I just Beat The GMAT!

I gave my first attempt back in Sep 2009. I scored 610(Q43, V31). I did not expect such a low score then. I had prepared for over 6 months with utmost sincerity. Such was the disaster that I did not even bother to analyze what went wrong. One of my friends, though, advised me to retake the test after due preparation and to take the test only when I see an improvement in my preparations. That proved to be very true.

Now by the start of this year, I decided to give my second attempt and do things differently. Though there was a gap of nearly two years, my force to ace GMAT was no less. As a BITSian I knew it wouldn't be too hard to score 46-50 in Quant. But as a non-native I needed better preparation in Verbal. Like Quant, Verbal can be aced with proper fundamentals, understanding and strategic attack. Below I have shared a few things that probably helped me in achieving 700(Q48, V37).

Fundamentals:

You might have heard this over and over again. Be strong in your fundamentals. This applies to both Quant and Verbal. For Quant, we have tons of reliable resources in the web: MGMAT Quant Strategy Guides, Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook and BTG forum topics to name a few. I too relied on these resources to understand the nuances of certain GMAT format questions such as Work-Rate problems, Probability and Statistics problems and Inequalities problems. These are not complicated when you know what to look out for. For instance, you have to be so clear about the reasoning behind the work-rate question 'A works for 12 hours to finish a job, B works for 14 hours to finish the same job and what would be the time taken to complete the same job when A & B works together' that you can understand a complex question with jargons.

Similarly for Data Sufficiency questions, you should improve your reasoning to a stage where you can connect the dots between the questions that you practiced (during practice tests, BTG forum questions, etc.) and the questions that come up on the test day. Of course none of the questions that you faced during your preparations is going to pop-up on your test day. But the logic will.

Is Verbal an up-hill task?

Yes and No. Yes because we either think that there is no one procedure to get the exact correct answer or that process of elimination is the ONLY way to get the 'best' answer. I strongly disagree here. There is a way to get to the exact answer (note not the best answer). That's because GMAT has a pattern in framing the logic behind its questions. Note I said logic not the structure. Most of the resources out there teach you the structure of the GMAT questions: how to use advanced negation technique in an assumption-type CR questions or how to memorize the usual idioms or how to quickly read a four paragraph RC question. Believe me. This doesn't work.

I said no because I used the e-GMAT Verbal Live product which showed me these logical procedures to answer the Verbal questions. I have to say here that I'm not part of the marketing team from e-GMAT. I am genuinely 'just' a customer of e-GMAT. I got to know them only through BTG.

Coming back to the logics, here are my thoughts for Verbal Question types:

Sentence Correction:
The GMAT SC questions from the Official Guide teach us certain important patterns. These patterns include but not limited to misplaced modifiers, logical parallel lists and many more. These cannot be answered in a mechanized manner. Because the answers might be grammatically correct but logically wrong. Only when the intended meaning of the sentence is clear, you can get to the correct answer. Again the OG teaches to eliminate the wrong choices because of very specific reasons. When this line of reasoning becomes intuitive the process of elimination becomes more logical and you get the 'correct' answer.

Critical Reasoning:
I learnt to better eliminate the incorrect answer choices through e-GMAT's CR Course. I religiously followed the pre-thinking process as taught and improved in my timing to answer CR questions. Again here efficient elimination techniques come handy because GMAT throws in errors in a certain way which can be identified after thorough practice.

Reading Comprehension:
Though there is no one way to master this question type, the only proven way is to logically attack each RC question type. For that you need razor-sharp focus while reading the passage. When you focus on the structure and tone of the passage, the main crux will become evident. Per e-GMAT process, the passage summaries at various stages of reading the passage prove enough to answer the questions correctly. This helped me a lot as I was always struggling with RC.

On the Test Day:
Have fun! I mean, relax and look forward to enjoy the process. I tried to smile at various points to ease myself and to not think about what happened in the previous question. Of course this is not easy unless you practice it during the practice tests. I recommend taking MGMAT practice tests and review the questions to understand the source of errors. GMAT test will be lot easier after taking MGMAT tests. This might have a side-effect on you on the test day. That is, you might end up feeling that you screwed up the test. But actually you dint. That's how I felt after each section. But I thought I ended up with a decent score. Thanks BTG, e-GMAT and MGMAT for helping me out in the process.

