Hitting the low point across “A dream doesn’t

become reality through

magic; it takes sweat,
On a cold winter afternoon of early January 2017, when most of my office colleagues were determination and hard
out on vacations, I was filled with dread and despair. I had just given a mock GMAT test work”
and scored in mid 600s – way below my expectations. I knew that this would not get me
into the colleges I was aiming for and that I was in deep deep trouble. Next day, I called up . I realized my major
a few of my college friends who had scored well in the GMAT. To my utter shock and weakness was Verbal – in
disbelief, nearly all of them told me that they had studied just one week, and in some cases Quant, I just needed more
just one weekend, and had managed to score in the high 700s! My knees started shaking, my practice but my concepts,
hands went numb and, like a true engineering student (my background: I completed my speed and process of
engineering from BITS PILANI and have been working in Investment Banking and Private answering the questions
Equity since then), I immediately started praying and chanting to the holy gods of heaven to were all fine.
shower me with exceptional wisdom to beat the GMAT!
My concepts were weak,
Alas, as per a quote that I came across “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it speed was too slow and the
takes sweat, determination and hard work”, I knew I needed to do all of the mentioned process of answering the
above by myself and should get cracking immediately. So, on 15th January 2017, I started questions was unstructured
reviewing my mock GMAT score to better understand my strengths and weaknesses. I which led to absolute
realized my major weakness was Verbal – in Quant, I just needed more practice but my inconsistency among scores.
concepts, speed and process of answering the questions were all fine. I realized I needed to follow
a more structured learning
In Verbal, none of the above was fine. My concepts were weak, speed was too slow and the process and needed some
process of answering the questions was unstructured which led to absolute inconsistency guidance to help me on my
among scores. I realized I needed to follow a more structured learning process and needed journey since doing alone
some guidance to help me on my journey since doing alone would a) waste a lot of crucial would a) waste a lot of
time, and b) probably not result in the best results possible. crucial time, and b) probably
not result in the best results
Same week, I attended mock Verbal /classes of a few coaching institutions in Delhi. Frankly, I possible.
did not like them. In addition to below-average teaching faculty and over-filled classes, the
process of teaching that they followed was more rote-based rather than building concepts.
Immediately, I identified I needed to get out and these classes were not what I was looking
for. So, by the end of January 2017, I had identified the problem – Verbal section – but, even
after attending a lot of mock classes and brain-storming with my college friends, I was
nowhere close to the solution. This gave me many sleepless nights and I had made peace
with my destiny that I was not good enough to score in the high 700s. Dream of a top b-
school were nearly over and life was just drifting since I immersed myself back in my work.

The Rise

Then came February 2017 and, like the great stories of ancient lore say, them the winds
started changing. One day on Facebook, I came across the social media status update of a
school friend who had just posted, quite ecstatically, about his insanely high GMAT score.
Return of the 3Ds – Disappointment, Dread and Despair . Just as earlier times when I had
called up my school friends, this time too I decided to call him up and understand from him
how he cracked the exam. A cheerful and buoyant voice greeted me on the call and my
expectations were aligned to previous conversations – cracked the exam over a weekend.
However, what was to follow literally changed my life. My friend told me about an online
GMAT course called the E-GMAT that had helped him get this insanely high score. Much
appreciative and convinced that this was the best course for GMAT out in the market, my
friend encouraged me to start with the course asap and was confident that this would result
in drastic improvement in my score. Devoid of many options and seeing a sliver of a hope on
the horizon, I immediately booked the complete GMAT Live Prep course by E-GMAT. This
was mid-February 2017, and it was time now to go through the grind.
First, and most important
Battle Strategies learning, is that identify the
strategy that suits you best.
Now, how to identify the
Focus on the strategy right for 'YOU': no two people are the same and hence, GMAT right strategy? When
strategies for two people cannot also be the same. First, and most important learning, is attempting the questions,
that identify the strategy that suits you best. Now, how to identify the right strategy? the strategy that results in
When attempting the questions, the strategy that results in highest accuracy is the right highest accuracy is the right
strategy for you. Note that down and stick to it throughout the preparation. strategy for you. Note that
down and stick to it
I started with the Verbal course first, Sentence Correction (SC) specifically. Each concept throughout the preparation.
section in E-GMAT SC was a breeze – crystal clear clarity in teaching methodology, focus on
concepts building and attuned question answer process helped me in assimilating all the key
SC building blocks in no time. Daily in the morning, I used to get up at 6 am and go through Key here is: a) understand
the SC concepts for 2 hours before going to work. General advice, morning time is best time each topic thoroughly, b)
for studies, period. Though it took me around 2 and a half months to go through the entire eliminate wrong options to
SC course once since I did not wish to hurry at this stage, by now I was fairly confident of my arrive at correct answer, and
SC approach. Key here is: a) understand each topic thoroughly, b) eliminate wrong options c) ensure you finish SC
to arrive at correct answer, and c) ensure you finish SC within 30 seconds so that you have within 30 seconds so that
more time to solve RC/CR questions. you have more time to solve
RC/CR questions.
In May 2017, I started with Reading Comprehension (RC) section. According to me, the most
important section for anyone appearing for the GMAT and that is so because messing up one
RC passage may lead to 3-4 wrong answers, not to mention continuous. Since the GMAT is Messing up one RC passage
an adaptive test, getting 3-4 wrong answers on the go will lead to a massive fall in the final may lead to 3-4 wrong
score and end of all dreams. So, my advice, treat RC as the most important section and answers, not to mention
practice daily. The process that I followed for attempting RC questions was to a) spend continuous. Since the GMAT
around 3 minutes reading the RC passage, b) proceed to the questions and, c) spend around is an adaptive test, getting 3-
15 seconds on Pre-thinking analysis and d) proceed to the options. I can’t emphasize enough 4 wrong answers on the go
on the importance of Pre-thinking. This step helped me in thought clarity and I was easily will lead to a massive fall in
able to remove at least 2 wrong answer choices, thus resulting in higher accuracy. By end the final score and end of all
June 2017, I had finished RC and was again confident of my preparation in this section too. dreams.

