I have just comprehensively trounced the GMAT
I am very happy with my score of 770 (Q50, V46). I have been active on this forum for the past 3 weeks or so and I found the interaction very fruitful. Thank you guys.TEST DAY Debrief:
I arrived at the center about 30 minutes before the scheduled time. I was allowed to start after 15 minutes. Went through the tutorial for a while to calm my nerves.
Then started the AWA section. The first question was an argument essay. I was a little nervous at the beginning but very soon gathered myself and I think ended up writing a pretty good essay. Then came an issue topic which was luckily not very hard. So all in all I was pretty happy with the AWA section and expect to get atleast a 5.
I took the 10 minute break, walked out had something to drink and relaxed a little. I summarized what happened in the previous section and that seemed to have boosted my confidence.
Started the quant section. Coming from an engineering background, I am pretty good at Math. I found the questions to be decent. In the practice CATs especially the MGMAT ones, I at times had problem with time management. I never had any problems today. Finished the section 10 minutes early and was actually expecting a 51...but that was not to be. I must admit that I am prone to making some very silly mistakes in the Quant section. In any case, I can attest that the GMAT Quant is much easier than MGMAT CATs.
I once again took the 10 minute break, walked out had something to drink and relaxed a little.
With the quant and AWA sections going well, I went into the Verbal section with a lot of confidence. The first few questions were OK and somehow after the first 5 questions, my concentration started faltering. I took a minute to myself, relaxed a little and started again. I felt my concentration in the Verbal was never as good as in the Quant section. But I happened to finish the section with about 15 minutes for the last 4 questions. I took more than 10 minutes for the last 4 questions....guys if you time just spend it on the questions rather than trying to breeze through them. At the end of this section I was expecting somewhere around 42-43.
I had no doubt that I would report the score. When I saw the score, I was absolutely overjoyed. Although Quant score was a little lower than my expectations, the verbal score definitely made up for it.
Preperation Debrief:
Although I purchased my first GMAT book, Kaplan Premier last year in November, it just kept lying around till May of this year. I work full-time so on weekends I started to practice a little from this book and finished the book. Then I completely forgot about GMAT for the next 3 months. Did nothing at all. Very big mistake. I really started taking it seriously again in July, by the end of which I completed OG11. I would practice questions in sets of 41 questions for verbal and 37 questions for quant. Then gave a couple of CATs and decided to write the exam on 08/16.
Over the next three weeks gave a lot of CATs, after each, re-evaluated my strengths and weaknesses and spent my time accordingly. I usualyy spent a couple of hours every day and quite a bit on the weekends during these weeks. The following are my practice CAT results:
7/28: GMAT Prep-1: 740 (Q50, V41)
7/29: MGMAT-1: 670 (Q48, V33)
7/31: MGMAT-2: 710 (Q49, V38)
8/03: MGMAT-3: 750 (Q48, V45)
8/07: MGMAT-4: 770 (Q51, V44)
8/10: GMAT Prep-2: 760 (Q50, V42)
8/16: GMAT 770 (Q50, V46)
Found the following material very useful:
1. MGMAT SC Guide
2. OG 11, and OG Verbal
3. MGMAT CATs
4. GMAT Prep-CATs
5. CR Bible
Signing off,
Overjoyed Vik.
