I am Happy, relieved and excited. My month long sprint preparation came to an end today and it was a happy ending with a score of 740(Q 50, V 39). I started my preparation by reading the Experience of a lot of test takes and I feel this does he…
I am Happy, relieved and excited. My month long sprint preparation came to an end today and it was a happy ending with a score of 740(Q 50, V 39).
I started my preparation by reading the Experience of a lot of test takes and I feel this does help a lot. So here goes my story J I hope I will be of help to someone else.
I had already taken CAT and missed the calls by a whisker for two consecutive years. Finally I decided I had enough work ex to try for schools abroad and decided to take the plunge.
I started with Spideys notes and Wrenen and Martin to brush up the basics for sentence correction for verbal. There were some breaks in between, I would study for some days and then get busy with something else. Finally I decided to set myself a target and booked the date for a month later.
I was very confused due to plethora of information as to where to begin from. Finally asking lot of people who had taken the test and reading posts of other test takers helped a great deal.
I finally started with Sumit Thakurs Verbal notes and they are great!!. Then I moved to Princeton review and Princeton review verbal workout. These books are good to start but are too easy too reply for actual prep.
Then I finally moved to Kaplan and did the Verbal part. Finally gave the diagnostic test and scored 660.
Then I moved to Kaplan Verbal workbook and it was great.
After this I started Kaplan 800 and this was the toughest book , but was really good and doing good in it gave me a lot of confidence.
After this I took Princeton Review Tests and scored 710,720 and 730.
I finally took GmatPrep1 and scored 740 and in GMATPrep2 I scored 720.
Now I had around a week left with me. I devoted this time to solving OG 11 and SC from OG10. From OG 11 also I did only verbal. I also spent a lot of time on scoretop.com and it was really helpful. Taking part in discussions is the best way to get solid concepts.
In a nut shell:
Books : OG 10 and OG 11
Kaplan
Kaplan Verbal Workbook
Kaplan 800
Princeton Review Verbal workout
Tests: Princeton Review(730,720,710)
Kaplan (650.630)
Gmat Prep (740,720)
On the D Day:
I reached there on time and it was all-smooth. I dint have breakfast so carried some almonds with me to eat between the breaks J May be they did the trick.
Wrote the essays for AWA section and took 10-minute break. Maths I gave more time to the initial few questions. It was tougher than what I expected, but still not too tough.
I finished just on time, as I was too slow initially. My mistake was that I should have gone fast on algebra and slow only on DS as I used to make mistakes only in DS.
At the end of maths I was confident that I had done well. But I think I made some mistakes, thats why a raw score of 50.
Finally verbal started with some easy SC questions, followed by CR and then a RC, which was a bit scary J. I was again slower than my usual speed. Managed to finish on time.
Finally I folded my hands and prayed and clicked on view score and was ecstatic to see what I wanted J
Incase you have any questions I would be glad to answer.
Thanks a lot to this forum and the wonderful people here, it has been a great source of info and I have benefited a lot form it.
Cheers,
I started my preparation by reading the Experience of a lot of test takes and I feel this does help a lot. So here goes my story J I hope I will be of help to someone else.
I had already taken CAT and missed the calls by a whisker for two consecutive years. Finally I decided I had enough work ex to try for schools abroad and decided to take the plunge.
I started with Spideys notes and Wrenen and Martin to brush up the basics for sentence correction for verbal. There were some breaks in between, I would study for some days and then get busy with something else. Finally I decided to set myself a target and booked the date for a month later.
I was very confused due to plethora of information as to where to begin from. Finally asking lot of people who had taken the test and reading posts of other test takers helped a great deal.
I finally started with Sumit Thakurs Verbal notes and they are great!!. Then I moved to Princeton review and Princeton review verbal workout. These books are good to start but are too easy too reply for actual prep.
Then I finally moved to Kaplan and did the Verbal part. Finally gave the diagnostic test and scored 660.
Then I moved to Kaplan Verbal workbook and it was great.
After this I started Kaplan 800 and this was the toughest book , but was really good and doing good in it gave me a lot of confidence.
After this I took Princeton Review Tests and scored 710,720 and 730.
I finally took GmatPrep1 and scored 740 and in GMATPrep2 I scored 720.