In July 2017, I started with the Critical Reasoning (CR) section. After RC, doing CR seemed The process that I followed
easier to me since a lot of the concepts and processes had been covered under RC. To make for attempting RC questions
things easier, in CR there are a few set of question types that will remain the same – such as was to a) spend around 3
Strengthen, Weaken, Inference, etc. My process here was a) read the question first and minutes reading the RC
understand what question type is it, b) read the passage, c) Pre-thinking to arrive at one passage, b) proceed to the
answer and d) proceed to the options. Like in RC, Pre-thinking here is crucial again since it questions and, c) spend
ensures one is able to eliminate 2-3 wrong options immediately and quickly arrive at the around 15 seconds on Pre-
right answer. By end of August 2017, I finished the RC too. thinking analysis and d)
proceed to the options. I
Next was Quant that I started in early September 2017. Fairly confident of my Quant can’t emphasize enough on
abilities, I finished the Quant curriculum by end of September 2017. Post this, I moved on to the importance of Pre-
the E-GMAT Scholaranium and finished the same by end October 2017. thinking. This step helped
me in thought clarity and I
Lastly, time management and life-cycle management. I had long working hours from 10am to was easily able to remove at
10pm and hence coming back from office and studying was not an option for me. To least 2 wrong answer
compensate for that, I woke up daily at 6am (I am generally a morning person), studied for 2 choices, thus resulting in
hours and then went off to work. After coming from office, I immediately hit the bed to higher accuracy. By end June
maintain a healthy 8-hr sleep cycle. My food habits were also in-line since I ate only home- 2017, I had finished RC and
cooked food. Key here is a) take time out regularly and consistently for studies to maintain was again confident of my
momentum and b) maintain healthy lifestyle for studies. I ate well, slept well and studied preparation in this section
consistently - in the long run, this made the difference. too.

Falling short - GMAT Attempt 1 My process here was a) read

the question first and
understand what question
Since a lot of my friends had already applied in Round 1 or were now applying in Round 2, I type is it, b) read the
decided to schedule the test for December 2017 and apply in the Round 2 deadlines too. passage, c) Pre-thinking to
With a month to go for the GMAT, I went through the following: Official Guide, Verbal and arrive at one answer and d)
Quant supplements and E-GMAT Scholaranium. In mid-November 2017, I gave the proceed to the options. Like
GMATPrep mock test and scored 720. Not bad but still room for improvement remained. I in RC, Pre-thinking here is
bought the complete set of GMATPrep tests and two weeks before the exam, took leave crucial again since it ensures
from office. In the last 15 days, I just revised the E-GMAT notes and gave mock tests. My one is able to eliminate 2-3
scores ranged from 720 – 770 and I was confident of my preparation. wrong options immediately
and quickly arrive at the
On another cold winter afternoon and almost one year after my preparation began, I sat for right answer.
the GMAT exam on 13th December 2017. Tense and anxious, I arrived early for the exam to
ensure no delays and just sat in the car listening to songs. I solved a few questions just to get
my brain working and then set off for the exam. I scored a 740 (Q51 V38) and was a little
disappointed with the score. I expected more but when I think back, I was too anxious for
the exam to get over and didn’t give my 100% towards the end. Key lesson: stay calm and
focused throughout the exam.

Annihilation - GMAT Attempt 2

Months passed and, in May 2018, I started focusing on college selection and Round 1
applications. With a decent GMAT score in hand, I was fairly relaxed about my applications.
But, while many people told me that 740 was a good score, I believed that I could do better
than that and had a zeal or hunger for a better score. I had studied over 12 months after all
but that feeling of having conquered the exam was still not there. Key lesson: never settle,
just never. So, in mid May 2018, I booked a date for GMAT 2 weeks away, in early June’2018.
With virtually no time and tons of work to do, I started putting in 4 hours daily on weekdays
and around 7 hours on weekends. I knew it was a sprint for 2-weeks. I revised OG, OG
Supplementary material, E-GMAT Scholaranium and two days before the exam, gave
GMATPrep and scored a 770. I realized my preparation was absolutely fine and, unlike last
time, knew that I needed to remain calm till the exam got over. So, one day before the exam,
I went to the gym, went for a swim, watched a movie and went to bed early for a good 10
hours sleep.

On 4th June 2018 or the D-Day, I woke up relaxed at 9am. Since the exam was scheduled for
the afternoon slot, I had a lot of time and just to stay calm yet focussed, watched the ‘Rocky’
movie. One line – ‘All I want to do is go the distance’ – pure gold! It got me working and I
told myself this was my day. I took a shower, had breakfast, and set out to conquer the
exam. Reached 30mins before the exam, I went into the exam with a calm mind and to my
absolute delight, scored a 760 (Q50 V42). When the score popped up, that feeling – can’t
define that but that is the feeling every GMAT aspirant should aspire for. What was the
difference in my two attempts? A positive mind-set and belief. To every GMAT aspirant – if I
can do it, you can too, just believe in yourself, stick to the grind and you will crack it.
Hi all,
GMAT club was a great resource for me throughout my GMAT experience, so I want to share
my long road to a great score with you all. I generally scored high on standardized tests
growing up, and I worked as an SAT/ACT tutor in college, so I had a strong understanding of
general test taking strategies coming in. Given that, I went for an economical approach to
prep, and bought Magoosh and the MGMAT CAT package about 6 weeks before my first test
date (8/20/12). I studied on average 2-3 nights a week for an hour or so after work, then
each weekend took a CAT. I felt great going in, and was scoring in the 740 range on MGMAT
CATs, but basically bombed the math section and got a 710 (Q43/V45). My math percentile
was only 61, so I decided to retake it with more comprehensive prep. I wrote a review on
Magoosh you can see for my opinions on the course, its a decent economy option or
supplement, but it's hardly comprehensive.

I took a week off, then spent about $1,000 on Kaplan GMAT On-Demand and a few hours of
private tutoring, had a similar study schedule with two sessions with a private tutor
peppered in, but didn't take as many practice tests, and went in on my next test date
(9/29/2012). Maybe it was that I switched testing centers, maybe it was that I didn't study
the night before, or maybe it was the fewer practice CATs, but for whatever reason, my
scores went down and I earned a 700 (Q42/V42). Knowing that this wouldn't cut it for my
target schools (Ivy League, Kellogg, etc.), especially given my lack of name-brand work
experience, I scheduled another test for mid-November. (Silver lining, I was eligible for the
Kaplan guarantee for full refund, but only on the on-demand course, not the tutoring hours).

I took a few weeks off, and got back on the grind, but again felt that I didn't have enough
time for CATs. I then had a unfortunate run of personal problems, and ended up having to
reschedule my test within a week of the date, forfeiting the registration cost. My plan to be
done with the GMAT before R1 was obviously shot, and I was now set to take finally take it
again on 12/27, after two of my R2 deadlines. Regardless i hunkered down, and worked
through the entire math section of Kaplan On-Demand, as well as all supplementary math
info and did at least 20 practice questions per night. Just for added stress, my job hit a
boiling point and I ended up resigning the night before the GMAT. None the less, on my last
GMAT Prep practice test before the exam i scored a 730, so I walked in just thinking
whatever happens, happens. The math seemed difficult, which is a good thing, and I was
honestly shocked when I saw the 760. Final tally was Q48 (78%)/V48(99%) and 99% overall.
Don't have my AWA or IR yet, but I got a 6 and 8 on each of the first two attempts.

