As I write this post, I hope that some of those who have been bitten by the GMAT in the past can take take heart from my story.
I took GMAT on 31st May and a score of 740 (Q-50 V-40) flashed on the screen. It was hard to believe! I pinched myself a few times to make sure it wasn't a dream. Why was it so hard to believe? Well, about 1.5 years ago I was in the same seat, and when a paltry score of 600(Q-45 V-26) appeared on the screen I was shell-shocked. About a month ago, once again, in the same seat, a score of 660(Q-49 V-34) flashed on the screen and that made me feel as though a train passed right through my brain!
To give you some background about me - I'm a software engineer by profession(working for a start up for about 5 yrs now) and a cricketer by passion! I'm kinda fitness freak. I love to run, play soccer, cricket, work out at gym -etc. On GMAT, I was reasonably comfortable with the Quant section, but always had hard time with English.
The very first time, as I prepared to take GMAT, I spoke to a few of my friends. Most of them advised that about 6 weeks of preparation was enough to ace the GMAT. All those folks did managed 720+ scores. So, I believed even I could do it. I had read and heard from my friends that one of the better ways to prepare is to give the GMAT Prep test once, gauge where you stand and then focus on the weak points. I followed this approach, scored a 600, without any preparation whatsoever. I thought scoring another 120 points after a decent preparation shouldn't be too difficult. I finished OG 11. I was very comfortable with Quant. Although I was less comfortable in English, it didn't look threatening. I had registered for the GMAT during the 2nd week of my studies. In the last week, I gave GMATPrep again. As far as I remember, I scored 640 and 660. But still I convinced myself that I could score at least 700+ in the exam. (God knows how on earth!!). The outcome was terrible. I scored only 600. I was shattered especially given the fact that the rest of my friends who had done similar preparation managed to score well. It was draining my confidence, so I sat down and told myself not to look at others and compare my performance. People, this is an important lesson in life. What may work for others may not necessarily work for you. But that doesn't mean you can't achieve what others did. It may take twice the effort or may be thrice or may be even more! The question is are you ready for it? Fortunately, in my case, the answer to that question was a "resounding YES".
I read many debriefs, of people who achieved success and also of people who were shattered by GMAT. I was humbled by GMAT, but I had this urge to resurrect and give it another shot. I'd really like to mention 2 debriefs that really influenced me in this phase. https://www.urch.com/forums/just-finishe ... -95-a.html by TBAY and https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-720-95- ... t7227.html by NGUFO. Folks, I strongly recommend you to read them, even if you rocked the GMAT. Life is a long journey and you are sure to slip some day or the other (whether you like it or not that's the truth). These are really inspirational posts and I feel that you can take heart from them and fight on even in the most adverse of the situations.
Having read many debriefs, I realized that the effort I had put in was nothing compared to many others out there. I ve always believed that if you can enjoy what you are doing and if you believe in what you are doing, it always helps you to do well in whatever you are doing. I always enjoyed solving GMAT problems. So, I thought it is just a matter of working hard and smart, and that I should get there and that it is just a matter of time. I looked at the way I had prepared during my first attempt. I had hardly made any notes. I never revised. I never spent much time analyzing the questions after giving a practice test. So this time, I decided to put in the best I can, work smart, make notes, spend enough time analyzing the questions after a test. I thought I'll take a break for about a month and then start working on GMAT again. But, my office schedule was getting very hectic. Given the fact that I was working in a start up and that I had lots of work to finish up made it very hard for me to find time for GMAT. Slowly my determination to study for GMAT was getting rusty. Almost 10 months passed by and it was as if I forgot about GMAT. I strongly urge all of you to avoid doing something like this. Keep your determination intact, no matter how hard it is, at least make an honest attempt. Looking back, I realize that I can't find any excuses for not spending at least 1 hour or at least 30 mins a day, however busy I was. Don't wait for 10 months to introspect. Please make an effort, introspect more often. Think about your goals, and motivate yourself to work towards them. Otherwise your goals will only remain as goals.
After about 10 months of gap, I started preparing again. My work schedule was still pretty hectic, so I was mostly studying only on weekends. I worked on English to start with. Read the basics of English grammar, I read PowerScore Bible for CR. I was making really slow progress. I had made up mind that unless I do well in my practice tests I wouldn't fix the dates. I read some really positive feedback about ManhattanGMAT. So I purchased their books for Quant. I already had ManhattanSC ebook, and I didn't buy their CR and RC books since I thought I could manage with PowerScore. I will definitely endorse ManhattanGMAT materials. They are really focused and up to date. One other main reason why I bought Manhattan books was because I was really interested in their online tests as I had heard many positive feedback about them. You get to give 6 tests if you buy any one of their books.
