I beat the GMAT on my fifth attempt - 720 (Q49, V39)

Find out how Beat The GMAT members tackled GMAT test prep with positive results. Get tips on GMAT test prep materials, online courses, study tips, and more.
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by Shelbry1299 » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:17 am
Congratulation on your success. My situation mirrors yours thanks for sharing your inspiring story.
I am sure Irene is probably busy at this point, how can I get in contact with her.

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by [email protected] » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:23 am
eladshush wrote:Dear friends,

Sorry that it took me long time to share my 5th GMAT story. It was mainly because I was overloaded with writing my applications to business schools. At least the whole effort paid off when this week I was notified that I got an interview to Ross. So exciting. So this post is dedicated to all the members in this forum that encouraged, supported, and inspired me along the way. I admire you. Let's start:

My GMAT story is a nightmare. Starting from the end, I took the GMAT exam five times in two years. I endured repeated setbacks and by persevering ultimately conquered the exam, while growing and learning much about myself along the way.

I don't want to describe again all my previous attempts (you can read it here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/610-4th-time ... 91243.html), but I will rather refer to them when comparing my 5th exam's approach with my previous exams' approaches. Before I kicked off my preparation for my 5th exam, I wanted to understand deeply my two major problems: anxiety and my low score on the Verbal (even though I consistently scored high on simulations). This time, for the latter, I decided to do study differently. I wanted to come to the test after I made some changes in the way I think, in the way I approach the exam, and in the way I solve questions. Please note that I am not going to talk about the Quantitative section because I never had problems with it and I scored 50,48,49,49. I only had difficulties with the Verbal section. Having said that, here is a list things I've changed before my last attempt:
  • 1. First and foremost - I contacted the best Verbal private tutor - Irene - who has 25 years of experience preparing students for the Verbal Section and most of her students are beating the 700 score. She is a very interesting woman - a musician who travels around the world for 6 months every year to compose and spread her music, and in the rest she teaches the Verbal section privately. (Irene Contact information: [email protected]). Although Irene teaches via Skype, I preferred to meet her face to face because I wanted her to witness my approaches in action and analyze what I am doing wrong (plus - we live in the same city). At first, she gave me few SC questions to solve and asked me to write detailed solutions with everything that I know. She immediately realized my weaknesses and strengths and decided to customized her course so that it will fit my knowledge base. I can't express how much I value her, so let's summarize that she is just amazing. period.
Now some real insights on the exam. Some she taught me, and some I've figured out myself:
  • 2. Treat the exam as if you don't have the time limitation. In my previous attempts and following many advises by top GMAT tutors here, I tried to answer ALL the questions. Irene told me that this is a WRONG approach especially for international students that don't process English as native speakers, without mentioning even the reading speed. It's more important to answer the first thirty something questions (about 34) with as many correct answers in a row as you can (I can say almost without wrong answers), rather than check the clock all the time and randomly guess questions to meet some timing strategy. I was very skeptic about this approach but after I used it few time in GMAT Prep, I've realized that it actually works. Working on questions without having the time limitation significantly reduced my stress. The last few questions still need to be guessed, but if you follow that approach and you answered most questions correctly, your score won't drop to less than 35. Take a simulation exam without looking at the clock, and leave 2 minutes at the end to guess the last questions left. If you reached question 33-35, you are ready to take the exam. If you reached only 30 - keep practicing the concepts to gain more confident (the speed will come with it).
  • 3. Understand how the GMAT works. For that I used this rule of thumb:
    * Easy questions = huge fine, small bonus.
    * Hard questions = small fine, big bonus.

    This means that if you don't answer the easy questions correctly, especially at the beginning, you are going to get a huge fine. i.e. no 700 for you. You have to answer the easy and medium level questions correctly in order to start getting hard ones, otherwise the GMAT won't trust your ability and challenge you with difficult questions. Answering correctly the easy questinos is more important than answering the hard questions correctly. On the contrary, if you approached the hard level of questions, and you answered them correctly, you will get a huge bonus. If you happen to answered them wrong - not big deal - you will get a small fine.

