Gmat 720, awa 5.5

This score and work exp, helped get call from Pitt and oxford.

This score and work exp, helped get call from Pitt and oxford.

admit Says
This score and work exp, helped get call from Pitt and oxford.


Congrats !!!
So where are you headed? Oxford?

Could you please provide some details about ur profile etc.
Congrats !!!
So where are you headed? Oxford?

Could you please provide some details about ur profile etc.

Thanks so much.....I did it from Pitt...funding was the major issue and i had 80% from pitt vs. none from oxford...(if you wonder why i am at PG now, it is to look for opportunities my exp. can be helpful to fellow students...)

profile- mech. engg, india, 6 years of work exp at the time of application, india, dubai experience.....

i would be glad to provide more info on my preparation/applications...

wowww..1st things 1st...congrats fr this splendid achievement and..........80% funding..dude that's huge!....last year i booked my GMAT but later cancelled bcos of their (B schools abroad) exorbitant fee structure and i was told that funding chances are very slim...can u elaborate on the funding scenario?

Hkanwar Says
wowww..1st things 1st...congrats fr this splendid achievement and..........80% funding..dude that's huge!....last year i booked my GMAT but later cancelled bcos of their (B schools abroad) exorbitant fee structure and i was told that funding chances are very slim...can u elaborate on the funding scenario?

@HKanwar- thanks..!!

not all b schools are beyond reach and definitely edu loan, scholarships can be found..i can tell particularly the funding scenario of us b schools.....the must haves- a good gmat score (650+), work exp. 2-3 years or above, with good career progression, portraying personal ambitions and performance thru essays and recommendations will make the way for a fin aid....based on one's profile- it is advisable to keep few target schools which u may go even w/o aid (maybe ivy league) and some more in plan 'B' which are within reach and can provide schol....also in case u have offer from a b school but they didn't give u any schol, i have seen people negotiating with admin committee and getting the deals.....

Hi Admit,
Pls share your preparation fundas.GMAT prep strategy, material used.
pls pls.

Hi Admit,
Pls share your preparation fundas.GMAT prep strategy, material used.
pls pls.

@psethi- i prepared for 5 months alongwith my work and referred Princeton review for start and the GMAT OG 11 for clearing the concepts and practice. I read and re-read the OG 3-4 times and particularly looked over the questions i was doing wrong. It helped to read the explanations clearly for why each option was right or wrong as each of them had concepts involved. I kept a record of my hit rate and what accuracy i got in 1st, 2nd and 3rd reading etc, and getting improvements encouraged me. I also found the process of elimination particularly useful and time saving. Other the books, i was actively involved in forums and engaged in discussions so that i could see various questions i didn't see in OG, PR or practice tests.

Regarding 2 practice test provided by gmat site, i took 1st one in the beginning of my prep and the 2nd late on. i took each of these 5-6 times and got few questions new as i attempted test again, it helped getting more and more questions from the q bank these practice tests have. also, i booked my exam date only after i was consistently getting 750+ in 3-4 attempts i made for second practice test in gmat. that gave me confidence and momentum for real exam.

for AWA, I had prepared a template and used the same while answering in real exam. I didn't practice writing any topic given in list of topics, but reading and understanding TOI article in editorial was particularly helpful. I made it a point to give introduction, create good story, provide 2-3 examples, and conclude properly. as AWA also test the flow and the systematic construction of opinion, using a template and keeping in mind few basic points certainly helps.

The key thing that i may suggest is- read OG entirely and go thru all the explanations.
@psethi- i prepared for 5 months alongwith my work and referred Princeton review for start and the GMAT OG 11 for clearing the concepts and practice. I read and re-read the OG 3-4 times and particularly looked over the questions i was doing wrong. It helped to read the explanations clearly for why each option was right or wrong as each of them had concepts involved. I kept a record of my hit rate and what accuracy i got in 1st, 2nd and 3rd reading etc, and getting improvements encouraged me. I also found the process of elimination particularly useful and time saving. Other the books, i was actively involved in forums and engaged in discussions so that i could see various questions i didn't see in OG, PR or practice tests.

