Hi everyone, gave my GMAT today. got 750 (Q50/V41). was pleasantly surprised as my score surpassed all my mock scores! my background - I am a doctor doing MD in Clinical Pharmacology from India. Doing mostly clinical research (Clinical trials…
Hi everyone,
gave my GMAT today. got 750 (Q50/V41). was pleasantly surprised as my score surpassed all my mock scores!
my background - I am a doctor doing MD in Clinical Pharmacology from India. Doing mostly clinical research (Clinical trials) in a tertiary care hospital for the last 2 years.
I was preparing for the CAT (Indian counterpart of GMAT) since march this year. Since I have a total work ex of 3 years, peers suggested me to give GMAT as well. I bought OG and few other books and started going through them. I found Maths easy as i was always comfortable with the subject. However, the verbal part made me cry!!
I bought all the books that were available in market and started my serious preparation from june after completing OG once in the month of april and may.
my 1st GMATprep score was 710 (48Q/40V). I allotted more time to verbal part. the books i consulted were,
OG 11
OG verbal review
Kaplan premier edition
Kaplan 800
Princeton guide
Manhattan SC guide
Critical reasoning BIBLE
Of these books, Princeton guide was least helpful as the questions contained in it were fairly easy.
for Quant I consulted,
OG 11 - only DS part and last 1/3 rd of quant part.
OG - quant review - only DS part and last 1/3 rd of quant part.
Kaplan premier edition
Kaplan 800
Princeton guide
TIME coaching centre material
ARUN SHARMA'S book on quants
the last 2 books contain extremely tough questions (compared to GMAT standard) and were enough to get me through GMAT type questions
As i am working in the hospital, I studied in the evenings. 2 weeks before the exam, i used to take books in department as well. I gave regular mock tests. The results were these:
Kaplan 4 - 580
800score.com test 1 - 690 (46/39)
MGMAT free test - 700 (50/35)
MGMAT test 1 - 680(44/38 )
800score.com - 720(42/46)
kaplan 3 - 590 (50/28 )
cambridge - 660- 700(they give a range)
MGMAT test 2 - 670 (47/34)
kaplan 2 - 620 (50/31)
GMATprep 1 - 730(49/40) 1 week before GMAT.
MGMAT and KAPLAN verbal questions were a shade tougher,if not equal, than real GMAT ones.
the last week was spent in analyzing my mistakes. This is the most crucial thing of all. My mock scores barely touched 700s. So i thought of analyzing my mistakes again. When i sat with the results of all the mocks, i discovered patterns. For example, I was consistently getting SC questions wrong that are on PARALLELISM. that way, i plugged all the loopholes. before the D-day i realised that i will definitely do better than my last GMATprep simply because i now knew what was going wrong and corrected them.
For essays, ANSWERS to Real GMAT essays is a great book. I wrote around 6 issues and 7-8 arguments.
On the day, I was very calm and confident. I have been giving competitive exams since i was 10 yr old and have achieved good results in most of them. That was a great moral boost. Moreover, GMAT was more of a challenge for me to show non- medicos that even doctors can do well in such type of exams.
i took chocolates , fruit juice and energy drinks for my breaks.
I felt like i was sitting for a GMATprep mock test. everything is just the same. got 2 breaks of 10mins each. essays were great. maths breezed without much discomfort (except for a few tough DS questions where i didn't waste more than 2 mins to figure out that they are undoable!!so marked C in one and E in the other!!!)
verbal part was difficult for me as it was my percentile decider. I started with a bang because unlike what people tell , I felt that the only time you get easy questions is at the begnning when the computer is trying to judge your broad level. So , i did 15 questions fast...and then slowed downed a little. The RC passages were easier than the tough ones given in KAPLAN tests or MGMAT. sentence correction tests your basic skills.
everyone must read relevant portions of a proper grammar book and not just skim through manhattan SC guide. the latter will give you a broad idea about grammar but you need to sharpen those skills. WREN n Martin or OXFORD GRAMMAR is good. because of my hurricane start, I completed 35 questions with 25-28mins remaining. I suddenly realised that I haven't got a signle BF question till then. I thought that it must mean 1 thing - I HAVE SCREWED THIS SECTION. my fears were confirmed when i got easy questions at the end. my exam got over 10 mins before time!! Thoroughly shaken up, I prayed for anything more than 690!I almost jumped from my seat to see 750! I guess BF questions are a myth. how tough a question is depends on your expertise in that section and that area of the section
thats my story. i want to that this site for the lovely debriefs they contain and which enriched my viewpoint. will be glad to answer queries of any sorts.
