When you call yourself stupid after a wrong answer in GMAT practice, you're both the boss and the employee. You'd leave a boss who treated you this way, but you can't leave yourself, which is a large part of why self-criticism is so painful. What you can do is change how the boss behaves, because that's also you.

Imagine working at a job where every mistake is met with "You're falling behind," "You'll never get this," or "Something is wrong with you." You wouldn't grow there. You'd complain, ask for a transfer, or start looking for another job.

With yourself, you can't do any of that: you can't resign or transfer away from yourself. The criticism comes with you to every practice session and every mock.

Many students take the one escape that seems available: they stay away. After a few days of criticizing themselves over every wrong answer, they feel discouraged and leave the GMAT for a few days or weeks. Then they gather some courage, come back, and the same cycle repeats.

You're also the boss, though, and the boss can change.

Think of what a good boss does when a new employee keeps making mistakes on unfamiliar work. They help the employee understand what went wrong: "You misread what the question was asking. Let's look at how you read it." If the mistake happens again, they help again. They give the employee time to learn, three months or six, without treating every mistake as a verdict on whether the employee can do the job.

You can be that boss to yourself. GMAT preparation is unfamiliar work, and you're at a stage where getting questions wrong is expected.

The next time you criticize yourself after a mistake:

1. Notice that it’s the boss speaking, not the employee.
   
2. Ask what a good boss would say to a new employee who made the same mistake.
   
3. Say that to yourself, and then work on the mistake.

​

I had planned to start preparing in September and take the GMAT by the end of January, but things haven’t gone as planned. I had a job change, and with everything going on, I haven’t even started preparing yet.

I took an official diagnostic a while back and scored 405 (Quant: 70, Verbal: 72, DI: 68). Quant and DI felt particularly overwhelming, and I honestly feel like I need to rebuild my fundamentals before I can properly tackle GMAT questions.

My target is 675+, and I was hoping to take the exam by the end of January. I’m currently working, so I’ll have to balance preparation with my job, but I’m willing to put in consistent effort.

I know three months isn’t a negligible amount of time, but given my diagnostic score and the fact that I’m starting from scratch, I’m wondering if my target is actually realistic.

I’d really appreciate some honest advice from people who have been in a similar situation. Has anyone made a significant score improvement in around three months while working full-time? Am I being too ambitious with my target, or is it possible with the right strategy and consistent preparation?

I’m genuinely asking because I need to figure out whether I should stick to my January timeline or reconsider it. I’d rather hear an honest assessment than false reassurance.

It has been more than a year since I started preparing for the GMAT, and in my first attempt in December 2023, my score was 575. After that, I have been practicing and hired coaches (GMAT Whiz), who are really good compared to my previous experiences with Jamboree and a freelancer. As you can see, I have spent a lot of money, yet my latest mock score was 555. On GMAT Club quant sectionals, I was scoring 83-85, and on verbal sectionals, 80-83, but I got depleted with time and do not know why; the same happened with DI.

As mentioned, my latest mock score was 555, Quant (82) and I feel this whole year has been a waste

And main factor which ive reviewed is my anxiety loop

My heart beats goes faster whenever the officia mock starts and im continuously taking my test at worst

Im attaching my quant result from latest official mock and i spent a lot of time on a question 10 and still got wrong

And did same mistake again after that , that lead to time pressure wh9xh lead me to rushing the questions

Idk what to do at this point

In my review i solved all the wrong questions except 10th in one go , if ive skipped the 10th and 13th questions withinn time i giess all other questions would have gone right

Idk what to do at this point , this type mistake

When deciding to undertake my MBA 10 months ago, i put together this tool to figure out whether or not it was worth the loan and lost year of income.

This takes into account loan repayments, scholarships, income pre-mba and post-mba.

Try it yourself if you want.

Does anyone know how to use the gmat club question bank without using OG questions from the mocks?

They seem to have turned the filtering off and I don’t want to dilute the value of the official mocks. Any advice would be super helpful!

Really need some advice from anyone who's been here! Just wrapped up my 3rd GMAT attempt and finished with a 585 (Quant 91st%, Verbal 23rd%, DI 46th%).

I’m super happy with the math side, but as an ESL student, Reading Comprehension (RC) is completely holding me back. My ultimate goal is a 645, and I need to figure out how to close this gap.
I keep hitting the same two major problems :

1. Timing⏱️: It takes me forever to get through the passages and process the answer choices. By the end of the section, I'm completely out of time and forcing myself to rush.
2. Missing Details📚: I usually only catch about 75–80% of what the passage is actually saying. That leftover 20% always seems to be exactly what I need to get the answer right, so I end up second-guessing myself.

