I just Beat The GMAT!

I have read a lot of testimonials here. I just gave the GMAT a week ago and thought i should share my experience as well. I wanted to take the GMAT early (as i wanted to meet the first deadline for most colleges). By the time I took a date, i had just 3 weeks left for preparation. Managing office work and studies was difficult but, like the old rabbit says, a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

week 1: Gave a diagnostic test. Got a 630. Well, now i knew where i was at. I analyzed my paper thoroughly and started working on my weaknesses. I tried practicing whenever i could because of the skewed timeline. Finished Kaplan premier edition.

week 2: By around this time I had realized my weakness was SC. In another test, i saw my score go up to a 650. I saw that my problem with SC was my accuracy. My accuracy in sets of SC questions varied between 40-95 %. I tried very hard to get some consistency but to no avail. To help me out with my SC, i joined the EGMAT 3 week course (https://e-gmat.com) for SC. This completely changed my approach to SC. I have gotta say, this is one killer course. I had done all the grammar rules but it was like rule overkill for me. I was unable to concentrate. This course gave me a lot of direction. It taught me a concrete technique\approach to SC and immensely helped me improve my accuracy up to 85-90 %. While grammar rules are obviously very important, the approach to the questions can help improve accuracy as well as enable you to solve the question quickly. Egmat really helped me attain this. I also found the structure of the concept files very helpful. This cource was a very good confidence booster. For all of you out there who feel their weakest section is SC, this course can do wonders.

week 3: Concentrated on giving full length tests only. Did small mixed quizzes to keep in tune with the concepts. Did not skip the AWA section in any of the tests to train my brain to high pressure and continues stress for 4.5 hrs. Gave GMAC tests and scored 690 one one and 700 on another.

GMAT day: As my test was in the afternoon, i just revised a few concepts a did a few questions. Read the newspaper. Chilled with my friends. And went and gave the test.

Got a 690. Dont know if 690 in 3 weeks is a big deal or not. But all i got to say is it is possible.

I think i can do much better so will take the test again. Hope the 2nd attempt is better than the first. Cheers.

Congrats and all the best for your retake.

Congratulations on your score. 690 in 3 weeks is just fantastic. I have been preparing for sometime and I have my exam in 2 weeks. Needless to say, I want to improve my score. I scored 640 in GMAT Prep test. (V=32, Q=44). What do you think I should focus on?


PS: I also bought e-GMAT and am half way through the course. I love it!!

good work

@beatthegmatinsept

I am glad that the Egmat course is being beneficial. It helped me a lot. I am not an expert but here are my two cents:

1. Improving your score in either of the sections right now will increase your score tremendously. Currently, you are wavering around 75 percentile in both the sections. You will need to bring up your score in at least one of the sections considerably to increase your overall score.

2. To do this, what i did was practice practice practice. Do every question, test, quiz, puzzle that comes your way. As i had only 3 weeks, my strategy was different from the norm (the norm: don't focus on your weaknesses in the last few weeks, just focus on your strengths). I practiced everything and anything that came my way. You need to come up with a strategy that works for you.

3. One of the biggest mistakes people make ( I have read )is bad analysis of questions\mocks. I would suggest that you analyse every question that you do thoroughly irrespective of it being right or wrong. There is a lot you can take from the analysis in terms of technique and approach to certain questions. It does help fine tune your skills.

4. It is important to take a test every two days from now on in. Do not skip the AWA. Give the entire test in one go to get accustomed to the gmat way.

5. Finally, it is very important to relax and chill. Go out with your friends and have a laugh. Catch a movie on a odd day. Do not make gmat your cocoon. Breaks are really important to refresh your mind and actually improve your performance.

Cheers and best of luck for your prep.

Hi slugabedd ,

congratulations on your 690 in three weeks,thats great achievement.please can you compare the manhattan gmat

sentence correction guide with the e-gmat sentence correction course? i have the manhattan gmat sentence correcton guide

,but my score in that area is not improving.

Hi Xela760,

Your query is a very typical case which most of us faced.

I think I make a visa-vis comparison of MGMAT and e-gmat SC Course.

U rightly said your score is lagging behind, it is becox even though you are quite aware of the commonly tested rules tested in GMAT, you may be lacking in the identification of the rules and APPLICATION of the rules promptly.

So What e-gmat does here?? I have personally used it. And I have hit 100% accuracy. e-gmat uses flash modules coupled with audio. As we should admit that retainability increases with Listening.

My suggestion is MGMAT SC is the bible. No doubts. But e-gmat is the guide to the bible which helps us to focus on key topic in a simple & lucid fashion.

Adding on to that e-gmat has 500 odd SC which pinpoints our strenggth and weakness using a concept mapping marker tool.

SO having said that, u need both MGMAT along with e-gmat to push your cieling.

All the best...

Well...i guess Xela760 said it all. The only thing I would like to add when comparing both is as egmat is interactive, it can be much more fun to use. Its like having your own personal tutor.

slugabedd wrote:Well...i guess Xela760 said it all. The only thing I would like to add when comparing both is as egmat is interactive, it can be much more fun to use. Its like having your own personal tutor.

