My GMAT experience

Of late, a few people have requested me to chronicle my GMAT experience and give an insight in to what effort went in to get a supposedly “great” score! So here it is…

The journey started in June 2007 when I decided to prepone my MBA plans by a year. The first thing I did was to book a date for GMAT. I selected the 5:30 P.M to 9:30 P.M on the 24^th of August. After that, began the initial research about what the exam was all about. After going through the GMAT website and a few magazines, I was fairly comfortable with the entire process and decided to start my preparations. I purchased 3 books for my GMAT prep: The Princeton Review, Official Guide 11 and the Kaplan 800.

Before starting my preparation I took a Kaplan mock GMAT and got a measly 580! I knew I had lots of work to do and decided to start off with The Princeton Review. For anyone preparing for GMAT from scratch, I strongly recommend this book. Although the level of the questions is considerably lower than the actual GMAT, it gives a first taste of what kind of questions to expect and I simply loved the anecdotes added on the side of a few pages. The book is accompanied with a CD and also allows you to logon to the Princeton website for 4 mock GMAT tests and some additional training material. All in all it is a really good package. I completed the book in about 15 days. After that, I moved on to the OG11. It is supposed to be the bible for GMAT as it contains only the ‘retired’ questions from the actual GMAT. It is supposed to be the closest thing to the actual exam and at the risk of being repetitive, I have to emphasize that it indeed is the closest thing you get to the actual GMAT! I did the two quant parts (Problem solving and Data sufficiency) first. Those who have not encountered DS before will take some time to feel comfortable with it. After quant, I sequentially completed the 3 verbal subsections (Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension). An important point is to keep all your answers in a safe place so that you can refer to them at a later date and can analyze the questions you get wrong. After this, I got hold of Manhattan SC and boy, was that a great help or what!! Really beautifully explained all the SC concepts. A Must for any GMAT aspirant. (I think the newer versions have spoilt the beauty, the older ones are better). Finally I did the Kaplan 800 and honestly, I do not think this book is of any help in GMAT preparation! The questions are unrealistically tough and you will not encounter them even if you end up with a score of 800! Once, I had gone through all the material, decided to use some online material that I had gathered by the GBs. Managed to go through SC/CR 1000 and continue to revise OG.

Once the books were done, I started with the Mock GMATs. I took 8 of them in all. As my exam was in the evening, I made it a point to take all the mock exams at the same time and also attempt the Essays. Concentration is a key element in GMAT and if you have not taken a full length mock exam in the same time as the actual one, then you are either a foolish or a courageous soul!! My score in most of the exams ranged from 720 to 780, so I was confident of getting around 750 in actual exam. A day prior to the exam, I took leave from office. I wanted to ensure that I spend the day in exactly the same way as I would spend the actual G-Day. So I woke up in the morning and did 10 questions from each of the 5 types of questions from OG11 and then in the evening I took the mock GMAT and got a 740.

Finally on the 24^th of August, I repeated the same routine in the morning. I reached the centre an hour before scheduled time and completed the formalities. I got to start half an hour before the scheduled time. After writing the essays, took my break and splashed some water on my face before getting back. The quant section was pretty straight forward and I was making a conscious effort to read every question carefully to avoid any silly mistake. Again took my break after the quant section and had a few biscuits. In the verbal section, I could feel my concentration dropping after the first 20 questions, so made it a point to take more time with the remaining ones.

When the exam was over and I finally got the score, it read: 780 (Q 50, V 47) I was a little annoyed at not getting a 51 in quant but the overall score was really good, so could not complain much. I took the unofficial score from the administrator and left for home with a smile of satisfaction on my face. It was an apt culmination of more than 2 months of effort.