720 (43Q, 46V) - grateful lurker edit: AWA 5.5 : Share GMAT Experience

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28 Jul 2007, 21:47

Great work Paul,

Extremely impressed with your verbal score. Take a break and enjoy the sunshine

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28 Jul 2007, 23:08

alimad wrote:

Can you provide what kind of studying you did for the Verbal, i've struggled considerably on the reading comprehension and always blew my verbal because of either spending too much time on RC and panic sets in and the entire section goes down the drain. How did you go about studying for SC?

Thanks for you advice.

Honestly, I spent the least time on RC. You need to determine what kind of strategy suits you. Some people take down notes, keywords, et al. I just read the passage and referred back to it as needed. I think it's hard to "practice" reading comprehension. My advise is make sure you get the gist of the passage. As you read it, try to paraphrase (on paper or in your head) what the author is trying to say. The thing is I've always had a knack for reading paragraphs and being able to pick out the pertinent details. If I read something pretty closely, I'm bound to remember the pertinent details.

As for SC, I did the questions in the OG, Kaplan and Princeton. The only advise I can give you is to read the entire sentence carefully, not just the underlined portion. Then there's that 2-3 split in most questions. Try your best to narrow it down to either selection. From there, the answer should be relatively easy to spot.

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29 Jul 2007, 14:49

A huge congrats paul!!! Glad to hear you're done! I have 5 more days to go!

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29 Jul 2007, 20:29

kryzak wrote:

A huge congrats paul!!! Glad to hear you're done! I have 5 more days to go!

Thanks. And best of luck to you.

I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of my summer now. I will prpobably start working on the applications by the 3rd week of August though. Just need to narrow down my school choices.

I know 720's a pretty good score, but it does bother me that I only got 43 in quant. My top choices are Duke, Cornell and North Carolina. Maybe Michigan, since I live less than an hour away from Ann Arbor.

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29 Jul 2007, 21:42

Nice work Paul!

I have a question for you. Did you notice the level of difficulty increasing on both the quant and the verbal? Also, as the level of difficulty increased, in particular the sentence correction, did you notice anything? For example, did the GMAT try to test you on odd concepts or provide you with a non-stop barrage of super long sentences?

Nice work with the 720, that 46 verbal is nuts!

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29 Jul 2007, 21:53

Congrats Paul. You have an awesome score.
43Q is not that bad. Your score is much more balanced. I think you should not ponder much over it unless you are applying to the courses which demand high quant score.

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30 Jul 2007, 09:00

StartupAddict wrote:

Nice work Paul!

I have a question for you. Did you notice the level of difficulty increasing on both the quant and the verbal? Also, as the level of difficulty increased, in particular the sentence correction, did you notice anything? For example, did the GMAT try to test you on odd concepts or provide you with a non-stop barrage of super long sentences?

Nice work with the 720, that 46 verbal is nuts!

Thanks.

Yeah, I was getting SC questions where the whole thing was underlined. Long sentences too, about 3 lines on the screen. The weaken-the-argument questions were being worded differently as well. Some of then were actually weaken-the-argument questions disguised as strengthen-the-argument questions, if that makes sense.

RC was suprisingly straightforward. Maybe it was because I got used to Kaplan's long-winded passages. My last RC, around question 30 was actually just one paragraph.

I honestly thought I was blowing quant big time. In the middle of the test, I got a question that was basically asking me what percent of 100 0.47 was. But I didn't panic. I figured there was nothing else I could do but try to answer the remaining questions the best I could.

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Re: 720 (43Q, 46V) - grateful lurker [#permalink]

30 Jul 2007, 18:11

paul_ragos wrote:

Hello everyone. I've been a lurker here for the last couple of months. I would like to thank everyone for their help. Your posts have been extremely helpful.

I took this week off from work, intending to study 6-7 hours a day. Didn't happen. Was sleeping in until 10:30 most days. Working out and playing ball from 11:30 - 1:00. Ended up reading Harry POtter #7 all day Tuesday and studied for only about an hour. Then my sister had her baby Thursday, so I was in the hospital from about noon - 10pm. I did get some studying done at the starbucks in the hospital lobby. I went back and did the last 50 DS questions from the OG. All I did Friday was read some sample essays. And that was it. Just chilled the rest of the night.

The test was just about what I expected. I did run out of time in quant. Still 5 questions to go with about 6 mins left. I really thought I was blowing it at this point. I got a fair amount of coordinate geometry questions. Data sufficency was suprisingly uncomplicated. Or maybe I was actually just well prepared! Had about 50 seconds when I got to the last quant section. Verbal was pretty straight-forward, save for a few tough weaken-the-argument questions. Answered the final verbal question with about 1 minutes, 20 secs to spare. I thought I was going to end up with a 660-680 (really thought I blew quant). I was pleasantly suprised when the 720 popped up.

My advise is to definitely take the breaks. After the AWA, I had a protein bar and some water. Then I splashed my face with cold water. Went to the bathroom and did some stretching after quant as well.

