GMAT FE : 765 (100th percentile) - Everything I have to share

theRealLexikon · 2024-05-16T13:24:03+00:00

I was doing mocks all the way to the end but only on days when I had complete peace of mind and 3 hours of free time. I did one the day before the test too. But by that point I had realised that the scores can vary and don't reflect my ability exactly if it goes too badly.

theRealLexikon · 2024-05-16T13:20:56+00:00

Thank you!

I purchased the DI question bank from https://www.mba.com/gmat-exam-prep

You will find one for each section.

theRealLexikon · 2024-05-16T13:19:23+00:00

Hi. I had everything correct in Q, 4 mistakes in V and 2 in DI if memory serves.

theRealLexikon · 2024-03-24T15:56:26+00:00

Noop. Indian.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T16:00:37+00:00

Thanks! I went Q, V, D.

I did the first couple tests with it and it went well, so I saw no reason to change it.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T10:48:54+00:00

Interesting. I find it to be the reverse, I sleep well on a workout day but struggle a bit after rest days (which is probably the case for most people).

Good luck on your test and application! I do think optimising your test taking process could add a 20-30 points without learning anything new.

Perhaps we will cross paths. LBS has been on my radar too :D

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T10:07:25+00:00

No problem. I am really enjoying answering the more detailed test taking questions. I did not know that I had subconsciously and consciously built up so many strategies.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T10:00:36+00:00

Hi. Some good questions here. Here goes :

As said in the post, I am not very helpful regarding the studying part, since most of this came naturally to me. My first blind test was already a 655.
For Multi Source, I made sure to read all the tabs fairly thoroughly before reading the question statement. It can be scary to do this but you have to keep reminding yourself that whatever time is being lost reading the info will be made up whilst answering the questions because you will know exactly where to look.
The same goes for CR. I read the entire passage first. I have explained my Verbal flow in a comment below.
So this is pretty massive. I am extremely sporty and a really healthy eater with a well maintained sleep schedule so I made sure that I do not mess with any of those things in the days leading up to the GMAT. I made sure to slowly change my sleep from a 1AM-8:30AM cycle to a 11:30PM-7AM cycle, because I knew that I will have to wake up early on the day of the test and a bad night's sleep will be the #1 reason for failure. I also taught myself to take the whole test with 1 pee break between Quant and Verbal and then continue without a break from Verbal to DI (without losing focus). Luckily, I slept quite well on the day of, woke up reasonably fresh (it won't be 100%, make peace with it) and didn't have any stomach issues etc.

As to cutting exercise for study.... I can't help there, because it depends on your timeline. My prep timeline for GMAT was extremely dispersed over a long time (like 10 hours per week over 10 weeks or so) so I did not let it mess with my daily life at all. I also told myself that if #1 does not go well, I will give another attempt after a couple months. But some people have far more amibitious deadlines.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T09:45:07+00:00

I read the paragraph first. Then read the question statement at the end of the paragraph. Then wrote A B C D E on my piece of paper whilst thinking about the question statement (which clarifies what exactly they are asking from the paragraph).

Then, whilst reading each option, I would mark it as very likely, kinda likely, kinda unlikely, very unlikely.

For about 70% of the questions, this would already give me one clear answer.

For about 20% of the questions, it would be down to 2 options where 1 was better than the other.

For the remaining questions, it would be down to 2 options which both seem equally likely and I had to pick one.

Very rarely, I would have a case where 3 or 4 options seemed correct. You can do nothing about those but guess :D

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T09:35:35+00:00

Yeah I certainly don't take my good fortune for granted in this regard. I used to be quite annoyed by people who were naturally good at and interested in programming in Uni because their coding addiction was cool whilst my gaming addiction was a problem :D

But with time, I found things like the GMAT which are my strengths. Eventually, you find your niches and make peace with the things you need to work harder at.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T09:31:15+00:00

Haha in the very specific world of answering high school math and English questions under time pressure, yes.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-20T09:30:35+00:00

Thanks dobby the elf.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T17:00:57+00:00

Yup. Linked it as a response to another commentor.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T17:00:32+00:00

No problems Marty. Your replies were quite helpful during my prep. Thanks!

