GMAT Journey – 670 to 770 – Third Time’s the charm

Attempt 1 – GMAT 670 (V33, Q49)- Jan 2019
I gave my first GMAT attempt after scoring 700 on official GMAT Prep, hoping I can convert that to 750 on the actual test. But what I’d failed to consider is that unlike normal tests (where I perform better in pressure) GMAT is something different. There were a lot of things that led to my downfall during my first attempt, but I believe following few to be the major ones:
1. Not having clarity of the GMAT scores I want – I thought anything above the magic 700 barrier will be amazing. And for some candidates this might be the case, but for the kind of MBA schools I was targeting, I didn’t realize that Indian MBA male with 700 is below average.
2. Not focusing enough on official GMAT prep – After completing my official GMAT prep, I immediately went online to find more questions. I didn’t understand the concept of quality over quantity at that time.
3. Not completing E-GMAT Scholaranium- After several referrals from my friends, I bought the E-GMAT verbal course. And in a word, it was an “amazing” course. But my only regret is that I didn’t use it to my advantage completely. I only considered the course as an online grammar tutorial for SC questions, I completely skipped the CR and RC part and again jumped straight to the questions.
Scholaranium has a great set of 400-500 questions for Verbal. But to my surprise, I could hardly score 50% correct in the medium and hard category. But I disregarded my failure as the questions being too hard (and so I needn’t bother myself with the results). So, in the end I completed only about 150-200 questions.
4. Not doing enough practice tests – I completed only 2 full length official prep tests and that’s it. In my opinion, this was my biggest downfall as the biggest problem I faced during my actual GMAT was pacing and time management.
5. Not using GMATClub Quant tests – I was a bit overconfident on my Quant skills (coming from an IIT) that I almost skipped quant prep. And the thing that I regret most is not using the GMATClub quant test (that came free with an E-gmat subscription). These tests are by far the best resources one could use to score Q51. These tests are harder, lengthier, trickier but just by a bit. If one can score Q50/Q51 in these tests, actual GMAT quant will be a piece of cake.

Attempt 2 – GMAT 730(V38, Q50)- Oct 2019
After my horrible failure at first attempt, I made amends and started preparing for success. I changed my studying strategy and started focusing on each sub-section individually and targeting specific mistakes.
1. Sentence Correction – I think SC is easiest and hardest at the same time. Easiest to score -if you know what you are doing, and Hardest to score – if you get confused. For SC, I mainly worked on Official GMAT prep questions, GMATClub SC top 100 700-800level questions, Aristotle GMAT SC and E-GMAT verbal Scholaranium questions. This time, I restricted myself in terms of no. of questions but instead focused on recording my errors in an error log and making sure I avoid mistake repetition.
2. Critical Reasoning – I studied CR mainly from Power bible and Manhattan CR. And I focused on each and every question type individually, mainly focusing on assumptions and Boldface (which were my weakest sections)
3. Reading Comprehension – Fortunately, I decided to follow E-GMAT method of tacking RC questions and developed the habit of taking notes and summary after each para. I realized that though it may seem excessive at first, it helps increase your consistency and accuracy .
4. Quant – I was completely devastated with my failure in Quant and decided to be extra cautious this time around. And I spent most of my time giving GMATClub Quant Tests, while focusing on reviewing each and every correct/incorrect answer choice with an expert's explanation to find out the most optimal way of solving the problem.

Test Day Experience – I was quite comfortable this time around as it was my 2nd attempt and I knew all of the procedures. I started with my quant section and completed it within time, and I was reasonably happy with myself. I went to take the optional break but to my surprise the washroom was occupied. Consequently, I spent a couple of minutes waiting outside. But when I reached my workstation I was in awe. Somehow, I managed to spend 4 minutes additional time and that was already deducted from my Verbal section time. I tried to organize my thoughts, but my brain refused to function. I sat again for 5 min in front of my first SC question trying to make sense of the foreign language in front of me. Somehow, I managed to calm myself down and complete the next 20 questions in 45 mins. But it was already too late for me, Now I needed to solve 16 questions in ~15 min. Panic started to settle again, and I knew I had to guess few of the answers. I completed Verbal, IR, AWA and instinctively knew that my score is again going to be a sub 700 failure. But to my surprise, the screen read 730 and I was happy beyond words.


Attempt-3 GMAT Online 770 (Q51, V44) – June 2020

Some of you may think that story should have ended. I thought so too. But I still hadn’t corrected one of my first mistakes – Knowing the scores I want in GMAT.
After 730, I applied to 3 top 10 US B-schools but to my surprise got interview invite from only 1 of them. And the major reason for that is I believe my GMAT score. That’s when I decided that I should make use of my time at lock-down and give one last attempt at GMAT.
Following are the few resources/steps that helped me finally beat GMAT:
1. E-GMAT Team support - With the score of 750-60 in my mind, I immediately sent my ESR to the E-GMAT team and requested their help to understand my weaknesses further. I was surprised to see that they provided me a detailed breakdown of my shortcomings and gave me a 5-step approach (along with video directions) to reach my targeted goals.
According to them I had to improve my ability in CR, SC and improve my pace during the full exam.
2. Improving Ability in CR with Pre-thinking – Although I was aware of Pre-thinking. I knew what it meant, I knew how to do it but somehow, I just though doing the questions without pre-thinking is faster. But with the help of E-GMAT resources, I was able to develop a habit of using Pre-thinking. This helped me improve my ability from 60 to 90% in CR.

3. Using E-GMAT Scholaranium- I was shocked after comparing my ESR sectional ability with Scholaranium ability %. To my surprise, they were identical. I then realized that Scholaranium questions and algorithm are so close to actual GMAT exam that improving my ability in Scholaranium will definitely translate to a better score in GMAT. With this in mind, I followed step by step plan laid out by E-GMAT team and could achieve my target score in ~ 30 days.

4. Practicing Full-length official mocks – I now finally understand why everyone praised Official GMAT prep mocks so much. They are the one truly reliable indicator of the score. And so, I purchased Official Mocks (3-6). And I tried a couple of strategies while giving the mock exams – such as going fast for first half, slow for first half, skipping last RC and so on. I finally found a strategy tailor made for me and finally decided to book the official GMAT.

GMAT Online Experience – Although I was a bit nervous of doing the exam from my home and that too without the much-needed optional break between Quant and verbal. But I decided to go for it anyway. And to my surprise, it was a pleasant experience. Fortunately, no technical glitch, no bad experience with customer service, nothing bad happened on the test day. Finally, after 3 days of waiting I got my official score. And with a sigh of relief, I realized that after 1.5 years and 3 attempts this story’s finally over.