I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello All,

I gave my GMAT today and scored 730(Q50 V40). Happy to see the digit 7 in the right place. This was my second attempt. My first attempt was 2 years back. I scored just 550 in my first attempt. I have to say I underestimated the GMAT during my first attempt. I was not at all prepared for the exam. Because of the workload, I couldn't prepare well. Instead of rescheduling the test, I went ahead with it and scored way below my expectation.

In april, I started preparing again. There are few things that I did differently this time around. I realized that I need to focus on verbal more than the quant section. I have an engineering degree, so I knew I could handle the quant section very well. I figured out that SC and RC are my weak points.

SC Prep:
I made sure that I knew all the basic stuff. Basically I wanted to make sure that I don't have difficulty in identifying the structure of sentence. I decided that I should know following things and I should be able to identify them in simple sentences: diff types of verbs, diff types of noun, diff types of phrases, diff types of clauses, diff types of modifiers, diff types of gerunds(eg: simple, complex). I decided until and unless I am able to recognize all the different components in a sentence, I wont try my hands on the actual GMAT SC questions. This strategy took some time but helped a lot.

I also used MGMAT SC guide. Go through this book again and again. I am sure you will find something new every time. I also maintained an error log for SC. I used to add every single SC that i failed to solve. I transferred this error log to my phone so that I can go through it whenever I am free, no matter where I am.

RC Prep:
I used to be a very slow reader. To address this concern, I practiced timed reading a lot. I decided to use my programming skills to address this concern. I wrote one GMAT test simulator myself, so that I can create practice tests by myself and use these tests to improve my timings. I used to create practice tests consisting of only RC questions from 1000RC document. I practiced timed reading using this simulator and this helped me a lot. In the beginning, I used to take on average 2:50 mins per question for a passage having 4 questions. With some of practice, I managed to bring that average down to 1:50 mins per question.

CR Prep:
Although I knew I was decent in CR, I didn't want to take any chance. I read somewhere that LSAT CR are tougher compared with GMAT CR. So I decided to use LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible. Some chapters in this book are not required for GMAT but still I had a look at them as well. I also practiced LSAT CR questions from 1000 CR document using my simulator. I managed to improve my CR timings as well.

For the first 40-50 days I relied heavily on the my simulator. Whenever I practiced verbal questions, I used this simulator. I realized that answering 41 questions under timed condition is a totally different game compared to answering one question at a time from any book. Initially I used take around 83-85 mins to answer 41 verbal questions. With practice, I managed to improve in this area as well. I also installed couple of iPhone applications related to GMAT on my phone. I used this application to practice verbal questions when I was away from my laptop.

Quant:
As I said earlier, major part of my preparation was focused on verbal. Apart from SC, I used to maintain error log for quant questions as well.

PrepCATs:
I realized during my first GMAT attempt that I didnt have enough stamina to concentrate for 3.5 hours. I knew I had to train myself to be able to concentrate for that long. I gave 18 prep cats in total, including GMATPrep, MGMAT CATs, Platinum GMAT, Free Kaplan CAT, Free Princeton Review CAT, Free Knewton CAT, Free Veritas Prep CAT and Powerprep.

Quant section in Veritas, Kaplan and Powerprep CATs is not upto GMAT standards. I recommend MGMAT CATs and Platinum GMAT CAT. Knewton Free CAT is decent enough but I didnt find their scoring algorithm up to the mark. As said by many on this forum, GMATPrep is the best among all these CATs. I found the actual test very similar to GMATPrep. When I started preparing, I decided that until and unless I start hitting 750 mark consistently, I won't book my GMAT appointment. After hitting 750+ consistently in my last 8 CATs, I finally booked my test date on 19th august. I gave the test this morning and I am happy with my score.

Last but not the least, I want to thank BTG and all its members for the invaluable resources and support they gave me during my prep. I will be glad to be of any help to fellow test takers. You can get in touch with me anytime you want.

I am attaching my test simulator with this post. I hope it will help you guys as well. I am also attaching my Prep CAT analysis. I need advice for application process now.

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EDIT 1: I've been receiving emails asking me to explain how to run this simulator. Please find below the list of steps to run the simulator..

1) Unrar 'Test Simulator.rar' using WinRAR.
2) Double click 'HardiksGMAT.exe'
3) When the simulator asks you to select an input file, please select one of the two sample input files available in that folder. The sample input files are named "Sample CR Qs File.txt" and "Sample SC Qs Files.txt".
4) Finishing the 3rd step should load the test.

Go through 'Read me.doc' to understand how you can prepare your own input files for the simulator.

The simulator is designed for Windows machine only. Please use the screen resolution of 1280 x 800 or higher.

If you get any error message while opening the simulator, then email me the screen shot of the error message. Those of you who want the dump of simulator input files can get in touch with me over email. My email address is: [email protected]

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EDIT 2: 1000SC document in a format compatible with the simulator can be found here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/730-q50-v40- ... tml#290046

Answers for CR Sample file:
1-D 2-C 3-C 4-D 5-C 6-A 7-B 8-E 9-A 10-E 11-E 12-E 13-C 14-D 15-E 16-A 17-D 18-E 19-D 20-C 21-B 22-B 23-A 24-E

Answers for SC Sample file:
1-D 2-E 3-B 4-A 5-B 6-C 7-C 8-E 9-B 10-D 11-B 12-C 13-D 14-B 15-B 16-C 17-B 18-D 19-B 20-B