolve, plugging in, non-standard approaches etc.

1. Make sure that you know the math review in GMATPrep by heart. While we are on the subject of GMATPrep, I feel the 20 something dollar investment in the extra 404 questions is a worthwhile one for extra practice.

I am proud to say that I prepared my quant from BeattheGMAT. I would read a question, then start the timer, and then solve the question within two minutes. If I could not or if I found something worth noting, I would bookmark the question. I would post my solution for all to see. This did two things. First, I stayed within time. Second, I made sure that my mistakes were low in number thereby increasing my confidence.

OG is the bible as far as practice questions go. For additional questions, practice on BTG. It doesn't matter whether you have OG12 or OG13. Make sure that you understand every question in the book.

DS: Focus your time to solve as many number properties and overlapping sets questions as you can.
I was unfamiliar with DS questions when I started my journey. I had mastered doing them by the end of my preparation. A couple of weeks before the exam, I did the entire 115 question set in GMATPrep and only got 1 wrong.

A number of people find DS daunting.Here are my tips on tackling specific DS questions.

1. For Geometry questions:- Redraw the figure on your scrap paper, write down all the information on the paper and call the unknown (typically an angle) x. Explore every property that you know about the figure and write down other variables. By the end of this exercise, as you read the first two statements, the answer will typically be apparent within seconds.

2. For profit/loss, number-percentage, weighted average questions.
Figure out whether you need a fraction or a number for sufficient data. This will save you time and agony on 90% of the questions. Learn the balance method for 2-part mixtures. You can search my posts for more theory and practice.

3. For overlapping sets, matrix method will never fail you. The OGs explain it in detail. Practice and make it your friend.

4. For number theory questions, practice, practice, practice. However, here are some general things that you can do. Always rephrase when possible, making the right hand side. Keep practicing till you start getting the feel of the questions.

The most important thing about your GMAT prep is that always practice at least 10 quant questions everyday (other than your rest day). Also, have a rest day when you do nothing GMAT related. Go out, play video games, do anything that makes you feel better.

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CR:

The powerscore bible is the best. I only had the LR Bible because I got it from a friend. It is better to buy the CR Bible if you have the choice. Make sure you understand what's:
1. A premise
2. A counter-premise
3. The conclusion (Also known as the argument, the author's claim etc.).

If you know these basics, you will always be able to tackle CR questions.

Also, and this will sound counter-intuitive to you, bold-face CR questions are actually the easiest to do once you spot the conclusion. There is a certain art that I developed to do such a CR question. This is how it works.

Before reading the options:-
Step 1: Identify the conclusion.
Step 2: Identify the roles of the bold parts in your head.
Step 3: Typically each of the bold face options has two statements. Focus on the first statement of each option. Eliminate the ones which are obviously wrong.
Step 4: Do the same for the second statement for the remaining ones.
Eliminate to get the right answer.

Here are the most important things for CR:
1. Get the Powerscore Bible
2. Learn to identify premises and conclusion.
3. Actively read the statement.
4. Always (and I mean always) prephrase your answer. Even if you don't see the prephrase in the options, this process will keep you involved and help you spot the right option faster.
5. Use contender-loser process as the book teaches.
6. DO NOT read the question before reading the statement.
7. Learn every technique for each question as the book teaches, and practice it a lot.
8. Have fun with it.

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I don't have specific advice for RC. I am a voracious reader and I like to read. Once I figured out how to do the CR questions, I knew how to do RC questions well too.

RC:-

1. Do RC in the same way as doing CRs.
2. Actively read and try to identify the shifts in tone.
3. If you find it hard, start off with easy questions in the OG.
4. DO NOT NEGLECT RC. It can mean the difference between a 680 and a 720.

The good thing is that once you become good at CR and RC, you will keep the skills with you. Just keep practicing as you go along.

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SC:

For improving in SC, I only have a few tips. I was never perfect in SC (other than one practice session with hard SC questions), but I typically got 2 or 3 questions wrong in a 40 question stretch, so I was fine with it. However, for some reason, SCs mentally drained my energy.)

To improve in SC:-

1. Do the MGMAT SC Guide. The best way to do it, in my opinion, is topic-wise. Do a chapter, then do the suggested questions in OG. Make note-cards of all important concepts and ideas, and revise them when you get a chance.
2. If you are a non-native speaker or if you find the guide too haphazard, the aristotle SC Grail book provides a good introduction. You can buy it for some 15 odd bucks.
3. The best place to practice is the OG. There are certain patterns in the OG which show up again and again. Make sure you get familiar with them.