    Keep in mind - you have to answer the easy questions correctly.
  • 4. Focus issue - this is one of the best advises I've heard from Irene which I've completely ignored - after the Quant section and the break, the mind loses its focus and your concentration level drops. So when starting the Verbal section, it takes time to gain your focus back. Now, it happened to me in 2 stages of the exam: at the beginning immediately after the break, and around the 12-14 question. This resulted always in wrong answers that dropped my score. Irene told me to just dedicate extra 30-60 seconds to read few times the question and review the answer when I enter this state. Like magic - it solved my careless errors in those stages.
  • 5. Study material - thanks to ronaldramlan and Irene, I've realized that the practice questions of ALL prep companies (yes yes, including Manhattan GMAT, Knewton, MasterGMAT, etc) are just not good! The questions format, mainly in SC and RC, is very different from the real GMAT questions, and when you practice with them, you starting to get used to recognize those patterns, even though they don't appear on the real thing. There are specific patterns according to which the real GMAT SC and RC questions are written (believe me I've analyzed thousands of questions). Irene taught me to work according to specific huge set of rules which helped me gain confidence in my knowledge answer more than 90% of the SC questions correctly. This gave me a huge advantage on the GMAT - usually SC questions considered to be more easy, so I didn't fall on easy questions. So practice only GMAT Prep or official guide questions.
  • 6. Let's drill down a bit:

    My approach to SC questions:
    • Before my 5th try, I used to read the entire question and tried to identify the errors and figure out the meaning, etc.
    • After: A big change here - I read ONLY the underlined part and immediately compared it with
      other answer questions to identify the errors tested. I was very skeptical about this
      approach and it took me long time to get used to it, but I've learned that more than 90% of
      the answer choices of GMAC GMAT questions can be grammatically eliminated, before jumping
      into meaning, etc. Be very suspicious about each word location and function in the sentence. You won't believe how man answer choices I've eliminated based on pronoun ambiguity or use of adverb instead of adjective.
    My approach to RC questions:
    • Before my 5th try, I used to read the entire passage and MAP it in my mind (main idea, author POV, purpose, etc). Then I approached the questions and jumped back to the passage to validate my answers or search for information. I didn't write anything during RC question and RC was my toughest area for me to improve.
    • After: my tutor told me the following sentence: after 2 hours of exam and under huge pressure do you really trust your brain to remember tons of unimportant details and understanding everything after reading once a really complex passages? So here another big change - apparently GMAT RC passages have tendency to pose the important information of every paragraph in the first sentence or two (I have to give credit for MasterGMAT that are using this approach, but I didn't listen to them back then). So, I quickly created a table and distilled the important information from the first sentence of each paragraph (not more than few words), and then skimmed the rest of the paragraph to find important transitions/specific information and filled the table with it. General questions - I answered based solely on my table. As for specific questions: I located the relevant area to look for in my table, and moved to read the text accordingly. This way your brain remains fresh and not filled with a lot of unnecessary information. You won't believe how many questions of RC passages focus only on one paragraph, so why spend all your time reading it all?? Again, it took me forever to master this approach, but eventually it really worked.
Lastly - I worked on myself as an individual, adapting steps in my life emphasizing relaxation and tranquility. After my 4th attempt - I was beyond devastated. My friends and family, who supported me along the way, tried to convince me to let go. But I believed in my abilities and I was determined to study an MBA in a top school next year. So I didn't let go, and neither you need to.

In summary, it was a long journey. I am happy to finish with it and I am happy to share it.
I will finish with the words of Napoleon Hill that said: Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Feel free to ask any question. I promise to do my best to answer.
eladshush

Mate,

Congrtaulations on ur achievement and m really glad to read ur post,
Like you even I was in a dilemma whether to take GMAt for the 5th time? My previous attempts have yielded 560,530,540 and 620 over the past 2 years.I completely coorelate my life and thought processs with yours.I have lost many opportunities at job cos i was bothered only bout GMAT GMAt and GMAt.irrespective of all my hard work and scrificies and repeated attempts I could not get desired score and wen I applied to colleges with 620 got dinged from all colleges.I was at the crossroad of either quiiting the MBA dream, retaking the GMAt or settling for a tier 2 college but after reading ur post I am confident that my experience and knowledge gained over past two years and perseverance will definitely yield result.I am fully charged to start my studies once again. Ur truely an inspiration and hero for me.
r

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by Gits » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:58 am
Hi eladshush,

Thank you so much for sharing your approach to beat the GMAT.

Appreciate your suggestions.

Do share if you have any other guideline for US (the fighters :) ).

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by TS75 » Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:04 pm
Let me know if you get the contact details of Irene.
[email protected] wrote:This post is really awesome. Could you please send me Irene's contact info. on my email ID- [email protected] or by replying to this post.I need verbal improvement very badly(booked GMAT on 29/may/2011)- 50 days from now. Currents score- 570 ( q51,v27).
God bless you for your applications.

Regards- TK

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by jacindaz » Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:39 pm
This post is so inspiring and has definitely uplifted my spirit! I don't understand why people around us keep doubting that we can improve. Even my close friends say that to me, "will another 6 months really give you a better score?" The first time I heard that question I thought it was completely absurd. If I study correctly, of course it will! Thanks for sharing and being a source of inspiration. I know we all appreciate it!