All in all the best advice I can give is to just put in the work. Study, study, study. Get a program
that will give you some testing tips, but in the end just learn all the material you need to
know and really get after studying. I have always thought of myself as a natural test taker
and I had to really bust my butt to get this score, so it's no easy test, but in the end you can
make it happen.
First of all, I would like to thank bb for creating such a useful tool for GMAT test takers. I
graduated from Shri Ram College of Commerce in 2016. By the time I graduated I had
already taken few Indian MBA entrance exams and did not do really well in those exams.
While working I again took some of the Indian entrance tests but could not get the top 3
colleges in India.

Luckily my flatmate had been preparing for GMAT and I also thought of taking the GMAT
meanwhile. Failure at the Indian MBA entrance exams did haunt me but little did I know that
my preparation of quants heavy Indian MBA entrance tests will help me big time in my
GMAT. In Jan 2017, I thought of taking up the GMAT.Having spent about a month
researching about the exam and the pattern, I thought of enrolling myself in a live classroom
course. Had I known about resources such as @gmatclub.com and egmat I would have never
done so (Though the verbal teacher really helped me prepare for the exam).

Initially, I planned to take the exam in May- June. Luckily, the order selection feature came
around that period. Though the order does not affect the score much the feature at least
gives you the privilege to shift the verbal part from the 3rd hour to the 2nd hour. (I chose Q-
V-IR-AWA because quants was not an issue and I wanted to start with my strong section and
then focus on verbal.) I took my first attempt in August and shockingly scored a
630.(Q50.V25).

The verbal part was a shocker to me as this was the lowest score I had ever scored in verbal.
Failure at Indian exams and horrible performance at GMAT made me question my capability
even after preparing extensively for almost 5-6 months (Will explain the prep later in the post).
I doubted my self-worth and made my mind for settling for a tier2 Indian MBA college. I took
around 7 days to regain from that traumatic experience and attended an online e-gmat
strategy webinar and got to know about the benefits of a 760. The tagline "Score once and
brag forever" really stuck in my head and I was determined to score at least 730 on GMAT
(Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I can or will score a 760). My verbal teacher at the
live classroom course told me to retake the GMAT in 30 days. I thought of taking the GMAT in
October and focusing entirely on verbal.I did talk to some individual private GMAT tutors for
help in verbal. Most of them told me to take classes for at least 6 months and then take GMAT
if I wanted to score to the north of 700. I didn't have such luxury and studied only verbal and
took around 6 mocks during that prep. Things went right and I surprisingly scored a 760!!

Test Day experience

I reached the test center early and started the test 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time.
Quants went pretty good as always (I got around 2-3 questions wrong, that's what the ESR
states). The 8-minute break was also relaxing. My biggest challenge, the verbal section was
about to start. The first 22 questions went good, I knew almost all the answers (I also spent a
lot of time answering those questions). Somehow in between I lost the track of time and a
time came when I was at the 24th question and 24 minutes were left, that's when I started
panicking and lost my cool. I had to attempt almost 18 questions in 24 minutes. To make
things worse, I got an extremely hard RC passage. Post the RC, I gave up and just thought of
just completing the test anyhow and did not think about the getting even 630. Some SC's and
CR's baffled me and I had no other option. The 4th RC again was extremely hard and took
away whatever confidence I had. A time came when I had 6 questions and only 4 minutes.
On the top of that, some Boldface CRs and completely underlined SC's came along. For the
last verbal question, I only had 35 seconds. I marked the answer clicked on next but could
not click on confirm as the time ran out. I was completely shattered post-verbal section. My
anxiety and panic levels were at their peak. I spent just 2 minutes during the 8-minute break
and thought of just completing the test and running back to home.

As the IR part started, I didn't feel like doing the questions and spent the first 10 minutes
thinking(rather overthinking) the mess I had done in my verbal section and my life. Having
guessed 6 IR questions, I did few and went to AWA(as is evident in my IR score which went
from 8/8 in the previous attempt to 5/8 in the recent attempt). I spent 15 minutes in AWA
and just clicked complete the test and turned back to leave that then horrible place for me.
The proctor asked me with a smile "Do you want to accept this score". I looked at the screen
and saw "760" Q 51 and a V41. The anxiety and panic levels which were at peak changed to
happiness and surprise. I replied to the proctor with a smile"Obviously sir". I was the first to
come out of the test center. The proctor gave me an unofficial score report and I just looked
at the report card for 5 minutes. I couldn't believe my eyes. I never thought of in my life of
scoring a 760 and specially after such horrible performance in the verbal section, I just gave
my hopes. I left the test center, jumped with joy and called up my mom, dad, brother and my
verbal teacher. I still don't believe the score I got on October 14th, 2017. Thinking about the
test day experience, I still smile and recall the emotions I had on the test day.

Prep
I had enough material as my flatmate had already prepared for GMAT. He was generous
enough to share the material with me and guide me regarding the GMAT. I also got material
from the live classroom course.

Quants
For the initial two months, I only prepared for quants and did not focus much on verbal.(The
subject one hates the most is studied the least). The DS part in quants is a little tricky
because as nonnatives we have never done such questions. Else the GMAT quants is pretty
doable. After a certain level of prep, one can easily score a 49. The jump from 49 to 50 and
50 to 51 only requires attention to detail. I used to make silly questions in Quants and those
silly mistakes can cost a lot. Mainly I used OG's and 700-800 level questions which are
available on GMATclub for my GMAT quants prep. Once I bought the egmat course, I got
some GMATClub tests, which also helped me move from a 49 to 50 and then to 51. The
quants level in GMATClub tests is way beyond the actual GMAT and prepares you for the
worst case scenario. I would recommend everyone to take GMATClub tests(Though they
come free if the egmat course is bought ). Once GMATClub tests are taken, one can easily
complete the actual test in 65-70 minutes with almost 90% accuracy. During my prep for the
first attempt, I already exhausted all the material I had. During the prep for the second
attempt, I just revised concepts and reviewed the wrong questions.

Verbal
I practiced mainly SC as I liked SC. RC was the least studied topic. I studied CR on and off.
Mainly I prepared from OG's and 1000 SC and other materials which are available on
gmatclub.com. In the first attempt, I focused on just getting the right answer and did not
really focus on the explanations and did not think about why the 4 answers are wrong. As
said most of my prep in the first attempt was SC focused and thats where I faltered. To make
things worse, I got the least percentile in the SC in my first attempt. I would say SC is the
easiest to improve on but the least to rely on. RC is the hardest to improve but can be relied
upon. I would say that egmat came to my rescue and helped me improve a lot. The
scholarinium section created by egmat is an under utilized resource by the GMAT test takers.
Once someone starts preparing the right way, the scholarinium section along with its
explanations and discussions can help you score north of 40 on verbal. The concept files,
audiovisual modules, articles, and quizzes make the learning more interesting and easy. I
would say that I did not use the OGS, e GMAT and scholarinium judiciously during my first
attempt.

