Hi all,
This is not for all, but for a select few who felt they had genuinely under-perfomed in their first attempt at GMAT. 700 is a pedestrian attempt for most.
I just gave my GMAT today. I got a 700 (37V 48Q). I know its not exactly earth shattering, but I was aiming for a 80/80 split and have just achieved it! I was unfortunate in missing a quants question by making a wrong choice at the very end and ended up over utilizing my break lamenting on the loss of 1 question! So I ended up losing two minutes in my Verbal test even before I had started.
I was heartbroken when I scored a 620 in my previous attempt despite scoring well in my mocks.
Will break down my prep.
First Attempt : NOV 2008
Score: 620
Splits: Dont bother. But skewed towards quant.
Effect: Disastrous.
Prep time: 12 days. Yes 12 days. I was working my pants off and all I could eke out with my boss was a miserable weeks leave. The week before that I managed to push some workload on my colleagues and managed a few hours of prep everyday. The first 5 days, I had a look at the OG and finished it on the 7th day. Then I started giving some mocks 800 GMAT, Manhattan and the like for the next 4 days. I was clocking in two mocks per day without the mocks adding any value to my score. I ended up with a 620, which was my worst performance comparing all my mocks.
I learnt my lesson and my limitations. And stayed away from GMAT for a year.
Lessons learnt:
- You need at least 4 weeks of solid prep for a decent score.
- Constant practise will help.
- Mindlessly doing mocks will not help.
- Awareness built on excellent resources like beatthegmat (and Sahils notes!)
- Sentence correction can kill you. But it has a set of rules which you can polish and vastly improve your skills.
Second attempt: Aug 2, 2010
Prep goal: 800! (realistically anything above the mystical 80/80 split)
Score: 700 (48 Q, 37 V with 82%/80% split)
Prep time: a month on Grockit(which is recommended!) averaging about 2-3 hours per week just to keep in touch with the GMAT pattern + 25 days of proper prep with below material.
Prep material:
1) Maths:
Text books + OG + beatthegmat forums for probability/statistics and rate problems.
For brushing up basics.
https://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/
Solid resource for all basic math prep. Will attach the files.
2) SC:
Manhattan GMAT.
Sahils notes. (towards the very end. A mistake. Do use it in advance)
3) CR:
CR bible helped. But I used the BTG forums for excellent questions and explanations (GMATGuruNY is a particular favourite for his clear explanations both in Math and Verbal. No love lost with the rest of you I hope!)
4) RC:
Ignored it. Realised that working hard on CR helps you build some decent RC solving capabilities. Moreover, I believe that reading skills cannot be improved in weeks. Just let it be.
Online resources:
www.grockit.com - Good for building up some basic practise. Necessary if you find GMAT prep ardous rather than interesting. Worth the money spent.
https://www.manhattangmat.com/ - Good set of mock tests. Question banks are expensive and not really worth the money IMHO. Money well spent.
My profile: (Did not want to bore y'all with unnecessary details earlier!)
26/M
Mech Engineer - NIT Nagpur, India
Co - curriculars - Some
Sports - Some
5 years workex in International logistics, Supply chain Management and port management.
And yes. I will not retake the test. Do not see any value in it.
Cheers.
This is not for all, but for a select few who felt they had genuinely under-perfomed in their first attempt at GMAT. 700 is a pedestrian attempt for most.
I just gave my GMAT today. I got a 700 (37V 48Q). I know its not exactly earth shattering, but I was aiming for a 80/80 split and have just achieved it! I was unfortunate in missing a quants question by making a wrong choice at the very end and ended up over utilizing my break lamenting on the loss of 1 question! So I ended up losing two minutes in my Verbal test even before I had started.
I was heartbroken when I scored a 620 in my previous attempt despite scoring well in my mocks.
Will break down my prep.
First Attempt : NOV 2008
Score: 620
Splits: Dont bother. But skewed towards quant.
Effect: Disastrous.
Prep time: 12 days. Yes 12 days. I was working my pants off and all I could eke out with my boss was a miserable weeks leave. The week before that I managed to push some workload on my colleagues and managed a few hours of prep everyday. The first 5 days, I had a look at the OG and finished it on the 7th day. Then I started giving some mocks 800 GMAT, Manhattan and the like for the next 4 days. I was clocking in two mocks per day without the mocks adding any value to my score. I ended up with a 620, which was my worst performance comparing all my mocks.
I learnt my lesson and my limitations. And stayed away from GMAT for a year.
Lessons learnt:
- You need at least 4 weeks of solid prep for a decent score.
- Constant practise will help.
- Mindlessly doing mocks will not help.
- Awareness built on excellent resources like beatthegmat (and Sahils notes!)
- Sentence correction can kill you. But it has a set of rules which you can polish and vastly improve your skills.
Second attempt: Aug 2, 2010
Prep goal: 800! (realistically anything above the mystical 80/80 split)
Score: 700 (48 Q, 37 V with 82%/80% split)
Prep time: a month on Grockit(which is recommended!) averaging about 2-3 hours per week just to keep in touch with the GMAT pattern + 25 days of proper prep with below material.
Prep material:
1) Maths:
Text books + OG + beatthegmat forums for probability/statistics and rate problems.
For brushing up basics.
https://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/
Solid resource for all basic math prep. Will attach the files.
2) SC:
Manhattan GMAT.
Sahils notes. (towards the very end. A mistake. Do use it in advance)
3) CR:
CR bible helped. But I used the BTG forums for excellent questions and explanations (GMATGuruNY is a particular favourite for his clear explanations both in Math and Verbal. No love lost with the rest of you I hope!)
4) RC:
Ignored it. Realised that working hard on CR helps you build some decent RC solving capabilities. Moreover, I believe that reading skills cannot be improved in weeks. Just let it be.
Online resources:
www.grockit.com - Good for building up some basic practise. Necessary if you find GMAT prep ardous rather than interesting. Worth the money spent.
https://www.manhattangmat.com/ - Good set of mock tests. Question banks are expensive and not really worth the money IMHO. Money well spent.
My profile: (Did not want to bore y'all with unnecessary details earlier!)
26/M
Mech Engineer - NIT Nagpur, India
Co - curriculars - Some
Sports - Some
5 years workex in International logistics, Supply chain Management and port management.
And yes. I will not retake the test. Do not see any value in it.
Cheers.
- Attachments
-
- Mathcentre.zip
- Mathcentre files. Check the link for more files.
- (2.66 MiB) Downloaded 336 times