Great job buddy..750 is dream score for almost all of us here..i had a query regarding 800score.com.I have quite a lot of sectionals from the same 5 va and 5 qa..but what worries me is the scoring they have for those tests..i get 54 58 60 in quant..the kind of score i have never seen ppl getting in GMAT even though GMAT declares 60 as the highest..last week i got 32 in va where i got my 1st Rc Q2,3,4 wrong..then i thot lets see how much wud i get if i got those 3 right and i found i was getting 43..strange..and trust me that RC wasnt easy..2 of my frnds gave the same sectional and got the same 3 ques wrong..
So my ques is whether u also faced this kinda a situation..should i trust their scoring pattern?
well, I am not a great judge of these tests.From my point of view, 800score papers were not as tough as actual GMAT questions. So after giving 2 papers, i realised that i am doing easy questions which is instilling a false sense of confidence. I stopped after 2 pairs.
More importantly, I feel the exams are to be given with the sole aim of searching your weak areas. Its useless to try and guess what score you will get. Its a massive waste of time. You will see your score anyways on your D-day!!
well, I am not a great judge of these tests.From my point of view, 800score papers were not as tough as actual GMAT questions. So after giving 2 papers, i realised that i am doing easy questions which is instilling a false sense of confidence. I stopped after 2 pairs.
More importantly, I feel the exams are to be given with the sole aim of searching your weak areas. Its useless to try and guess what score you will get. Its a massive waste of time. You will see your score anyways on your D-day!!
I felt the same..thanks a lot for the advice..Can u tell which test is closest to actual GMAt which will guage your performance the best
GMATprep is closest to actual GMAT
Hi everyone,
gave my GMAT today. got 750 (Q50/V41). was pleasantly surprised as my score surpassed all my mock scores!
my background - I am a doctor doing MD in Clinical Pharmacology from India. Doing mostly clinical research (Clinical trials) in a tertiary care hospital for the last 2 years.
I was preparing for the CAT (Indian counterpart of GMAT) since march this year. Since I have a total work ex of 3 years, peers suggested me to give GMAT as well. I bought OG and few other books and started going through them. I found Maths easy as i was always comfortable with the subject. However, the verbal part made me cry!!
I bought all the books that were available in market and started my serious preparation from june after completing OG once in the month of april and may.
my 1st GMATprep score was 710 (48Q/40V). I allotted more time to verbal part. the books i consulted were,
OG 11
OG verbal review
Kaplan premier edition
Kaplan 800
Princeton guide
Manhattan SC guide
Critical reasoning BIBLE
Of these books, Princeton guide was least helpful as the questions contained in it were fairly easy.
for Quant I consulted,
OG 11 - only DS part and last 1/3 rd of quant part.
OG - quant review - only DS part and last 1/3 rd of quant part.
Kaplan premier edition
Kaplan 800
Princeton guide
TIME coaching centre material
ARUN SHARMA'S book on quants
the last 2 books contain extremely tough questions (compared to GMAT standard) and were enough to get me through GMAT type questions
As i am working in the hospital, I studied in the evenings. 2 weeks before the exam, i used to take books in department as well. I gave regular mock tests. The results were these:
Kaplan 4 - 580
800score.com test 1 - 690 (46/39)
MGMAT free test - 700 (50/35)
MGMAT test 1 - 680(44/38 )
800score.com - 720(42/46)
kaplan 3 - 590 (50/28 )
cambridge - 660- 700(they give a range)
MGMAT test 2 - 670 (47/34)
kaplan 2 - 620 (50/31)
GMATprep 1 - 730(49/40) 1 week before GMAT.
