Before 26 August – I started my GMAT journey in June when I enrolled
in Crackverbal. Everybody advised me to book a date for GMAT and then start
studying because you know human nature. I estimated I will need approx. 2
months to prepare my essays and 1 month extra to retake the exam if I didn’t get
my expected score of 720, thinking this I booked the date of 26 August.

26 August (test day) – I received a score of q49 v35 OA 690
(I was supposed to get 51 in quant L
and 36 in Verbal K ).

Booked a ticket to Goa for long weekend and came back
afresh. 

Booked a new test date and started doing things a bit differently.

5 October – This time I was better prepared for quant and was
quite confident in verbal. Finally, I got a score of 720 (q50, v38)

So what changed in that one month –

1)     
Don’t be overconfident on your quant skill –
Practice a few quant questions everyday just to be in touch. I realized even a gap
of 3 days in not practicing quant reduced my score by 2-3 points. So I practiced
quant every day for 30 minutes for next 30 days.

2)     
Practice OG – remember the time when we gave out
10/12 board. Though we had abundant reference material but we always understood/
completed /worshipped NCERT text book first. I find this is the best analogy
for OG and other material. I gave lot of emphasis on different material while I should have completed OG first. I did this during my second attempt prep and
was surprised with the confidence with which I marked answer on practice day.

Points to Remember – Don’t panic during the exam. I got a
multiplication type problem (very^4 easy) during the mid of quant section. I
got panicked but then took a deep breath, made sure that there was no trap
and went on with the questions. In the end when I saw my quant score, I realized
GMAT is not just an aptitude exam but can play a lot of mind games also. 

Hi Rahul,

Firstly congrats on breaking the 700 barrier.
Ironically I took GMAT 10 days back and scored a 690(Q49, V35) 😉

How did you work for 3 point jump in verbal during the second attempt?
Any specific tips would be greatly helpful for my prep.

Thanks,
Kiran

Congratulations Rahul! 🙂