Help Help Help! I got 600(Q-49 & V-23) in GMAT powerprep.Need guidance in verbal

[shilpamarodia]

Hi guys,
I gave powerprep test and got a horrible score in verbal-23..
I was not able to finish my test on time.missed some four questions. had some six minutes for 10 questions towards the end so I had to speed up and marked some wrong answers.But overall am not satisfied with my performance as the score only tells the story.
Had plans of giving GMAT with 1 month prep but guess i underestimated.have postponed gmat by a month.Planned date:sept first week,rescheduled it to oct first week.
And if someone could guide me in standard deviation,inequalities and data sufficiency will be great.

Thanks.

[nonedone]

Originally Posted by shilpamarodia

Hi guys,
I gave powerprep test and got a horrible score in verbal-23..
I was not able to finish my test on time.missed some four questions. had some six minutes for 10 questions towards the end so I had to speed up and marked some wrong answers.But overall am not satisfied with my performance as the score only tells the story.
Had plans of giving GMAT with 1 month prep but guess i underestimated.have postponed gmat by a month.Planned date:sept first week,rescheduled it to oct first week.
And if someone could guide me in standard deviation,inequalities and data sufficiency will be great.

Thanks.

Don't worry too much about your PREP scores. It's true that PowerPREP is the closest estimate, but it's not ALWAYS right. My powerprep scores were 620 and 670. I got 710- so you see, there IS a variation.

And missing those 4 questions really hurt your score. If you don't attempt questions, you get a greater penalty than if you get them wrong.

Standard Deviation is easy- hardly even comes in the GMAT (unless your score is well above 700). About inequalities.. I dunno, just refer to a 10th Std book if you have one!

DS is simple. Remember, it's either options AD or options BCE. if you solve statement 1 and it is true, that means the answer will be either:
A) Statement 1 alone is suff, Statement 2 alone is not
or
D) Statement 1 alone or Statement 2 alone are suff.

If statement 1 is false, then the answer will be either:
B) Statement 2 alone is suff, Statement 1 alone is not.
C) Statement 1 and 2 together are suff, but not alone.
E) Statement 1 and 2 together are not suff.

all the best

btw: with a 49 in maths you can really chill on that front. Just work on your english!!!! See what your worst at (RC/SC/CR) and solve those issues.

[shilpamarodia]

Hey,
Thanks... but i really need to work on my verbal.Do you know of any study material.And I took two test of powerprep both times i got Standard deviation questions and one question was of good difficulty.

[nonedone]

Get OG-11 if you don't already have it. It has around 400 Verbal questions with awesome explanations.

If you do already have OG-11, get yourself OG-Verbal Review. It has 300 more verbal questions. For SC, try the 1000SC which is available online (www.scoretop.com).

Pick up a school text book for basic grammar (Renid-Martinn or some such). For every SC question you solve, make a note of the idioms and make sure if nothing else, you at least get the idioms right. They're used very often.

ATB

[KarthickOne]

Try these

1) A Remedial English grammar guide for foreign students by FT WOOD
2)A guide to patterns & Usage by AT Hornsby

[shilpamarodia]

Thanks guys.
I guess I will start reading Gmat OG Verbal Review and grammer book.I have done OG-800 review.

[Keya]

Originally Posted by shilpamarodia

Hi guys,
I gave powerprep test and got a horrible score in verbal-23..
I was not able to finish my test on time.missed some four questions. had some six minutes for 10 questions towards the end so I had to speed up and marked some wrong answers.But overall am not satisfied with my performance as the score only tells the story.
Had plans of giving GMAT with 1 month prep but guess i underestimated.have postponed gmat by a month.Planned date:sept first week,rescheduled it to oct first week.
And if someone could guide me in standard deviation,inequalities and data sufficiency will be great.

Thanks.

Hi Shilpa,

Though Nonedone has already given you a good view of things, I'm going to pitch in with my two cents...

You said you have postponed your GMAT by a month.. that gives you two months of Prep, if I'm not mistaken. Follow one verbal book (Kaplan or Princeton... I've heard that the Princeton one is good too, though I used Kaplan) for the strategies, and to build up your understanding of question types. Then move to the OG. Use the OG as practice material, to analyse how efficiently you are being able to implement the strategies you have learnt, and to analyse your accuracy rates. Then go back and revise whichever part you feel you're lagging behind in.

Two months is plenty of time, and you should do fine.

ATB
Keya

[iday]

Originally Posted by shilpamarodia

Hi guys,
I gave powerprep test and got a horrible score in verbal-23..
I was not able to finish my test on time.missed some four questions. had some six minutes for 10 questions towards the end so I had to speed up and marked some wrong answers.But overall am not satisfied with my performance as the score only tells the story.
Had plans of giving GMAT with 1 month prep but guess i underestimated.have postponed gmat by a month.Planned date:sept first week,rescheduled it to oct first week.
And if someone could guide me in standard deviation,inequalities and data sufficiency will be great.

Thanks.

Hey Shilpa,
My 2 cents as well

U seem to be doing good on the math front. Standard Deviation questions are seen very rarely in the test as they are supposedly in the "difficult" bin. Eventhough, pick up the Kaplan practice book and they have a compilation of math formulas towards the end. Revise all formulas, do some practice and i think u shud then be Q50/Q51 material

Originally Posted by keya

You said you have postponed your GMAT by a month.. that gives you two months of Prep, if I'm not mistaken.

Hey Keya - she says October first week. That makes it just a month more to go right!??!

Shilpa - I am assuming here that u have a full time job. If that is true, i think it will be really difficult for u to practice with a lot of material. Plan well and chose a selected subset of what the others use. I used Kaplan Premier Program (which comes with a CD that has 4 sample tests), Princeton (again - with a CD that has 4 sample tests), Kaplan 800 and the three OG books. I dont think u can use all of them. So take one practice book (kaplan, princeton or manhattan - whichever u r comfortable with) and OG 11. Kaplan 800 will be a great book to add to this list - provided u have time. I guess u will start attacking the verbal problems in a better way once u get practice.

Okie - one last point. Is the test u used GMAT PowerPrep (which is from ETS) or GMATprep (from Pearson)??? I ask this coz these are 2 diff tests and the powerprep is supposedly outdated. It is still a closer predictor of GMAT performance compared to Kaplan and Princeton tests - so dont start doubting the scores If the test u use is from ETS, and u dont have GMATprep - u can download it from mba.com.

Iday

[Barricuda]

hey guys...

does the power prep software have a pool of questions that it picks from? I gave Practice test 1 twice(to see if I repeated my mistakes), but the 90% of the questions seemed new to me(my memory could be real bad here though)....my test were from Pearson.

-Nitin

[nonedone]

Originally Posted by Barricuda

hey guys...

does the power prep software have a pool of questions that it picks from? I gave Practice test 1 twice(to see if I repeated my mistakes), but the 90% of the questions seemed new to me(my memory could be real bad here though)....my test were from Pearson.

-Nitin

The GMATPrep (Pearson's) Test does have a pool of questions.

I gave the 2 tests a total of 5 times (Test 1 - thrice, Test 2 - twice). Some questions were repeated, most were not.

You can take each test TWICE at least and be sure that you're not getting exactly the same questions. Some people claim to have given each test 4 times, and still got new questions.

Also remember the the GMAT algorithm itself (which calculates your score) bases your score on MOST of the questions you solve- not all of them. Some questions are put in there by the GMAC people for research/testing purposes.

For example, out of 41 questions, 7 MAY not contribute towards your score. If you're lucky, it'll be the 7 you got wrong :P Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing which question counts and which one doesn't.