MGMAT and KAPLAN verbal questions were a shade tougher,if not equal, than real GMAT ones.
the last week was spent in analyzing my mistakes. This is the most crucial thing of all. My mock scores barely touched 700s. So i thought of analyzing my mistakes again. When i sat with the results of all the mocks, i discovered patterns. For example, I was consistently getting SC questions wrong that are on PARALLELISM. that way, i plugged all the loopholes. before the D-day i realised that i will definitely do better than my last GMATprep simply because i now knew what was going wrong and corrected them.
For essays, ANSWERS to Real GMAT essays is a great book. I wrote around 6 issues and 7-8 arguments.
On the day, I was very calm and confident. I have been giving competitive exams since i was 10 yr old and have achieved good results in most of them. That was a great moral boost. Moreover, GMAT was more of a challenge for me to show non- medicos that even doctors can do well in such type of exams.
i took chocolates , fruit juice and energy drinks for my breaks.
I felt like i was sitting for a GMATprep mock test. everything is just the same. got 2 breaks of 10mins each. essays were great. maths breezed without much discomfort (except for a few tough DS questions where i didn't waste more than 2 mins to figure out that they are undoable!!so marked C in one and E in the other!!!)
verbal part was difficult for me as it was my percentile decider. I started with a bang because unlike what people tell , I felt that the only time you get easy questions is at the begnning when the computer is trying to judge your broad level. So , i did 15 questions fast...and then slowed downed a little. The RC passages were easier than the tough ones given in KAPLAN tests or MGMAT. sentence correction tests your basic skills.
everyone must read relevant portions of a proper grammar book and not just skim through manhattan SC guide. the latter will give you a broad idea about grammar but you need to sharpen those skills. WREN n Martin or OXFORD GRAMMAR is good. because of my hurricane start, I completed 35 questions with 25-28mins remaining. I suddenly realised that I haven't got a signle BF question till then. I thought that it must mean 1 thing - I HAVE SCREWED THIS SECTION. my fears were confirmed when i got easy questions at the end. my exam got over 10 mins before time!! Thoroughly shaken up, I prayed for anything more than 690!I almost jumped from my seat to see 750! I guess BF questions are a myth. how tough a question is depends on your expertise in that section and that area of the section
thats my story. i want to that this site for the lovely debriefs they contain and which enriched my viewpoint. will be glad to answer queries of any sorts.
Guys I want to ask that I m gonna write GMAT in 2 weeks and have done Gmatprep n Kaplan so far.nalso taking 800score tests.The scene is so depressing that I havent touched 650 so far and i aim at least at 720-730.Havent touched OG as well.I don't know but DS and SC suck.Please guide me some crash course ,I am ready to devote time and labour but a direction is required from u 700 + people
Hey ,
Its really amazing to read about your experience of giving gmat, while reading your post i realised that may be you can solve some of my queries regarding gmat exam.....
I am thinking of writing the gmat in first week of december.... & will be joining the weekend coaching with princeton by this month end........ now my problem is that I am working & I have a very hectic schedule It starts at 8 in morning & ends at 9 in the evening.... with only 3 months in hand for preparation I am bit confused whether should i quit the job or continue my preparation alongside the job only.................
I have alread done my MBA from India & have been working from last 6 years.............................
As you are also working & work of a doc is most hectic than any other job in the world so I think you can just guide me on my queries..............
Hi everyone,ey
gave my GMAT today. got 750 (Q50/V41). was pleasantly surprised as my score surpassed all my mock scores!
my background - I am a doctor doing MD in Clinical Pharmacology from India. Doing mostly clinical research (Clinical trials) in a tertiary care hospital for the last 2 years.
I was preparing for the CAT (Indian counterpart of GMAT) since march this year. Since I have a total work ex of 3 years, peers suggested me to give GMAT as well. I bought OG and few other books and started going through them. I found Maths easy as i was always comfortable with the subject. However, the verbal part made me cry!!
