Hey, Am finally done with my GMAT and am relieved more than anything else. I scored a respectable 740 and I wanted to take the time to thank you guys for helping me out! At the same time, I also wanted to share some thoughts about the GMAT wi…
Hey,
Am finally done with my GMAT and am relieved more than anything else. I scored a respectable 740 and I wanted to take the time to thank you guys for helping me out! At the same time, I also wanted to share some thoughts about the GMAT with you all..
Well, this was my second attempt at the GMAT. I gave my first attempt back in Dec 2007 and scored an appaling 660. Totally frustrated, I went back to regular work for a good few months before renewed vigor kicked in and I started preparing for the GMAT again. However, this time I analyzed my previous mistakes and made sure I didnt repeat them!
Now, some thoughts about what works and what doesnt:
A. Dont follow the "advice" of too many people at the same time. Pick one strategy that works for you and stick to it. I made the mistake of reading these feedback messages from people who had previousy taken the GMAT and tried using every single "advice" given by every single person. Guess what, it doesnt work. Formulate your own strategy. This is not the first test that we are taking in our life, so each one has a fairly good idea what to do and what not to do.
B. Verbal can make or break your score and it swings the final GMAT score more than what the Quants section does. You can verify this from your GMATPrep practice tests. A paltry 6 to 7 incorrect questions in verbal could result in a 36 or 38 score, but 10-11 incorrect quants questions can still put you in the 45 range. So, concentrate a lot on your verbal skills.
C. Sentence Correction is easy. Keep saying that to yourself. There are really REALLY only seven to eight concepts that are really tested. Dont make the mistake of reading the sentence and trying to figure out what "sounds" right. That won't work. Instead, go through each rule that you learnt and you can be guaranteed that you will get it correct.
D. Reading Comprehension is a potluck. I got a total of 4 RCs and two of them were 100 line RCs - I spent a LOT of time on this. One thing about RCs is that the prep books like Kaplan, Princeton etc give "tips" to solve RCs such as skimming through the entire article, reading the question and referring back etc.. Thats just bull... Read the paragraph in entireity and understand it completely. This way, though you would have spent 3 to 4 minutes reading that passage, you can answer the next 4 questions within 1 to 2 minutes. Now, thats worth it.... Atleast, that is how I did it and it worked for me.
E. Timing is important. Make a note of the following timing information on ur scratch pad and follow it:
Verbal:
Mins to go Question
75 1
60 9
45 18
30 27
15 36
Quants:
Mins to go Question
75 1
60 8
45 16
30 24
15 32
This table will serve you well as you can pace yourself properly. I got this advice from this page ( Keeping Pace ) and this is easily one of the best pieces of advice I ever got. I strongly suggest that you go through that webpage.
F. The Official Guide doesn't do justice to the actual test. The questions in the official guide are way too easy and the GMATPrep is a joke (with most questions recycled from the OG, getting high scores is easy - if anything, you can use it to boost your morale). As far as I am concerned, the only tests which came real close to the GMAT were the Manhattan tests. I strongly urge you guys to go ahead and buy the 6-test pack. The questions are really good and it will test your skills well. I came to know about these tests only in the final week and hence I could only complete 4 tests! Be warned that the Math on the Manhattan tests is really tough and you might find it difficult to complete within time. The verbal section, though, is very similar to the real thing.
G. AWA is important. While most of us (me included) spend only a few days on the AWA, keep in mind that the AWA is the first question on the GMAT. A good start to the test will help you ease your nerves and will put u in a much better frame of mind before the gruelling quants section. So, give the AWA section a wee bit more respect! :D
Thats more or less all that I had to share. My profile is similar to the general demographic in this website - Male, 26, 4 years IT experience. My test scores were as follows:
GMAT (Dec 2007) - Q48 V36 - 660 AWA 5.5
GMATPrep 1 - Q48 V38 - 730
GMATPrep 2 - Q48 V43 - 760
Manhattan 1 - Q47 V36 - 680
Manhattan 2 - Q47 V40 - 710
Manhattan 3 - Q49 V40 - 730
GMAT (Sep '08 - Q48 V44 - 740
All the best guys.. Any queries, feel free to ping me! :)
-Vikram.
Congrats Vikram ! 740 is a great score.....
And thanks for the gyaan.
Where all are u planning to apply ?
hey vikram
awesome score
m givin my gmat on 17
so like2 days to go
my score till now are like dis:
Gmat prep 710
gmat prep 720
kaplan 1 550
kaplan 2 580
kaplan 3 620
kaplan 4 630
powerprep 1 710
powerprep 2 710
cud u gimme da last moment tips to increase da score
thnx in advance
Hi Vikram,
Many kudos on your great score 
And thanks a lot for the great post, especially about the timing thing. I was thinking that I am good in quant but the 1st mgmat was an eye-opener. I really need to stick with strict time conditions.
As you already mentioned that OG doesn't portray the real picture of Gmat, which book/material you recommend for practicing Quant and Verbal of approximately same level as Gmat if not equal. Do you think Kaplan 800 is good in this sense ?