During my second attempt, I thought of focusing on the explanations and not just the
answers. I did all the OGS, right from OG 7 to OG 18 review(all OG questions are available
free of cost of gmatclub.com). The explanations helped me to clear the concepts a lot. The
focus on the wrong answers was more important than the focus on the right answers. I
utilized the e GMAT judiciously.I did all the modules and quizzes again. I had certain queries
which were cleared by the egmat team in the most efficient manner. The forum and
discussion section on the egmat platform is also under-utilized. I attempted all the questions
on scholarinium and actively participated in the discussion. The discussion after each
question helps you to think about concepts you miss while doing the question. I would say
OG's and Egmat played a crucial role in my verbal prep.
I also bought the EP1, EP2, and QP1. During my first attempt, I made the mistake of not
buying them considering the cost, but trust me they are worth the price. I attempted all the
questions from QP1 to see the real GMAT questions.

Mocks
I took various mocks Manhattan, Veritas, GMATclub, 800score, 2 free official test, EP1, and
EP2. I must say nothing can match the accuracy and level of official tests. But official tests
have a catch. The two free tests, according to me are worthless once you take them after
preparation as they gave inflated scores. Most of the questions on the official free tests are
already attempted during the prep as they are from OGs or some other material. One can
take the free tests before starting the prep to see the level. The second free test can be
taken in between the prep. Once someone has prepared only the new tests from EP1 and
EP2 should be taken to gauge the real score. I must say gmatclub tests are amazing for
quants but not for verbal. Other tests cannot be as trusted as the official ones can be. There
are some differences in the score among the various tests by test prep companies. Don't
worry about the fluctuations.

Resources
1. egmat
2. OGs(All)
3. GMATCLUB and gmatclub tests
4. EP1, EP2 and QP
5. 1000 SC
6. 700-800 level questions
7. Manhattan Guides(Mainly for Verbal)
8.LSAT CR Guide and questions
9. Aristotle Guide(SC)
10. Magoosh GMAT Videos(By Kevin)

Learnings
1. Take the GMAT test even if you are not planning to apply to the colleges outside India.
GMAT as an exam does prepare you for the managerial positions. GMAT is a solid backup
plan in case things don't work out really well in other exams. The best thing about GMAT is
the time flexibility and the test-taking environment.
2. Nothing beats official material(OGs are a savior)- There is a lot of material on the Internet
regarding GMAT. Make sure you read the official material. Invest in the OGS and EP1, EP2
and QP.
3. Focus more on the explanations than on the correct answers - I did the horrible mistake of
just doing questions and not focusing on why the four options are wrong . While analysing ,
one should spend more time on wrong answers than on the correct answers.
4 . For non natives e GMAT is a good and cheap course to enroll. Make sure that you use the
scholarinium and forum discussions judiciously .
5. For quants , thumb rule is to read the question stem twice and then process and answer .
Mindless processing leads to wrong answers and silly mistakes. Such silly mistakes can cost a
lot .
Moreover GMATclub tests are recommended to go for .
6. Do RC and CR daily while preparing for GMAT. You can skip SC a day but not the other two
specially RC. RC can be a game changer.
7. Don't overthink about the order selection and the accuracy . GMAT scoring is a little
complex .
A lot the people won't read such a long post. If you have reached here , you are on your way
to 760 and above. I would again like to thank the GMATclub community . If I can be of any
help , feel free to reach at nihalagrawal1995@gmail.com

I wish you all the best for your GMAT prep and hope you would be writing your debrief soon.
From 650 to 740: What made the difference!

My Background: I am a working professional with a normal job. I end up spending 11 -12

hours out of my house on a normal working day. I studied 1 hour in the morning and about
1-2 hours in the evening. Thus, I ended up doing most of my preparation on the weekends. I
have almost 6 years of experience. I love my job and want to fly higher. So I started looking
at MBA as an option and GMAT to start with it.
I am married and I had never realized that it was so difficult to concentrate on studies after
marriage. I have always dismissed anybody who even comes close to saying that it would be
difficult to do X or Y after marriage or kids, etc. Well it’s definitely difficult, NOT IMPOSSIBLE !

The First Attempt – 650 (V34, Q45), IR 7, AW 6.0

This was in March 2013. I had prepared for about 6 months.
Books/ Resources referred - OG, MGMAT guides, Power Score CR Bible, GMAT Club
Mock test scores
MGMAT 1 – 590
MGMAT 2 – 640
MGMAT 3 – 640
MGMAT 4 – 620
MGMAT 5 – 690
GMAT prep 1 – 700

Well, it did seem that I would be able to break the 700 barrier. But then, there was a twist.
Just a week before the test, I got a mail for an interview (I had applied with my earlier GRE
score). I was excited, but the interview was scheduled on the same day as my GMAT. The
adcom gracefully agreed to postpone the interview by a few days. But I couldn’t concentrate
on either GMAT or the interview and messed up both.

Mission Possible Part 2- Taste of Success- 3 years later, April 2016

I started preparing again in August, 2015. This time I decided to take a more planned
approach. I quickly researched reviews on GMAT Club and jotted down several resources.
Some resources that really helped

eGMAT Free Strategy Sessions 1 and 2

eGMAT Verbal Live Prep
GMAT Club for full quant preparation
MGMAT guides- both quant and verbal
MGMAT CAT tests

What made the difference?

1. Super Planning- I budgeted my time. I fixed time for almost everything- Office, study,
play/ exercise, food, sleep. It is very important to realize your own body cycle. I have to sleep
6 hours to be able to concentrate. Likewise, I can’t study 2 hours at a stretch. I need breaks.

2. Planned breaks – As I said, breaks are important, but they have to be time bound.
10-15 min break is enough to relax your mind and get ready for the next hour. Gradually, I
realized that a break for more than 20 min tends to get prolonged to an hour or beyond.
There is more wastage than relaxation.

3. Disconnect – I had to sign off from all social networks, mute all whatsapp groups,
keeping only important communication like family calls on most of the times during the day,
and totally switched off during study. Family plays a big role in this regard, I would like to
thank my wife for bearing with me for 9 months. :)

4. Focussed Study, strong foundation- I picked one area at a time, started from
foundation. Being an engineer, I knew Quant was my strength and I have leverage it. I
challenged myself with 1 month and target score of 49. I brushed up all basics again,
completed all MGMAT guides, OG sets, and maintained error logs. I took a free evaluation by
eGMAT and scored 80%, which translates to roughly 85%ile (or scaled score of 49). I knew I
could improve further, but it was time to move on Verbal, the weak point.

