760 Done deal! - Debrief especially for 2nd timers (updated)

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Hi All,

Took the test today (Sep 21st 2010) and got a 760 (Q - 51, V - 41) AWA 6.0

Quant - 51 - 98 percentile
Verbal - 41 - 92 percentile
Total - 760 - 99 percentile

Just got my AWA, in 3 days!! was relieved to see a 6.0, my issue was slightly weak was worried my extreme views may get me into trouble, but it will worked out.

This was my second attempt my ravings and rantings after the first one can be found at - https://www.beatthegmat.com/humpty-had-a ... tml#299905
I have tailored this debrief more towards the second timers since there is ample material available for the first timers.

I would like to thank the BTG community, Brian from Veritas Prep, Albatross86, abhi84v, Scorpionz - last three BTG members.

I am breaking this debrief into two parts -
1. Talks about a few days before the real deal and the day of the real deal
2. What I did differently from the 1st attempt


Part 1 - few days before the exam and on the day of the exam
I must forewarn you, some of the stuff in here is intense, and it is upto you to follow it or not.
My build up to the exam is covered in Part 2 below, this part talks about Sep 11th to 21st. I booked the date for Sep 21st (Tues) on Sep 11th because I got a 770 in my MGMAT FLT 6 on Sep 11th (Sat), my center was in Chennai, India. As soon as I booked the date, I put in a leave application for Sep 20th ad 21st - this would give me 3 days of ease.
Small notes -
I took the exam in spectacles the last time, not a good idea contacts are always better since they provide a better field of vision and cover more computer screen in one sweep compared to the glasses.
If you are married REFRAIN for atleast 3 days, especially if you are a guy really helps focus.
Exercising helps focus and enhances brain activity for me, hence after my first attempt I made it a poitn to exercise regularly.

Ok all was well till Sunday (Sep 19), I was taking my sectionals in Verbal and Quant. however, by Sunday I was getting this feeling that SC is somehow slipping, the verbs or modifiers would look weird to me and I just knew that I was not at the top of my game in SC. The good thing is I did not panic, I started thinking what would get me back into the 'groove' - I reasoned that going to the basics would be a good idea, so I revised my SC strategy and on Monday (Sep 20th) afternoon did a bunch of questions from 1000 SC, this really helped and I was confident again.
On the health front, things were not looking good, I have figured that air conditioning does not work for me. Hence, last time (mentioned in part II) I was not in good shape on the day of the exam, and on Sunday (Sep 19) I was exposed to air conditioning which as usual did not sit well and I was popping pills on Sunday and Monday :( This scared me, was this going to be a repeat fest, well for one thing I was just too hell bent on doing well this time that I told myself it would not matter, even if I go there all groggy and sleepy I am going to WILL myself to do well, no excuses.
Thankfully however, the medicines worked and I was able to sleep well on 20th night and was raring to go on the 21st. Before I move on to the test day, real quick I practiced questions tough ones on Grockit on 20th and did not get as many correct as I usually do, but this did not discourage me, told myself just practicing the real deal is tomorrow and I am going to sock the ball out of the park this time baby!

