CRACKED GMAT 570 to 730

Hi All,

It’s been a long time I wanted to share my experience, and finally here I am after almost 6 months penning down my experience.

Couple of my friends wont be interested in reading a long blog :-). Guys for you, I have a message at the end of the blog ....... scroll down

Chapter 1: Background: Transition from CAT to GMAT

Well to start with, like any other average Indian Engineering student, post Engineering I started preparing for CAT. CAT 2006 and CAT 2007 made me realize that I wasn't the right person to crack CAT. My personal opinion about CAT: Only born genius people can crack CAT. Its very rare (at least I don't know anybody) to see a person who consistently gets percentile in 70's and 80's on the ultimate day cracks CAT with 95+ percentile. And unless and until one scores more than 95+ percentile (no matter how great is his profile) there is extremely less chance of getting into any good B schools.

Post this realization :-), I started thinking about GMAT at the start of 2008. I tried to communicate with tutors, friends who had either appeared for GMAT or whose friends had appeared for GMAT. Till April, I had not started studying for GMAT exam. I just gave a mock test (test freely available on MBA.com) and that was my first GMAT score: 570. On April 13, 2008, I booked my 1st GMAT exam date: Aug 27, 2008.

Chapter 2: GMAT Attempt 1

I had royally screwed my 1st GMAT attempt the way I strategized my study plan. It was a total blunder. Till May end, I was just surfing online to get as much material related to GMAT as I can. I wasted a lot of my time. I knew my Maths was good (thx to CAT practice) I just had to work on my English. I started with Sentence Correction (SC) section. I referred Manhattan SC, which I found it to be very helpful because all the basic concepts required to solve any SC were covered in very simple language. I thought, if my basics were clear I could solve any SC, without practicing much. This is where I went totally wrong. Not much of practice for SC, CR and RC, and GMAT score clearly reflected that: Maths: 50 and Verbal: 25; Total GMAT score: 630 (Screwed)

Chapter 3: GMAT Attempt 2

There was no way; I could have applied to any good school with this score. I had no other alternative but to give GMAT again; one of the best decisions I had ever taken :-) luckily.

This time around, the aim was very clear, Verbal score: I had to take it from 25 to somewhere close to 35. Maths score of 50 and verbal score of 35 could have brought me close to 700. I had to plan accordingly. While giving my 1st attempt, I had read OG 10, OG 11, Manhattan SC, CR and RC books, Kaplan 800 and Princeton Manual. So there was hardly anything left I had to read while giving my 2nd attempt. The only but most important thing that I had to do was to PRACTICE, PRACTICE and PRACTICEEEEEEE.....

Before I could start practicing I collected a bunch of full length test:

1] Mba.com's 2 Test

2] Princeton Review's 4 test

3] Kaplan's 4 Test

I wanted some personalized guidance on verbal section, but I didn’t want to join any GMAT class. Not because it was an expensive affair, but for any class, the way a tutor teaches is going to remain the same, no matter what you want. I had already studied so many books for verbal that I didn’t want to learn the same basic concepts in class. What I wanted was a tutor who could help me solve my doubts and help me apply specific strategies; pretty customized but that’s what I wanted. To get this customized training, I made a plan. Rather than going to a class as a student, I joined a class as Math tutor. This gave me an opportunity to interact with verbal faculties and discuss my problems with me. This way, I was not only learning verbal but was also paid for that :-). The discussion with verbal faculties helped me a lot especially in SC section.

I started my full fledged verbal preparation in April 2009, this time the GMAT date was Aug 17, 2009. My schedule for the week was pretty simple:

4 days/week: SC practice problems (at least 20 problems a day without any break)

2 days/week: CR practice problems (at least 20 problems a day without any break)

1 day/week: RC practice problems (at least 3 passages a day without any break)

This same schedule went on till June. From June onwards, I had to switch gears as I was not able to see some significant improvement in my scores. I had identified my weak point, and accordingly there was a slight change in schedule for the week

5 days/week: SC practice problems (at least 20 problems a day without any break)

2 days/week: CR practice problems (at least 20 problems a day without any break)

Any 3 days combined with either SC or CR practice sessions: RC practice problems (at least 3 passages a day without any break)

Following where the test results:

1] 17th April: MBA.com's 1st Test: 570

2] 1st May: Princeton Review Test 1: 620

3] 30th May: Princeton Review Test 2: 590

4] 15th June: Princeton Review Test 3: 620

5] 30th June: Princeton Review Test 4: 630

6] 8th July: Princeton Review Test 2: 670

7] 17th July: Kaplan Test 1: 570

8] 30th July: Kaplan Test 2: 600

9] 8th Aug: Kaplan Test 3: 600

10] 15th Aug: MBA.com's Test 2: 610

11] 15th Aug: MBA.com's Test 2: 720

Chapter 4: Analysis on these tests (1 to 9) and their scores:

Tests 1 to 6 were going along well. There was a gradual increase in the score and that was motivating. I completed all Princeton Review’s test and in the last test I crossed the threshold 650 mark, for the 1^st time. This was a great confidence booster. Post completing all Princeton review’s test, I thought of starting with Kaplan’s tests. 1^st Kaplan’s test: score 570. I was completely blank after the test. I had never witnessed such a difficulty level anytime in all the tests that I had given earlier. The test was extremely stressful and score was scary. I had conversation with couple of GMAT tutors and people who had already given GMAT earlier. All they had to say was Kaplan tests are ‘THE’ most difficult GMAT tests one can ever think of giving. As per what they had to say, co-relation of Kaplan’s score with actual score:

Kaplan’s score + 80 to 100 = Actual score.

These comments made me feel better. Now for all Kaplan’s tests my aim was to get a score of close to 630. In kaplan’s test 2 there was some improvement; score of test 3 was same as test 2.

Chapter 5: Last 4 days of Preparation before D-Day

Aug 13, 2009: I stay in Pune and I had selected Mumbai’s GMAT center. Those days in Pune, Swine Flu was at its peak. There were some rumors going around in media that Pune-Mumbai road and rail transport might be blocked for some days to avoid spread of Swine Flu. So I thought of leaving early to Mumbai rather than getting blocked. I left to Mumbai on Aug 13, 2009 afternoon. I reached in evening to Bandra; wasn’t in a mood to study much. I just revised some basic concepts of SC. I decided to study next day.

Aug 14, 2009: I got up hearing songs played loudly on the road outside. It was “Dahi Handi” day and there was a big function going near my place. The event went on for the entire day and I was not in a state to study at all. The entire day was wasted, as the loudspeakers were off at 10:00 p.m. I realized that the next day was Independence Day, and people were bound to play patriotic songs, bigger problem for me. I decided to get up early at 3:30 a.m. and start giving test

Aug 15, 2009: 3:30 a.m. I started the test. I was still in sleeping mode so was not able to concentrate. Test score 610 L; biggest shock I could have got just 2 days before the GMAT. Post analyzing I realized I had screwed badly in SC’s. After 4 long months of practice in SC, this score was completely not acceptable. I decided that I would give the same test again in afternoon, no matter if most of the questions would be same. I gave the same test in evening; scored 720, big relief. Even though I knew that I had given the same test again, so 720 was not the real score, but at least this test had given me the necessary boost and motivation to do better.

Aug 16, 2009: Penultimate day. Post my previous days performance I knew that my SC section was still a bit daisy. I realized that if I could solve couple of SC problems before the test, I could score better. The aim of last day’s study was to get a complete hang of SC and to solve as many SC’s as possible. I started solving SC’s from OG 10^th edition. At the end of the day I was amazed to see that I had actually solved 240 SC problems in a day. Thanks to the poor score that I had got the earlier day.

Aug 17, 2009: D-DAY: I had taken 2:00 p.m. ka slot. In morning, I solved couple of problems from Kaplan 800 to get the hang of GMAT problems. I reached the center at 12:45. I was thinking that I still had lot of time to give my test. That’s when I got a call from the examiner and he said that a computer is free and need to start the test at 1:00 p.m. So there it was, I went inside the cabin. I must say the infrastructure was great in Mumbai center. At 5:00 p.m. I got the biggest blow of my life. The screen was showing a score of 730. I really was in a state of shock for couple of seconds. I didn’t knew how to react at that movement. There was a complete silence around me, but I was on the verge of bursting out. At that time, it really didn’t matter, were I was standing, I stood off my chair and starting shouting (as if I had conquering some war). The examiner interrupted my celebration and pulled me outside. At the end of the day 1 thing was sure I had finally cracked GMAT.

Chapter 6: Notes that I referred

1. OG 10, 11

2. Kaplan 800 (Only when all the basic concepts are completed)

3. Manhattan SC

4. Princeton Manual

Note: There is a huge junk of data related to GMAT available on internet. But I would personally prefer to refer only the standard material

I hope this blog gives some idea of “HOW TO PREPARE FOR GMAT”?

Inspired from filmy awards, but I really wanted to say this:

Special Thanks to my family and a close friend for all their support.

Apologizes to all my friends for not being in touch with them all this time. Sorry guys, but I really had to prove myself. All this time (I know it was a pretty long time) I was preparing for the exam so couldn’t get in touch with you all.