5. Verbal, the weaker link- In summary, I figured out (although late) that I definitely
need help to improve on verbal. I again checked reviews on GMAT club, tried Princeton
review and a couple of test preps at Bangalore. Finally, eGMAT seemed to be a good choice
since I didn’t want waste time and energy travelling and the reviews were great. Besides, I
was convinced by the strategy sessions attended. To keep it short, I joined eGMAT Verbal
live prep course and it helped me a lot. SC was my weakest section in verbal and it took me 4
months (yes, you read it right- 4 months) to make it my strongest section in verbal. Refer my
earlier review on eGMAT verbal live prep and how it helped me. Subsequently, I picked CR
and RC one by one, work on each type of question, focus on weak areas, improve and take
ability quiz. Repeated the iteration a couple of times to gain confidence.

Link to eGMAT Verbal Live Prep Review --> http://gmatclub.com/reviews/comments/e-gmat-

verbal-live-prep-345350838

6. Focussed testing – I can’t emphasize more on the importance on identifying your

weak areas and working on them. If you start taking full tests early on, you are diverting your
attention on too many aspects- all 4 sections, all levels of questions, timing, etc. Besides, you
waste a precious resource- a mock test. Here, individual module quizzes, practice quiz and
scholaranium played a vital role. You need to take individual section quiz, attempt difficult
questions, understand the depth of the question, fill in gaps in understanding and build a
solid foundation.

Wondering, when did I take the mocks? I actually did not take any mock test till the final leg.
Read on.

7. Error logs- I always maintained detailed error logs of each question I could not
answer in the first attempt. But I went one step ahead this time and noted the following
a. My pre-thinking/ understanding of the question and answer choices.
b. The correct logic and gap in my understanding.
c. Whether or not I could attempt the same question correctly the second time.
The third one is tricky. So I attempted the same set of difficult questions (the ones in error
log) and see how many can I do correctly. I found that I couldn’t do some questions right
even the second time. Shocked? But that's the truth. There are always some concepts that
are difficult for you and you need to revise them at regular intervals to understand and
digest them completely.

8. Mock test strategy- It is very important to REVISE all concepts and error logs before
the test. This is just to make sure that you don’t repeat common mistakes and get into the
traps. Also, you need to revise everything in 3-4 mins (remember, you have only 8 min break
in the real test!). For this, I made super short summaries for each section. Let me explain a
“Super Short Summary” with an example for SC

a. The question structure and your attempt strategy- For eg, SC question presents a
sentence for which you need to understand the meaning, identify grammatical errors and
correct these errors to convey the intended meaning.
b. Break down of attempt strategy- for eg, understand the meaning, break the
sentence into independent clause, verify SV pairs (exist, agree in no, make sense), Verbs
(correct tense, subjunctive, if then statements, etc), pronoun usage, modifier (adjective,
adverb, modified entity, placement, etc), comparisons, parallelism, idioms, meaning.
c. Few traps and repeated errors from error log
d. Strategy to double check the answer, if any. (Eg, Negation test in CR-assumption)

I went through all super short summaries (all sections including IR and AWA) before the test
and once again before the individual sections.

Final Leg – I took a week off from office, and focused entirely on GMAT.
Just before the final leg, I took GMAT Prep Test 1 and scored 730. I was pleasantly surprised
but I know that GMAT prep can sometimes give you over confidence. So I decided to take
MGMAT free CAT the next day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t since there was lot of power
fluctuation and I decided to take another GMAT prep and scored 750. I took the rest of the
day understanding the mistakes, creating a error log of the tests, and got a 3G connection to
avoid interruptions in broadband.
The next 5 days, I took 5 MGMAT mocks. Below is a detail of all mocks I took.

GMAT prep 1- 730 (Q50, V38)

GMAT prep 2- 750 (Q49, V44)
MGMAT 1- 700 (Q47, V38)
MGMAT 2- 680 (Q44, V38)
MGMAT 3- 700 (Q46, V39)
MGMAT 4- 680 (Q45, V37)
MGMAT 5- 710 (Q49, V37)

The day before the exam. I didn’t take a mock, but the day was as rigorous as any other day
in the final leg. I revised every concept I had learnt in the last 7 months, checked all error
logs, went through all the mistakes I made in the last 7 mocks. Revised IR and AWA. Made a
strategy for the final day, although there wasn’t much difference except the logistics of
travelling.

D –day
I had good breakfast (good doesn’t mean heavy!), carried some cut fruit, juice and water for
the break. I reached 45 mins early (you don’t want to get stuck in Bangalore traffic!). After
reaching, I revised my super-short summaries and headed for the test.

AWA and IR went well, but I knew that the real test is about to begin. I saw the time
immediately after coming out of the test, made sure I use the rest room, have water and
some fruits, revise my super short summary in mind and get back in 5 mins. I finished my
quant section 6-7 mins ahead of time. I couldn’t believe myself. I decided not to select the
answer to the last question and started revising my verbal super short summaries. Finally, I
took the break. This time I forgot to see the time immediately (big mistake :(). I came back
from wash room, saw the time, and discounted 2 mins for wash room. By this time, I was
more hungry. I had some water and fruits and went inside at the 6th minute. I was shocked
to see that I had exceeded 30 seconds. I clicked through the initial screens before the first
question without a breath and jumped right into the first question. I think I took around 3
mins on the first question just because I took some time to come to the right frame of mind
(bigger mistake :(). The rest of the section went on smoothly, I had to guess one question
though.

I was too nervous to fill in the demographic details and my hands were literally shaking :P.
The lady sitting outside came in and told me that most details are already filled and that I
had limited time for filling this section too. I just clicked through and closed my eyes.

The final score - 740 (Q51, V39, IR 8, AWA 5)

AWA score was received after a few days.

Wow!! I knew I could have done much better in verbal. I wanted to reverse those 30 seconds
and the 3 minutes I wasted after that !

The BIG learning

Life isn’t fair every time. For me, the big learning from the experience is that “Don’t keep
burden of what has happened, whether it was 30 seconds or a few questions you couldn’t
figure out. Focus on what is front of you (the present question) and give it your best shot.

Hope my experience helps someone!

What is an Error Log?

Simple definition - An error log is a tool that we use to track all our mistakes during our
preparation and revisit them to learn and improve. If this tool is used effectively, it can do
wonders, especially for those who are struggling and don't know how to improve. Few days
ago, we (GMAT Club Team) implemented an inbuilt error log functionality, which can be fully
utilized to follow all the strategies I am going to mention below. More details are here.

How should I use it during my preparation? Tips from abhimahna !

Okay, enough of theory. Let's come to its practical use. I am going to share some key Error
Log Strategies along with study plan that I used and some strategies that I suggested alot
many people in the past one year. I have seen people improving their scores from 650s to
700s within just 2-3 weeks and yes, error logs played a very important role in their success.
You need to understand that Error Logs are very very important than doing tons of
questions.

1. Learn all the basic theoretical stuff either online on GMATClub or by joining any good
course or maybe buying some books.