I agree.. After having read all the MGMAT Quant books, it was a nice change to have something different. After a long day at work, e-gmat made studying fun. I took the SC diagnostic yday in OG12 (for the first time), and got 15 out of 18 correct. This has been my most accurate score in SC so far.

slugabedd wrote:I have read a lot of testimonials here. I just gave the GMAT a week ago and thought i should share my experience as well. I wanted to take the GMAT early (as i wanted to meet the first deadline for most colleges). By the time I took a date, i had just 3 weeks left for preparation. Managing office work and studies was difficult but, like the old rabbit says, a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

week 1: Gave a diagnostic test. Got a 630. Well, now i knew where i was at. I analyzed my paper thoroughly and started working on my weaknesses. I tried practicing whenever i could because of the skewed timeline. Finished Kaplan premier edition.

week 2: By around this time I had realized my weakness was SC. In another test, i saw my score go up to a 650. I saw that my problem with SC was my accuracy. My accuracy in sets of SC questions varied between 40-95 %. I tried very hard to get some consistency but to no avail. To help me out with my SC, i joined the EGMAT 3 week course (https://e-gmat.com) for SC. This completely changed my approach to SC. I have gotta say, this is one killer course. I had done all the grammar rules but it was like rule overkill for me. I was unable to concentrate. This course gave me a lot of direction. It taught me a concrete technique\approach to SC and immensely helped me improve my accuracy up to 85-90 %. While grammar rules are obviously very important, the approach to the questions can help improve accuracy as well as enable you to solve the question quickly. Egmat really helped me attain this. I also found the structure of the concept files very helpful. This cource was a very good confidence booster. For all of you out there who feel their weakest section is SC, this course can do wonders.

week 3: Concentrated on giving full length tests only. Did small mixed quizzes to keep in tune with the concepts. Did not skip the AWA section in any of the tests to train my brain to high pressure and continues stress for 4.5 hrs. Gave GMAC tests and scored 690 one one and 700 on another.

GMAT day: As my test was in the afternoon, i just revised a few concepts a did a few questions. Read the newspaper. Chilled with my friends. And went and gave the test.

Got a 690. Dont know if 690 in 3 weeks is a big deal or not. But all i got to say is it is possible.

I think i can do much better so will take the test again. Hope the 2nd attempt is better than the first. Cheers.

Gave it again. 690 to 730 in four weeks. cheers people.

Congratulations, seemed like you have a tendency to improve your score. Any tips on what you did this time to go from 690 to 730.

Hey John,

Well i guess i was well prepared last time as well. I think I faltered in my approach to the exam. I had too many strategies, too many tips, too many suggestions in mind on how to take the exam. This is, what I believe, screwed me last time around.

I did not use OG the first time so I thought that was the problem. I had used Kaplan Live Edition. So this time I went out and bought the OG. But it did not really help as I felt the questions were a little too simple and I used to get 95% of them right. I believe I felt that the questions were easy as I had practiced using Kaplan which had much tougher middle and high level questions.

Also, this time around I did not go bonkers on strategy. I kept it simple. Take each question as it comes. I even switched off the time. This meant i had less pressure on me during the exam and I could just focus on the question. I kept this my strategy. Gave all the practice papers with this strategy and it worked well for me.

Also, I did a lot of practice paper. A paper each day till my exam for 10 days. I did not practice anything else other than the questions in the exams.

But above all, I conditioned myself mentally for the exam and that worked like a charm.

Hope this helps.

Thanks buddy, this is good advice. I will try to keep things simple like you did. I am very impressed by your continuous score improvement and wish you good luck for your applications.

Hey buddy,

You must have gotten calls from quite a few schools. Are there some good sources that help prepare for the interview.

slugabedd wrote: My accuracy in sets of SC questions varied between 40-95 %. I tried very hard to get some consistency but to no avail. To help me out with my SC, i joined the EGMAT 3 week course (https://e-gmat.com) for SC. This completely changed my approach to SC. I have gotta say, this is one killer course. I had done all the grammar rules but it was like rule overkill for me. I was unable to concentrate. This course gave me a lot of direction. It taught me a concrete technique\approach to SC and immensely helped me improve my accuracy up to 85-90 %. While grammar rules are obviously very important, the approach to the questions can help improve accuracy as well as enable you to solve the question quickly. Egmat really helped me attain this. I also found the structure of the concept files very helpful. This cource was a very good confidence booster. For all of you out there who feel their weakest section is SC, this course can do wonders.

Hi Slugabedd,

I have my exam in 1 month. SC is my Achilles' heel. I think I know the concepts but I get confused while answering questions. I have read MGMAT 3 times and like everyone, I attempted OG12. I have also taken Knewton course (which seems like a high level refresher to me). My consistency varies between 60-80%. You stated that e-GMAT course helped you with SC. How long did it take for you to improve your consistency using e-GMAT course? I can probably devote 2 weeks to SC.

Thanks,

Aman