GMAT Done !!! 710 V38 Q49 AWA 6

Hi PUYS, I have been a passive member of Pagalguy for a long time now. Time to give something back, I got a 710 in GMAT with the splits V 38, Q 49 and AWA 6. Pretty happy with the result, as I had got hopelessly stuck in Verbal, especially du…

Hi PUYS,

I have been a passive member of Pagalguy for a long time now. Time to give something back, I got a 710 in GMAT with the splits V 38, Q 49 and AWA 6. Pretty happy with the result, as I had got hopelessly stuck in Verbal, especially during the end, had 14 questions to go with only 18 - 20 mins. Did a bit of guessing and was worried about the overall scores dipping, luckily made it thro. I am thrilled with the AWA score.

Well let me know, if anyone want s to know the prep details or anything, will be happy to help. I will post a detailed TEST Day Experience shortly.

Adios

Hi PUYS,

I have been a passive member of Pagalguy for a long time now. Time to give something back, I got a 710 in GMAT with the splits V 38, Q 49 and AWA 6. Pretty happy with the result, as I had got hopelessly stuck in Verbal, especially during the end, had 14 questions to go with only 18 - 20

Adios


Congrats on the good score :thumbsup:

ATB with apps. Do let us know your preparation strategy.

congo man

it will be gr8 if u post ur profile and schools u r gonna apply to :)

ATB !!!

Hi Guys,

Well here s the whole prep and the test day experience, my test date was 18th August, this post is delayed as I have been held up with work over the past 2 weeks.

I decided to give GMAT about a year back and had started prep sometime last year. However I was moved into a pretty tough project and was sent to Mumbai for a bout 10 months, and hence ended my whole prep plans then itself. I was doing pretty good work and decided to keep at it, plus I also had a good exposure in the process of the project.

I got back in April and decided to start prep. I already had a few books and got hold of a few more. I knew right from day 1 that Verbal was going to be my nemesis, so decided to get to work on that from the beginning. These are the books i used

1. OG 11
2. Kaplan Premier
3. Princeton
4. Manhattan SC
5. Kaplan 800

I started with Princeton and got a feel of the whole GMAT exam. Completed the bins and took the 2 online tests. Then did Manhattan SC and Kaplan together. I did have a few hiccups on the way due to workload and, again i had to travel to Mumbai for a month, so I took a bit longer in the prep. With a month to go I took started on OG 11, started making too many mistakes in Verbal, picked up the Kaplan 800 and did it once fully, went back to OG 11 and found my accuracy improving. I was paying more attention to RC s and CR s.

My main problem in the prep was the CR s as I would come down to 2 choice and then take a guess. SC was conquered thanks to Manhattan and Kaplan 800. Also, I made a list of Idioms and religiously would mug them everyday for 15 mins. It was only a matter of practice after that. I never paid too much attention to RC as I could not come up with any specific strategy to work them out. Used to make all kinds of mistakes in RC. Kaplan 800 did help a bit.

I took the sectional tests from Kaplan CD and was giving full tests throughout the prep stages. I ranged from 680 (beginning) till 740. I am not counting the Kaplan Tests as everyones knows that it s tougher and they got a wacked out scoring algorithm.

2 Days before the test, I took the PowerPrep and got a 730 V40 Q 49. I knew if everythin went my way on D day, I would get just slightly lower / higher than my last test.

The day before the test, i didn't do anything related to the GMAT, met up wid a couple of friends and we were jus hanging arnd.

D-DAY

My test was at 1:15, the best time for me as I am usually fully awake by then . I woke up around 8:30, lazed around for awhile. Ran thro the Idiom list once again, had a light brunch and left for the center at around 11:30. I knew I would make it to the center in half an hour, but wanted to be there well before time. Walked around the bldg wher the center is located and went in at 12:30. The lady at the center completed the formalities, took the mugshot and said I could start the test whenever.

Looked at the screen and started moving across the screen with instructions. Section one AWA

AWA :

The argument was an easy one, had a template in mind, noted a few points and started typing away rapidly. Completed it 5 mins before time and read the whole thing again, before moving to the Issue. Issue was a pretty abstract topic, thought about a few things and started typing them out. Finished that with about 3 mins to spare and re read the whole thing.

I took the break and had some water, washed my face. I had carried a Munch with me, ate that and went back in. Section two : QUANT

QUANT:

Quant was quite peaceful, didn't really remember having any problems at all. However I did get a bit stuck in some of the questions after the 25th Question, but was able to solve them after thinking about them for awhile. Ended the section with about 4 mins to spare.

Took the next break, washed my face and moved back in to start on Section three : VERBAL

VERBAL:

Started out with a CR, am sure i got that one right.. 2 SC's followed that and then I got another CR. I say a boldface on question 8, patted my self on the back and knew I was on the right track considering that boldface are supposed to be the tougher questions. I spent a lot of time on the first 15 - 20 questions. Took my time to decided each and every answer. I got a weird CR in the 25th questions, keep starting at it and lost a lot of time, took a guess and moved. I got a crazy RC right after that something about some constitution or something. Right after this RC I suddenly realized I was out of time, with 14 questions to go with only 20 mins on the clock. Guessed a whole set of RC Qs after just skimming the RC. I finished just in time, I am not really sure about how many I would got right in the last 14 as I was severely crunched for time.

Ended the test and I was jus hoping that my score would be somewhere above the 700 mark, saw a 710 felt happy and came out smiling.

I am sure that had I not got stuck in the Verbal, I could have probably done better maybe even got a 730 or 740 in the test, but I am happy with the result as it could have been much worse. After a 2 day wait, I saw the 6.0 in AWA in my score report.

I want to thank a lotta people, especially the senior folks at PG as I would come on the forum everytime I was down and struggling with my prep or feeling low after some mock test.

Well, ppl who are preparing, whatever u guys r scoring now, make sure you run thro the OG 11 over and over again. There is not better guide that the Manhattan SC for SC's, i literally started seeing patterns after doing this book. I suggest everyone to do the Kaplan 800 as the Verbal in that book is tough and it basically makes u think a bit more that OG while answering the questions. It will definately make a difference. Even if you can't do the entire book, suggest that ppl should atleast run thro it once. More than anything else, practice, practice and practice.

That s a lot I have said, need to get back to work. Will post the profile a lil later.

Adios

I took it yesterday and got the same overall score 710.

Personally I was disappointed and was expecting more. I may re-take the test next month and will give an update. I expect upwards of 750.I had problems with the time in the quant section.
Word of warning to other test takers. :wow:
The breaks are 10 minutes but the counter starts the moment the previous section ends. So even though the supervisor told me I had 10 before he would log me back in, when I returned and started the next section, the screen said that it was taking 3 mins off my time since the break overran.

Most of the resources I used for the test have been posted in the Gmat eSnips Folder
I think the only prep material that is close to what appears on the test is the OG and perhaps Kaplan. The Princeton, Arco, Peterson etc are quite underpar. In terms of the actual test GUI, it is identical to that of the GmatPrep software.

cheers