Now I had around a week left with me. I devoted this time to solving OG 11 and SC from OG10. From OG 11 also I did only verbal. I also spent a lot of time on scoretop.com and it was really helpful. Taking part in discussions is the best way to get solid concepts.
In a nut shell:
Books : OG 10 and OG 11
Kaplan
Kaplan Verbal Workbook
Kaplan 800
Princeton Review Verbal workout
Tests: Princeton Review(730,720,710)
Kaplan (650.630)
Gmat Prep (740,720)
On the D Day:
I reached there on time and it was all-smooth. I dint have breakfast so carried some almonds with me to eat between the breaks J May be they did the trick.
Wrote the essays for AWA section and took 10-minute break. Maths I gave more time to the initial few questions. It was tougher than what I expected, but still not too tough.
I finished just on time, as I was too slow initially. My mistake was that I should have gone fast on algebra and slow only on DS as I used to make mistakes only in DS.
At the end of maths I was confident that I had done well. But I think I made some mistakes, thats why a raw score of 50.
Finally verbal started with some easy SC questions, followed by CR and then a RC, which was a bit scary J. I was again slower than my usual speed. Managed to finish on time.
Finally I folded my hands and prayed and clicked on view score and was ecstatic to see what I wanted J
Incase you have any questions I would be glad to answer.
Thanks a lot to this forum and the wonderful people here, it has been a great source of info and I have benefited a lot form it.
Cheers,
Dude ... congrats man ... thats a great score ... and thanks for sharing your experience.
When do you plan to start apping?
XYZ,
great job man..it seems that you put in a lot of time for Verbal. Were your fundas strong since you gave the CAT twice or you are a engineer by profession?
My verbal is better than my math i think, so if you can shed some light on the quant (math) section that would be great?
Secondly, are you from mumbai?
Thanks
Hye d00d!!
CONGRATS on your 1/Cos C score..!!
Put up your profile mate...how many yrs. of work-ex. & what are your plans for applications. oh..sawry..must be for Fall-2007, right?
What are you loking at? ISB:must be. others..??
Congratulations dude. Any other tips?
I really appreciate people who take the pains to details their own experiences to help others. Kudos to you !!
And a great score to boot 
Arun
Thats a gr8 score xyz, congrats.
---Asif
Congrats Dude. Gr8 Score .
Also iam thankful for ur elaborate post that will surely help lotsa ppl like me who r planning to take a crack at GMAT in couple of months.
--- Prasad
Awsum Score Dood
Do post ur profile......!!!
hi XYZ,
Congrats for the great score. I have couple of qs and i will be grateful if you can answer them:
Qs 1. How many SC question were there in gmat verbal? Heard that now 50% of verbal qs are SC is it right?
Qs 2: How many (rougly) were qs for RC and CR?
Qs 3: How did you prepare for AWA? Did u made any template? how much ws ur score in awa?
TIA
Regards,
Himanshu:
hi XYZ,
Congrats for the great score. I have couple of qs and i will be grateful if you can answer them:
Qs 1. How many SC question were there in gmat verbal? Heard that now 50% of verbal qs are SC is it right?
Qs 2: How many (rougly) were qs for RC and CR?
Qs 3: How did you prepare for AWA? Did u made any template? how much ws ur score in awa?
TIA
Regards,
Himanshu:
Hi,
Yes there were a lot of SC but cant say 50% may be 15-16. then there were 4 RC and CR. I think break up is same as before.
For AWA I did not really have a template, but I did read some sample essays the previous day and that helped me get an idea as to how to structure it. AWA score will come later so dont know as of now.
Cheer,
XYZ,
great job man..it seems that you put in a lot of time for Verbal. Were your fundas strong since you gave the CAT twice or you are a engineer by profession?
My verbal is better than my math i think, so if you can shed some light on the quant (math) section that would be great?
Secondly, are you from mumbai?
Thanks
Well I think in maths algebra was not that tough, but some of the DS questions were tough. You can practice them from OG and that should help. If you are much stronger in verbal then you can have a gala time as maths wont take much effort anyway. Take a diagnostic test to see which areas you are weak in.
ATB
Awsum Score Dood
Do post ur profile......!!!
Thanks all for the wishes.
My Profile:
Well average beer drinking indian IT male.
