Retake – 640 (IR 5.5, Q49, V27) to 700 (IR 8, Q48, V38)

Though I did not get a very good score unlike many people on this forum, I want to share my experience so that it might help future GMAT aspirants.

For my 1st attempt: 640 (Q49, V27)
Worked very hard almost 2 hr per day on weekdays and 4 hr per day on weekends with below material used for preparation.
For Quant:- Problems on GMAT CLUB and Manhattan GMAT.
For Verbal:- Reviewed Manhattan GMAT SC course and Powerscore CR bible ( only the first few chapters till assumption and not the complete book). Did lot of problems on GMAT Club and OG.

My Mock test scores on Manhattan.
Test 1: – 560,Test 2:- 690 , Test 3:-720 ( In Test 2 & 3, I got 6-8 questions that I already did on GMAT Club)
Due to personal issues I took a 3 -4 month break.

After my break, I started doing problems on GMAT Club forum and OG13. Put a deadline of 1 month and started taking mocks.
Again my Mock test scores on Manhattan.
Test 4:- 660, Test 5:- 700 ( In Test 4 & 5, I got 6-8 questions that I already did on GMAT Club)
MOck Scores on GMAT Prep ( Both GP1 & GP2, In verbal, I got 6-8 questions that I already did on GMAT Club)
GP1:- 720, GP2:- 710

So I wasn’t sure what my real mock score was. Anyways, took the test and I got 640. I felt very dejected after all the hard work I put in). My wife gave me some encouragement to get this right the next time as many people flutter on the test for the first time. So, I started preparing for GMAT second time.

2nd attempt:- 700 (Q48, V38)
I knew I was weak in Verbal and I am OK in quant. So I took E-GMAT course. This course is really helpful because it will helpful you focus on Verbal and will help spend considerable amount of time on verbal.

My Mock scores:-
Manhattan GMAT 6:- 670, Manhattan GMAT 1A:- 710
GMAT PREP 3:- 760 (Q50, V41), GMAT PREP 4:- 720 (Q50, V38)

Final exam score:- 700 (Q48, V38). Though I am little disappointed with my quant score, I am overall happy that I can at-least try to apply to BSchools)

My preparation:-

1) DIDNT DO ANY GMAT PREP PROBLEMS ON ANY FORUMS. You will not be able to evaluate your weaknesses properly.
2) Did OG. However, the key in SC is that you need to know why the wrong answers are wrong. In my first attempt, I tried to get SC answers correct but never bothered to read and understand incorrect answers. This is a big NO.

E-GMAT SC course is very helpful for people like me who nearly spend 12 + hours at work either commuting or working. In the first attempt, I missed few key concepts that this course taught me.So I was able to identify why the incorrect answers are incorrect.
My recommendation on SC:-
E-GMAT SC course ( Must for non-native speakers)


CR:-
Powerscore CR bible & "Pre-think" concept in E-GMAT CR course. Also, I will give little credit to myself for identifying patterns and what will work for me. My biggest weak point is strengthener. So if I am confused about two options, I try to negate both and see which one weakens more. This strategy worked for 70% percent of strengthen questions that I was confused about.
My recommendation on CR:-
E-GMAT CR Concepts
Powerscore CR



Quant:-
GMAT Club problems, very good practice. Avoided all GMAT PREP and Manhattan problems. You just need GMAT Club problems to get a hang on Quant and Manhattan Quant is very hard compared to real GMAT exam but its always a good practice.

What I did wrong on the test
1) Over cautious in first 15 questions on Quant. I did so because because I completed my first quant test way in advance and so I wanted to be very careful the second attempt to improve my quant score from 49 to 50. This backfired this time as I didnt have time to solve almost last 10-12 questions. Felt very horrible during the break.

What I did right on the test
1) Recomposed myself to get verbal right. Applied what I practiced. My score is consistent with my mock scores.

Recommendations:-
1) E-GMAT SC course for people who want to study in their free time and for non-native speakers
2) Analyzed why I got wrong answers wrong on Verbal for SC, CR & RC.
3) Dont change your plan of action during the exam. I did this on Quant and I am disappointed. I always got 50 on Quant but final exam I got 48 because I changed my plan of action in the exam. I took awful lot of time for the first 15 questions to get everything right.
4) I didnt sleep before my first exam. So I took a less than 50% of benadryl. I practiced this before mocks and saw what percentage of tablet worked for me to get sufficient sleep without side effects especially headache.

Mock Test Evaluation:-
Manhattan GMAT:- Very good quant practice. Little on the harder side. If you get 48 on Manhattan Quant, you are likely to get 50 on GMAT exam. Dont trust verbal scores on this test. I used to get all SC questions correct on Manhattan and approximately 50% incorrect on GPREP problems. CR questions are also unlike real GMAT questions. But these tests are MUST because, they challenge your brain for a good 4 hours. Especially drain your brains with harder IR & harder Quant before you reach verbal. For very good practice.

GMAT Prep Mocks:- Real close to real GMAT exam. Cant stress this more.

I guess I completed my very confusing debrief. Hope it will help few people.