Hi All, On Aug 7th, I had given GMAT and am quite content with the score. I am now focussing on the more touger part - the application, essays, finance etc. I personally feel that I owe a lot to sites such as Pagalguy and beatthegmat for my exce…
Hi All,
On Aug 7th, I had given GMAT and am quite content with the score. I am now focussing on the more touger part - the application, essays, finance etc. I personally feel that I owe a lot to sites such as Pagalguy and beatthegmat for my excellent GMAT score. I would like to share some of my learnings which can be helpful for budding leaders.
There is a wealth of information on GMAT preparation strategy on the above 2 sites. So I would not add much more to do that. One post I found most useful is 790 GMAT (q50, v51)
I will instead focus on some things which I did not find in many of the debriefs. Also, I will try to keep things really short.
1) Idioms -
This is a must. If you are non-native English speaker, you need to learn by heart all the idioms in Manhattan book.
You can go through the Manhattan SC book 4-5 times. But if you ignored the idioms chapter, you are wasting half of your time.
A big majority of questions focus on idioms. 2 answers will be gramatically correct. But, the difference will be idiomatic use.
More importantly, Idioms give you a BIG BIG BIG boost in speed. You can eliminate most of the answer choices in nanoseconds.
2) Multiplication tables(1-30), squares(1-30), cubes(1-15), prime numbers (1-100) -
Time is the biggest challenge in quant. You need to learn by heart the above things to save time. I had 11 minutes to solve last 3 questions 
. yeah, I missed 51 in Q 
3) Stamina -
I felt that my mind started being lazy in the middle of Verbal section, when I gave the early Mock tests. That resulted in low Verbal score. I needed something to keep the energy levels up. I resorted to "5 hour energy" drink. This works for me. But, I would suggest people to first get used to it. Do not use it directly on exam day. Also, another warning - I have stopped using energy drinks now. Long term use of these was not gud for me.
4) SC Twisted answers -
GMAT mostly considers wordy as well as twisted constructions as wrong. I placed my bets on this. I blindly crossed out these answers to save time. I was fine 1-2 going against me, but again I was not going to hit V51 mark. One warning - I mentioned "wordy as well as twisted". Only wordy answers can be correct more than a few times.
My background -
Indian IT Male :-(
6 years of work ex in an Indian s/w company
in US for last 3 years
Disclaimer - These are things that worked for me. Everybody has to analyze his or her position to get it right.
Congrats 
Hi
Thanks for sharing your experience with the perparation. Its very helpful. Although I would appreciate if you could advice me a bit here.
I am giving the gmat for the second time and am getting the scores in the range of (590-630) in manhattan gmat tests. I got a 610 (Q45, V2
in gmat prep 1 ! My aim is 680+ but i have only one more week left to prepare!
My average individual scores are : (Q42, V30) (Manhattan)
Any suggestions...
Thanks 😃
Hi Shubhankar,
I will try to help. But this is a very broad question. Time is also very less :)
I am assuming you are going to devote the next complete week for GMAT score improvement.
You have to identify your weakness areas first is it SC, RC, Speed (Q/V) etc
If you can tell those, I can try to help in those particular areas.
Thanks for your prompt reply !!
Well, my main weakness is the minor type questions of CR. S.C is pretty strong and so is problem solving. I do have minor hiccups in RC, especially if the passage is very complex (with difficult terminlogies/vocabulary)!
Moreover,long word translation questions of D.S can be time consuming at times.
Is there any good source for practicing 700-800 level of questions for each segments? Maybe that could help!
Thanks again.
Hi Shubhankar,
RC -
for RC please refer the link - FEARING RCs, here is the SOLUTION!!!!!
In this there is nice document "General Strategies for RC.doc"
CR -
Can u elaborate what are minor type question in CR? I have not heard this term before. May be I know it by some other name.
DS -
For any word problems, make sure that you read the problem carefully and grasp it first. Then only start solving it. Then you should not take much time solving it.
The same applies to problem solving word problems. In word problems, quant is less and grasping is key.
