This is my first post on this forum after lurking here for about a month.
Today I tood my GMAT and scored 760 (Q49, V44). Feeling pretty good but at the same time disappointed by my quant score. I had taken the GMAT first time about a year back and scored 640 (I don't even remember the split because I tore off the score sheet).
I always knew that 640 was not a true indicator of my potential so I started about one a half month back. As a non-native speaker I knew verbal was going to be an uphill task for me but I was mentally prepared this time. I started with Manhattan SC and Aristotle, both of them are good books to understand the basics but the real improvement for me came from
OG 13 and Verbal review questions (ignore the explanations in the books and scourge the forums here for more applicable explanations). As I started doing more questions and reading the explanations here, I developed easily applicable set of rules in my mind and then I just kept on refining those rules until I started getting good accuracy.
I have always maintained that reading books for CR and RC is just a waste of time. There is no time in the exam to take notes or write down premises or conclusions. Practice is the key to improving these sections. Understand what is written, apply logic and pick an answer .. that's it.
Also, I bought the GMAT exam pack 1 for additional tests as any other mocks are just poor imitations of the real thing. Here are my mock scores if you guys are interested.
GMAT Prep 1: 710 (Q49, V37, about 25 days back 15 days into prep)
GMAT Prep 2: 770 (Q51, V42 about 10 days back)
GMAT Prep 3: 770 (Q50, V44 about 10 days back)
GMAT Prep 4: 740 (Q49, V41 about 4 days back)
Unfortunately, since I started a little late and did not take any time off from work, I could not devote required time to brush up the quant section. Also, flu took me down for the last 4 days and that also hampered my practice schedule. Hope I had done better in quant. Can someone here please let me know if I should be worried about my quant score as now it is not even 80%ile. Will this reduce my chances to get into top 10-15 school?
Thanks GMATclub and thanks to all the contributors here.