Engg from REC with decent acads
Work ex as of now almost 3 yrs
Extra curriculars: Pretty good i think
I still have not decided which schools i willbe applying to. Infact if someone who has the info can give me some gyaan on how to choose schools and how to go about it and which schools you think I can target it will be good.
hi xyz,
great post, and great score!!!
congrats!!!
i also want to give gmat asap.
some queries:
1. what is spidey's notes?
2. where can i find verbal notes by mr. thakur?
3. whats the diff btew workbook and other books?
how long do u think it takes to prepare for gmat?
i have appeared in cat this year and had a okish score.
can the cat prep help?
generally ppl suggest to stay away frm wren & martin for gmat, did u find it useful?
i am new to pg, so if i have asked a stupid question, plz dont mind.
thanx
kya baaaat hai ... bhai wah ......
xyz hight time you start calling yourself something other than "Indian IT Male"
hi xyz
this may be a very dumb question
but u talked about gmatprep1 and gmatprep2 , where does one find these tests ? are these the new names for powerprep which is freely downloadable from mba.com ?
also the princeton and kaplan tests that you took were the paper ie the ones int the book on were online ? cd etc.. just wanted to know if i have the same tests that u had.. wanted to benchmark. ie it
thanks
sorabh
I know that this has already been mentioned above by a 
: like me a few posts before, but it would be great if someone could post the link for Sumitthakur's notes!
I am Happy, relieved and excited. My month long sprint preparation came to an end today and it was a happy ending with a score of 740(Q 50, V 39).
I started my preparation by reading the Experience of a lot of test takes and I feel this does help a lot. So here goes my story J I hope I will be of help to someone else.
I had already taken CAT and missed the calls by a whisker for two consecutive years. Finally I decided I had enough work ex to try for schools abroad and decided to take the plunge.
I started with Spideys notes and Wrenen and Martin to brush up the basics for sentence correction for verbal. There were some breaks in between, I would study for some days and then get busy with something else. Finally I decided to set myself a target and booked the date for a month later.
I was very confused due to plethora of information as to where to begin from. Finally asking lot of people who had taken the test and reading posts of other test takers helped a great deal.
I finally started with Sumit Thakurs Verbal notes and they are great!!. Then I moved to Princeton review and Princeton review verbal workout. These books are good to start but are too easy too reply for actual prep.
Then I finally moved to Kaplan and did the Verbal part. Finally gave the diagnostic test and scored 660.
Then I moved to Kaplan Verbal workbook and it was great.
After this I started Kaplan 800 and this was the toughest book , but was really good and doing good in it gave me a lot of confidence.
After this I took Princeton Review Tests and scored 710,720 and 730.
I finally took GmatPrep1 and scored 740 and in GMATPrep2 I scored 720.
Now I had around a week left with me. I devoted this time to solving OG 11 and SC from OG10. From OG 11 also I did only verbal. I also spent a lot of time on scoretop.com and it was really helpful. Taking part in discussions is the best way to get solid concepts.
In a nut shell:
Books : OG 10 and OG 11
Kaplan
Kaplan Verbal Workbook
Kaplan 800
Princeton Review Verbal workout
Tests: Princeton Review(730,720,710)
Kaplan (650.630)
Gmat Prep (740,720)
On the D Day:
I reached there on time and it was all-smooth. I dint have breakfast so carried some almonds with me to eat between the breaks J May be they did the trick.
Wrote the essays for AWA section and took 10-minute break. Maths I gave more time to the initial few questions. It was tougher than what I expected, but still not too tough.
I finished just on time, as I was too slow initially. My mistake was that I should have gone fast on algebra and slow only on DS as I used to make mistakes only in DS.
At the end of maths I was confident that I had done well. But I think I made some mistakes, thats why a raw score of 50.
Finally verbal started with some easy SC questions, followed by CR and then a RC, which was a bit scary J. I was again slower than my usual speed. Managed to finish on time.
Finally I folded my hands and prayed and clicked on view score and was ecstatic to see what I wanted J
Incase you have any questions I would be glad to answer.
Thanks a lot to this forum and the wonderful people here, it has been a great source of info and I have benefited a lot form it.
Cheers,
Hi,
Please tell me where to get Spideys notes .
These notes can be found at scoretop.com and sentencecorrection.com
There are posts in PG itself about links to them so guys search a bit and you should be able to get them.
And yes GMATPrep is same as Powerprep