http://www.beatthegmat.com/from-620-to-740-in-8-weeks-t68943.html
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Hi,
This is my first post on BTG, but I have been following the forum time to time since the GMAT bug bit me. I finally took the GMAT yesterday and scored 740, which I feel is good enough and as per my expectations. The biggest hurdle or turning point towards getting a good score is scheduling an appointment, I'll tell you why I think so.
In most of exams, the dates are just announced by the authorities and you have a mindset ready to meet that deadline and you prepare accordingly, but in case of GMAT as you can choose your own date, you tend to postpone it because of other things going on in life. I had planned to take GMAT earlier this year, somewhere near the April end, but because of so many things going on at work, I chose to not take the appointment and to schedule it sometime later. A useless step, because later you realize that everything else just keeps on going and you just have to take the next step some day. I felt that once you take an appointment, the deadline effect kicks in and you start preparing and unless that happens, nothing is going to improve. So, one saturday night, at 1:30 AM, I just decided to take the next step and schedule an appointment for 2 months later (23rd Oct being my father's birthday as well, I thought it will bring in the luck factor
)So, all you folks out there who plan on writing GMAT and are waiting for things to settle down a bit in your life to take an appointment, I would like to tell you, things wont settle on their own, you have to make them settle and that will happen automatically when you take the appointment.
After taking the appointment, I followed a simple strategy, I would go about solving a couple of passages, 15-20 SC/CR questions daily after usual work hours and in my last week before exams, I took personal leave to prepare of the final blow. I really feel that the last week added at least 30-40 marks to my score, so that also is advisable if you can afford that. The last week's prep was very crucial and very hectic. I did not change my routine of getting up at 7 for office, just that instead of going to office, I worked for myself for those 8 hours a day
The books I followed are :
1) OG 12
2) OG Verbal Guide
3) Princeton Review
4) Sahil's Grammar notes (search for it on net, its in pdf/word format)
I have listed these in their order of importance and relevance to the actual GMAT. I started with Princeton Review first and when I was halfway through that, I started doing problems from the Verbal Guide. After a week of doing this, I took the first Mock (Princeton) and scored 620. This actually gave me sense of relief because it meant there is a lot of room for improvement and a lot for me to work upon. A decently high score might have boosted up my confidence too high, so that I would have relaxed and maybe the final scores would have suffered because of that.
After the first mock, I kept a target of taking one mock every weekend. I took GMATPrep about 6 times and Princeton 5 times. In my last week of prep, I used to take one mock test daily throughout the week (did not take on Wednesday as I might have burnt out the enthu, so preferred taking a rest that day and covered all the AWA topics instead) at the same time as my appointment (1 PM) so that the body clock gets tuned for optimum performance about that time. I even completed the AWA sections in the last two Mock tests I took
, just to simulate it completely.My scores ranged from 610 to 740 in Mocks (yes, 740 was my highest in mocks and I am lucky enough by god's grace to manage that in actual GMAT as well
)I even managed to pull off a 610 in Princeton Mock on Tuesday in last week and this is when I decided to skip the test on Wednesday and rather do some different activity.
Anyway, the key to preparation I feel is not the number of books you study, but the dedication you show towards it and the routine you follow. So, just go ahead and give it your best shot and leave it to the higher powers to tell you the final score.
Best of luck everyone!!
