10 days of GMAT prep !!

[vignesh_la]

huh..what a relief...!!

I just made a decent GMAT score of 710...I know its not a great score. But, with just ~10 days of prep (not full time) it is not bad !!

A lot of credit goes to this EXCELLENTforum. It was the single most resourceful GMAT forum I found. I am sure there would be lot folks like me who just could not dedicate 2-3 months of effort. This thread is just for them.. JUST..KEEP THE FAITH

[b]Background:[/b]
I decided to give my GMAT sometime in January, 2007. But, work kept me busy. With loads of travel, I just couldn't give any time for GMAT prep. I had to work crazy (in China 14-16 hours/day) is normal

I bought a OG 11, but I would have gone through may be 5% of the excerscise

Finally, I decided to take the plunge. This was more of a gutsy decision than confidence. May be over confidence!! I got an appointment on July 23rd. I scheduled this only on July 13th

[b]The Plunge[/b]
Beleive me, I started my prep on 13th 10.30pm. I am giving this info just for people to take confidence.

1) Dedicated 5-6 hours on 6 weekdays
2) 16 hours/day on weekends. Ya, I had 2 full weekends
3) Decided to postpone several tasks at work. Just didnt give my 100% at work
4) Utilized every moment for GMAT prep. While I was commuting, lunch break, late night, every moment
5) Luckily, hit this forum. Took every bit of advice from here
6) Started with OG Verbal. Started from the back. Did around 50/section.
7) Intially, ignored Quant
8) Took 2 GMATprep CATs in the first weekend - 640 and 630 - Not encouraging at all. I was thinking if I am being stupid here !!
9) Didnt give up. Concenrated more on my time management. Read every document on verbal in this forum. It was reall GREAT
10) Found a amazing way I could do it https://www.litesee.com/
11) Just took around 50% of the tests there
12) Realized I was making careless mistakes in Quant

Last 2 days
13) Took another CAT (crackgmat) and made a 650..Definitely, not what I wanted.
14) Took another 20% of the test from litsee.com
15) My timing as well us accuracy improved in verbal
16) Decided Math is going to be my stronghold. I found doc with 175 problems in this forum. Just went through them patiently. This was a great decision
17) Thats it..my 10 days are over !!

G-day
10 days went like a blaze. But, I kept faith in myself..Thats the key..
Just relax and face whatever its going to result in..

I was tesnsed and nervous. But, I liked the adrenalin. I feel GMAT is just a small component of MBA admissions. If I could not manage it with work pressure, I would never be able to apply for MBA. I realized it !!

This message is to help loads of other guys realize it..
Hope it does..ALL THE VERY BEST..

~ Vignesh

[beatthegmat]

Wow, this is an incredible performance with such a limited prep time. Congrats and thanks for sharing your experience here!

[swathi25]

I have my GMAT in 12 days and I think I just found the right study plan for me! Thanks for sharing this...

[[email protected]]

Hi swathi25,

The plan that you just read appears to have worked for the person who posted it. Academically-speaking, it has some elements to it that are impractical. There's certainly no harm in attempting to replicate the results. The worse thing that will happen is that you'll waste 10 days and the cost of taking the GMAT. Business Schools don't care if you retake the GMAT, but it ends up costing you more time and money than you probably want to spend.

Most Test Takers need 3+ months to properly prepare. It sounds like vignesh was a strong Test Taker to begin with (he didn't list a baseline score, so there's no way to know how "much" he improved over 10 days); his plan and resulting score are not typical of most Test Takers and what they can do with 10 days of study. He also didn't have to deal with an IR section (the version of the GMAT that he took had 2 essays instead of 1 essay and IR).

You can proceed as you like, but if you're hoping to repeat the results described in the original post, you're likely going to need significantly more prep time.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[itskals]

Totally agree with Rich.C

- Kalyan

Hi swathi25,

The plan that you just read appears to have worked for the person who posted it. Academically-speaking, it has some elements to it that are impractical. There's certainly no harm in attempting to replicate the results. The worse thing that will happen is that you'll waste 10 days and the cost of taking the GMAT. Business Schools don't care if you retake the GMAT, but it ends up costing you more time and money than you probably want to spend.

Most Test Takers need 3+ months to properly prepare. It sounds like vignesh was a strong Test Taker to begin with (he didn't list a baseline score, so there's no way to know how "much" he improved over 10 days); his plan and resulting score are not typical of most Test Takers and what they can do with 10 days of study. He also didn't have to deal with an IR section (the version of the GMAT that he took had 2 essays instead of 1 essay and IR).

You can proceed as you like, but if you're hoping to repeat the results described in the original post, you're likely going to need significantly more prep time.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich