From 380 - Q33/V10 (1st mock) to 690 - Q49/V33 / 88% (REAL!)

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Hi guys,

I have given my GMAT and have scored a decent 690 with AWA Score of 5.5/6.0! I am really happy and satisfied with my score and would like to thank all the members of this forum for giving valuable and timely advice when in need. Today, I decided to contribute to this forum with a debrief of my GMAT preparation journey.

First of all, I am from a pure life sciences background and have never studied math after 12th grade! Even in my school days, my greatest weaknesses were Math and English!!! I simply used to hate both these subjects and never scored above 60% in these! But, unfortunately, the GMAT primarily tests the two areas that have been my greatest weaknesses right from my school days!

I prepared for 5 months for the GMAT, out of which I have done hardcore studying only in the last two months! Till date, I might have given around 12 mock tests, out of which 10 were GMATprep! I repeated both the GMATprep practice tests 5 times, and also the number of questions getting repeated increased each time! In my last mock attempt (scored 680), I got near about 15 questions that were repeats!


1 Princeton Review - Q33 / V10 - 380
2 GMATPrep ? ? - 450
3 GMATPrep ? ? - 550
4 GMATPrep - Q47 / V27 - 590
5 Kaplan GMAT - Q41 / V31 - 570
6 GMATPrep - Q44 / V34 - 640
7 GMATPrep - Q47 / V31 - 640
8 GMATPrep - Q47 / V32 - 650
9 GMATPrep - Q49 / V32 - 670
10 GMATPrep - Q48 / V32 - 650
11 GMATPrep - Q48 / V40 - 710
12 GMATPrep - Q49 / V34 - 680

But, trust me, this really worked out for me in a great way! When I was giving the real GMAT, I got a feel as if I were attempting a mock test again sitting at home, due to the identical structure and background colors of both the GMATprep and the real GMAT! Moreover, even when I scored only a 680 in GMATprep (just 2 days before the real deal!), I could score 690 in the real test! Also, I felt that the questions in the real test were no more difficult than those that appear in the GMATprep! So, all these factors boosted my confidence dramatically! People who attempt the GMATprep not more than twice, actually waste their valuable opportunities by fearing about seeing repeated questions again! And, as per my experience, GMATprep is the only mock test that can gauge your real ability most accurately! So, please do not hesitate to repeat these free mock tests and use them to the maximum possible extent!

Materials used by me -

1. IMS (theoretica Quants, theoretica verbal, octane series and class sheets) - Trust me, these are the best GMAT prep books you can ever get! I found these much better than even the famous Kaplan or Manhattan. Studying from these books only helped me out in boosting my Quants score dramatically - from 33 to 49!

2. Kaplan Advanced - I found this book just OK! It really didn't help me much actually. But found the answer explanations to be really good! But the book was really not upto what it claims - money back guarantee, if score doesn't improve by using this book! haha... good marketing strategy! But, being a marketing professional myself, I was really not impressed with this marketing gimmick! :wink:

3. OG/Official Guide aka GMAT BIBLE (Edition 11 - Quants, Verbal and Review; Edition 12 - only Review book) - The best books one can refer to, if one is interested in solving mainly the 'typical' GMAT type questions and in increasing familiarity with the 'real' GMAT content!

4. Sahil's grammar notes - I really owe a lot to this community for providing me this free grammar notes. It helped me dramatically increase my accuracy in solving SC questions.

I limited my preparation to only these above mentioned books, unlike many others who believe in referring to 6 - 10 different books! But, anyways, effectiveness in referring to these many number of books might differ from person to person, and in my case, I would have surely got confused and ended up jumbling the basics!

Finally, I would like to thank the BTG community again for mailing me daily the day-wise 60-day preparation plan.

"WITH ORDINARY TALENT AND EXTRAORDINARY PERSEVERANCE, ANY TARGET IS ATTAINABLE"...


All the best for your prep!

- Karthik Seshan
Background -
M/22, B.Tech Biotechnology,
Work experience - 1.7 yrs (Business Development),
Speak 5 languages
Attachments
GMAT-Progress-chart.xls
My GMAT mock test score progress chart
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Last edited by karthmba011 on Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:22 pm, edited 9 times in total.

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by Anurag@Gurome » Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:37 pm
Congratulations Karthik. Your methodology was right on, especially the following part - and I quote:

"And, as per my experience, GMATprep is the only mock test that can gauge your real ability most accurately! So, please do not hesitate to repeat these free mock tests and use them to the maximum possible extent!"

I vouch for this approach - it has worked for hundreds of my students.
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by karthmba011 » Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:54 pm
Thanks for your wishes Anurag!

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by adi_800 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:21 am
Oh..
So great to hear that your score remained the same as they were in GMAT prep after d repeats too....
I just gave GMAT prep...n my score was 710 but had repeats...
I just hope my score remains the same....

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by outreach » Sat Sep 04, 2010 1:27 am
congrats on the grt score
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by nikhilkatira » Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:12 am
gr8 score buddy...u did your B.Tech from which college ?
Best,
Nikhil H. Katira

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by karthmba011 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:53 am
Thanks a lot guys!

@ nikhilkatira - I did my B.Tech from Dr. D. Y. Patil University, Pune

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by DanaJ » Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:16 am
Wow that's amazing! Congratulations!

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by xela760 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:33 am
karthmba011,
A mega congratulations to you for this motivation. i'm also an average student but have a ''NEVER SAY DIE'' spirit.

i just thank God for this advice on repetition and thats what i'm going to adopt in my prep.i took the Gmatprep just once with

a score of 450 and was demoralised,but now this post has encouraged me.i will save this entire thread,cos it's my best BTG

thread since i joined .CONGRATS once again cos you have just encouraged an average student who is struggling with

gmat. ''I AM A SLOW WALKER ,BUT I NEVER WALK BACKWARDS"' .Quotes of Abraham Lincoln.

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by adi_800 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:20 pm
karthmba011 wrote:Thanks a lot guys!

@ nikhilkatira - I did my B.Tech from Dr. D. Y. Patil University, Pune
Hmm Pune huh.. Good...
I m from Pune too...

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by karthmba011 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:06 pm
@ xela760 - don't worry, scoring 450 in the beginning of ur prep cannot be considered as an indicator of ur inability for scoring 700+ in GMAT! You will surely do well! All the very best! Take care

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by karthmba011 » Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:08 pm
@ adi_800 - oh thats gr8! I actually stay in PCMC area...

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by xela760 » Mon Sep 06, 2010 12:58 pm
karthmba011, did you repeat the OG the same way you repeated the gmatprep? and how did you use the OG? secondly,what was your time interval in between the CAT's .

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by DAYNE » Mon Sep 06, 2010 2:58 pm
can you post more info on the IMS books

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by vancouverute » Mon Sep 06, 2010 7:17 pm
Looking for Sahil's grammar notes; are they available online here? Can someone point me in that direction?

thank you!