I bought all the books that were available in market and started my serious preparation from june after completing OG once in the month of april and may.
my 1st GMATprep score was 710 (48Q/40V). I allotted more time to verbal part. the books i consulted were,
OG 11
OG verbal review
Kaplan premier edition
Kaplan 800
Princeton guide
Manhattan SC guide
Critical reasoning BIBLE
Of these books, Princeton guide was least helpful as the questions contained in it were fairly easy.
for Quant I consulted,
OG 11 - only DS part and last 1/3 rd of quant part.
OG - quant review - only DS part and last 1/3 rd of quant part.
Kaplan premier edition
Kaplan 800
Princeton guide
TIME coaching centre material
ARUN SHARMA'S book on quants
the last 2 books contain extremely tough questions (compared to GMAT standard) and were enough to get me through GMAT type questions
As i am working in the hospital, I studied in the evenings. 2 weeks before the exam, i used to take books in department as well. I gave regular mock tests. The results were these:
Kaplan 4 - 580
800score.com test 1 - 690 (46/39)
MGMAT free test - 700 (50/35)
MGMAT test 1 - 680(44/38 )
800score.com - 720(42/46)
kaplan 3 - 590 (50/28 )
cambridge - 660- 700(they give a range)
MGMAT test 2 - 670 (47/34)
kaplan 2 - 620 (50/31)
GMATprep 1 - 730(49/40) 1 week before GMAT.
MGMAT and KAPLAN verbal questions were a shade tougher,if not equal, than real GMAT ones.
the last week was spent in analyzing my mistakes. This is the most crucial thing of all. My mock scores barely touched 700s. So i thought of analyzing my mistakes again. When i sat with the results of all the mocks, i discovered patterns. For example, I was consistently getting SC questions wrong that are on PARALLELISM. that way, i plugged all the loopholes. before the D-day i realised that i will definitely do better than my last GMATprep simply because i now knew what was going wrong and corrected them.
For essays, ANSWERS to Real GMAT essays is a great book. I wrote around 6 issues and 7-8 arguments.
On the day, I was very calm and confident. I have been giving competitive exams since i was 10 yr old and have achieved good results in most of them. That was a great moral boost. Moreover, GMAT was more of a challenge for me to show non- medicos that even doctors can do well in such type of exams.
i took chocolates , fruit juice and energy drinks for my breaks.
I felt like i was sitting for a GMATprep mock test. everything is just the same. got 2 breaks of 10mins each. essays were great. maths breezed without much discomfort (except for a few tough DS questions where i didn't waste more than 2 mins to figure out that they are undoable!!so marked C in one and E in the other!!!)
verbal part was difficult for me as it was my percentile decider. I started with a bang because unlike what people tell , I felt that the only time you get easy questions is at the begnning when the computer is trying to judge your broad level. So , i did 15 questions fast...and then slowed downed a little. The RC passages were easier than the tough ones given in KAPLAN tests or MGMAT. sentence correction tests your basic skills.
everyone must read relevant portions of a proper grammar book and not just skim through manhattan SC guide. the latter will give you a broad idea about grammar but you need to sharpen those skills. WREN n Martin or OXFORD GRAMMAR is good. because of my hurricane start, I completed 35 questions with 25-28mins remaining. I suddenly realised that I haven't got a signle BF question till then. I thought that it must mean 1 thing - I HAVE SCREWED THIS SECTION. my fears were confirmed when i got easy questions at the end. my exam got over 10 mins before time!! Thoroughly shaken up, I prayed for anything more than 690!I almost jumped from my seat to see 750! I guess BF questions are a myth. how tough a question is depends on your expertise in that section and that area of the section
thats my story. i want to that this site for the lovely debriefs they contain and which enriched my viewpoint. will be glad to answer queries of any sorts.
ManavD;Guys I want to ask that I m gonna write GMAT in 2 weeks and have done Gmatprep n Kaplan so far.nalso taking 800score tests.The scene is so depressing that I havent touched 650 so far and i aim at least at 720-730.Havent touched OG as well.I don't know but DS and SC suck.Please guide me some crash course ,I am ready to devote time and labour but a direction is required from u 700 + people
MANAV:
POSTPONE YOUR DATES FOR GMAT. in any case you are late for this years' admissions.
