I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello,

I took GMAT few days back and got a 760 (Q50/V42), AWA 6.0. I am sharing my experience in this forum since I gained a lot from this forum during the last 3 months.

Background - 10+ years in IT (you are right I am trying to get back after a long break)


Why now - Thats hard to explain but ever since I landed a job immediately out of college I had decided that I dont want to study anymore - may be cause I was feeling lazy or may be I was feeling comfortable with all the money coming in. But then there comes a time when you finally feel that this is not all that you are capable of, there is more to yourself and that's what prompted me to think about doing an MBA. I checked with my friend and he gave me lot of motivation to proceed. Everyone tells me it's probably too late (especially since I am married and have a son who is 1.5 years old) but I felt that this is the right time for me. If I had done it earlier it would be for the fact that people around me are doing it. Now I am doing it cause I want to do it.

Preparation - I started preparation in Jan 2011 and prepared steadily for 3 months before taking the test on Mar 26th. Honestly I was afraid that I may not be able to keep at it especially since I had been away from studies for more than 10 years. But I surprised myself with the enthusiasm I had to get back home from work and study for the GMAT test. That was more than enough to keep me going.

Process and Materials - Before starting off, I read articles in this forum and at few other blogs on how others prepared and some of the recommended methodologies. Since I was trying to get back after a long break I decided to tailor these to my needs. This is what I did.

Starting off - I started preparation with Kaplan (Kaplan GMAT Math, GMAT Verbal and 2010-2011 Premier). I found them allright and prepared with them for a month. I took my first paper mock CAT with Kaplan scored a 550. Even though the score was demoralising I decided that I am only starting and I can only improve from here. I analysed the test and figured out what I should work on.

My strength - I realised that Quant was my strong area and made sure that I never let it go.

My weakness - I had to work pretty hard on Verbal. I was equally bad in SC, CR and RC but I thought of giving RC some more time.

One of the major issues in Quant was my tendency to make calculation errors and missing certain data points in the question in my eagerness to solve it fast. I had to consciously work on this and these were some of the leading points in my Error Log (yes I maitained one and it surely helps).

Improving SC and CR - For SC and CR I bought MGMAT Sentence Correction and Powescore CR. Both were excellent books and helped me work on my verbal score in SC and CR respectively.

Improving RC - Meanwhile for RC I was still a bit lost. I had started of by skimming through the passages and then trying to answer the questions. This surely was not working for me, so I decided to try the methods suggested in the various forums and by the GMAT prep agencies. Meanwhile I bought Aristotle RC 99, a good workout for RC but not representative of GMAT questions. Second method I tried was to read throught the passage, take notes and then answer the questions. This seemed to work but not with desired results. Then I tried something suggested in one of the forums - read the first para carefully, the first lines of remaining paras carefully and then skim through the rest and note down the key words. This again did not work for me. I was testing all these methodologies using the Aristotle passages. So I was able to compare the success rates easily.

Finally I decided to come up with my own method - read the passage thoroughly and critically and not worry about the time (no note taking this time). This started working for me and I was seeing huge improvements to the extent that my GMAT Prep saw zero errors on RC. Even though my decision to "not worry about the time" saw me use close to 10 minutes on certain Aristotle passages it proved successful in the long run since GMAT passages were comparitively much easier.

I also bought the GMAT OG and worked on the different sections. Before taking GMAT I completed all sections of OG.

Mock CATs - Once I was done with MGMAT SC and Powerscore CR I went back to mock CATs (RC practice was happening in parellel since Aristotle RC had 99 passages). The following were my scores (I was doing 2 CATs each week):

Kaplan CAT 1 - 650
Kaplan CAT 2 - 720
MGMAT CAT 1 - 670
MGMAT CAT 2 - 690
MGMAT CAT 3 - 680
MGMAT CAT 4 - 680

By this time I decided that I will take GMAT by first week of April (plan was based on how much more time I need to complete the remaining mock CATs and do some more practice). All through my Quant scores were stable and Verbal was improving though very slowly.

Kaplan CAT 3 - 710
MGMAT CAT 5 - 710
MGMAT CAT 6 - 750
Kaplan CAT 3 - 720

Before taking GMAT Prep 1, I had decided that in case I end up with a good score (for me that was anything above 720) I will schedule my CAT the very next weekend.

