It happens that one just can’t get through with an exam. Nischal, when he appeared for CAT two years in a row, missed to hit the mark with falling out in the one of the sectionals, each time.
Did that deter him? No, because he completely aced his GMAT in the first go with a fantastic 99th percentile score of 760 with TOP securing one of the best scores possible, globally.
He shared with us how he went about his preparation in depth.
The one and the most important bit he emphasized the most about was consistency.
No matter what, he put in his daily hours of preparation into play. He studied 2-3 consistently while he was building his conceptual clarity. He says even if he missed 2-3 days of preparation, he used to make up for it by studying for equal number of hours later never falling short.
On quant he says that he:
Did pretty well from the get go but had major trouble in the DS questions with his accuracy stuck in the 65-70% range. To get through that, he did the 436 DS pdf out of the study material in just two to three days which gave him tremendous accuracy.
He also maintained an error log in practice while doing DS questions and used it extensively all throughout his preparation and noticed a pattern of mistakes.
He then before every study session of the ds questions used to refer to his error log and his mistakes which helped him a lot.
He attributed majority of his success in quant came from in depth analysis and watching over his mistakes, an extremely important thing to do.
He also shared that out of all the topics that he found difficulty in, he had major issues in Permutations &Combination, Probability and Geometry in which he invested a lot of time extensively by doing the 700-800 level study material.
For verbal, he shared the following:
He started with a 65-70% accuracy in CR and SC as well along with having trouble in maintaining good pacing in RC.
For SC, he maintained an error log and without failure went back to it time and again whenever he practiced SC. Going over his errors gave him extreme clarity as to what to avoid and keep in mind while solving questions.
For RC and CR both he says the thing that helped him the most was doing a lot of questions in a single sitting.
He says since CR and RC both test how long can you actively use your brain well, it’s a must to develop that level of stamina in the first place in practice.
For getting even better in SC and CR, he solved all questions from the 700-800 level questions study material.
He also attempted two mocks to get a grip over the entire material alongside with 4-5 sectional mocks of verbal to test his accuracy before his exam.
During his exam, he says that since he was comfortable in verbal he did it first and built confidence that he followed along with in the verbal section which helped him a lot. On top of that, he used the 8 minutes to strategize further and to calm himself down which in contrast with others helped with the exam anxiety.
He found nothing unusual in verbal section but he did say one question got the better of him in the quant section in which he had to take a calculative guess and move on.
All of this led him to score a marvelous 760 on the GMAT, an amazing score to have while applying to any school of choice.
The key takeaway he shares others should have is to build you foundations in depth and to be consistent with studies.
A 99th percentile is well within reach. You just have to start. The sooner, the better!
Best of luck!
Comments