After about a couple of months of plodding through PowerScore Bible and some grammar books, I cranked up the pace. I completed Manhattan SC, OG 12 English part. Didn't do much from Math section. Only last 40 odd problems from PS and DS. Usually these are the toughest problems in OG. Finished the ManhattanGMAT Quant books that I had purchased. I constantly woke up around 4 in the morning(thanks to my girlfriend who used to promptly wake me up everyday), studied for a couple of hours at least everyday. This time, I made lot of notes, both for English and Math section. People, I urge you to make notes. It really helps a lot. Some others' notes may not help you as much, but your own notes definitely helps you, especially when you want to revise. As I solved problems, in case I came across a nice trick or some information that I was not aware of, or if it was something that I was likely to forget, I just jotted it down.
I felt I had prepared well and took GMATPrep and scored 700. I was happy with it and thought I should be able to reach at least 720 with some more preparation. I fixed my test date without much delay, about a month from then. I gave Manhattan online tests. I scored 630 in the first test. It was some sort of a setback. I spent enough time after each of those tests to analyze each and every problem, no matter if I had got it right or wrong. I wanted to learn everything I could from every problem. I kept on appending information to my notes when I felt necessary. I will really endorse ManhattanGMAT forums, especially with respect to GMATPrep problems. Some of their instructors are extremely talented and offer in-depth explanations. I would really like to thank Ron and Stacey, my favorite instructors in ManhattanGMAT. Frankly, my performance on SC improved mostly because I learnt a lot from Ron's and Stacey's approach to SC problems. The explanations these instructors offer are really awesome. I also advise that you should visit the forum and solve these questions ONLY AFTER you've taken GMATPrep tests. Otherwise, many of the questions that you encounter during the GMATPrep test will be familiar to you and the results of your performance will be really skewed.
I gave 4 more Manahattan GMAT online tests. My scores were 690, 690, 700 and 730. As you can see, my hard work reflected in my scores. I was happy with my performance. On the last week of the exam, I gave GMATPrep tests. I scored 720, 700 and 750(retake). I was pretty confident after these scores that I would manage at least 700. Finally, I gave GMAT. During the test, I was comfortable in the Quant section. But I think I was overcautious in the English section, and as a result, ran out of time. I had to really guess about 5-6 questions. I felt I screwed up. The score showed up and it was 660. I went numb. I really didn't know why it happened to me. For once, everything was came to a standstill. I just couldn't come to terms with it. I was extremely disappointed, I thought I could have got at least 700 if I had not screwed up like that. I hated myself for sometime. Called up my mom, told her about my dismal performance. Then called up my girlfriend, she thought I was kidding! I hated all of this, I badly wanted to give a good news. I was shattered because this time I had worked pretty hard, I had sacrificed many things: I had not run or played or worked out for ages, so much so that I got a belly(and I hate it big time!), but still somehow things just didn't go right for me.
At this point, I decided that I will just keep giving GMAT until I get the score I need! Really, I mean it! I stopped having any further expectations. I made up my mind that I would just give my best every time, learn from every experience, and someday I will reach my destination. I thought about the way the Australian cricket team fights back from the brink of defeat and goes on to win the game (if you are a cricket follower you'd know what I'm talking about). I thought about the way Nadal fights for every point (if you are tennis follower you know what that means). Those thoughts encouraged me to fight back. I also watched a couple of videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5Oookw ... re=related and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4tIrjBDkk. There's enough inspiration one can get out of these. I was back on my feet, running towards my destination. I continued to wake up at 4am. Putting in the hard work as usual. I went through OG12 SC questions. But for CR and RC, I realized that I remembered most of the questions. So, thought it wouldn't be a real practice. I got hold of LSAT question papers. I solved a few papers( CR and RC sections only). I solved some SC from ETS written test papers as well. I was feeling more comfortable with the way I was solving the questions, so I fixed the date yet again.