The day of the reckoning - test time 9 Am, Chennai center
Slept at 9:30 Pm pretty early for me (usually go to bed by 10:30 Pm) but am not good with sleep just one day before exams and hence did not want to take chances. Got up at 5:30 Am well the plan was to get up at 6:30 but so much for that, what to do for the next hour, well a small jog and some exercise would not hurt so did that (+ my wife is a hard task master ;-) wants me exercise daily). I absolutely did not check my emails or read the newspaper, as that would have expended some grey cells and did not want to lose the freshness of the mind. 6:30 till 6:50 revised strategies for all sections. Took a bath, some light breakfast - cornflakes and milk.
Left for the center in a cab at 7:35 Am, was there by 8:12 Am. By this was feeling a bit sleepy (already :( so quickly found a hotel (Sangeetha is pretty good and open at that time) and grabbed a coffee.
Reached the 6th floor at 8:30 Am. The usual stuff check this, read rules, get a locker get a pic taken. One thing that I did the last time and advise all to do is, ask for the pens and the scratch pad to jot down the names of the univs this does two things frees up precious memory in the brain and you get used to the scratch pad and the pens and how they work, sounds silly but the pad is plastic and the pens are like markers a different experience than normal writing for sure. Actually if you hold the pen tightly and press a bit hard while writing almost feels like the normal pen paper deal (I know too geeky but what the heck :)
I had 3 packet of cookies and some nutri bars in the locker.
Went in, the center people sometimes have this annoying habit of telling you before the test please close the cap of the pens when not using them. Last time, I focused on that detail a VERY BAD idea, I mean we are paying $250 or ~Rs 12,000 for the test, I will try to conserve the pens but jeez man I am not messing my test because of it! This was pretty clear in my head this time around and will explain how this was important in a bit.
So the AWA starts got an argument which I had practiced earlier was easy, issue was slightly tough but no issues. My wife was a great help here, do write out a few issues and arguments and get them checked by someone else. Finished both 1 - 2 mins before the bell did not get to revise them fully but feel ok about them should get a 4+ still keeping fingers crossed.
Took the 8 min break, the question is since you have built up the flow should you take the whole 8 mins or may be 4 mins or whatever you need to take to do whatever you need to do? (which in my case is go to the restroom, then go to the locker get 2 cookies and then get 1 cup of water - exactly in that order, I know I know am a control freak!)I decided to go with the latter, since I believe that 'flow and rhythm' is more important than how much time you took in a break and you absolutely do not want to lose the 'flow and rhythm'.
Quant was a breeze, there was one question I had no clue about, rest were pretty doable, however I finished 1 min before the bell. Did a lot of checking and cross checking as I was going, did not look at the clock all that much though.
Another break, did the same thing and was back in 5 mins.
Verbal - get the first question and it is a SC parallelism and I am stuck between two choices I can not decide!! I am thinking Holy Bazookas man here it goes again!! As last time, but Scorpionz and Abhi84v were in my mind, it is just one more question pick a choice and move on, and so I did. Then things got a bit easier and tougher and so it went, all along I was pressed for time. The RCs were sinkholes of time!! they were long and tough! When I went in for th exam, I do not know why but I had this idea that either the RC is going to be long and easy or short and tough! Well got this gigantic RC around Q23 which was long and tough, I said man o man! But was happy since I felt - if this is happening to me, I am there is the 750+ range. CR and SC were a breeze and really saved time on them, Fabrood's (Grockit) comments about CRs being more about the language was so true!
Episode of the pens :) - I have this habit of writing in order to solve some Verbal questions where as in Quant I pretty much write in all. Since I had to keep the pen open in verbal and not use it a few times they dried on me! I raised my hand once nothing happened, at the same time I was going through this big RC and I raised my hand again tried working with whatever ink was left in the pen but no use, somehow finished my RC and then raised my hand with the pen and waved at the guy also turned around and made eye contact then got the new pens, but totally worth it! All this back and forth might have caused me to lack focus on may be 2 - 3 questions, but was in no mood to cry over spilled milk...One trick to save the pens is keep the cap in one hand and solve the question with the other, as soon as you have the answer cap the pen and use the mouse to mark the answer, then while reading the next question uncap the pen at the opportune time - if it is an RC when you are at the end of the passage or at the end of the Cr etc. Again nerdy stuff but helped me!

I had ~10 questions left and roughly 14 mins to do them, was a bit scary! But CR and SC were a breeze and then came an RC!! The RC was two paragraphs on biology + animal kind of stuff, I read it and had no clue what was it talking about! Aaaah I was on the horns of a dilemma should I reread it or dive into the questions, I said what the heck should reread else am going to get a lot wrong in this and this time if score dips, it is not coming back, so reread it and that was a great idea! Still could not get 40% of the answers in the RC but at least could narrow it down to 2 choices. The final question I got was an SC and I had 2 mins to do it. 1 min was left and I could not decide between two choices, I said what the heck marked one and ended the test.

The 8 page optional data, could not find my undergrad in the list tried twice and then skipped it, too eager to see the score. Come to the all important cancel or report scores, carefully read the choices and marked "Report score" the computer was doing its thing and I offered a silent prayer, 760 !! Felt good, but sad about the 41 in verbal, had been scoring 42 - 46 in practice tests. Aaah well pumped my fist slightly, could see the look on the faces of center helpers and took my unofficial report and walked out!