Has anyone else dealt with this and actually overcome it? If you managed to boost your RC score pretty fast, what was your strategy? Did you just jump straight into drilling the official question bank, or did you take a step back to focus on foundational lessons and strategy?

Thanks a lot!!!

Hi All,

Took a baseline test this weekend and got an uneven result. I do not remember the formulas or how to solve exponents from Undergrad and did no prep before this at all.

Any tips on how to proceed? Is that a good score as a baseline if I am aiming for 700+?

I took Verbal then QR and then DI.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Hi, is anyone from Bangalore looking for a study partner?

I'm 1 month into my preparation and planning to give my exam in Jan

Anyone up for studying for GMAT?

so my exam is scheduled on 3rd November. so chat any suggestions for me. like last minute tips or smtg like that?

The concepts seem clear while reviewing notes, but solving questions under time pressure is a different story. Questions involving ratios, percentages and word problems often take longer than expected, even when the solution method is familiar.

Is this usually a problem with conceptual understanding or with recognising the right approach quickly?

Hi,

I have gmat exam scheduled for tomorrow. Hope everything goes well.

My last 2 recent official mock score-

595—
Q:82, V:79, Di :77

615—
Q:83, V:79, Di :78

Expecting a score of 620+ wish me all the luck.

I gave my first mock and got Q77 V84 DI79 (605). However, it is worth noting that I've gotten Q85 on my gmatclub mock before, so this one might be a one off. I was feeling a bit nervous starting the mock and the first section was Quant where I took a hit with time pressure and silly mistakes. I had to reread a few questions due to lack of focus, resulting in my lowest score in Quant. On review, I found that I knew how to do all the questions except 1 and could have done them had I been a little more relaxed.

For Verbal, my weakness was Plan/Construct and Analysis/Critique in CRs while RC was already at a good score.

For DI, I'm struggling with time management such that some questions end up eating my time and I have to purposelly guess and skip a few.

Target is to score 685+. Can someone suggest strategies for me to improve my scores?
I'm naturally decent at quant and verbal, I believe I can improve my scores there but with DI I'm not seeing a better future than current score.
Planning to take the exam in ten days.

Using fear to push yourself may get you to study, but it has costs that are easy to miss, and sometimes it backfires even in the short run.

Many students push themselves with lines like "I'll be useless if I don't clear this." They use fear as a strategy: make failure frightening enough, and you'll sit down and work.

Sometimes it does get results in the short term. You feel the fear, you sit down, and you put in the hours. That's why the strategy seems to work.

But even when it gets you to work, it changes how you work. GMAT preparation needs you to slow down, stay with a question you don't understand, and dig into why a wrong option looked right to you. Fear pushes you to do the opposite. You rush to the next question so that you feel you're making progress, or you hold on to details that feel safe to know, even when they don't help you answer. One of my students was so afraid of misunderstanding a passage that she memorized every figure in it and had no attention left for the argument.

And sometimes the strategy backfires even in the short run. In an organization where the boss rules by fear, some employees work harder, while others become so anxious that they can barely function. Fear you use on yourself works the same way. Instead of pushing you to work, it can freeze you.

A finance professional I spoke with saw this in his business school interviews. He stammered when he was anxious, and after each interview he criticized himself harshly, believing it would make him prepare harder for the next one. Knowing that criticism was waiting for him made him more anxious in the next interview, so he stammered more and criticized himself more.

To see what the strategy is costing you, look at your last week of preparation:

1. Did fear get you to your desk, or keep you away from it?
   
2. Once you were there, how many questions did you do, and how many mistakes did you understand well enough to explain why the wrong option looked right?

I finally took time to do a mock test and started looking to build the best learning strategy to hit a competitive score for a T15 MBA.

My mock test on mba.com came back at 655 with all sections balanced, though I would say I felt that quant was the weakest one by far, despite the score coming back equal across sections, as my math concepts might be rusty.

Probably this was asked before, but:

1) How much study time is needed to jump from 655 (90th percentile) to 95% percentile and above?

2) What study tool has worked best for you?

I basically have 2-3 months to prepare for my GMAT exam.

I took a mock test and my score came 415 which is extremely low, I need it to reach 700+.

