Hi Puys,
It has been a loong time since I posted something on PG. The reason being that I was busy with my GMAT prep
Wrote GMAT on 26th June in Mumbai. Scored 740 (Math-49, Verbal-41).
Although I am a bit disappointed with my Math performance but am satisfied with the overall score.
Here's my story:
Before telling u about my GMAT journey and experience, let me give u some background info which is important to understand my preparations (or the lack of it).
How I decided to write GMAT
I finished my engineering in 2003 and then joined a leading MBA training institute in Pune as a math tutor.
I worked there for 7 months and took CAT scoring 98.8 %ile.
I could not get any calls from IIMs and hence i decided to take up a proper job and postpone my MBA plans.
I joined one of India's leading IT companies in March 2004 and am still working in it.
Took CAT again in 2005 but it was a disaster. This led me to think of alternate MBA plans and hence i decided to take GMAT.
GMAT Preprations
By March 2006, I had made up my mind to take GMAT and started gathering information for GMAT preparations. A close friend who had already taken GMAT asked me to download GMAT prep s/w from
www.mba.com and use princeton book for prep.
I complied by downloading the software and borrowing the book from another friend. Before starting any preparations, i took the first GMAT prep and scored 650.
I started studying in April. Math was not a problem because of my exposure to CAT but English was one area where I lacked consistency. Around mid-April, i took the GMAT appointment and then started preparing seriously.
In May, I had to take a 14 day break from preparations because of some personal reasons. After the break (around 17th May), I started OG and 1000 SCs.
During office days, I was studying for 2-3 hours; on weekends I devoted 4-5 hours.
Somehow, I managed to finish OG but could complete only 500 out of 1000 SCs.
While solving OG, I used to mark those q: which i had answered wrong so that i could refer to them later.
I was facing one problem here. In OG, my accuracy in RC and CR was around 90%. But when i was taking english sectional tests, my accuracy was around 70%.
I thought that there was not much that i could do about RC and CR in terms of preparing. I mean there's not much to "learn" here.
So i decided to ignore this difference in accuracy and continued to focus on SC.
1 week before GMAT, i took Cambridge full length test. My score in was in 710-750 range. I had made 7 mistakes in Math and 13 in English.
In the last week, i went back to those q: in OG which i had marked wrong. I carefully analyzed my mistakes there and took some learning.
2 days before GMAT, i took the 2nd test of GMAT Prep. I had decided to take this test with utmost sincerity.
I scored 720 [Q-51, V-37]. I had made 2 mistakes in Math and 14 in English. Now, I was in a spot of bother.
I had targeted 750 when I had started preparing and that 750 appeared to be a dream.
But because of my previous CAT experience, i knew that it is the performance on exam day that matters and nothing else. I was still hoping that everything would be right on the d-day and i will be able to score 750.
The D-Day
I had taken the appointment for 10:45. I reached the exam center at 9:45 and made myself comfortable there.
After relaxing for 5-10 min, i decided to proceed with the formalities. After completing the formalities, I entered the exam room at around 10:15 (half an hour before scheduled time).
So, it begins...
I had never prepared for AWA section. So I was slightly nervous. Started with analysis of arguement and gained in confidence.
Then came the analysis of issue statment that was pretty abstract. I completed it in 25 min.
After completing the AWA, took the 10 min break and was ready for Math.
Math section - my "supposed" strength
I started calmly "believing" that i will do well. The starting questions were more or less similar to the ones in OG.
The only difference between this test and the earlier ones i took was that i was double checking my answer before marking (during practice tests, i was always able to finish Math in 60 min and was commiting silly mistakes in 2-3 q.
This means that I was taking some extra 30-45 sec per question. Everthing was fine till around 15 questions. No cause for alarm. Then i came across some questions where I was stuck. This is where i started losing time. I started feeling uneasy.
When i reached around 25th question, i had only 20 min left. I still did not press the panic button but stopped double checking the answers. Wheni reached the 30th question i had only 10 min left. The questions were also not getting any easier. Pressed the panic button. In the last 4-5 questions, i had appx 1 min per question.
For the last 3-4 questions, I marked the answers without any calculations and despite this, I could not answer the last question.
Time up. I realized that i had goofed up.
Took the 10 min break. Calmed down. I knew that i was definitely not getting 51 in Math and would be lucky to get even 50. I knew that i wud have to better my previous english performances to get a decent score.
General observation: Math was not easy. Although the q: were similar to ones in OG, but they were more time consuming. Some DS questions were really tricky. Had 2-3 questions from permutations also.
English section - my "inconsistent" area
Started cautiosly praying that i do not counter RCs at the start. Luckily i did not, the first 6 q: were SC and CR. Surprisingly, i was coming across many SCs.
I was confident about the SCs and CRs but the RCs were really weird. There were 4 RCs in all with around 14-15 q: and 2 of them were pretty difficult. I also came across 1 BF q:.
Overall I must have come across more than 15 SCs and close to 10 CRs. Throughout this section, I trusted my instincts when i was in doubt.
Observation - I feel that there ain't much you can do about RCs and CRs but as far as SCs are concerned, practise as much as u can. Understand the basic concepts involved in SCs. Understand the types of errors. Completing 1000 SCs is a must.
After answering the final english q:, I was anxious. I was sure that I had goofed in Math and English has been one section where I have never been very confident. But when I saw the score, I was overjoyed. I put my arms in the air and let out a cry of joy.
Before the exam, I had targeted 750. But after completing the Quant section, I knew that 750 would be a miracle.
That's the end of my story.
On hindsight, there are some more things that I should have done:
1. Do not take any section lightly. I took quant lightly and almost paid dearly for it.
2. Take every practice test as if it were real. I did not do it. This would help u time urself better.
3. Last but not the least, have confidence in your abilities. Even if you are not doing well in the practice tests, you can do well in the exam. I achieved my best score in my final test.
All the best.
rahul
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