New edits on Sep 29th - begin
Another aspect of the prep was tracking all the questions I did, this is very important so that you do not repeat stuff. Here is a small blurb on that:
Make an excel tracker for say OG, MGMAT, 1000 SC, 300 Maths tough questions - keep a track of what questions you have done on it. This is important so that you do not lose track of the questions you have attempted, also try to avoid solving a lot of questions by just 'hanging' out on the forums, because these forums carry the toughest questions people could not solve guess what is the source right the same material that you will be reading if you have seen the questions before well then it will bias your score / tests etc. Thus I had a strategy, i would try to find the source of the question on the forum and then do it also by the 2nd attempt I had exhausted the sources I had bought and since I can not buy everything I could now come to the forums and practice tough questions here since I did not have to worry about repeats. So I guess the bottomline is have a strategy on how you are going to use the forums in the beginning of your study and when you are running out of material to study.

Now as you can see that I love excel (by no means am I an expert in it but can use it as a tool real well) I made an excel file with the following headers:
S.No Type - F(FLT), V, Q Test type Date Start Time End Time Duration (mins) Website Test quality* Actual Score Max Score Corrected Act Score** Corrected Max Score** Percentage Percentage adjusted ** Time per question (Min) Comments

And I would fill this up after each test you need not fill each column but ensure a key that you always fill like date, score etc. this very helpful as you can throw these numbers into a pivot as you take more and more FLTs and sectionals and track your progress.
New edits on Sep 29th - end



Part 2 - What I did differently from the 1st attempt
Well for a quick background. I had taken the GMAT in 2002 and scored a 730 (Q50, V - 40) thus when I got a 700 on June 30th 2010 it was a shocker. My practice had been good:

MGMAT FLT CBT 1 690 800
GMAT Prep 1 730 800
Kaplan FLT CBT 2 610 800
FLT - at Veritas, free test 660 800
ETS Diagnostic FLT 87 100
MGMAT FLT CBT 2 730 800
GMAT Live FLT 795 800
Kaplan CBT FLT 3 650 800
Princeton Online free FLT 730 800
MGMAT Online FLT 3 710 800
MGMAT Online FLT 4 750 800
GMAT Prep FLT 2 780 800
Kaplan FLT 4 620 800
GMAT Prep FLT 1 Retake 760 800
MGMAT Online FLT 5 750 800
GMAT Prep FLT 2 Retake 770 800
Actual GMAT 700 800 DEVASTATION!!

So now I was in a bind, I did not know what to do. I just knew in my hearts of hearts that I can get a 750+ but was clueless. So the first thing was I analyzed the situation, on the day of the test and for a few days before it, I had slight fever, usually I do not believe in excuses but I had taken a 300 Mg dose of Ibuprofen and downed a coffee on the day of the exam (6 Am test was at 9 Am) and had a fitful sleep the night before. Quant went fine but in verbal my head was swimming, I could not understand simple lines or passages. So I marked stuff and it was a relief to get the test over and done with, i did not enjoy the experience.
After coming back, I posted on the forum to get some feedback and at the same time did some internal analysis. I figured out that I was breaking down at 720+ questions in verbal. Brian from Veritas also suggested that the test had become more 'meaning driven and analytical focused' over the past few years and I should focus on it, this was great advise and I was also feeling the same after taking the GMAT.
Thus the question was how to get more QUALITY study material. Note if you are aiming for a 750+ score, Quality is such a key word in the questions you do that it is unbelievable! I had completed the following when I took the attempt on June 30th:
1. OG 12th edition
2. OG Supplement Verbal
3. Kaplan (would recommend skipping)
4. MGMAT - SC guide and 5 out of the 6 FLTs

I felt that pretty much all the good material was done with :( but Albatross86 debriefed at that time, he mentioned about Grockit and Knewton. Grockit is free and it is simply AWESOME!! Remember the adage great things in life come for free, well it certainly holds true here!