Regarding 2 practice test provided by gmat site, i took 1st one in the beginning of my prep and the 2nd late on. i took each of these 5-6 times and got few questions new as i attempted test again, it helped getting more and more questions from the q bank these practice tests have. also, i booked my exam date only after i was consistently getting 750+ in 3-4 attempts i made for second practice test in gmat. that gave me confidence and momentum for real exam.

for AWA, I had prepared a template and used the same while answering in real exam. I didn't practice writing any topic given in list of topics, but reading and understanding TOI article in editorial was particularly helpful. I made it a point to give introduction, create good story, provide 2-3 examples, and conclude properly. as AWA also test the flow and the systematic construction of opinion, using a template and keeping in mind few basic points certainly helps.

The key thing that i may suggest is- read OG entirely and go thru all the explanations.



Bro..a commendable job and Congratsss too....
I have just started prep for GMAT..
B.E +3.9 yrs Exp in Steel...
I m looking for ISB H...
Bought OG 12 th edition....
Wat more books i can look for...?
Shud i give GMAT prep test nw only provided by mba.com or later on?
any other advices for ur "junior GMAT student"
:P:P..tks..

@rahul- thanks a ton.....

ur work exp. duration is good.....by the time u apply/intw calls, it would be 4+ years... ur task is to demonstrate that exp. in very solid shape...if u wish so, i can be reached thru private message and i would be more than happy to take a look at resume, essays to comment and suggest how to improve....if my exp. of writing essays, recomms. etc is useful for u, its even better....

OG is good for now, it is the best and most relevant book i have read on my prepapartion....pls do it twice-thrice and then u can buy separate OG guides for verbal and quant....in the meantime, keep using GMAT practice question and Prep test 1.....what i did was keeeping track of my score and also made an excel where i kept record of which question i did correct and which one was wrong in prep tests....that helped me understand how the scoring patter worked and was i making mistakes in continuity, early questions and where did i need to pay more time and attention to get better score with same accuracy rate....u may try it to see if that works for you as well.....

@rahul- thanks a ton.....

ur work exp. duration is good.....by the time u apply/intw calls, it would be 4+ years... ur task is to demonstrate that exp. in very solid shape...if u wish so, i can be reached thru private message and i would be more than happy to take a look at resume, essays to comment and suggest how to improve....if my exp. of writing essays, recomms. etc is useful for u, its even better....

OG is good for now, it is the best and most relevant book i have read on my prepapartion....pls do it twice-thrice and then u can buy separate OG guides for verbal and quant....in the meantime, keep using GMAT practice question and Prep test 1.....what i did was keeeping track of my score and also made an excel where i kept record of which question i did correct and which one was wrong in prep tests....that helped me understand how the scoring patter worked and was i making mistakes in continuity, early questions and where did i need to pay more time and attention to get better score with same accuracy rate....u may try it to see if that works for you as well.....


Thanks a ton 4 ur valuable suggestions...ADMIT...
I have solved prep test that is provided at the beginning of OG..Quant seems like "It can be achieved man"..got 36(right) out of 48:. But I scored really bad in Verbal..:splat: ...Now I have to look for Verbal prep wid a good commitment...
{P.S i was "CAT Aspirant" till date,scoring arnd 85-90 percentiles,looking at my work ex ,i have decided to go for GMAT, (I hope dis decision of mine is good enuf....)}...

Shud i give Practice Test 1 without preparation or with preparation?

I will PM u my resume...
and any suggestions for Verbal improvement...M reading TOI daily...

@Rahul- i have sent u a message, please check.

I too did the same thing and late changed into GMAT prep. There are lots of options with gmat too, as most 1 yr program accept GMAT. Regd Prep 1, it may be better to make 1st attempt as u start preparation and then repeat taking it in 2nd or 3rd week of prep...i didn't worry about getting few repeat questions and taking test while preparing as i would get more familiar with exam qs types and difficulty level and adept my preparation strategy......for the final evaluation, u can rely on prep 2 as its difficulty level is higher and u are nearing the end of your preparation.....