GMAT Prep 1 - 730

After seeing this score I decided that I will move my CAT date a week earlier than planned. I discussed with my friend and scheduled my CAT on 26/Mar. I made this decision since I felt I was at my peak and moreover did not want a burnout.

GMAT Prep 2 - 750

After seeing this score my confidence was very high and your confidence matters.

Needless to say that after each CAT I was analysing all the errors to see if where I was going wrong and how I can improve. This is essential to your success since you do not want to repeat the same mistakes. Beyond a certain point these small things matter more than knowledge as such. In addition to my error log I was also maintaining notes on some of the questions I got wrong in these CATs. Before each CAT I went through the error log and my notes. I was also doing the various questions available at the GMAT forums of which I was a member. Another thing - I took all these tests at 9:30 AM each day since I was planning to take the real one at that time.

Time spent - 1.5 to 2 hours per day on weekdays, 6 to 8 hours per day on weekends

CAT experience - I woke up earlier than I had planned to (this usually happens to me before any exam) and went through my notes and error log one last time. I reached the centre half an hour before the test but I was asked to wait at the reception. I was not being called even when there was just 10 minutes left (I was aware that there are certain things to be done before the exam). I complained to the person sitting at the reception and he comforted me saying that even if you start late you will get all you 4 hours. Well that surely was the case though not very professional.

So after all the prelims I started at 9:40 AM and the essays went by without much trouble except that while I was typing the last line of my Issue essay I ran out of time. I was worried that it did not get saved but the guys at mba.com confirmed that whatever I typed would have been saved. After the essays I took the optional break, drank some water used the restroom and signed in again. Quant section was kind of moderately difficult and by the end of it I was really not sure how I performed. Fortunately I did not run of time as was the case in the many mock CATs earlier. Again I took the optional break. The Verbal section was easier than I expected especially with this being my Achilles heel.

After answering all the survey questions (which seemed to take an eternity) I selected to view the score and was elated on seeing a 760 - My highest score so far.

Few ThankQs - My friend who motivated me, my family (wife and parents) who did not bother me much when I was preparing and the many people in this forum who answered my queries, gave many wonderful ideas and posted so many good questions to work on.

So friends that's it from me. Now the school hunt starts.

I am happy to hear about your success.

Good luck!

Awesome sir.

That's a fantastic achievement.

Congrats!

Nikhil,

This is truly amazing. Heartiest Congratulations !!!!!

I have two specific questions :-

1. What material did you use for Quant ?

2. How many hours did you typically devote per day and weekend ?

Thank You so much

gmat7202011 wrote:Nikhil,

This is truly amazing. Heartiest Congratulations !!!!!

I have two specific questions :-

1. What material did you use for Quant ?

2. How many hours did you typically devote per day and weekend ?

Thank You so much

Thanks gmat7202011.

As mentioned in the writeup above I used the following materials:

1. Kaplan Math Workbook
2. Kaplan Verbal Workbook
3. Kaplan 2010-2011 GMAT Premier
4. Manhattan GMAT SC
5. Powerscore CR
6. Aristotle RC 99
7. Aristole CR - which is a compilation of GMAT type past LSAT CR questions
8. OG review

I used additional books on verbal since that was my weak area. Generally Indians will find the Quant manageable though that may not be the case with Verbal section.

I spent around 1.5 to 2 hours on weekdays mostly after work and around 6 to 7 hours per day on weekends (Sat and Sun).

Hi Congrats on your outstanding GMAT Score.Can you please give more details as to how you approached sentence correction part in vebal section.

@nikhilsrl: Did you find "Aristotle RC 99 " ? I had a look and tried a few RCs. I had well analysed OG12 before, so immediately realized that they are not to the point. What is your opinion ?

uday1255 wrote:Hi Congrats on your outstanding GMAT Score.Can you please give more details as to how you approached sentence correction part in vebal section.

Hello uday,

If your native language is not English, Sentence Correction may prove to be the toughest section in Verbal. Atleast it was so for me. In the beginning I was scoring better in SC than in the other sections but with time I improved in RC and CR but remained pretty stagnant in SC.

I started my prepartaions with Kaplan and then moved to MGMAT SC. I found it quite comprehensive and very helpful. For practice I tried out questions posted here in beatthegmat and few other forums. If you want you can also use the Aristotle set of questions. At one point I was planning to get it but stopped short for no reason.