Congratulations on your result! I am sure that your story will be the source of inspiration for many test-takers.

First of all, congratulations for the score! Just a simple question, though!
How many times did you use the e-gmat program. I mean, did you only attempted the concepts once and then took the post-assessment quizzes or did you work through the whole process more than once.

I'm asking this, because I´ve read some debriefs in which some people claimed that had attempted the whole course more than once. Do you think this approach would worth the time? or maybe it is better to practice more set of questions through sources as Grockit and OG (obviously) once you get the concepts and just give them a quick review for refreshing them.

Thanks!

Hi Ricardo,

I did the e-GMAT SC twice. Once to learn the process and to get accustomed to it. Then to revise (just a few days before the test). During the revision I was more keen on re-looking at the concepts than on solving the quizzes.

Apart from this, I also tried to find a pattern in the set of OG questions. This research worked very well for SC questions. For CR, do try to see how wrong questions are being framed. That helps a lot.

Let me know if you would need any more details. I'm happy to reply.

Cheers,
Murali

Thanks bro. Good review. Good luck with the applications!

Hi,
I got a 610 in my 1st attempt (Quant-50,Verbal-22).
Plz advice me wht sh'd i do to improve my verbal.
I know if i can improve my verbal,I can get 750 +.
Plz give me sincere advice about the resources i sh'd practice from.

Congrats for the good score..

What Strategy you followed for the CR Assumption questions and Bold face questions, I am very bad at both of these questions and always making mistake on this..please advice


regds
~sachin

Hi Murali!

Congrats on scoring a 700! You deserve to partay like a rockstar!!

So I have a few questions for you:

1)The last time I took the GMAT I scored a 17 in verbal, I usually score around 25-30
in my practise tests.I've rescheduled my exam,and I'll be taking it in a month.
I have also purchased e-gmat's SC course,since I really need to work on my SC.

I feel like I'm pretty decent at CR and I do better in RC under normal conditions,
but in the test I feel like I have trouble focussing and I have timing issues because I spend way too much time on SC.

Would you really recommend me purchasing e-gmat's RC? or do you think I can rectify
this just by working out problems under timed conditions? Since I only have a month left
I want to use up my time effectively.

2)In math,I always score in the upper 30's and lower 40's,is there a way for me to
improve on it?

I have KAPLAN800 with me,I havent started working out problems from it yet.

I have finished revising basics from the MGMAT books and also done the OG 12 once.

Also is there any other book I can use for math,like probably MGMAT advanced math? (I dont
own this one,but I wouldnt mind purchasing it).


3)I have stamina issues.I think that's one reason I do poorly in verbal since I get most
answers right when I do timed practice sets with a fresh mind.But during full length tests,
by the time im in the second RC,I just cant focus and just feel like finishing the test and be done with it.

How do you think I can work on this? As it's heavily bringing down my verbal
peformance...




Thanks in advance!

bits_murali wrote:I gave my first attempt back in Sep 2009. I scored 610(Q43, V31). I did not expect such a low score then. I had prepared for over 6 months with utmost sincerity. Such was the disaster that I did not even bother to analyze what went wrong. One of my friends, though, advised me to retake the test after due preparation and to take the test only when I see an improvement in my preparations. That proved to be very true.

Now by the start of this year, I decided to give my second attempt and do things differently. Though there was a gap of nearly two years, my force to ace GMAT was no less. As a BITSian I knew it wouldn't be too hard to score 46-50 in Quant. But as a non-native I needed better preparation in Verbal. Like Quant, Verbal can be aced with proper fundamentals, understanding and strategic attack. Below I have shared a few things that probably helped me in achieving 700(Q48, V37).

Fundamentals:

You might have heard this over and over again. Be strong in your fundamentals. This applies to both Quant and Verbal. For Quant, we have tons of reliable resources in the web: MGMAT Quant Strategy Guides, Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook and BTG forum topics to name a few. I too relied on these resources to understand the nuances of certain GMAT format questions such as Work-Rate problems, Probability and Statistics problems and Inequalities problems. These are not complicated when you know what to look out for. For instance, you have to be so clear about the reasoning behind the work-rate question 'A works for 12 hours to finish a job, B works for 14 hours to finish the same job and what would be the time taken to complete the same job when A & B works together' that you can understand a complex question with jargons.

