I just Beat The GMAT!

i gave the gmat on friday and got a 640( q42,v35)

a lil history about my scoring pattern

started studying for gmat around 8 months ago

first gmat prep( score 510) - pathetic i know


first gmat attempt ( score 560) - (q38,v28)


second gmat attempt ( score 640)

it has been a uphill struggle, i was always confident on my verbal part and knew that i would perform well in it but quant is a different story. i had a mental block to it and hence had to practice hard to improve quant.


materials referred to - its a huge list

First try (560)

og 11,og 10,
gmat papers
gmat maths bible by gmat hacks
1000 sc ,1000 cr and 1000 rc
manhattan sc bible and powerscore cr bible
gmat prep software

second attempt (640)



verbal bible by jeff sachman - dont ever buy it, its very bad

800 test - quant was ok but verbal SC is bad, CR seems to be borrowed from lsat test as i have seen few of them in lsat materials

grockit - i made multiple ids and checked the site out - i didnt like it at all, it does keep you involved but quant questions are at the lower end (300-500), sc- lot of errors and the questions looks like a rephrased copy of 1000 sc ,Cr and rc were ok but i wouldnt advice anyone to buy a membership of this site

gmat club - verbal questions are not that good, quant is tough but if you are scoring around 45 -46 then this will help you to a higher level but someone in 38-40 will get crucified, i did only one test

lsat materials - they have to be done , if you want to get a respectable score in gmat verbal, and also i am talking about the middle and upper bin questions,

kaplan mastery - have some questions of it and helped me a lot , its not availible in india and amazon doesnt support delivery to india

gmat prep software - you need to practise the questions from the software as many times as possible, dont worry about repition


in one senetnce- if anybody wants to practice verbal

manhattan sc, 1000 rc and cr, lsat materials, gmat prep sc questions

quant - jeff sachman maths bible if you are staring at basic level

and at higher level you can take manhattan tests,gmat club tests and run the gmat prep software as much as possible


my exam details

it was at 9 am in the morning

i went to sleep at 10 pm the day before so that i could get up at 5:30 am to revise a lil bit before going to the center.
i normally am very restless before exams and revise all night before tests but i voted against this approach and went to sleep early

got up in the morning, revised my notes of quant and verbal , reached the center by 8 am . i didnt want to panic by reaching the center later (better safe than sorry)

exam started aroudn 9.10, i didnt worry much about the argument and issue as i had memorized a template had gone through arco essay book and had a couple of sentences and words framed for each and every argument and issue. both were a piece of cake.

took the 8 min break went out , relaxed a lil bit , ate a snicker bar and had some water.

quant started off well, i was getting hard problems initially, then it became easier around the 12 th question, I was lil worried whether when i saw these easy questions but said what the heck one question at a time. then around the 15th questions got a normal distribution curve with a SD question. it was very tough couldnt figure it all. ( threw my arms up and said god " thank you " i must have done well in earlier questions to get this crooked one:) ). then it went ok quant ended

i didnt get any probaility,p&c questions at all



verbal - My main forte

the first question that verbal threw at me was an SC - it was very tough( i have done around 180 gmat prep questions and my average time for each question has been aroudn 45 sec at 80% hit rate), i was stuck between two choices, i spent aroudn 2 mins in that qustions chose one of the ans and moved on. the Cr were ok but very close and i must have got around 80% assumptions questions and only one BF and that too in 39 th question

Rc - the first two RC questiosn were ok, then i got a information laden science passage and 4th rc was a social movemnt in US and got all inference questions , anybody planning to score high should practice these kind of questions

OG is nowhere comparable to these rc's

on the 4th passage i was running short of time , i had practiced aroudn 20 rcs in 1000 rc doc by just reading the part of the pasage and then returning to question and answering the qustion and had reached around 70% hit rate in that.
i advice to practise some rcs in that way in case u have time issues in gmat

rest all was ok


even though my gmat is over, i felt that i would have reahced around 680 -690 mark and miss studing for gmat:)

best of luck to everone and thank you beat the gmat , you have helped me a lot in achieveing the score i have reached