2. In addition, learn all the strategies of how to attack each type of question on GMAT,
especially verbal questions.

3. Make sure you do some practice questions whenever you are learning any strategies. For
example, if I learn how to attach a Bold Face question, I will do 5-10-15 boldfaced questions
until I get comfortable applying the strategy I learned.

4. This way cover all the topics along with some practice questions within a month or so.
Don't extend the timelines as this may lead to frustration.

5. Make sure you are tracking all the mistakes you were doing. All you have to do is to "Add
Notes" against the questions that you got wrong or maybe got it right but took alot of time
or maybe you got it right but not sure why the wrong answers were wrong.

6. Step 1-5 should be followed every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

7. Now, every Thursday, Friday and Saturday should be utilized to revisit the error logs.

8. All you need to do is first attempt the questions that you did the entire week(only the
ones where you added notes as per suggestion at Step 5) and then see which all mistakes did
you repeat.

9. It may happen that this time you made a new mistake, keep a note of such questions.

10. Prepare flashcards to highlight the mistakes that you repeated the 2nd time and start
revisiting those flashcards every morning such that those things should move from your
conscious to unconscious.

11. Make sure while revisiting/doing any question you are following the strategies I
mentioned at Step 3 here.

12. Focus on getting the accuracy first and then worry about timings. I have seen alot many
people worry about timings but don't bother about accuracy. Rule is simple: You didn't start
driving the car with the speed of 100 miles per hour, right? You must have increased your
speed once you got comfortable driving it.

13. Sunday should be taken as a complete day off. No Study- Just relax and chill.

14. Once you feel you know every theoretical concept, start following the time based
strategies - meaning make sets of questions and do everything in a single sitting. Very similar
to a individual section Mock test.

15. Once timed sets are done, revisit all your mistakes, make notes and understand what
went wrong.
16. Again start revisiting the error logs as I mentioned above and drill down what made you
go wrong.

17. Enjoy the success!

Tip: Go for Quality of study rather than Quantity. For example, If you do 100 SC questions,
you MUST know 400 reasons of why those 400 answer choices were wrong rather than just
understanding why those 100 answer choices were correct. If you do that, trust me you will
see huge improvement in your score.

Other resources

While the error log format I used to improve from V21 to V40 was exactly the same we
implemented on GMATClub, there are a large number of other formats available on the
forum. But my point is whichever format you use during your preparation, use it as the
MOST important component of your preparation. Analyse it, drill it and just eat it. Some of
the resources are listed below:

1. Error Logs made by members - Format 1 with timer, Format 2 with timer and other
collection.

2. Magoosh Suggested GMAT Companion.

3. GMAT Toolkit for Mobile Apps.

Thank you, Gmat Club

Firstly, I wan to thank all the members of the GMAT club community. I have been a member
of GMAT community for 4 years now, but I never imagined that I would be writing for this
community one day because my GMAT experience has been challenging, but rewarding at
the end. This post is dedicated to Retakers, especially non-natives ones, who want to give up
on their dream score or business schools. Please, don’t quit!
My Background
I old a master degree in statistics and another one in financial engineering. I have been
working since 2016. In December 2014, I took my first GMAT exam without any serious
preparation, but I was very disappointed on the test day because I got 610 (Q46, V29). I was
especially disappointed but my Quant score because it was too low for someone with my
background (statistics/ quant finance) and I did not know how to justify such a low quant
score, even in my optional essays. Thus, I decided to prepare more seriously and to retake
the exams in 3 months.
I purchased Gmat Club tests and began to take quant tests, one test every week. My
preparation was strongly focused on the Quant section because I thought that raising my
Quant score to Q50 or Q51 would help me reach my dream score (700) more easily than
attempting to raise my verbal score above V35.This time, I allocated the remaining 2 weeks
of my preparation to verbal. However, this strategy was flawed because I did not understand
how the GMAT algorithm works. On March 12, 2015, I appeared again for the gmat exam
and scored a disappointing 650 (Q50, V28), mainly because my verbal score was very low. I
was so disappointed that I decided to postpone my GMAT ambition and to focus on starting
my career.
First set of lessons learned:
o If you want to get a good score (>700), you MUST also get good subsection scores,
especially in the verbal section.
o It is very important to use official questions and exams wisely. Use them from the
middle of your preparation or at the very end. This is especially true for the Official mock
exams because their number is very limited (6). In my case, I wasted a lot of official questions
and exams because I did not prepare well before taking them. I was repeating the same
errors again and again because I thought improvement come only through practice while
mastering the fundamentals is much more important
o Quality is much better than Quantity. Thus, pay careful attention to the preparation
materials you use, if you don’t want to lose time, energy, and money.

Three years later, in 2018, I decided to restart my GMAT because I had not abandoned my
ambition to move to a b-school. Thus, retaking the GMAT was a mandatory step given my
low previous score. However, this time, I did not want to lose my time and money for
nothing. I read a lot of reviews about the GMAT course providers on the GMAT CLUB. I was
attracted by the high number of reviews E-GMAT had received and decided to attend a free
GMAT preparation strategy session which changed the perception I had of the Gmat exam.
For me, the most important takeaways were:

o GMAT is a test of ABILITY, not JUST a test of accuracy. Gmat test your ability to solve
difficult question. The higher the difficulty level of the questions you solve, the higher your
sectional score will be. Thus, focus on clearing the fundamentals to build good sectional
ABILITIES
o You must adopt a VERY STRUCTURED approach in question solving and, in your
preparation, if you don’t want to waste your time.

After attending a few verbal and quant E-GMAT webinars, I finally decided to subscribe to
their GMAT ONLINE package. It was the most decisive decision I made during all my GMAT
journey. My feedback regarding their platform and its contents are the following:
o Platform presentation and organization: The people at EGMAT have done a very
great job because their platform is organized very well. The GMAT PLANNER is a very
wonderful tool because it helps you build and/or get an idea of the sets of subsection score
required to obtain a given total score. Furthermore, at the beginning and end of each lesson
on the platform, the user can take an ABILITY test to get an idea of the evolution of his skills
and continue confidently in his preparation. Finally, E-GMAT’s SCHOLARANIUM is a powerful
tool that allow the student to take subsection-focused ABILITY tests an get detailed analytics
on his/her weaknesses
o Sentence correction: the meaning-based approach of EGMAT has been a life
changing concept for me as it helped me tackle the most difficult sentence correction
question with confidence. Thanks to this approach, I was able to raise my SC percentile
ranking from 63 percent to 86 percent in my last official exam
o Critical Reasoning: Prior to E gmat, the approach I used for CR was very
unstructured. I used to guess most of the time. Using E GMAT platform, I was discovered the
concept of Pre-thinking which is applicable to any CR question and helped me raise my
percentile ranking from 45 to 76 in my last exam.
o Reading comprehension: Prior to E GMAT, I used to lose confidence any time I was
faced with a passage out of my comfort zone (Economics) and guessed A LOT. Then, I
discovered E-GMAT 7 reading strategies which where very helpful, especially for a non-
native English speaker like me. I was able to solve more difficult question and, finally, I raised
my reading comprehension percentile ranking from 47 to 83!
o Quantitative section: Overall, E-GMAT quantitative material are of extremely good
quality. They are as structured as the verbal material and very similar to what you will get on
the actual test. The difficulty level of the question is sometime higher than that of
GMATCLUB tests and prepare you for the worst.
Overall, in my opinion, E-GMAT is definitely the best preparation provider for anyone who
has a difficult time with GMAT verbal section. The technology behind their platform and the
way the platform is organized will help any serious GMAT test takers get 700+ total score. In
my case, I went from 650 (V28) to 720 (V39) using only E GMAT material for the verbal
section.
Hey Everyone!