This was my modus operandi for tackling SC questions:

1. Read the sentence statement. Understand the intended meaning. Locate the subject and the verb.
2. If there are any glaring errors in the first option, try to see if some other option repeats it, eliminate A and that other offending option.
3. Read vertically to eliminate till you reach the right answer.
4. If there are no glaring errors on the first read, keep A as a contender. Read the other options for hints. Eliminate wherever necessary.
5. Whenever you see the pronouns: - it, they, which and where, always see if there is:-
a. Prounoun-Noun verb agreement
b. Unambiguous logical predication.
6. Look for parallel structures in modifying phrase sentences.
7. Look out for illogical comparisons in sentences that start with a modifier.
8. Have fun with it.



The most important points in your prep:

1. Do the MGMAT Guide. Do the OG along with it as I suggested earlier.
2. Do the OG again. This time read the OG explanations as to what the GMAC considers awkward and wordy.
3. Learn modifiers.
4. Have strategies for different kinds of questions.
5. You must master these six concepts:-
a. Subject-verb identification and agreement.
b. Noun-pronoun agreement (number and type).
c. Parallelism markers and parallel structures.
d. Modifiers and relative pronouns.
e. Identifying illogical comparisons
f. Getting a feel for what GMAC considers wordy and awkward.
6. Have fun with it.
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Overall Prep:
If possible, give yourself 3 months to prep for the exam. Start off with a GMATPrep exam and end with one. The most important thing I did in my preparation was to review my mistakes the next day and learn from them. Make sure you note your errors and eliminate them. I made sure I enjoyed my preparation for the GMAT (My mind was made up anyway, so why not enjoy my preparation). Make sure you enjoy your success. I probably have 300 more tips to give, but its simply not possible here. One final one is that once you are at a medium level of ability, start doing 40 questions of each type of question at one sitting, start off untimed and work towards doing them in 80 minutes. This will develop skill and mental stamina. After all, the biggest thing that GMAT tests is your mental preparation and skill when you are exhausted after fighting emotions and time pressure. At the start of your preparation, you can do the questions untimed. But once you start entering the middle of your preparation, start timing your sessions. As I said, 40 questions of a single type in 80 minutes is a good milestone to achieve.
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If you've made it this far, congratulations, you have the requisite stamina and mental makeup to do well on the GMAT. Put in your best effort and have fun with the process. Have a plan. And make the best use of BeatTheGMAT. The site has got answers and support for pretty much everything and everyone. Participate in the forum, but keep to your plan outside of the site. Master the OG and get a great score. You can do it! I believe in you, you should too!.

E!

Congrats on your stellar performance in the GMAT, eagleeye !

Very nice & detailed debrief !

Good Luck!

Thank you all for the kind wishes and the congrats! I am glad you found the debrief useful. Good luck in your journey!

Great post Eagleeye! and congratulations again.

Awesome score eagleeye!

A Question: How reliable did you find Manhattan tests? As I have given two tests till now and scored 600(Q42,V32) and 570(Q41,v28), which are way away from my target score(750+).

Personally, while solving I felt that Quants section was tough in MGMAT tests than questions in OG. In both the tests, I missed to answer the last question of quants(even after guessing 3-4 in the end).

vaibhav108 wrote:Awesome score eagleeye!

A Question: How reliable did you find Manhattan tests? As I have given two tests till now and scored 600(Q42,V32) and 570(Q41,v28), which are way away from my target score(750+).

Personally, while solving I felt that Quants section was tough in MGMAT tests than questions in OG. In both the tests, I missed to answer the last question of quants(even after guessing 3-4 in the end).

Manhattan tests were pretty fair indicators but not necessarily the best ones. I would say GMATPrep is a most accurate indicator of your current ability +10 / -40 points (depending on iterations). Try the GMATPrep and then you should be able to see your current level. If you can do 40 hard questions from OG in 80 minutes without making more than 4 errors, you are set. Same goes for verbal. At least, that's what I found.

I logged into BTG after a long time and remembered that you were going to attempt GMAT in August.

Congratulations EagleEye,

770! Not surprised at all. A 750 would've surprised me.
Please keep posting on BTG; your posts do help people a lot.

Good luck for the Admissions process