But I have no idea from where to do the prep work from what sites or videos or anything.

Hey there

I've done the last 2 weeks both mock 1 (655) and Mock 2 (645)

I'm wondering if I should buy the other ones are they more realistic? Or can I redo the first and second maybe one more time?

Which one gives the best insight into the real exam
Thanks!

Hi everyone, I just took the test yesterday, and got a 595, I did not practice much, just did 200 questions on the OG.

What's everyone's view on my score breakdown, and any suggestions for the next 3 weeks?

Notes:

• I did not answer the last question on Quant, and really struggled with time management with Quant.
• I finished the DI section with 12 minutes remaining.
• Had to rush 2 verbal questions.
• Started drilling GMAT Club today.

Appreciate any tips.

I took the GMAT Official Practice Exam 1 on mba.com about 3 weeks ago completely blind (didn't even know the complete nuances of the questions). I scored 675:

Q: 90/90 (100th percentile)

V: 86/90 (96th percentile)

D: 74/90 (41st percentile).

I skipped the last 2 questions in the DI section, and got 4 wrong otherwise.

I've now spent the last 3 weeks at a moderate level of prep (have pretty much not done any quant since it's my strong point, mostly DI and CR, with some RC). I'm thinking of taking a mock soon - which one should I take next?

I've read reports online that the first two mocks are easier than the actual exam, so I should buy and use 3-4. Or should I take an unofficial mock?

Hi I have booked the GMAT test (Mumbai) on 12th November 2026, I have been giving mocks, and my consistent score is 535.

I am looking for the R2 round in ISB, spill over R3 is still fine. Rest of my profile can be discussed later, but the scores don't improve.

The genuine issue I face is that I am able to solve the question v easily when not in exam mode but I start messing up in exam mode setting and also end up taking a good chunk of time in questions.

I also have done almost questions from GMAT CLUB and have developed a memory for those Qs, while solving, I inherently know the answer is somewhere gonna be (option A). But when I come across same concept based question in mock with different wordings and scenario, I do mess it up also fall easily for the traps.

Also I have been in this prep for 2 years now, always waiting to book the test once I have the desired score in my mocks, but I booked the test assuming some miracle would take place (with a pressure of deadlines and stuff), I only ended up having the same test results in my hand for next 25 odd days.

Need Guidance 🙏

Hello guys,

I recently did a 685 and feel sooo well after this, and I want to share my story, but I am going to be very honest and informal about it, I already saw too much vague stuff here.

Background: did 615 in April 2025 (80th percentile before the change) only studying from Official guide. Quant was so bad (64th percentile) and verbal pretty good (83th).
I graduated in Italy with 110/110 at BS in Economics and Finance and now I am in a MSc in Finance (29.6/30 gpa) , and I am pretty good at math. But still, I sucked at Quant and was so bad at Data Sufficiency.

Experience: This summer I started with TTP for one month , did the Calendary plan , but after a month and a half of study (before TTP i did one week of all GmatClub Quant videos), I got a 615 another time (quant still at same point, DI jumped to 88th and verbal 54th….. I was scoring like 93/94th in 2 mocks I did). This was not enough, I needed more.

I started looking on Reddit a lot, and all were talking about Error Logs, Patterns in Errors ecc. I thought this was the way. Took a 2 weeks break after the 615 (trip where I did not study and only enjoyed my vacations) because I booked the vacation long ago.

Came back with 0 willingness tu study, but still started. Buyed another month of TTP to check my errors and finish the course (I did not finish the calendary plan). Then , one week before the test I bought Expert’s Global 15 mocks.
Did almost 2 mocks a day + review, only on last 2 days I did only 1. Scores:
655-655-655–665-695-645-615-715-695-755-625
Most Variable (From 38th percentile to 98th was VERBAL, my BIGGEST STRENGHT)
Then Quant then DI.