DO OG. get it into your system
analyse your mistakes. if you are weak in verbal, better start reading a proper grammar book
all the best
PARUL:
well, I think I have a Phd in squeezing out time for anything!! Well, i can give you some hints on how to save up on time-
for ordinary mortals: travelling time can be better utilised. You can get a data-card and hook up on net and solve problems/you can even read up the books
for pagal people under severe time crunch: I used to keep the book inside a transparent plastic. It used to go with me wherever I went. That means while shaving, bathing, and even in toilet! so that means a solid 45 mins of studying right at the morning when you are doing inconsequential things!(i guess shaving is not a daily chore for you and reading while make-up can be disastrous!!)
I guess you got the idea. You have 24 hrs/day. 3 mths is a good time. you have great work-ex. So go ahead.All the best
Hi
congrats for 750, excellent score
well m givin my gmat on 17, so like 8 days left
I am a lil confused, coz m kinda done wid all the books
cud u temme wat shud be done in last 8 days to improve my scores
please note that my gmatprep1 & 2 have been 710 and 720
done wid manhattan sc, princeton, og 11, kaplan premier, kaplan 800
given 2 kaplan cats also, got 550 and 620
but i dun think kaplan tests refelect real gmat in any way
nehow ill be glad if u cn help me out.
Hey Thanks for the reply...... it gives me some confidence..
Today I went for mock test at Kaplan in delhi........., just to check where do I land before starting my prep........... & i scored 500, dont know whether this is s good score or bad, as it does not contain essay writing.............
But i have decided to join kaplan weekend coaching from next week .............. with a hope of 700+......
Will buy books tht you have recomended to c whether i can make it or not...............
do keep posting your exp as it will help many ppl like me to gain tht confidence.
Thanks
Parul
J_a_s
Sorry for the late reply. I guess your exam is day after tomorrow. All the best for your G-day! Hope you get what you want (Thats much more important than a mere GMAT score I guess!!) in life.
Parul
Happy to help people. I am just trying to give back what I had received from this forum.
MANAV:
POSTPONE YOUR DATES FOR GMAT. in any case you are late for this years' admissions.
DO OG. get it into your system
analyse your mistakes. if you are weak in verbal, better start reading a proper grammar book
all the best
Hi Somnath,
Congrats for scoring a wonderful 750.. And great work on helping people around.
You have advised manav to postpone as it is late for this year.. I don't think so.. Most US schools have their R1 deadlines in October. It might be a bit late for ISB you can apply to ISB in R2 if your profile is good.
Further, I know people who have cracked GMAT in a month or less. I would suggest manav to concentrate completely on OG for the next 2 weeks(perhaps only one week left now). Study OG thoroughly and analyze mistakes and analyze the explanations for the same. Then concentrate on the weak areas. If you take a break from your job and slog, it is still possible to raise your score from the current 650 to 700+.
In the worst case, you will have to take GMAT the second time, even then you can apply to some schools in R2. But postponing may not help. This is my personal view.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents.
Cheers,
Sourabh
Well, I hope Manav has better people to advice him than 2 strangers!! ha ha!!
he he... well said buddy!... keep up the good work.. and keep posting about your bschool selection and journey beyond!
J_a_s
Sorry for the late reply. I guess your exam is day after tomorrow. All the best for your G-day! Hope you get what you want (Thats much more important than a mere GMAT score I guess!!) in life.
Parul
Happy to help people. I am just trying to give back what I had received from this forum.
thanks a lot..
Congrats man for such a good score. Best of luck for your apps.
hey i tried to look for the books that you have mentioned at all leadiang book stores- landmark,spencers,om book shop, but thest stores have no collection of these , they even dont know about them. Can you suggest from where can i get hold of these books. Also wat is the full form for oG.
thanks
buy them from me. I am selling my notes and material. I am sending you a PM regarding all my material