) the GMAT today with a 770(Q50, V45). This is my second take. I scored a 730(Q50, V38) in that I am really happy that I took it again. Please find details about my first take here.https://www.beatthegmat.com/just-finishe ... 57672.html
The first place I choose to put this is this forum because it was largely an integral part of my preparation and because I wanted to show gratitude toward the people who helped me.
Please forgive for the really long post
GMAT 1 and aftermath
To the actual story, I prepared for around 2 months and took GMAT on May 13th 2010 and got a 730(Q50, V38). I was crestfallen because I never have got a 730 or less score in any of the mock tests that I took in the later part of my preparation [MGMATs and GMATPreps were in the range of 750-770]. I was in two minds as to whether I should take GMAT again. I got differing views from people and finally I choose the one that my heart said. I come from a very competitive pool - Indian SW Engineer - and 730 is pretty much average score in that pool. So in order to differentiate myself and make up for my average academics, I wanted a better GMAT score. More that anything I felt I could achieve 750 easily. Finally I booked my appointment on June 15 2010(after the minimum wait period of 31 days). Special thanks to tienvunguyen for influencing my decision to retake (his thread on his retake - https://www.beatthegmat.com/730-750-you- ... 57787.html).
GMAT 2
I chilled off for a good 10 days and when I started to prepare I had almost lost my touch. I started slowly hitting the 750's and then to the 760-770 range. Then I put off my decision to postpone and took the GMAT today after a good 15 days of hard work. My appointment was scheduled at 1 PM, but I wanted to move it because it was in bad astrological time (astrology says that if you start anything in that time you will end up repeating it. Not good for a retake huh!). I don't believe in astrology much, but yes my first GMAT timings had all the bad astrological properties and I did not want to take that risk "again". Sorry for deviating I will come back to the point. So I called up the center and the good people they were they said that I can come in at anytime after 830 and take up the test.
Test Day
I did not have a good sleep and I got up at 7'o clock itself. So I decided to go there and finish it right away because I was not sure whether I be able to hold that energy till afternoon. I was the first person to start the test in the center and I pretty much did well on AWA thanks to myhomy's template. More than anything I did not have to drain my brain on it because I did not have to think much. Then I started with my quants and I felt it was very well designed. There was plenty of traps for a user who goes fast with the questions. I spotted a lot of them and probably missed some. I completed with a good 4-5 minutes. In my last GMAT I completed with 20 mins left, but I did not want that to be repeated this time. So I slowly and carefully went through the questions.
Then came the verbal, the section that made me retake and the section that has always troubled me in the past. I was able to ride through the questions easily. I was able to see only 1 right answer for every question except for may be one or two. I kept pace with the questions and completed with 2 minutes to spare. And then came the stupid background questions and when finally the 'report scores' came I was as tensed as everyone gets. And when I saw that 770, I wanted to jump over but had the nerves to get out of the center. I have never felt that happy. I will now be able to get back all those things that I missed out on these 3 months
Preparation for the retake
I pretty much used the 3 books below.
1. MGMAT SC Strategy Guide 4th edition - In my earlier preparation I used an older edition that my brother gave. I was not aware of the new edition then. When I went to buy my Verbal review and Quantitative review, I accidentally found this book and thank god for that accident. I can well say that this book probably is the sole reason for my improvement in verbal score (38 => 45).
2. Verbal review and Quantitative review - these books have tougher questions than our GMAT official guide and will be very helpful for people aiming for 750+
Verbal preparation tips
I am no expert to give advice. I am a non-native speaker who have always found verbal difficult. I will be happy if such people can take something away from it. Experts please correct me if am passing wrong information to people.
Verbal section in GMAT is just about pattern recognition. One should be able to generalize these patterns to excel. Once someone is able to do that, GMAT will be a cakewalk for him. I would advice people to have 2 sets of notes.
1. To note the rules from all the sources(MGMAT, other materials, BTG etc..)
2. Have a list that GMAT definitely says is wrong/right. Give priority to notes 2 when you are in a position to take a call between the 2 rules. Basically rules in 2 should take priority than those in 1.
MGMAT SC guide latest edition is very good in that it covers most of the rules. But remember that you have to give more importance to basic rules (pronouns, parallelism, modifiers - in that order) when you see a conflict.
Quants
I was comfortale with quants, so I pretty much completed the official guide and quantitative review and that was it. In addition I used notes prepared by my brother as well.
Finally a "BIG" Thank You!!
I thank the experts here who were very careful in passing the right inputs to the students. I found posts by Ron, Stacey and Andrea very useful. Thanks for all the helpful replies.
Erin keep the good job going. I applaud your innovative strategies. When I started way back in 2009, BTG was just one of the forums. You have made it the No. 1 now. Also a big thanks to all the members and good luck for you GMAT as well. Again I thank tienvunguyen and myhomy for their timely help.