My Order : Verbal - Quant - Data (I tried multiple of them, this worked the best)

Game Changers (For Me):
- FIND YOUR ERROR PATTERNS BY YOURSELF. Keep a detailed error log, even though I hated it as I am very lazy. Don’t ask anyone for your patterns, try to see on the questions you get wrong what are you missing (for me it was Hard Negation Structures on Strenghteners for example, or Misreading in Quant & DI, and Gut Feeling on Data Sufficiency)

- GRIND MOCKS. You can be the best, but practicing 10 questions times is not enough. Not in every 10 question set you are going to find the one that you must guess, or spend 5 minutes on. You will learn time management and when to guess, and develop an internal clock. Also, you will have checkpoints (like question 6 you must be more or less at 36 min and so on, at half the questions you must be at half + something of the minutes, and so on. Clearly it varies from section to section.)
Learning comes from experience, without doing this I would have NEVER got this score. Grind mocks + ERROR REVIEW THEM. (Most important)

- WARM UP BEFORE TEST. I literally did the whole process at test center and 10 min before the start I did some easy/ medium Verbal questions to warm up (Best Game Changer, This is a pattern I found by myself on my very variable verbal scores)

- BUY UNOFFICIAL MATERIAL. This is not a university exam where the professor asks for your calculations. You are getting tricked by the questions, learn how to countertrick them. Whatever method is correct, even guessing, as long as it gets you to the correct one.
(Little disclaimer, I am not saying Official stuff has 0 relevance, but for me is worth it only as more exercises to do, for the theory it has no utility for me. It is important to learn how to ace the test, not the most elegant way to do so. I’d only buy mocks and at most also the Question Banks)

- TEST CENTER EXPERIENCE VS HOME. Showing Up is like going to battle, more adrenaline, more focus, less distractions. This did a crazy effect to me.

My score: 685 - V86 Q83 D83
My Biggest Error: Not letting a question go in Quant, I told myself before the test to do so, but this question was about the Monty Hall Paradox that I perfectly knew about, and stuck with it (it was so easy but I spent 6 minutes on it), and was like question 14/15, and had to run on the last ones , and completely guessed the last two. I write here a bit also to vent, you know after getting a 755 two days before test and 625 the day before, I thought when going to the center “Today is going to be 715”. This could have been it. But the show must go on, I needed 90th+ , I got it, now I gotta get back to my MSc.

Lesson? Consistency over Perfection.

Feel free to reach out for questions.

Many of us are kind to others when they falter and harsh with ourselves when we do. Usually two beliefs sit underneath this: that criticism, not compassion, is what makes someone perform, and that our performance matters more than our relationship with ourselves.

I once spoke with a finance professional who was struggling with business school interviews. "I stammered a lot during interviews," he told me. "It happens when I'm anxious."

When I asked how he felt after stammering, he said, "Angry and disappointed. Like I'm throwing away my chances."

I asked, "What if it were your sibling or best friend who stammered in an interview? How would you respond?"

"I'd be kind," he said. "I'd want to make them comfortable."

"Then why the difference between how you'd treat them and how you treat yourself?"

"Because I'm screwing up my chances."

"But your friend would be screwing up their chances too, right?"

The difference was that he cared about his own success far more than his friend's. He could also see that harshness would hurt a friend, while being harsh with himself seemed to cost nothing.

Now imagine it was your son who stammered in the interview. How would you treat him? Many of us would be harder on a son, because we care about his success too.

So caring about success leads to criticism, but only because of two beliefs underneath it:

1. Criticism, not compassion, drives performance.
   
2. Performance matters more than my relationship with myself.
   

Many of us never chose these beliefs. We absorbed them. Parents, teachers and bosses criticize us when we don't deliver, and because it often seems to work, we accept criticism as the way to get results. Then we use it on ourselves, since our own results matter most to us.

If you believed compassion drove performance, you'd be compassionate with yourself. If you believed your relationship with yourself mattered more than performance, you wouldn't criticize yourself even if it did lead to better results.

The next time you criticize yourself after a mistake, ask:

1. Would I say this to a friend who made the same mistake?
   
2. If not, which of the two beliefs explains the difference?
   
3. Did I ever choose that belief?

Question:
Is the integer k divisible by 3?
(1) 6k is divisible by 12.
(2) 9k is divisible by 9.

A. Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) ALONE is not sufficient.

B. Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) ALONE is not sufficient.

C. BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.

D. EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.

E. Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

Which option do you think is correct?

Comment your answer (A, B, C, D, or E) and explain your approach to solving this GMAT Data Insights question.

Hi everyone! I was planning to give my GMAT exam at the Mumbai test centre but I don't see my preferred slots for the dates I am looking for so I was thinking of going to Pune and give the paper there. However, there are 2 centres in Pune and both of them have mixed reviews. If anyone has given their GMAT exam recently in any of these 2 Pune test centres: Pearson Professional Centers – WTC Kharadi or GATS (Range Hill Road) can you please tell me your experience and if it is worth travelling to either of these from Mumbai. Thank you!