![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/grin.png)
I have taken the GMAT thrice in a year and twice in the last 2 months!!Phew. I actually took it so quickly this time as I was confident that I had not done justice to my prep with a 680. Its been a difficult journey but at least I am satisfied that all my attempts gave me some improvements. I took the GMAT for the 3rd time today. Below is a post I typed a week back . It contains details of my first 2 attempts. If you wanna skip all the trash talk, please scroll down to the second post in this thread to read the story of my third and final attempt.
"Its 10 am 3rd September. I am supposed to give my second last cat now before my 3rd GMAT attempt on the 9th of September. My life has really changed because of this test and the attempts thus far. It's unusual for me writing this debrief instead of the stupid AWA's at this time. But I am tired of AWA. So decided to do something different. I would first like to thank all the experts at BTG - Mitch, Anurag, Brent, Greg, Geva, David, Brian, Ron, Vivian,Stuart, Ian, Testluv. I have learned a lot through the posts made by these superb people.
I would also like to thank all my friends on BTG - rishiraj ,Gmatmachoman,Night reader, mundasingh, Prachich, Frankenstein, Atul mangal, ankurmit, arora Nishant, rohu, aimgmat, and all others.
I am splitting my three attempts into 3 different debriefs so that people reading would actually know how I have improved over time and what mistakes I have made that they should be aware of.
Attempt 1 : 20th Jan 2011. Study period 37 days.
Quantitative : 47 Verbal 34 - Total - 650.
Yeah u are reading correctly above. I am a very organized person and do keep track of every day I study or do some other project. Actually the research for the GMAT started way back last year but incidentally I joined BTG on 13th Dec, got the OG-12 that day and got the 8 MGMAT guides same day !!! Studied like an ass for the coming days. Was stuck at MGMAT/Princeton- 590 !!just 3 weeks before the test. But finally managed 640 in my 4th MGMAT and 650 in the GMAT preps.
Test day - Had a horrible testing experience, the light went out twice, the proctor gave me wet note boards which someone had just used. Plenty of noise and disturbance. But I got a respectable score of 47/34 - 650. This was at par with my highest mock score. Today I realize how good this performance was.
Attempt 2 : 30th July 2011. Study period 90 days. This attempt is closest to my heart.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/smile.png)
Quantitative : 48 Verbal 35 - Total - 680.
All right I had taken 3 months off after my 1st attempt. In may 2011, I started off with a diagnostic of 630(Princeton) without study and quickly reached 680 in Princeton and MGMAT with a month's hardwork. Studied PERFECTLY in the real sense of the word. Used all hyped material(powerscore/mgmat-more on these later). Took a GMAT prep in the second month of study. Got a 750. Wow !! I was heading to glory at this time. Took some more tests to see whether I can perform well on them, Knewton free - 700. MGMAT-4- 720 {did not take MGMAT-5 and 6 as the scores inflates after MGMAT cat-4.
I Took another unused GMAT prep and got a 720 ,3 weeks before exam. Made horrible silly mistakes in quant for a Q48. Then made some wonderful notes on how to avoid silly mistakes and concentrated only on this agenda for 2 weeks. Improved the silly mistake domain 10 days before test day. Got 760 in all 4 repeat GMAT preps. I was consistently getting all unseen CR/RC correct. Quant and SC were also peaking - No lapse in performance. RC was and is my strongest point.
Material used in three months:
1>MGMAT sc- read 3 times
2>Powerscore- read 3 times
3>MGMAT RC and RC-99. Good books to PERFECT RC's.
4>Gmat club quant sets- used all 25 !!. {had difficulty initially but peaked to 30+/37 in last 4-5 tests}
5>Logged errors as if I was being paid for it. Have a look at my excelsheets attached at the end !!!
6>Of coarse all OG's.
7>A cheap timer that I used to time RC's and sometimes small sets of SC and CR. Be-sure to review OG questions for hours even after your timed sessions end.
Mock scores :
Princeton- (630/680/690)
MGMAT(680/700/710/720)
GMATprep(750/720)
Knewton free-700.
All right there comes test day 2 after 90 days of high performance studying.
1>AWA. Finished in 40 mins. Got a lower score than last time on this (5.0). But the AWA is completely ur own private space. Do what you want in this one hour. Just finish the essays quickly and then prepare mentally for quant. What I used to do in look down straight towards the floor and do some kind of meditation for the final 5 mins before quant.
2>Quant - Got a bad function question 1st up then tons of overlapping sets which were computation intensive, few very hard questions such as factorial expressions involving variables . :/, so I was doing well. Got some tougher Modulus and Number lines towards the end. Finished in 66 minutes. Note that quant was my weaker area. On all 50's in GMAT preps I had to guess last 1-2 questions. So finishing early was new for me. In hindsight I realize today that going too fast did cost me dear.
3>Verbal- what can I say- I got the usual GMAT prep style RC passages which I gobbled. CR and SC were also good and I was hoping to see the usual verbal 41-42 to pop on screen. Finished this section also in 70 mins.
Final score : 680 (48/35).
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/sad.png)
Takeaways from 2nd attempt :
1>Going too fast might screw you. I had perfected my timing in cats but I overcompensated on GMAT day. Do pause for half a second before confirming any answer, especially in quant.
2>The real GMAT is slightly easier than GMAT prep so walk in confident. {except the SC's}
3>Infact if u study the 198 Gprep SC doc, you will be somewhat familiar with the kinda SC questions u are going to see on test day.
4>The first quant question will be difficult so just keep breathing and look at it conceptually instead of blindly trying to "Quant" your way out of it.
5>Don't walk in overconfident just because u have mastered all ur practice cats and topics. The GMAT is a difficult test and you have to work hard to beat it. Just walking in with a good prep will not land you a good score.
OK-So I just realized that I hav'nt beaten the GMAT yet and its 11 am. AWA time over and quant time begins for the 3rd last time in my life. I'll just proofread this type and post the remaining journey on the 9th of September !!!!! "
If you have time take a look at the excelsheet attached covering my journey for attempt 2. This sheet might be useful for newbies as how to study systematically and log errors.