While the subject of this article "720 to 750" may not be eye-catching or a staggering difference at first, but the effort involved was as much as going from any score in the 600's to the 700's. I was studying for the GMAT in the summer of 2015 but couldn't get myself to set a date and kept delaying it till I thought I "would be comfortable". Truth is, one can never be. So in November 2015, when push came to shove I signed up for a date in the beginning of the new year and put in 10+ hours a day for the next one and a half months with the single minded focus to score in the range of 760+. I knew I had to hit that score or it wouldn't be worth it all.
BOOKS & TESTS
- Manhattan GMAT Tests
Kaplan 2016 Tests
Veritas Prep Tests
Official GMAT Prep Tests
Official GMAT Prep-Additional 2 tests ($50)
Official GMAT- 3 paper based tests ($30)
The Economist- Babson, University of Oxford free tests
Princeton Review-Free Test
THE APPROACH
I had a good hang of the concepts in Quant and had already scored 97 percentile on the Common Admission Test (CAT) for India b-schools. Thanks to my SAT prep many years ago, Verbal wasn't a problem either but I somehow just ended up making at least 10 errors on the verbal section if not more. I realised that I would also end up with 3-4 errors on the Quant section and narrowed down on the problem- I wasn't paying full attention during the mock tests and ended up making careless errors.
I took a practice test almost every alternate day and spent a great deal of time taking a stock of errors as well as correct answers. For all questions which I was doubtful about, I would Google them and view explanations on other sites. I even took screenshots of difficult questions in both the sections to come back to once my prep was over.
Over time I saw the number of mistakes go down and my score go up. I had done the manhattan tests before so they weren't the best indicator of my actual score as I remembered the questions. By the end of it all, with a week to go for my exam I took both the Official GMAT Prep Additional Test Pack and scored 740 on both.
I was unwell the week prior to the test and this impacted my study pattern a bit and on the morning of the test I even contemplated cancelling the GMAT. However I went ahead it, aiming to get the score I wanted.
AWA- this section didn't have a very straightforward argument but I managed to finish it in 15 minutes using the remainder of the time to mentally focus and relax.
IR- initial questions were tough and threw me off guard. I didn't bother about them a lot and guessed (impacting my score) but finished with enough time to spare.
Quant- I was completely focussed and it started out with very simple questions. However by the end of it it seemed like a marathon and I was beginning to feel the pressure and only wanted to be done with it.
Verbal- Couple of sentence corrections were tricky but the passages and CR questions seemed easy. However I started shivering due to nervousness of receiving my score an hour from now and the headache due to the cold didn't help at all. I managed to pull through and had 5 minutes to spare on both the Quant and Verbal sections and always kept an eye on the clock
The Final moment- I clicked on submit test and received a huge sigh of relief when I saw that I scored a 750 (50Q, 40V). I knew it wasn't my best performance but I couldn't be more satisfied and the handwork over all the months paid off.
The 30 point improvement for me propelled me to into a different bracket, one that I was stuck in for some time and it was one less thing to worry about for my application. While I don't recommend my study approach for most people as they might be studying and working together, regular study and practice tests in a time bound manner can help them achieve the desired score. This only goes to show the GMAT is indeed beatable, but one just has to believe in one's abilities more than ever.