Similarly for Data Sufficiency questions, you should improve your reasoning to a stage where you can connect the dots between the questions that you practiced (during practice tests, BTG forum questions, etc.) and the questions that come up on the test day. Of course none of the questions that you faced during your preparations is going to pop-up on your test day. But the logic will.

Is Verbal an up-hill task?

Yes and No. Yes because we either think that there is no one procedure to get the exact correct answer or that process of elimination is the ONLY way to get the 'best' answer. I strongly disagree here. There is a way to get to the exact answer (note not the best answer). That's because GMAT has a pattern in framing the logic behind its questions. Note I said logic not the structure. Most of the resources out there teach you the structure of the GMAT questions: how to use advanced negation technique in an assumption-type CR questions or how to memorize the usual idioms or how to quickly read a four paragraph RC question. Believe me. This doesn't work.

I said no because I used the e-GMAT Verbal Live product which showed me these logical procedures to answer the Verbal questions. I have to say here that I'm not part of the marketing team from e-GMAT. I am genuinely 'just' a customer of e-GMAT. I got to know them only through BTG.

Coming back to the logics, here are my thoughts for Verbal Question types:

Sentence Correction:
The GMAT SC questions from the Official Guide teach us certain important patterns. These patterns include but not limited to misplaced modifiers, logical parallel lists and many more. These cannot be answered in a mechanized manner. Because the answers might be grammatically correct but logically wrong. Only when the intended meaning of the sentence is clear, you can get to the correct answer. Again the OG teaches to eliminate the wrong choices because of very specific reasons. When this line of reasoning becomes intuitive the process of elimination becomes more logical and you get the 'correct' answer.

Critical Reasoning:
I learnt to better eliminate the incorrect answer choices through e-GMAT's CR Course. I religiously followed the pre-thinking process as taught and improved in my timing to answer CR questions. Again here efficient elimination techniques come handy because GMAT throws in errors in a certain way which can be identified after thorough practice.

Reading Comprehension:
Though there is no one way to master this question type, the only proven way is to logically attack each RC question type. For that you need razor-sharp focus while reading the passage. When you focus on the structure and tone of the passage, the main crux will become evident. Per e-GMAT process, the passage summaries at various stages of reading the passage prove enough to answer the questions correctly. This helped me a lot as I was always struggling with RC.

On the Test Day:
Have fun! I mean, relax and look forward to enjoy the process. I tried to smile at various points to ease myself and to not think about what happened in the previous question. Of course this is not easy unless you practice it during the practice tests. I recommend taking MGMAT practice tests and review the questions to understand the source of errors. GMAT test will be lot easier after taking MGMAT tests. This might have a side-effect on you on the test day. That is, you might end up feeling that you screwed up the test. But actually you dint. That's how I felt after each section. But I thought I ended up with a decent score. Thanks BTG, e-GMAT and MGMAT for helping me out in the process.

Hello Murali,

First off, congratulations on your achievement. I have a specific question regarding the e-gmat course. I would like to know the structure of the e-gmat course and in what way you could derive benefit from it. I was initially confident about my performance in the verbal section but for some reason cannot get past the 35 mark so I am considering the e-gmat course but I would like to know how I will be using it so I can make a better judgement. More specifically, is the live prep much more beneficial when compared to the online course?

Neither I'm part of e-gmat marketing staff, but just for public knowledge purpose, e-gmat offers a good free trial for SC, and I guess some live workshops for CR-RC for free (as well as several articles in the forums).

IMO I feel that they have good questions for SC (along with good theory), very gmat-like, focusing on meaning in SC - I'm not taking the CR course yet, so I can not comment on CR.
Though, I do like their structure of learning in SC in which there are several levels (L1, L2 and L3), and in most of their recorded lessons you can start with an optional pre-assessment quiz and after receiving the lesson you have to take the post-assessment quiz, that quizzes are focused on the main topics of the lesson.

I'm currently enrolled in their full course after browsing several good opinions about their course in BTG and GMATCLUB (their full course comes with grockit, a company that have a huge database of questions and 5 mock exams).

I guess one of the best advantages of the forums is that you can compare different opinions before made a decision, that's what I did I hope I don't regret about it latter!

Good Luck