I just Beat The GMAT!

My score is 640 (49Q, 27V) Verbal killed me...I never got such low scores in verbal during preparation. But my aim was 600 and +40 was a bonus. ...and I do not plan for a second test.

But before I start with details regarding my study (esp. Quantitative - I am sure no one wants Verbal tips from me!! ) I would like to thank this forum. The members of this forum have been very helpful. I took test few months back and was not able to update, have forgotten my old login as well but I had to come back as this forum was a great help and we all need to give back what we take from here.

I have tried to make it short and hope you will find it helpful.

Preparation Time:

I gave myself 6 months of preparation, out of which first 2 were very slow and I did not study much. The preparation took off by 3rd month.

My study method :

Helpful:

1. Go through GMAT syllabus before you start preparation- I wasted time on Trigonometry Quantitative topics which was not in the syllabus... though it was helpful but not required.

2. After I finally got serious with my preparation, I devoted 2 months (3rd & 4th) to go through school level books - many available on internet for free. I would suggest choose one and stick to that .... I covered topics from class 8th, 9th, 10th 11th & 12th..... NCERT(India) is excellent if you can find one.

3. After completing the school level books I moved to the forums: BEAT THE GMAT & Test Magic. . I decided not to get involved in more than 2 forums & these were two if the best I could find. I made sure to answer as many questions online as I could - this way I was not only helping the other members but also myself by going through the formulas, trying different ways of solving and then finding which is the shortest. Remember: Just solving the problem in forum is not enough- go through the method used by each and every member for that problem and pick the shortest method.

4. Any tricky question, make a note of it for later reference.

5. Before going to bed I used to go through the formulas of any one topic or tricky questions on any one topic or idioms/grammar.......this took just 10-15 minutes each day and helped me revise.

6. I made an excel file for scores of all the tests I took. I tried to solve around 25 Questions in each PS, DS, RC, CR..... by the end of my study I was able to see my scores improving. If the score of one, say DS were not improving so I used to give next 2 days to it and go back and revise all basics.

7. GMAT official guide is a must....very helpful.

8. I went through notes by different members and made my own notes with their help.

9. Always time your tests... you need to learn to complete test within given time limit.

10. I made Quantitative notes in a notebook while verbal were directly on my laptop. My NEW laptop died a month before my test and with it took away all my verbal notes..... luckily I had Quantitative notes.... Do not depend solely on computers- it rarely happens but possibility is always there. I was without laptop /computer for nearly 20 days..... my laptop came back from servicing after 10 days- worked for 2 days and then dies for good !! Replacement came a day after my test.

Avoid:

1. Verbal needs time: I wanted to be very strong in mathematics so I spent entire first 2 months to quantitative and then the remaining 2 months to both quantitative & verbal . This was a mistake- I should have spent more time on Verbal- I was confident that I would score in verbal BUT I was wrong. You need to strike a balance.

2. I did not study Powerscore Critical reasoning well.... I just went through it. Just reading through helped me a lot but would advice to go through it well- it is a very helpful book. You do not need any other book for CR if you master this one.

3. With little time left to prepare for verbal I was nervous and started searching different books and studying them. I was reading a new book on grammar everyday- I was confused. I wasted a lot of time doing that. SPEND time on grammar- it is not easy even if we are good in English.

4. Test day- stay calm!! I was not (during Verbal section)..... During test, by the time I reached verbal section I was tired and wanted the test to end soon. I knew my Grammar was not going well. I am not good in economics/finance - I got 4 RC (yes 4 big ones!!) & all related to finance, govt bodies, economics....... I am good with history, biology, environment etc.... but I did not get even a single RC on that! I was surprised while taking the test and knew that Verbal will kill me today (which it did!!) BUT it would have been better if I would have kept those thoughts aside and concentrated more on the verbal section.



Books I studied from:

1. NCERT (excellent )

2. Powerscore Critical reasoning (must study)

3. Manhattan Arithmetic Skills (excellent)

4. Manhattan Sentence Correction (excellent..must have!!)

5. Nova Gmat Preparation Course (just o.k for revision)

6. Went though notes by members.... Found a lot of helpful stuff!

7. OG11 (must have)


Tests taken:

1. Manhattan

2. Kaplan

3. OG11

4. Nova

congrats enjoyed reading your debrief