I just Beat The GMAT!

Killed the GMAT..Scored a whooping 780
Q-51 V -45 AWA -6

But then again, mine was not your usual GMAT story of hard work and toil...3 weeks at an average of 4-5 hrs of study, a borrowed OG and the FREE resources put up on BTG ( love u guys for that) was what got me there. All that and a lot of self motivation and belief that i would and could get through. Trust me, sometimes visualising what u do after the test ( for eg ..writing a post abt ur test day...though my visaulised title was the 'The Cheap Lazy and Easy 790....aaah...well u cant have everything) NEways that actually boosts ur performance or rather helps u get focussed so that even the smallest amount of effort will produce brilliant results...
Considering all things...there must have been a few things that I did right to get this score...I just got back nw and am damn tired...maybe i'll post a detailed analysis of my studying later

G -Day ( i know the names corny ...but hey )

4:30 am Wake Up
6:00am Board a Train for a 4 hr journey
10:00 am Chk in at the cheap hotel opposite the station
Sleep till 11
Buy choclates ( personally recommend Nestle Dairy Milk for the taste and snickers for hunger)and a packet of juice.
11:30 Board a Bus for a 1 hr journey
1:00 Reach my centre

1:30 ( half an hr earlier than my scheduled time) Started My GMAT

My essays were decent.The argument one was one an AIrlines that started operations in new routes and started incurring profits. It was fairly easy to analyse and i did well. The issue q was one I had encountered before in my 2nd practice test but to my bad luck I had skipped writing the essays on that test. Anyways it was a fairly easy q abt personal and official lives.

Took a break after this...used the restroom, had some choclates and was geared to kill the quant section. And well, I think i did kill it. On a serious note, one thing thats always helped me is not thinking abt the difficulty of the question. When I am attempting it, I just look to get it right. I know it sounds very obvious, but I know a few guys who were thinking about the previous q or the next one and what not. Simple Method that works always: Get it Right!!

Took my 2nd break....the same routine..restroom water choclates ...and it was time for Verbal. I was going well till my 15 th odd question, when things started going blank....u know that exhausted feeling that sets in ....pushed myself till the 30 th somehow...took a minute off and did 2 more...the next question was a rather short RC...but I was so out that I couldnt make any sense of it ( ok maybe more practice and courses might have helpmed me here). I realized I had 20 mins left for 8 questions so took one more break...This might be a bad idea if you dont have enough time, but if you do it kicks u back into top gear for the last few question...Neways after the restroom, water choclates routine...came back and killed the last eight...

I knew I had done well and was eager to know my score,but those exp questions popped up. Did arnd 6 ( it was a matter of $20 after all) but then realized I was too tired and too eager to know my score.
The screen that asks u abt cancelling and all came on. The thot of cancelling crossed my mind, but said F*** off to it and asked for my scores. I saw 780 and was like ..Booyah!!

Came out, collected my sheet...offered the guy there some choclate ( ) ....and now after a bus/train ride with a halt for a day in the middle of nowhere am back home and typing this...

Detailed analysis later...am tired nw...

And yes a big thanks to beat the gmat for the free resources...and the verbal notes some guy has posted

Cheers!!

Dude, all i can say is you are awesome man and a crazy b*****d (in a positive way)...this is the first i read a guy taking break in b/w verbal section, eating chocolate and drinking juice and all..Wow...r u a native speaker??? well m sure u are...!!! Your story is really entertaining. Thanks a lot for sharing with us and best of luck if are seriously looking to get admission in some B-school.

Hah that's awesome! Congratulations!!

Happy for you and jealous of you

Wow! what a debrief. Great job! Congratulations on the mindblowing score. What's your profile? Are you a native English speaker? What was your strategy? Did you solve the complete OG or you did not even do that?

All the best for your apps.

congo, i guess you could have easily crossed 800 with little more parctice....

njoy

uve earned it

Man you made it look so simple ...people o around for 6-8 months routine and you dear ! awesome...

that's amazing..congrats! what is your current profile? what materials/tests did you use to study?

regards,

Hi,

Congratulation! I am so happy for you, it is so exciting!
I just decided to retake my GMAT and resumed my studying from this Monday. I got surprised to hear how fast you could get ready for the exam, I think you should have a strong background in math at least.
About free courses, I have no idea how I can get access to these kind of courses, would you please advice me about the way I can find the same courses?

Thank so much and enjoy the success!

I hate it when this happens. I just DO NOT buy such out of the world stories. man, I dont mean no disrespect but its happened too many times that people just write whatever story they want (scoring 790 in 2 weeks, scoring 800 in 3 days prep etc etc) that just throws off the lesser mortals such as me who had to struggle for months to break into 700s.