General tips -
1) These are the points which may reduce your score drastically -
a) If you get 3-4 questions wrong in a row
b) If you just guess the questions towards the end and get them wrong
c) If you leave the questions at end. This is the biggest factor.
2) Do not make the mistake of giving a lot of time on the first 10 questions. This generally gives a lot less time to deal with other questions.
3) Have a timing strategy. So that each set of questions get equal time from you.
I followed the below pattern.
***You need to follow the pattern that best works for you.***
Quant:
62,50,42,34,25,15,5
This means that after you complete 5 questions, you need to have 62 mins left. After 10 questions you need to have 50 mins left. And so on
Verbal:
65,55,46,37,28,19,10,1
Also, since you are targetting 680, you should consider guessing more questions if you are stuck. But getting questions wrong in a string is bad. WARNING - You need to decide on this and check if this works for you.
4) You need to get out of a question if you feel that you cannot solve it. You may have spent 4 mins already on that question. If you still feel uncomforatbale with it,DO NOT get stuck into it more. You may think that you are obliged to solve it since you have spent so much time. But just get out of there by guessing. This time saved can let you solve 2-3 easy questions.
5) I would suggest just focus on Offical Guide(OG) questions now. If you still want you can refer Kapaln 800.
6) PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and PRACTICE
7) Skip work/office by taking some excuse if you are planning goint to office this week.
You can share your phone number by sending a PM to me. I will try and call you. Please also tell me what is the appropriate time to call you.
DISCLAIMER - Please give a thought to above advice. This is only advice. Some of the things above may not work for you or worsen your position. Please analyze your position and then act accordingly.
Hi sanvsarang ,
Can you please mention the books you had read and the online materials you had been through.Also the tests which you took and how close were the scores to your actual score.
I know there is a lot of material in the web but ultimately we cant go through everything. Would like to know which material you felt were the most useful.
Thanks in advance.
Hi nayas,
The link 790 GMAT (q50, v51) has a comprehensive debrief. This guy Twinsplitter has put a number of resources. You can check whichever is required by you (sections in which you are weak)
I used Probability and RC notes in those.
Probability - Reflections Vol20, No3, Aug 95
RC - FEARING RCs, here is the SOLUTION!!!!!
General stuff I used -
A) OG 12th Ed, OG Verbal, OG Quant - I solved these problems again and again. (except CR and RC)
For refreshing my Quant concepts I used Quant review in OG 12th ed
B) Manhattan SC - This is widely regarded as a bible
C) For RC I used "GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible" from PowerScore. This is also a very gud book
For last 3 months of my preparation, which was quite intense and focussed I used the above 3 resources.
Before that I had used "Kaplan Premier program 2009 ed" and "Kaplan 800" books.
You can probably skip the Kaplan books. But they give some very gud idea about the format of GMAT. How many questions come from each section (RC,CR,SC, DS, etc). They give an idea on what type of questions GMAT asks (NO complex numbers, etc)
Regarding my Test scores -
I am having difficulty remembering those. I will try to put it below.
I started giving tests in last 2 months. Do NOT wait to give tests till you are fully ready.
Tests tell you the weakness you have. Also, make sure to go through the questions/answers you got wrong.
Kaplan 1st- 550
I thought Kaplan tests are of not much use. Way too difficult
GMATprep 1st - 680
I got confidence back
MAnhattan 1st 650
Manhattan 2nd 650
Manhattan 3rd 680
Manhattan 4th 600
Manhattan 5th 710
Manhattan 6th - 710
Last 2 Manhattan tests were relatively much simpler. Manhattan tests generally have very tough quant. Do not let that discourage you. This is nice practice. Manhattan Verbal is comparable to GMatprep. But I thought RC in GMATPrep is much simpler. GMATPrep is the test which is the best simulation of an actual GMAT.
GMATPrep 2nd 740
You can also give GMATPrep multiple times. Do some google for that.
Thanks a lot.This is a bit personal but which are the schools you are aiming to apply ?
Hi nayas,
Till now I have finalized MIT Sloan, Duke, Tuck, Haas, Darden, Ross
Not sure whether I will make those.
I am worried about my apps...I have not done much abt it yet
And the end dates are approaching fast
Regards,
Sanil