Just like I did for all other sections I used to keep an error log and analyse where I was going wrong. Moreover there are lot of strategies available at this forum which you can try out. What I used to do:

1. First look for any obvious mistakes in the question. Could be tough at times if you are a non-native English speaker.
2. If you have already identified the error eliminate answer choice A and any other choice that repeats the same error.
3. In case you are unable to identify any error with the question you will have to compare all choices and look for the one that sounds right to you (please note that sounding right may not always help)
4. All this will work only for the easier questions. For tougher questions awareness of things like parellelism, subject-verb match etc is required.


Regards,
Nikhil

GMATMadeEasy wrote:@nikhilsrl: Did you find "Aristotle RC 99 " ? I had a look and tried a few RCs. I had well analysed OG12 before, so immediately realized that they are not to the point. What is your opinion ?

Hello,

I used Aristotle RC and did all 99 questions. I found the passages much tougher than the GMAT passages (as seen in the prep software and the actual GMAT). Why do I think so:
1. Main difference - The actual GMAT passages were much straightforward compared to the RC 99 passages.
2. The ideas presented are also easier to comprehend in the real GMAT passages.
3. Sometimes I felt that RC 99 passages had some incorrect use of English language. I could be wrong here though.
4. They do not have any short passages, I felt that majority of the GMAT passages are short (again thats my perception).
5. I was using a strategy of taking my time to read and understand the passages without bothering much about the time (my idea was that I needed to get the question correct). This meant that I was taking on an average 10 minutes for some of the RC 99 questions but still getting some of the questions wrong. Yet this worked like magic for GMAT passages. In prep I got all questions right and I am pretty confident I did the same in real GMAT too.

Having said that,
1. I think this is good practice since you are not likely to get anything tougher than this. Even though I felt that this is not representative of GMAT I continued with RC 99 for this one reason.
2. Moreover you are not likely to find so many practice questions anywhere else.

Nikhil,
first off congratulations.
now help me out here
i see that you have taken Kaplan tests. Whts your honest opnion abt them?
i just took one and for 6 mistakes in Quant the CAT gave me 43, though i understand its not abt the number but still, im skeptical.
any thoughts? would you advise me taking the CAT's or stick to GMAT prep and MGMAT?

also, one moe thing, are the kap tests adaptive? i defnitely didnt feel it.
i took the practise CAT 2 (from the online edition)
nd ya (excuse me for so many quesries but i thought i better ask someone who has taken the tests)
the CAT gave me questions section wise, all PS, all DS, all SC etc.
all the kap CATS are the same?
reason im askign is i dnt want to waste time over a CAT which is not adaptve and gives out questions unlike the actual exam.
thanks.

Nikhil,

This is a great score. Do you have any specific schools in mind? Keep us posted on your hunting.

Hello Madhunara,

I have 10+ years of exp and hence am targeting 1 year MBAs, so mostly conc Europe and Canada. Currently am in process of applying to Insead for their Jan 2012 intake, R2. I may in due course apply to ESADE, Ivey (Canada) etc. I am in 2 minds about LBS due to the duration.

Hello rohu27,

I am not sure how adaptive the Kaplan CATs where and for that matter even MGMAT (even though MGMAT gives the rating for each questions and that seems to change). The one thing I found good about MGAMT is their explanations for each question. This was very comprehensive especially for the verbal section since they used to explain why a particular choice is incorrect. This was seriously missed in Kaplan CATs.

As for the value, I will see them as just another practice test and I wanted to get as many as possible. Since I started off with the Kaplan material I got access to their CATs. So it wasn't something additional that i purchased. Same with MGMAT, I got access since I bought their SC.

Final score-wise I found neither very representative since my GMAT Prep scores were higher than what I scored in these mock CATs and the real one even higher. So I will leave the decision to you with the one comment that both are good practice with MGMAT having a slight advantage due to their explanations.

Hope this helps.

Nikhil,
Thanks for the tips on Sentence correction.I am currently working with Manhattan SC book and also working on the OG-12 and OG 2nd edition problems that are at the end of each chapter in the Manhattan book.What i wanted to Understand is are these SC questions on the OG representative of the actual test.For Example for most of the questions i am able to use the 2/3 split and then figure out in what context the error is may be subject -verb or modifier etc...Can we rely on applying the 2/3 rule on the actual GMAT and what is your opinion on the standard of questions asked there?