GMATClub has been really helpful to me in terms of the resources and the forums, so I’m
here to debrief my GMAT experience.

Official Score: 750 (Q50, V42, IR8, AWA6)

MY GMAT STORY
A little background on myself. I'm a female Chinese-Canadian and a native English speaker.
Back in high school, Math was my best subject and English was my worst (there’s irony in this
later). I didn’t go to university for anything Math or English related, so I would say my skills in
those areas are limited to the high school level. I had the sudden inspiration to consider an
MBA a couple of months ago after two years of full-time work and casually started studying
for the GMAT in April. Being a native English speaker and considering myself decent at math
(I also stare at numbers all day), I thought I would have no problem acing the test.

Boy was I wrong.

Mid-April, my first GMATPrep practice test came back with a Q35 in Quant and a V36 Verbal
coming out to lovely 590. Considering I wanted an eventual 750, that was definitely the kick
in the butt I needed to take things more seriously. Remember how I thought I was good at
math? It’s amazing how fast you lose your ability to do mental math once given a calculator
and the much more crippling Excel. Overconfidence aside, I realized that I needed to buckle
down and take this test seriously. Knowing myself, I knew I would need some sort of
instruction as well.

For me, I knew I couldn’t really afford one of the more expensive live prep courses from the
major prep companies, but I also knew that I need some form of structured learning or else I
will veer off course (from previous experience). So, I looked for self-paced online courses and
settled on something reasonably affordable: eGMAT’s Online Prep. I am an audio-visual
learner, so this worked out in my favour. It took me the rest of April, all of May and the first
week of June to get through both the Quant and the Verbal courses. After that I used the
remaining three weeks I had to double down on the concepts that I lacked.

As per eGMAT advice, I started on my stronger section which was Verbal. I started with
Sentence Correction, which was a weakness of mine because I was a native English speaker.
My ear has been accustomed to the casual speaking language which is often wrong
grammatically and thus wrong on the GMAT. From there, since I already felt comfortable
with the Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension components I moved on Quant.
Quant was definitely a weakness. I think a lot stemmed from not understanding what
material was to be tested and then struggling to apply the logic to come to the right answer.

By the end, I had created my own study plan, blocking off times in my Calendar dedicated to
certain sections in order to hold myself accountable to my studying. After an excruciating
two months, I did my second GMAT prep test (approximately 3 weeks before test day – yes I
held out on doing practice tests for that long). I scored a 740 (Q49 and V42). Finally, I was in
the range of what I wanted. From there, I would have a similar weekly schedule: on the
weekend I would do a full practice test and spend the rest of the week identifying and
shoring up on my weakness for the next one. I ended up taking two more practice tests
scoring 740 (Q49 and V42) again and a surprising 760 (Q50 and V44). Hitting that Q50 was
quite the relief as I knew I needed that to get to my ideal score.

Finally test day came during the first week of July. It was nerve-wracking, and I had a little
trouble concentrating with the keyboard typing from other test takers, but I didn’t have any
actual test day problems (thankfully) and I was very pleased that I ended up scoring a 750
(Q50 and V42).

MY ADVICE

Here are some of the tips I have for people thinking of writing their GMAT. Take it with as
many grains of salt as you wish:

GMAT Prep Resources

What you use to prep yourself for the GMAT will depend on 1) Your learning preference and
2) Your financial resources. For me, as mentioned above, I used eGMAT’s Online Prep
because it was an affordable self-paced online course. I am an audio-visual learner, so this
worked out in my favour, though I would have also appreciated physical books for those
times that I might have wanted to highlight or write on paper. Instead I made notes and
printed them out. The course itself was very structured and had a great lesson plan feel to it.
You also get access to the GMATClub and 800Score practice tests which were more than
enough to practice with.

Other resources:
• Official Guide 2018 books – This is a must as the more official questions you get the
better
• GMAT Prep Tests 3 and 4 – I found the happy number of official practice tests to be 4
• Official GMAT Practice Questions Set – Again more official questions the better
• Manhattan Prep Sentence Correction – I was weak in SC and from GMATClub
reviews I picked up this book. Very good read, but it does tend to use more technical
grammar terms.

TLDR: Purely visual learner, or limited in time? Opt to buy physical books so you can read
faster or skim pages if you wish. Audio-visual learner? Do an online prep course with video
instruction. It’s not the best method if you want to learn everything in a short period of time,
but I tend to pay more attention to videos. Need an instructor or a structured class setting?
Go ahead and do that classroom class.

Study Plan
Even if its rough, try to have a study plan from the very beginning. For me this ended up with
blocking off time in my calendar for specific times to study a specific section and planning
out my official practice test days. This helped me become more accountable to my studying.
On average, I studied approximately 2-3 hours on weekdays and 5-6 hours on the weekend.
Please do give yourself breaks as well or you’ll burn out long before your test day.

Sentence Correction
This advice is more for those native English speakers who tend to rely on conversational
English in their writing. Try and forget what you consider to be correct. Grammatically, a lot
of the time it is wrong. Sentence Correction was my weakest of the Verbal sections. This was
where I spent most of my time because I had to re-learn my grammar. Unfortunately, there
are no tricks here, you’re just going to have to memorize your grammar rules. I used
eGMAT’s verbal course and it was extremely helpful in teaching me the basics without using
overly technical grammar terms. They also had a nice three-step process: understand the
meaning of the sentence, identify errors and eliminate other answer choices with reason. For
me, understanding the meaning wasn’t the hard part. It was identifying the errors. Advice I
would have here is to write down the topics you have the most trouble with onto cue cards
and carry them around with you. Every once in a while, take them out and read them.
Eventually, your brain will remember it. I also tended to use POE a lot once I was
comfortable with my grammar rules and often times, it cut out one to two answers
immediately from the list. If you’re left with one or two, trust your gut and don’t waiver.
Once you start second guessing yourself, you’ll end up picking wrong answers.