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by rinoa » Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:29 pm
This post was exactly what I needed to read after taking my GMAT for the 2nd time and getting a lower score than my first attempt! Haha to summarize, I was crushed and still am. But as eladshush has proven, if you really want something, it does pay off. I hope I can have your mindset as I continue my GMAT journey...

Congratulations on Sloan!!!!

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by jswiatek » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:42 pm
Great job! Do you recommend a test prep? Right now, it appears that my scores are pretty bad high 400s and low 500s. Any advice?

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by confuse mind » Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:27 pm
Great perseverance...efforts finally paid!

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by Elad@Ready4GMAT » Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:29 pm
Thank you all for your kind words. Throughout my entire preparation, the members in this forum helped and inspired me so much! All I wanted was to contribute back to the community, so the least I can do is share my story and be as responsive to your kind messages as I can.

I have 2 announcement for you:

1. I I've edited my posts to include Irene contact information. So feel free to contact her.
2. In the past couple of months, I've been working on an iPhone GMAT application in partnership with Irene. This app is going to expose her amazing teaching material and methods and my learning experience insights, as well as tons of practice questions (2000 Verbal and 2000 Quant). All included in one app. Get ready!! We will launch the application in couple of months from today. I will update soon.

eladshush

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by [email protected] » Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:16 am
Hi meladshush,

Hearty congratulations again for your success & all the best for Ur applications.

In your post you did mention something about attacking RC questions - The Table for RC .

Could you please provide the same to us for reference. Requesting you to please select any RC passage (with a couple of questions attached), and make a table based on the RC passage.
That would be a great help for all of us who are struggling with the RC section.

Hope you do understand the necessity of such a great strategy to be adopted.

Thanks in advance.

Regards
-TK

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by Schawjibb » Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:32 am
If I am told to pick only a few posts (from BTG) that have elevated my confidence-level instantly, I WILL CHOOSE THIS DEBRIEF/POST WITHOUT ANY HESITATION. eladshush, you have become my IDOL by the time I finished reading this post. 720 on the 5th GMAT attempt and getting accepted by MIT Sloan after being dinged from several other top schools are NOT something that we often happen to read in BTG.

Best of luck with your journey ahead!

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by gurpreetsingh.1982 » Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:16 am
Eladshush, well done with your GMAT and accepted into MIT Sloan.
And appreciate your sharing with the community your efforts that led up to your success story with the GMAT. Thank you.

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by pinchharmonic » Wed Apr 11, 2012 4:17 pm
Eladshush, awesome!! mind sharing some of your other application information? work experience, etc.?

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by Elad@Ready4GMAT » Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:49 pm
Everyone!

I got so many kind messages from you and I wanted to say THANK YOU! This forum helped me a lot and I am going to do my best to contribute back.
Many of you have asked me to share my profile and background, so there you go:

Age: 29 (30 in 3 weeks)
Martial status: Married to a beautiful wife, happily, with no kids (yet).

Work experience:
1. Played basketball professionally on the highest levels in Europe. Got injured and moved to a second career - engineering.
2. Studied a BSc in Information Systems Engineering from the Computer Science department at the Technion - the top technological institute in Israel.
3. Worked ~2 years at Intel as a software engineer intern during my undergraduate studies.
4. Studied a semester abroad at the Engineering faculty at the University of Toronto as part of a student exchange program.
5. Worked 3 years at GE Healthcare, as software engineer, project planner, and team leader, developing viewing systems for Radiologists and Cardiologists.
6. 6 month ago, along with taking the GMAT and preparing my applications, quit GE and Founded a startup company in the mobile industry.
7. Currently managing my company, who has 4 employees, and waiting to move to Cambridge in 4 months from today.

I hope that helps to you. Soon, as I promised, I am going to write a detailed debrief about the application process, the interviews, and everything in between, so stay tuned!

eladshush

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by Elad@Ready4GMAT » Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:53 pm
Schawjibb wrote:If I am told to pick only a few posts (from BTG) that have elevated my confidence-level instantly, I WILL CHOOSE THIS DEBRIEF/POST WITHOUT ANY HESITATION. eladshush, you have become my IDOL by the time I finished reading this post. 720 on the 5th GMAT attempt and getting accepted by MIT Sloan after being dinged from several other top schools are NOT something that we often happen to read in BTG.

Best of luck with your journey ahead!
Schawjibb - thank you for this message! By far your post is my favorite one! Posts like yours just inspire and motivate me to contribute back to the community! Keep me (and the rest) updated about your progress.