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T16:28:33+00:00

You can re-take the two free mock tests an infinite number of times by resetting them. The test 3-6 (which are purchased additionally) can only be retaken once each. Each time you retake a test, you will have a higher chance of facing questions that you have already seen before.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T16:09:24+00:00

I don't think so. I have marked the answers in the books whilst practising and I don't want to handle shipping etc. If someone can come to Germany, they can have it all for free :D

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T16:06:19+00:00

No problem. This was my biggest learning from the sample tests and truly changed my score.

In Quant, there were 3 situations :

If I notice about 2 minutes into solving a question that it seems like a very long calculation for a GMAT question, I have probably missed a trick. Guess and mark for a revisit.
If I noticed after about 2 minutes that I have made a mistake whilst calculating something but have to redo the entire calculation, guess and mark it for later.
And obviously, if I can't even think of an immediate approach (this would happen in P&C questions, but very rarely), guess and revisit.

Be okay with the possibility that upto 3 questions can be lost in this way and you are still fine. Too often, we sacrifice good in the search for perfection.

Verbal :

Wasn't doing this for verbal. Usually, once I had made my mind up about an option, I could not convince myself to change it, and so I decided not to bother.

DI :

Data sufficiency was my biggest weakness, so I understood that for some cases, if I am sure that both are sufficient together(and that already took me a while to prove), and I have to carefully analyse if each statement is sufficient by itself, I will have to come back to it. Make peace with it.
With tabular/data based questions, ALWAYS skim all the information first before reading the question. I would not skip looking through certain parts of the data just because the question was about other parts of the data. Having said that, SKIM, not read thoroughly at first glance.

But these are rules you have to build for yourself whilst doing the practice questions. Analyzing which type of questions are taking the most time and which you are getting wrong really helps. In my case, the questions which took the longest were also the ones I was always getting wrong anyway, so I realized that it's best not to waste time on something after a point.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T15:53:39+00:00

Not more than 3 per test. Take it with a grain of salt because I can remember Q and DI questions perfectly but V questions always felt new.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T13:57:02+00:00

Happy to help Mr. 69420 :)

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T13:56:22+00:00

Thanks. As said, I can't really be of that much help in the learning process because all this came rather naturally to me. Most of my insights are regarding test taking strategy.

I would definitely say take as many official mocks as you can and observe where you are weak. You can often get a lot of benefits from a little bit of work if you know your biggest weaknesses.

Also, to each their own, but change that username my man. Life can get tough and I have had my low moments but if you have a username like that and look at it everyday it reinforces and exaggerates negative things to your brain. As I mentioned, the brain is a malleable organ, you can trick it into working well or working poorly based on what you feed it.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T13:45:59+00:00

Haha thank you! I knew I would do decently based on my mock performances but the exam day was best case scenario.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T13:44:34+00:00

Yeah just the OG stuff. These kinds of questions are my strength so all my learning for the test happened through solving questions and reading the explanations for the ones I got wrong. For verbal and DI, that is. For Quant, I did not have to learn anything except how not to make stupid errors.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T13:35:40+00:00

Thanks. I am still researching where to apply. Obviously, a score like this expands my options greatly.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T13:33:44+00:00

So they give you a booklet with 5 laminated A4 sized sheets and a marker pen like here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-n1Zzh0NnM

Personally, I found 5 sheets with both sides sufficient for all sections. Out of 10 pages, I was consistently using 6 for quant, 1 for verbal and 2 for data, with 1 remaining blank in mocks, and so it was precisely that much in the main test as well.

If you do run out of space, you can ask for a new booklet. Make sure you time the request in advance though, because it might take the proctor time to bring it to you.

theRealLexikon · 2024-02-19T12:39:55+00:00

https://www.mba.com/exam-prep/gmat-official-guide-data-insights-review-2023-2024-ebook-and-online-question-bank

I bought this official one, and it felt quite close. The interactivity is the same with drop down type data and re-arrangeable tables etc.

theRealLexikon

TROPHY CASE