Critical Reasoning
Consistent practice. That’s my number one advice. When it comes to reading
comprehension, which I believe both CR and RC falls under, you’re not going to get better if
you don’t consistently do problems related to these two because your brain tends to favour
consistency over last minute cramming. I would suggest, even if you’re off studying some
other section to do at least one or two CR questions and one RC passage a day. Your
comprehension skills will gradually get better. For CR questions, my key advice is to focus
your time on understanding the passage. Start off reading slow. Understand the point of
view of the passage and then read the question stem. Take a second to guess what the
answer might be which will prime your brain for reading the answers. From there, go down
the answer choices one by one and eliminate choices that are completely off topic and out of
scope from the question. Then hone in on the answer that best answers the question. Again,
trust your gut.

Reading Comprehension
My advice here is to read smart. What does that mean? It means skimming content that is
not key to the passage and spending extra time on sections that are. On average I would
spend approximately 1-2 min reading the passage depending on length.

So, what is key then?

• The first sentence or two: Often if not always, the context of the passage is
introduced then. Pay close attention and really feel interested in these sentences. It will
really help your understanding of the passage later on.
• Transition words: Words like ‘however’, ‘but’, ‘additionally’, ‘also’ set up a new turn
in the passage. Write them down on your scratch paper and one to two words of what
happens after the transition you’ll end up with a mini roadmap of your passage that will help
with those main point questions.

What to skim?
• Examples and Experiments: These sections are often filled with data points and other
information that can be skimmed. Write down on your scratch paper that there was an
example but don’t try to completely understand what is being said. It’ll take too much time.
If there is a question that asks about it, you can always go back and read further.

This is common advice but do try to be interested in the topic. I can’t count the times I lost
interest and ended up reading four or five sentences but having them fly over the top of my
head. I wasted an extra thirty seconds re-reading. Stay interested even if you wouldn’t
normally be. Trust me, it makes a world of difference. In terms of answering the questions, I
would offer the same advice that I did for CR.
Quant
The baseline knowledge for quant is pretty basic and I would put it at the high school level.
What makes the Quant section difficult is the application and logic that is layered on top of
those topics. I started off my prep simply learning all the baseline knowledge that I needed
first using eGMAT’s Quant course. From there, I did a million practice questions (an
exaggeration but that’s what it felt like). I used eGMAT Scholaranium as well as the GMAT
Club Quant practice questions to aid in my study. The key is to make sure you review your
answers thoroughly. Questions that you got right and wrong (because sometimes it might be
a fluke). Understand where you got wrong, what logic you missed (for me it was always
forgetting zero). Again, if you find yourself making the same common mistakes, write them
down onto cue cards. Review them later. I also recommend revisiting questions you found to
be challenging to see if you’ve learned what you needed to.

In terms of practice, I knew from the start I wasn’t going to hit that Q51. It was out of my
range seeing as I started off with a Q35. So I aimed for the Q49 and Q50 range. What that
meant was studying for those medium and hard questions and forgetting about those
extremely hard ones. My logic was that I was never going to see those hard questions if I
couldn’t even get those medium questions right. So, for a while I focused my studying on
medium and 600 level questions. These were the questions with simpler application and
logic which I could hammer down before attempting more difficult ones. After that I moved
onto hard and 700 level questions.

Integrated Reasoning/AWA
I didn’t spend a lot of time studying specifically for IR. I found that by the time I was done
prepping for Verbal and Quant, I was sufficiently prepped for it. At this point I was simply
putting the two together. The other parts would be reading graphs, but I was still able to
handle that from my prior high school knowledge.
In terms of AWA, I think the biggest advice here would be to format properly. I used Kaplan’s
format as a soft guide to ensure I structured my argument properly. The key here is to think
of all the things that could go wrong with the argument and what information could be
provided to make it more solid. Make sure you put all those points in. I would spend maybe 5
min reading and structuring initial points, 20 min actually writing and 5 min at the end to
proofread.

Practice Tests
After I did my baseline test at the beginning of my studying I didn’t touch an official or full-
length practice test until three weeks before my actual test day. It was a little risky, I know,
but to me it didn’t make sense to do a full length practice test until I was confident that I had
learned everything. My practice test experience was interesting. I would do separate section
tests from GMATClub for example and my estimated score would come out to scores such as
Q41 and V36. Then my first full practice test a few days later came back with a 740 (Q49 and
V42) which was drastically better (and much more confidence boosting) than the other
practices I’ve done. Bottom line: the official practice tests are the best estimator of your
ability. Don’t get your hopes down if you don’t get good scores on test prep company tests.
They are often harder than the real one.

My advice here:
• Hold off the official practice tests until you are truly ready. You’ll find out that you’ll
probably need less than you thought.
• Take the tests in similar format to the real day. This includes simulating your scratch
paper layout. I really liked the layout that ManhattanPrep suggests.In short, basically you
end up writing certain times on the bottom corner of your scratch paper pages which is a
soft guideline as to how much time you should have left when you flip to the next page. This
was much better than me trying to time each question to an optimal 2 min and much less
stressful. It also let me know if I was even ahead of the timing and to try and slow down to
make sure I was getting questions right.

Exam Day/Format
At some point you need to decide on what format you want for your GMAT (e.g. Verbal first
or Quant first). For me, I know I get very nervous at the beginning of my tests and I knew
that I had the leeway to be nervous and still do well on Verbal which was my stronger
section, so I chose that first. From there I hoped my nerves would settle in time for the
Quant section to start. After settling on this, I set all my official practice tests to run that way
to make sure I’m simulating test day environments.

I’m glad I did this. On test day, it felt as though something was sitting on my chest the entire
time I was doing the Verbal section. I could feel my heart pounding. I don’t think it let up
until I took my first break. Speaking of the break, you have less time than you think you do,
so I would say time to spend only 5 minutes on break, so you have enough time to sign back
in. Quant section was surprisingly less stressful. I think I just didn’t have time to feel stressed
because I had to power through the questions. After that my whole body relaxed and I was
able to get through IR and AWA with no real problems.

At first I thought I didn't do too well because of how I was feeling during Verbal, but I was so
pleased to see the 750 pop up. I immediately accepted and left the center with a smile on my
face. This was my first attempt. It's obviously not the world's best score, but I feel confident
enough with the balance in the score and my own grades that I don't think I'll make a second
attempt.

Overall Advice
Be confident in your potential. I knew straight from the bat when I scored that initial 590 on
the practice test that that wasn’t even close to my potential. Even when I was being beat
down from all those mock tests giving me Q40s and V33s I knew that I wasn’t at my full
potential. Just believe in yourself, don’t settle and you’ll get to where you want to be.

I know this was quite long of a debrief, but if anyone else has any questions or things I should
add feel free to comment! If you liked what you read, please leave a kudos to let me know.
I'll try and find some of my old notes to add to this going forward.