my gmat journey - 610 to 620 to 710

[career.sumit]

Hi everyone.

Took my GMAT today. Relieved finally !!! :-D
Have been putting in tremendous hard work since last 10 months. Got the reward finally.

Here's the past :shock:
http://gmatclub.com/forum/shocked-at-my ... 23552.html
and
http://gmatclub.com/forum/failed-in-gma ... 27481.html

this was my journey, full of thorns and obstacles until today. :twisted:

I took my third attempt today (17 april 2012) and was joyous to see a score of 710 (Q 49 V 38)
What different did I do over the course of the three GMAT exams ?

Well, i did studied the same as i did in my second attempt.
the OGs - 12,11,10 quant and verbal edition I and II
Also class notes from my tutor(really helped me build a very strong foundation)
A lot of good material is floating on gmatclub.com. But please ensure to go through all material provided by GMAC - official guides and GMATprep software, before taking up other material
Although, i did not study any material outside that provided by GMAC.

I also started to go through forums on a regular basis specially gmatclub.com and manhattangmat.com
They helped me identify my mistakes and the discussion helped me develop the way GMAC wants a student to think while answering the questions.

GMAT is a test of personality and character. Prepare well for your exam (most of us do that), but whats more important is that you deliver on the D-day.
Don't be tensed, stay calm, sleep well the night before exam, eat well.
Also take something to eat during the breaks.
All these play an important part in the cycle. So go to the exam centre confidently.

Now comes the real thing...
The GMAT experience
AWAs - not a problem for me... i had practiced hard and scored a 5 in both my previous attempts.
This time i have targeted a "6" in AWAs

Quant - A lot of easy question (my quant is pretty good so I find many questions easy) came on the real test.
though there were a few really tough ones. A very strange thing happened. While i was on 14th question, the electricity of the exam centre went off. This happened to me last time too, so i was not bothered. Surprisingly when it did return after 7 mins, the timer said that i had lost 7 mins on the same question. I was shocked and angry. I asked the invigilators but they didn't had the answer. All they told me was that they would create an incident and report it to the test makers.
I had no choice, but i to move on. So i completed the quant section in 68 mins. I had to rush through the last 5 questions in order to finish the exam on time. I still feel i could have scored 50 or 51 in quant.

Break - During the break most of my time was spent talking to the invigilators about the incident. But i took a deep breath, talked myself not to lose it. And was prepared to take on the verbal section.

Verbal - This was the section in which i had performed badly in my previous attempts (31 and 28). I started cautiously. SC has always been my strength, so that went easily. I took a lot of time thinking about the CR questions. Remembered the discussion at the various forums and chose the answers accordingly. I had practiced a lot of RC questions so RC also went pretty well. But some questions in RC were very tough, even though the passages were quite easy to read and understand. I finished 2 mins before time. I didn't knew whether the verbal part was good, so i had to wait for the result.


Now comes the 5 mins wait and filling those stupid questions. I finished it quickly and went to 'report your score' section. I was overjoyed to my score 710(Q49, V38).

So friends, never lose heart, keep working hard, give your best... your will surely succeed

good luck !