Also, can you share your sentence correction strategies in bit detail ?
Thanks in advance
As you already mentioned that OG doesn't portray the real picture of Gmat, which book/material you recommend for practicing Quant and Verbal of approximately same level as Gmat if not equal. Do you think Kaplan 800 is good in this sense ?
Also, can you share your sentence correction strategies in bit detail ?
I have never been a fan of the Kaplan 800. I did the entire book before my first GMAT, but I didn't touch it the second time around. Like you, even I thought I was good in Quant, but it was the MGMAT that really opened my eyes. After I did the MGMATs, I tried to summarize the types of questions that I was bad at - I figured I was having problems with questions that had GCD, LCM etc in it.. I was also facing issues with set theory... Once I got this info, I took three days off and worked only on such questions formulating my own way of either solving it or narrowing the answers to find the best guess... For find questions, I did manual searches here at PG, at other GMAT forums, looked at all the books that I had (Princeton, Kaplan, Kaplan 800, OG, OG Quant Review). I also went out of the way to solve problems from CAT (but not that I would endorse doing that)..
As for the sentence correction tips, it is a question of elimination. You could start with the following basic tests.. (Once you practice a sufficient number of SCs, you will get a general feel of the questions and you will be able to guess what is being tested in that question).
1. Check for the word "being". If it is there eliminate that choice. 99% of the time it is wrong.
2. Check for Pronouns.. Check if the pronouns agree with whatever it is referring to. One favorite among the GMAT test makers is the possessive noun and pronouns regarding that..
3. Check for modifiers (If there is a comma in the sentence, check if the modifier sounds okay!)
4. Idioms, Idioms, Idioms.. There aint no rules. U just need to know them The good thing about questions that test Idioms is that they are usually in the 2-3 split. So, if u know what the correct idiom is, you can immediately eliminate 2-3 choices.
5. And finally, dont be afraid to guess. SC questions are designed to be done fast and to compensate for the lengthy Reading Comprehension questions. So, dont spend too much time on these questions.. If you have narrowed down the choices and just don't have a clue what the answer should be, you will be harming your score by sitting and thinking about that question for a long time!
To help with my Verbal, I bought the Wren and Martin english grammar book. It helped me a lot as it gives a lot of subtle facts about English grammar which are very useful (Especially section 3).
Hope this helps.
Vikram.
hey vikram
awesome score
m givin my gmat on 17
so like2 days to go
my score till now are like dis:
Gmat prep 710
gmat prep 720
kaplan 1 550
kaplan 2 580
kaplan 3 620
kaplan 4 630
powerprep 1 710
powerprep 2 710
cud u gimme da last moment tips to increase da score
thnx in advance
Your scores look good.. Dont worry abt the low Kaplan scores.. The Kaplan alogirthm is screwed (You can add 100 to that score to get a better idea of what ur score is). But still, as you are scoring in the low 700s, there is definitely scope for pushing it up by around 30 to 40 points.
As you have not mentioned ur split score, I am not sure where your weakness is. If ur weakness is math, spend the next two days revising all the formulae. Keep shorcuts in mind. All the math questions CAN be solved within 2 mins provided u know how to do it. But if u aren't able to solve the question, dont be afraid to best guess. As I said in the initial post, you can get around 10 incorect questions and still score a 47-49.
If Verbal is ur weak point, then practice a lot of SC (as that is one section where u can improve). There is nothing much that u can do about CR and RC at this late stage. But getting a lot of practice in SC will help.
Vikram.
Hey. Congrats on the score. Where can i get the manhattan 6 test pack. Does it come with a particular book?
Evilution SaysHey. Congrats on the score. Where can i get the manhattan 6 test pack. Does it come with a particular book?
No, you need to buy it at their website. Do a google for their name.. u shud find it!
Your scores look good.. Dont worry abt the low Kaplan scores.. The Kaplan alogirthm is screwed (You can add 100 to that score to get a better idea of what ur score is). But still, as you are scoring in the low 700s, there is definitely scope for pushing it up by around 30 to 40 points.
As you have not mentioned ur split score, I am not sure where your weakness is. If ur weakness is math, spend the next two days revising all the formulae. Keep shorcuts in mind. All the math questions CAN be solved within 2 mins provided u know how to do it. But if u aren't able to solve the question, dont be afraid to best guess. As I said in the initial post, you can get around 10 incorect questions and still score a 47-49.
If Verbal is ur weak point, then practice a lot of SC (as that is one section where u can improve). There is nothing much that u can do about CR and RC at this late stage. But getting a lot of practice in SC will help.
Vikram.
thanks for the vital tips
actually i had been scorin 34-38 in verbal
so lately i have been practisin more of SCs, n guess what they have actually improved
scored 730 in today's second last gmat prep, scored 48q/41V
lets c wat destiny has it fo me....
thanks a lot...
Hi Vikram,
I have sent you a PM. Can you reply back to my PM?