How I did it: 760 (Q50, V42) - awaiting official scores now - The Beat The GMAT Forum

Hi guys,

I have been a silent observer on the forums, but I must say this website has been of immense help during my GMAT preparation. The 'I just beat the GMAT' section has been particularly helpful and greatly motivating.

I took the GMAT on 19-May, and managed to score a decent 760 (Q50, V42) [:)]. It's been ten days now but I am yet to receive my official scores [:(]. Has anyone ever had to wait so long? I understand that people normally receive their official scores within 4-5 days after taking the test. I am worried also because I am not too confident if I gave my best to AWA, and so want to confirm how I fared.

And now about how I did it. First, here is the list of resources I used for my prep:

1. Manhattan GMAT strategy guides
2. Kaplan CD companion
3. OG 12
4. Verbal Review 2nd edition
5. GMAT PrepTests

I started my prep journey in early March, and concentrated on finishing the Manhattan strategy guides first. The idea was to brush up/learn the basic concepts first and then to try the OG questions. Many candidates do the mistake of going straight for the OG or the preptest. I personally do not recommend this - this could badly hit your morale if you do not do well with the OG problems or on the preptest.

After finishing the Manhattan guides, I tried solving each and every problem in the OG12 book. And I made sure to carefully review all the answers I got wrong, and whenever needed, review the basic concepts from the Manhattan books. Having done this, I decided to try my hands on the GMAT preptest 1 around mid-April, and scored a good 740 (Q49, V42). This was a big morale booster.

I noticed that most of the mistakes I made in Quant were silly ones (calculations gone wrong in haste, not reading the questions properly, etc.). So, I felt the need for more practice. The next step was to do all the quant problems on Kaplan CD companion, and I felt it greatly helped.

For the verbal section, I felt I was finding it too hard to concentrate on the RC passages and and sentence correction problems - and 90% of the mistakes I made were in these two areas. I reviewed the Manhattan verbal books comprehensively again, particularly the idioms list. I had read somewhere on the forums that one should avoid Kaplan's study materials for verbal, so was not too confident about using them. So, I bought the Verbal Review 2nd edition, and went through each and every question on the book. It greatly helped, and I managed to score 770 in GMAT preptest 2.

This was the first week of May, and I was getting a feeling that I was now prepared for the actual test. So I scheduled my GMAT for 19-May. The intermediate period was spent on reviewing the Manhattan strategy guides on quant to further strengthen my quant skills. I also made sure to read as much non-fiction as possible (articles from financial magazines, newspapers, books, etc.). This greatly helped to develop confidence for the RC and SC problems in the verbal section. I decided to re-take the GMAT preptest 1 two days before the actual test, and this time I scored 760 (Q50, V42).

Happy with my performance in the preptests, I just tried to rest well, and read a few AWA templates during the last 2 days before the exam. This greatly helped.

The G-day

I had scheduled my exam for 12 noon. I am not an early riser and this would give me ample time to rest after a hectic workday. But there was one thing I guess I was not totally prepared for. I had not practiced even a single AWA essay before the actual exam. This did have an effect on the G-day. Though I do not think I did too bad in the AWA section, one hour of thinking and writing did get me exhausted and I was feeling it hard to concentrate on the actual exam. Fortunately, I was able to manage time well, and was happy to see the final score of 760 (Q50, V42) after the test. But, I would strongly advise anyone taking the test to practice the AWA essays during your prep.

In summary, this is the timeline of my GMAT prep:

March first week: Started preparing
March weeks 1-3: Went through all the books in Manhattan GMAT stragy guide series
End of March to mid-April: OG12, review of incorrect answers and concepts relating to the same.
Mid-April: GMAT PrepTest 1: 740 (Q49, V42)
Later half of April: Review of Manhattan books, Kaplan CD companion for quant problems, and GMAT Verbal review 2nd edition
May first week: GMAT PrepTest2: 770 (dont remember the sectional split)
First 2 weeks of May: Reviewed Manhattan quant books, read non-fiction books and articles, etc.
17 May: GMAT PrepTest1 (retake): 760 (Q50, V42)
19 May: Actual GMAT: 760 (Q50, V42)

I will also post my profile after I receive my official scores. I am targeting a top-10 US Fin-MBA program. Would be great to have experts' comments on the likelihood of an interview call from such B-schools.

Cheers
sha_tan

How I did it: 760 (Q50, V42) - awaiting official scores now

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