Gmat 750 (q 50, V 40)

[abhi_angel]

Hi everyone. I gave GMAT last week and got 750 (Q 50, V 40). To come straight to the point, here are a few things which I found useful and would like to share with you all. Here we go.

Books/CDs required:

1. OG-11 (for the uninitiated, thats official guide )
2. From scoretop(thats the site name) - 1000 SCs.
3. Manhattan SC Book.
4. GMAT Powerprep Tests.
5. Kaplan CD tests.
6. Spidey GMAT notes ( for sentence correction)
7. Scoretop website access.

If you have the moolah, you can also buy Kaplan 800. Its a good book and the questions are difficult atleast for the verbal section. Quant though is terrible. Also, if you have the time then go in for 1000 CRs, RCs from the scoretop site.

Last but definitely not the least, get hold of JJs(Jungle juices) for the current and previous months from the 'scoretop' site. These are a set of questions contributed by GMATers who have given the test in that particular month, year combo.

Do Not go in for Kaplan GMAT, Princeton review or Arco. Its all a waste of time and money.(This is a personal opinion, so you can definitely disagree with me)

Preparation methodology

1. Give the diagnostic test in OG. Identify your weak areas.

2. Quant section:
a. Complete the questions given in OG. Remember these questions are below the level of standard GMAT questions. Hence, don't get swayed away.
b. Once you have completed the OG, try to solve JJs for quant. These questions are as difficult as it gets in GMAT. After you have aced through these questions, you can relax as this will be sufficient enough for you to get a score of 49 - 51 in GMAT. Just remember, the questions asked in GMAT quant are easy, but dont make the mistake of running through them. The time provided will be ample. In fact, I completed my quant section with 18 minutes remaining. Just take your time and avoid any silly mistakes.

3. Verbal section:
There are three types of questions asked in verbal: RC(Reading comprehension), CR(Critical Reasoning) and SC(Sentence correction). Of these questions you can never be sure of the kind of passages you get. Hence remember to prepare for RC well but make sure that your accuracy level in CR and SC is above 90%.

a. Sentence Correction
i) Start with Manhattan SC book. The book gives you an idea of the intricacies of the language. It shouldnt take more than 3 - 4 days to complete the book.
ii) Once you are done with the book, go through Spidey GMAT notes. You can get these on Scoretop or on esnips. This is a good collection of helpful notes. And all of these fundas are tested on GMAT so pay special attention to these notes and keep them revising throughout your preparation.
iii) Now start with the OG. Take time while solving the questions. For every question, your aim should not be to get the question right but rather to identify exactly what is wrong with all the other options provided to you. You should be able to pinpoint every single error and yes, no points for gut feelings. Avoid marking answers based on your instinct. In GMAT, every incorrect answer will have something wrong with it technically, or very rarely, as it happens, if nothing is wrong grammatically, then go in for the most concise statement.
This should take a lot of time. But this analysis will surely help you. Make a log book and record all the errors you made and the types of errors GMAT asks for.
iv) After you are finished with OG, the next target should be to complete as many questions as possible from 1000 SC. Solve the questions in the same manner as you did for OG sc. You can follow the discussion on scoretop site for every question which you get wrong or for which you are not able to pinpoint the mistake in any option. It would be best to complete all questions but if thats not possible, solve as many as you can. I solved close to 600 questions.
v) Now go through JJs. These questions, as I said earlier, will give you an exact idea of the kind of questions to be expected in GMAT.

This should be sufficient enough for SC.

b. Critical Reasoning
This section in GMAT is pretty easy. I say easy because once you get the hang of it, its difficult to get questions wrong. yep, you read correctly, its difficult to get questions wrong. To believe me, you have to understand the kind of questions you get in CR. Most of the questions will be of 'strengthen/weaken the argument' type. Once you see this type of a question, the first thing you have to do is to identify the argument. That generally happens to be in the first two lines or in the last two lines of the passage. Once you have identified the argument, your work is done. You will find that although all the answers provided are relevant to the passage and may even sound good, most of them are not relevant to the argument per se. Eliminate those options. Now it comes down to two options and you can identify the correct answer. Its as easy as that. So, while you can get difficult questions in SC , a difficult question in CR means that you are not able to identify the exact argument. Try to narrow it as much as possible. This is where the Kaplan 800 book is very useful. The questions in CR are very good. If you can, then please do go through these questions.

As far as questions are concerned, do it in the same manner as SC. That is, first OG, then 1000 CRs(out of these 1000 only the starting 400 odd questions are of GMAT; the rest are of LSAT. Hence you can avoid those and stick to the first set) and then JJs.

c) Reading Comprehension
Start with OG. But remember the passages given in OG are on the easier side. Hence you can practice as much as possible from the 1000 RC set or from other sources. I am saying other sources, because I didnt have any and neither did I practice from 1000 rc. If you need practice, i suggest 1000 Rc is the best.(though i cant vouch for the fact)

4. AWA Section
Just go through the model answers provided at the end of OG and practice writing three or four answers. That should suffice.

5. Now take the tests.
You can start with Powerprep Test 1 and then move on to Kaplan CD tests 1-4. Finally ending with Powerprep Test 2. Remember the scores on Powerprep do give you a very fair idea of where your score will be so give them seriously. In Kaplan Tests, you will get low scores(thats because of some stupid calculation they make). Add 100 to your score and thats a more likely indication of what you would have had scored if you had given the same test on Powerprep.
My scores for the test were:
Powerprep Test 1 : 680
Powerprep Test 2 : 730
Kaplan CD Test 1 : 660
Kaplan CD Test 2 : 600
Kaplan CD Test 3 : 580
Kaplan CD Test 4 : 680

Thats it folks. I hope that this all stuff would be useful to you all and best of luck for all the future GMATers.

Attention please:

I now need to apply to different colleges. I would be grateful if you can tell me the colleges in which i would get financial aids. I have gathered some information but i need more. All those who are applying for fall next year, why dont we get in touch.

My work-ex is approximately 3 years till now. so that makes it four years till next fall. One and a half years in IT. The remaining in Manufacturing industry. Please help me out guys and gals.

C-ya. b-bye.

[amitnsitian]

congo buddy !!!

u appling this year?

[reachmonil]

Congrats man! Elegant score!
Keep it up!

Besties for the apping season!

[erjamit]

Congrats dude....

i am planing for june '08
wanted to ask whether GMAT pattern changes every year like CAT or it is more or less the same every year

and the GMAT material to be used like OG, Kaplan, 1000 SC has to be latest

since m planing for june'08 m just worried if i buy OG 11 ed and for nxt yr new edition comes with some changes then what to do

any comments