From 550 > 640 > 710. Self-Belief is the key !!!

Hi,

First of all I want to say thanks to the BeattheGMAT community for resolving my problems, boosting my confidence, helping in learning and much more.

There is always a cause behind everything you do. And that cause let you push you the to the extreme limit. People attempting GMAT surely wants to do MBA from the reputed college. If that's your dream, then don't let failure overshadow your dream. One day you will succeed in GMAT & there is no question about that. BELIEF in yourself is the key.

I started with GMAT diagnostic test and till I came to Verbal I lost my concentration & I did not even attempted many of the questions. Result 550. One learning that I had from diagnostic test is that I really have to focus on my concentration during the entire test. And other learning is I need to work very hard & smart on Verbal. I started with exploring people experiences in BTG community, talking to my friends who already had given the GMAT. From that I came out with the set of book I judged would be best for me to improve Verbal.

CR: PowerScore Bible
SC: Aristotle SC GRAIL 2nd edition
Manhattan SC
RC: No such material

OG: OG 13th edition

Because my Verbal was very weak I decided to lay my maximum attention to the Verbal. My quant was fairly strong.

My First Plan:

Verbal:

SC: (1 month)
I started off with SC and decided to complete Aristotle SC GRAIL 2nd edition, Manhattan SC & OG 13th edition SC questions in 1 month time frame. I study 2 hrs daily and 4-5 hrs on weekend. Aristotle SC GRAIL 2nd edition is needed when you are not very clear on the grammar concepts. After completing the book I moved on to Manhattan SC. This a MUST do book. Each line of this book presents a new concept. It depends on you how much you can take out of this book. After completing Manhattan SC I moved to SC in OG 13th edition and do the timed practice of the SC questions. My per question average time was around 2 min.

CR: (1 month)
I started off with PowerScore Bible. Fairly good book. Good on foundations of concept. After that I moved to OG 13th edition CR questions & did the timed practice for the questions. My per question average time was around 2 min.

RC: (20 days)
I did not consulted any book for the RC. I directly started off with OG13 passages. I used to skim passages without understanding the theme of the passages and then attempt the questions. My per RC average time was around 9 min.

Quant: (15 days)
After completing all the Verbal material I practiced for Quant from OG, Manhattan Advance Quant guide and other miscellaneous sources.

Practice Tests:
After completing all the materials, I was very excited to see what I can score in the practice tests.

Manhattan 1: Q (48) V (29) : Total (630)
Manhattan 2: Q (46) V (32) : Total (640)
Manhattan 3: Q (47) V (35) : Total (680)
Manhattan 4: Q (51) V (39) : Total (740)
Manhattan 5: Q (49) V (34) : Total (680)

GMATPrep 1 (2008 version): Q (50) V (28) : Total (660)
GMATPrep 2 (2008 version): Q (50) V (31) : Total (680)
GMATPrep 3 (latest version): Q (50) V (30) : Total (670)
GMATPrep 4 (latest version ): Q (50) V (40) : Total (740)

What went wrong:
My weakest part was RC. I was afraid of long passages but overlooked this thing & hoped that long passages will only come at the end of the Verbal section. I did not worked on my RC strategy. So stupid of me!! As a result I bombed the GMAT. On test day I got 4 para passage on the 11th question. As I was already behind the time in Verbal and when I saw the long passage I lost my confidence and just to compensate the time I skipped all the 4 questions in the passage without even reading the passage. I know that was the worst decision of my life but that all happened because I was not ready for it. As a result I scored Q (49) V (28) : Total (640)

The best thing happened to me after the test was I did not lost my confidence. I was more confident after getting 640 with a thought in my mind that I CAN DO IT.

My Second Plan: (1.5 months)

I started working over the things I missed in my first preparation.

1. Focused lot on RC. I started understanding the passages and then attempted the questions. This not only saved time but also increased my accuracy. My per RC average time for short passage came around 5-6min & per RC average time for long passage [4 para] came around 7-8 min.

2. Bought more Official material to practice. OG 10th edition & Verbal Review 2nd edition

3. In the first attempt I was keep on doing only SC questions for weeks, only CR questions for weeks & only RC questions for weeks. But for 2nd attempt I used to practise 41 questions that contain SC + CR + RC. That helps me to improve alot.

4. I practiced 700-800 level GMATPREP questions [SC & CR]. The questions can be downloaded from gmatclub.com. They are must do question if you are targeting 700+ score.

5. I started doing Kaplan test. I heard a lot of mixed views about it but personally it helped to boost my confidence. The verbal part is really tough & challenging.

6. When I get free time in the office, I used to take practice free questions by Veritas. https://gmat.veritasprep.com/. The questions are absolutely free to practice & the question quality is really good.

7. Most importantly, I did not loose confidence in me.

Practice Tests: Just because I exhausted al the Manhattan & GMATPREP test in my first preparation I start giving Kaplan test.

Kaplan 1: Total (740)
Kaplan 2: Total (720)
Kaplan 3: Total (720)
Kaplan 4: Total (740)

The helped me boost my confidence, especially in verbal.

Test Day: The exam went rather smoothly and without any significant hiccups on Maths and Verbal. The questions and the screen almost made me feel that I am taking another practice exam. This time I banged the RC with full confidence. CR was fairly easy as compared to GMATPREP. For SC I must say that rule out options is the best possible strategy. You will see some different questions in SC, the type you have never practiced before. For that don't loose confidence, just start eliminating options based on the rule you have learnt so far.

Scored Q (50) V (36) IR (6) AWA(4.5) : Total (710)

That's how went the story of my prep.I hope that my detailed study plan would be helpful to you. As you can see from my planner,I had divided the entire preparation into phases and then into sub-phases. Each week I had my targets to complete and I'd ensure that come what may,I'd achieve those targets.

Special Thanks:

Ron Purewal: For the "Thursday with RON" videos & the detailed explanation on every tricky problem.

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