However, if your story is genuine, my apologies and heartiest congratulations.

hey

Thanks a lot all of you

And in response to a few queries, ...no i am not a native speaker, though my English is pretty decent

And heres a rough rundown on what I did ....( I did all the tests in the afternoon to sync with my actual times)

Day 1 :REgister for the GMAT.Get out my friends OG.Erase off all the answers on them

Day 2 : Diagnostic Test in the OG...Realized I was weak in SC and maybe data sufficiency

Day 3,4,5 : revised basic quant and did all the questions ( my engg background was damn useful here)

Day 6: Numbers, Progressions and Statistics ( Realised I was weak in them)
and for some weird reason AWA....wrote 2 essays one argument and one issue

Day 7,8 : DAta Sufficiency....most important thing I learnt is that NO is a very valid answer.....i had kept thinking a negative answer is insufficient

Day 9 : First GMAT Prep Test..scored 760

Day 10 : ok...now was the tough part... Verbal started off on the OG....did a lot of CR questions,a few SC and a few RC's

Day 11: The awesome notes i found on BTG!!! ( loved it every bit...) ...I made a few handwritten notes on my own following this...and started adding OG idioms to my own notes

DAy 12 : i did Manhattan's free test..

Day 13....Attended a weeding Still managed to do a few verbal qs

Day 14...my self motivation techniques ....started visualising wat i'd do after i hit a good score...trust me, this is probably the best advice i can give you...this might sound cliched, but believe and keep telling urself that you can get a kickass score and do this everyday. Also always visualize things u'd do after u score, never visualize scoring.....its some psychology stuff,...had read it somewhere. I visualized writing a book abt my score,( some GMAT instructor on BTG was supposed to offer me a contract...still hoping ) , applying to Harvard,Wharton and LBS and the likes .
Also did a healthy mix of cr sc and rc

Day 15 : KAplan's free test...probably the toughest one i did

Day 16 :Platinum GMAT...good site...good questions with nice explanaions...did a lot of SC questions
Read up a few articles on BTG. ( the ones tha come up on the homepage)...this cleared a few concepts


Day 17 My confidence in verbal was pretty high....read up abt AWA in the morning...evolved a set pattern for argument analysis based on a few articels...Did Platinum GMAT's free test

Day 18 ,19...was busy with some other things

Day 20 : Princerton Review Test

Day 21: random online resources...cant remember wat...found a list off all idioms in the last 3-4 OG editions...a small list...but damn useful

Day 22 : Veritas Prep Test

Day 23 : Some other test...cant remember which...

Day 24 : Reviewed Math and AWA! I didnt want to mess it up by focusing solely on verbal

Day 25 : Kaplan Practice Qs....its this set with 36 quant and 47 verbal qs ...started reading the solution in the OG once more, ran through all quant questions again...didnt solve them..just ran through to see if i cud do it

Day 26... Did the same with SC.....finished off the few q's I had left...read my notes again..

Day 27 : GmatPrep test 2: Scored 740 ( thats lower than my first one)

Day 28 : Slept, Watched TV, went out,

Day 29 : G-DAY!!! 780

This is only roughly indicative...might have missed a few things and put things in the wrong days
In all i did around 8-9 tests and did a pretty decent no of questions..

Here are a few links that were damn useful

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/resources#linkcat-108 ( this is all u need...BTG!!!!)

https://gmatsentencecorrection.blocked/

Also...just cos things went easy for me doesnt mean it has to for every1....I had to rush things coz I needed a score by the end of the month...I may have just been lucky (though i could be damn awsum too.. ...just kidding)

And finally a few things about myself....am an engineering undergrad student from India, and have just entered his final year.... I honestly dont know about where I will apply and wat I can do and wats in store for me and all .Advice here would be really welcomed.
I have held numerous leadership positions in college and school and have pretty good extra-curriculars
I have also done 2 internships...one in a research facility and the other in an event management firm
No official work experience.
I would love it if someone could guide me on things to do now and how and wat to do to build up my profile

Cheers!!

Congrats! You sure are a natural in standardize testing!

I think most MBA programs like to see candidates with at least some sort of work experience, but you definitely sound like someone who's very gifted with words, if you can convince the ad com why you would need an MBA now and how you can contribute to the class, assuming you have a very solid academic background and extracurricular exp you should have a shot even at the very top ex: HSB, Standford

One thing you would want to do now, is to have some idea on what career/area of interest you see yourself working for. Might be a bit tough for you since you are still in school and the ad com understand you can't have a detail 10 yr career plan layout, but they definitely don't want someone who is completely clueless about their career path either. I'd say you need to do some research at possible career options first if you haven't done so already

Best of luck with you man!

@omerta

Great post!!! I think u desperately looking to get score by the end of this month in order to apply to ISB special program, in which they select u in the final year and then u can join them 2 years after completing your graduation...m i right??? My brother is in IIT B so he told me about that program.

Congrats for Good Score. BTW HOW OLD ARE YOU ?