In my previous attempts there weren't any unforeseen incidents that came in my way. I guess they were preparing to launch a guerrilla attack on me. Things were going smoothly but just when 10 days were left for my exam, it was announced that my division would be closed down! I was going to lose my job in a few days. That was shock and I had to talk and convince my folks that it's not a big deal in the software industry. Some people were sent home the day the announcement was made, and it was hard to digest it. We were more than mere colleagues, it was a closely knit team but this strong wind had torn it into pieces. It was a bit hard to focus on my studies the next day. As if that was not enough, about 4 days later, I had a rough night as I ran into some issues over a conversation with my girlfriend. It was pretty disturbing, I couldn't sleep that night, couldn't focus on my studies the next day. I was asking GOD why all of this happened to me at this crucial juncture. Anyway, I sorted out all of that, took off from work for 2 days. 4 days at home before the test. I gave a couple of tests. One Manhattan GMAT online test and one GMATPrep test. Scored 730 and 760 respectively. I revised my notes multiple times.
Finally, the big day arrived. For some reason, I felt I would do well this time. I just told myself not to screw up things. I just wanted to make sure, I finish the questions on time. During the test, I felt comfortable in Quant. But I had a bad start to my English section. I was again starting to spend too much time on some questions and I was lagging behind. I cranked up my pace, had to make some calculated guess work after eliminating some obvious wrong answers. Somehow managed to finish all the questions in time. Just before viewing the results, I just took a deep breath. I was praying that I get at least a better score than last time. Then suddenly I thought I had screwed up and that I was in for yet another shocking score. I held my breath, clicked on the button, closed my eyes hoping to see a better score. I opened my eyes slowly...and I was shocked! This time however, I was happy, I was ecstatic! A 740 was something I really didn't expect. As I began to call mom, I felt happy that finally I got a chance to give a good news. That's what I had always dreamt of. My folks were happy to hear the news. My girl friend was jumping with joy as she heard the news. I was speechless, but was very happy that my hard work finally paid off.
So, that was my story, but before I wind up, I'd like to reiterate a few things:
1) Make sure you don't overestimate or underestimate your abilities. Always make the assessment based on your actual performance. In this case, GMATPrep gives you a fair idea of your ability with respect to GMAT. It is unlikely that your GMAT scores be very different from your scores in GMATPrep (of course there may be exceptions, but I've mostly read that people score within +30 or -30 of the GMATPrep score).
2) Don't ever give up on your dreams. Read some inspirational posts or watch some inspirational videos. Preserve those stories or posts. Go back to them when you are drained. Success may not come easy, it may take a lot of hard work over a long time. It is easier said than done, but remember it is possible. All it takes is your determination and perseverance. You may be immensely talented, and you may cross most barriers in life without much fuss. But remember, life will always have a challenging test for you one day or the other, and you may not clear it at one shot. Just be ready for it. Don't fear failures. Learn from them and fight on. Remember - "people never fail, they just give up". Ask yourself, do you want to give up? do you want to be in that group? Wouldn't you want to fare better than that?
3) Try to enjoy whatever you are doing. This part may be hard. But tell you what, with respect to GMAT, it just makes it easier for you to cope with the excruciating schedules that you may have to follow. Don't be scared to put in the hard work. Tell yourself not to think of the final result. Try to enjoy what you do, enjoy your journey. I always told myself that I shouldn't be in a position that, I regret in the end, that I failed to put in the required effort. I told myself, no matter what, I will put in my best. The rest is not in my hands. At least I wanted to be happy that I gave it the best shot (unlike my first attempt). I think it helped me a lot, in that it took some pressure off me.
4) Introspect more often. I feel it helps you ensure that you don't deter away from your dreams and your goals.
5) While you work hard on your dreams, make sure you make at least some time for your loved ones. Remember, life is one of those races in nursery school where you gotta run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, your win is not counted. Same is with life where relationships are the marble. There is no point in achieving your goal without maintaining your relationships(I don't quite remember where I read all this). So be sure to maintain your balance.
6) Trust me it's an awesome feeling to see your hard work pay off. I was craving for it, I finally got to savour it. I'm glad I didn't give up. Don't ever give up!
So, that's it folks. I'm not sure how many people managed to read through this post and reach here. For those of you who did, I hope it will be helpful. I'll be glad to help you, if you have any questions, although I may not be able to reply immediately since I might be away from civilization for sometime
Finally, I'd just like to end this post with a favorite quote (from the movie Batman Begins)..
Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up.