TOI editorial is good....u can pay attention to sentence construction and grammer....simple things prove useful and help build greater understanding....and it doesn't take much effort reading that piece few times in a week (in case time is scarce)......RC can be excelled by developing speedy reading, read over the passage quickly and go thru the questions that can be quickly answered...also, reading the questions first may help see where are the ready answers for few questions...this helps if time is short and u need to run thru the paper, instead of spending longer time on getting the answers for some typical qs ( eg. some inference based questions when it gets difficult to make out after narrowing down to 2-3 options)....

@Rahul- i have sent u a message, please check.

I too did the same thing and late changed into GMAT prep. There are lots of options with gmat too, as most 1 yr program accept GMAT. Regd Prep 1, it may be better to make 1st attempt as u start preparation and then repeat taking it in 2nd or 3rd week of prep...i didn't worry about getting few repeat questions and taking test while preparing as i would get more familiar with exam qs types and difficulty level and adept my preparation strategy......for the final evaluation, u can rely on prep 2 as its difficulty level is higher and u are nearing the end of your preparation.....

TOI editorial is good....u can pay attention to sentence construction and grammer....simple things prove useful and help build greater understanding....and it doesn't take much effort reading that piece few times in a week (in case time is scarce)......RC can be excelled by developing speedy reading, read over the passage quickly and go thru the questions that can be quickly answered...also, reading the questions first may help see where are the ready answers for few questions...this helps if time is short and u need to run thru the paper, instead of spending longer time on getting the answers for some typical qs ( eg. some inference based questions when it gets difficult to make out after narrowing down to 2-3 options)....


@Admit...i got it n even mailed my resume to d same id..
Act in solution,wat i found in the solutions of the OG ,their approach to quests r quite different as explained in various CAT books....
And i find it pretty interesting too..
thinking of staring Wren n Martin once again to have more clear funda of the grammatical things..
ya i will be taking up the Practice test next week for sure(pta to lage yr kitne pani me hu...).
M thinking of buying KAPLAN (verbal) or shud i buy OG (verbal)?{act i need one hardcopy of the quant and verbal book...}...
Needs to read and read ...n dat too with a different perspective....

@Admit: Actually, my preparation for GMAT was very much in pace when i realized that i cant even arrange the amount of money i have to pay for my MBA abroad..(cant even get education loan for such huge sum as i don't have collateral for that)
That's my fundamental problem...how were u going to manage in case u were not offered a scholarship?

admit Says
This score and work exp, helped get call from Pitt and oxford.



CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

I would like to interact with you regarding admission. I am having 3 yrs exp in Core Engineering with Fortune 200 US MNC in india and recently joined another Engineering company in Korea.

Let me know how to be in contact with you.

HI,

I am preparing for GMAT and this is my first attempt for AWA.
Can anyone evaluate it and suggest improvements??


Group #1: Analysis of Argument
The following was used as part of an internet advertising company's appeal to businesses: Furniture Depot employed our internet advertising company to help. Since then its sales increased by 10% over last year's totals. Furniture Depot's success demonstrates how using our internet services can increase your profitability.
Describe how well reasoned you find this argument. In the discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the argument's conclusion. You may also address possible changes in the argument that would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
Internet advertising has became intergral part of business now a days to keep pace with overall growth in business over other competiters. In preceding statement, author claims that adopting internet advertising heped Furniture Depot to increase their sales and hence profit. Though his claim may well have merit, the author presents poorly reasoned argument based on several questionable premises and assumptions and based on soley the evidence that author offers, we can not just accept his argument as valid.
The primary issue with author's reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premises. The author fails to provide concrete evidence to the fact that increase in sales is only because of internet advertising. The author fails to consider other possibilities like discount offerered, market demand of product etc.
In adddition author makes several assumptions that remain unproven. The author assumes increase in sell, is beacuse of newly added customers connected through internet. There might be several other reasons like increase in demand, increase in popularity and acceptability of the product to lead to increase in sales.
While the author has sevaral key issues in his premises and assumptions, that is not to say that whole argument is without base. The author needs to give more concrete evidence such increase in online orders, added online customers, survey done on "from where customer heard of product" to prove that internet advertising indeed helped them increase the sales.
If the author truly hopes to change the mind of readers on this issue, he needs to largly reconstruct his argument, fix the flaws in logic,clearly explicate clearly his assumptions and provide evidentiary support. Without these things his poorly reasoned argument will likely convince few people.