So here goes the strategy:
Verbal - decided I have to read Powerscore bible. Then practice some really tough questions.
Quant - Practice tough questions

Powerscore is a great read, but is slightly on the non implementable side. I think the best way to use this book is to read it and keep it at the back of your mind when solving CR questions especially the tough ones. As Fabrood Nivi of Grockit says the GMAT CR is not like the LSAT. GMAT CR is more language based and LSAT CR is more logic based, which I agree with.

Anyways coming to the material:
1. Grockit - fantabulous!!
2. 1000 SC log
3. 1000 CR - many tests were from LSAT but I chose the quality of questions over the fact that they might be slightly off topic
4. 3000 RC - many tests were from LSAT but I chose the quality of questions over the fact that they might be slightly off topic
5. Powerscore bible
6. 1 MGMAT test that was left
7 1 Free Knewton FLT
8. 300 Tough Math questions from BTG website

So I set up a schedule where in I put 2 days of verbal concept development initially (to complete the Powerscore guide) and then I developed sectional tests from Grockit (make a 2 player study session and solve 41 questions of verbal) usually you will be the only person solving them. Caution - use the Grockit questions wisely as after crossing 10,000 points you are going to get repeats which will be frustrating, they do update questions I am not sure how often though looks like may be once in 25 days or so. But the evaluative engine at Grockit is great!
By August 16th I had taken small tests, read Powerscore and knew that my strategies (revised) for each section were in place. Now I did a 2 day sectional for verbal and 1 day sectional for Quant split, took a boat load of sectionals and analyzed them. I developed a pretty cool analysis method as well refer attachment.

Sometimes, I felt that I was overworking my system and I stepped off the gas a bit. My gut would tell that I needed to revise the strategies in verbal rather than take another verbal or quant sectional and i would follow it. Thus took another 15 - 20 odd sectionals like this, in between I would reset the GMAT Prep test and took it as sectionals so as not to lose touch with the "GMAT type" questions, I was planning on taking the one remaining MGMAT and a Knewton as practice, but after reading about Knewton CR questions and analyzing their quality on the forum, I dropped the idea of taking the Knewton FLT. Another cool thing I figured out is that the exam can be scheduled 7 - 10 days in advance if it is not the peak season, this hugely benefited me since I did not want to repeat the earlier approach where in I booked the exam 30 days in advance and felt that it was a bit past my peak when I took the test.
Anyways, I took the MGMAT FLT 6 after the 15 - 20 sectionals and the GMAT prep sectional and got a 770, on Sep 11th. Talked to my wife and saw the dates and Sep 21st looked really nice, took 2 days off from office (Sep 20th and 21st) this gave me a 3 day respite from the usual office work but a few things did not go my way explained earlier.
Kept practicing using the same sectional approach. do not know why but on Sep 12th when I was looking at questions they were looking "alien" to me, a lot was going on at the work front and hence even though one day would pass but it would seem like 3 - 4 had passed. This did not augur well for me, so I planned to practise 25 - 30 quant questions from the (300 Tough BTG question list) and take one Verbal sectional daily either from Grockit or the 1000 series (I would grab 15 SC, 15 CR and 20 RC questions from the 1000 series and make a sectional for myself) mentioned above. But two things happened, first after taking the verbal sectional on Monday i realized i was overworking myself so I alternated verbal and quant rather than taking them daily and in the mean time revised the MGMAT SC guide as well. Also after taking the sectionals from 1000 series, I felt the CR and RC were more LSAT focused and I needed more practice on GMAT type stuff (earlier when I was doing this in August it was fine since I was building my base but now only GMAT focus was required), thus I leaned more towards Grockit sectionals and GMAT Prep retakes.
Finally, as far as AWA goes i had practised it so much in the last attempt that this time in 2.5 months I wrote one issue and Argument and just drew an outline for one more issue and argument all in the last 10 days before the test.
On Sunday Sep 19th things went a bit downhill as mentioned in Part I.
Also anotehr important thing to keep in mind is I did not exhaust all my questions this time since I was not sure if there is going to be a next time or not ..........and I wanted to be ready!


So that was it!!

Best of luck to all!
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by kvcpk » Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:36 am
Congratulations. You did it.!!
"Once you start working on something,
don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it.
People who work sincerely are the happiest."
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by mj78ind » Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:39 am
kvcpk wrote:Congratulations. You did it.!!
Thanks Kvcpk

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by GMATMadeEasy » Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:58 am
Excellent Debrief/

where to find "300 Tough Math questions from BTG website " ? Are thery worth doing ? Or too tough with respect to real GMAT questions ? Questions are GMAT club are way to otough. I scored 49 in first attempt but want to practise good questions and only of the real GMAT difficulty level not insanely tough ones.

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by mj78ind » Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:37 am
GMATMadeEasy wrote:Excellent Debrief/

where to find "300 Tough Math questions from BTG website " ? Are thery worth doing ? Or too tough with respect to real GMAT questions ? Questions are GMAT club are way to otough. I scored 49 in first attempt but want to practise good questions and only of the real GMAT difficulty level not insanely tough ones.
Thanks @GMATMadeEasy
I think the 300 Questions of BTG are pretty good. They should be on the resources page of the BTG if not send me your email and would be glad to share with you (it is a pretty big file though ~1.5 Mb).

Cheers

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by arora007 » Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:39 pm
Congrats!! cool score and a great debreif!

Excellent method of analysis!! thanks for the same...

All the best for your applications!!

I recall the painful fact that i went through in my 670, was not peaking.

"Another cool thing I figured out is that the exam can be scheduled 7 - 10 days in advance if it is not the peak season, this hugely benefited me since I did not want to repeat the earlier approach where in I booked the exam 30 days in advance and felt that it was a bit past my peak when I took the test. "
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by mj78ind » Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:48 pm
arora007 wrote:Congrats!! cool score and a great debreif!

Excellent method of analysis!! thanks for the same...

All the best for your applications!!

I recall the painful fact that i went through in my 670, was not peaking.

"Another cool thing I figured out is that the exam can be scheduled 7 - 10 days in advance if it is not the peak season, this hugely benefited me since I did not want to repeat the earlier approach where in I booked the exam 30 days in advance and felt that it was a bit past my peak when I took the test. "
@arora007
Thanks.

Glad you liked the piece and the analysis framework, given usually we have day jobs as well, that framework was a boon for me (although belated). Are you planning a second attempt?

Best

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by arora007 » Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:51 pm
Yes I would... when I would be peaking again... hope its soon... Cheers!! all d best!!
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by mj78ind » Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:19 pm
arora007 wrote:Yes I would... when I would be peaking again... hope its soon... Cheers!! all d best!!
@arora007

Great! One advise I would dole out (I know unsolicited :) but periodically, do keep checking the available dates for the city you will be appearing in, at the mba.com site, this will give you a trend of whether dates are filling up or not, I think the peak season is going to start pretty soon.

Best of luck!

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by Random Wok » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:05 am
Congratulations! Awesome work.

Thanks for the detailed debrief.

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by outreach » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:02 am
great debrief and score
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by mj78ind » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:04 am
Random Wok wrote:Congratulations! Awesome work.

Thanks for the detailed debrief.
@Random Wok

Thanks! and best of luck!

Cheers

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by mj78ind » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:05 am
outreach wrote:great debrief and score
Thanks@Outreach

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by f1champ » Tue Sep 28, 2010 6:48 am
mj78ind wrote:
GMATMadeEasy wrote:Excellent Debrief/

where to find "300 Tough Math questions from BTG website " ? Are thery worth doing ? Or too tough with respect to real GMAT questions ? Questions are GMAT club are way to otough. I scored 49 in first attempt but want to practise good questions and only of the real GMAT difficulty level not insanely tough ones.
Thanks @GMATMadeEasy
I think the 300 Questions of BTG are pretty good. They should be on the resources page of the BTG if not send me your email and would be glad to share with you (it is a pretty big file though ~1.5 Mb).

Cheers
Congratulations! Great job.

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by rehandossani » Tue Sep 28, 2010 7:30 am
Excellent Score! I gave my first GMAT Prep test today and scored 710 (Q: 48, V: 37). I have 27 days to give my actual GMAT and i am not sure what i will get in actual test. I am just freaking out!..Can you email me the 300 tough questions please because i am out of quantative practice material.