Overall, I studied on and off for about 3 months. Then I turned it up in July. I did 2-3 hours every 4 days out of the work week. 4-5 hours on weekends.

Oh, make sure you keep working out. Doesn't matter if you play basketball or tennis, lift weight, run, etc. Just be active. Believe me, it'll help.

I Agree! Very important... some days it is very hard with all the studying and work. I go to the gym at least twice a week!

Study materials - OG 11, Kaplan GMAT Premier edition, Kaplan Math workbook, Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT

Here are my practice tests in chronological order:

GMATPrep 1 6/20/07- 640 (Q38, v39)
Kaplan CD-ROM CAT ! - 560 (I was like WTF??)
Kaplan CD-ROM CAT 2 - 620
Princeton CAT 1 (online) 7/17/07- 640 (Q45, V34) - I don't know what happened to my verbal. Bad day, I guess.
Princeton CAT 2 (online) 7/18/07- 710 (Q45, V43)
GMATPrep 2 7/19/07 - 660 (Q42, V39)
Kaplan CD-ROM CAT 3 - 580 - Borders was loud that day, Babies crying around me!
GMATPrep 1 (reinstall) 7/23/07 - 700 (Q41, V45)
GMATPrep 2 (reinstall) 7/25/07 - 700 (Q43, V42)

Test Day: 720 (Q43, V46)

that is a great score! You progression of CAT scores looks similar to mine!!! Lets hope I get a 720 as well! Your Verbal is killer!

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Updated on: 02 Aug 2007, 11:49

Ok, now that the euphoria has worn off, I'm starting to debate whether my score's good enough for the schools that I like. I'm ecstatic about the overall score. But my quant score? Not so much. I'm looking at Fuqua, Johnson, Kenan Flagler and Kelley. These schools aren't really quant-intensive are they? Plus I'm not going into Finance or i-banking. More strategic management with a marketing/supply chain focus. If I get into Duke, I'm looking at a dual concentration of Decision Sciences and Management.

I'm 26. I was born and raised in the Philippines. Undergrad at one of the top universities there. BS Management Information Systems. GPA was ok, nothing spectacular. I've lived in Michigan for the last 5 years (will be a US citizen by January next year). I have 4 years experience as a data and process analyst for a home health care company. I handle clinical/reimbursement data analysis for all 3 branches and provide feedback to senior management. I sit-in in senior management meetings for their strategy sessions. Things of that nature. Every yeat I've worked I've been given more and more responsibility.

I guess what I'm asking is, would my quant score be good enough for the schools I mentioned? My grades in statistics,eocnomics and operations courses in college were pretty good. But my calculus was horrendous.

Am I worrying too much here? Help!

Originally posted by paul_ragos on 31 Jul 2007, 07:44.
Last edited by paul_ragos on 02 Aug 2007, 11:49, edited 1 time in total.

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31 Jul 2007, 07:59

Hi Paul,

I dont want to sound negative because your score is outstanding (I have a similar score), however I learnt recently that Wharton school specifically looks at the breakdowns between verbal and quantitative and pays close attention to the part not related to your undergraduate. For instance if you studied law, they would look closely at your quant score and if you did engineering they would look at your verbal scores.

I dont know if they do so at your target universities, however I would be vary of the fact. Having said that, I do not think that your quant scores are poor, they are fairly standard and your over all score is pretty balanced.

So good luck.

paul_ragos wrote:

Ok, now that the euphoria has worn off, I'm starting to debate whether my score's good enough for the schools that I like. I'm ecstatic about the overall score. But my quant score? Not so much. I'm looking at Fuqua, Johnson, Kenan Flagler and Kelley. These schools aren't really quant-intensive are they? Plus I'm not going into Finance or i-banking. More strategic management with a marketing/supply chain focus. If I get into Duke, I'm looking at a dual concentration of Decision Sciences and Management.

I'm 26. I was born and raised in the Philippines. Undergrad at one of the top universities there. BS Management Information Systems. GPA was ok, nothing spectacular. I've lived in Michigan for the last 5 years (will be a US citizen by the January next year). I have 4 years experience as a data and process analyst for a home health care company. I handle clinical/reimbursement data analysis for all 3 branches and provide feedback to senior management. I sit-in in senior management meetings for their strategy sessions. Things of that nature. Every yeat I've worked I've been given more and more responsibility.

I guess what I'm asking is, would my quant score be good enough for the schools I mentioned? My grades in statistics,eocnomics and operations courses in college were pretty good. But my calculus was horrendous.

Am I worrying too much here? Help!

paul_ragos

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31 Jul 2007, 08:13

Thanks, bsd_lover.

Based on the research that I've done so far, it looks like the schools that I mentioned are not really quant-intensive. I hope they take into consideration that my Q and V scored are farily balanced. It's just that I don't see a lot of people here whose verbal scores were higher than their quant. I really wish I'd gotten the 46 in quant and 43 in verbal instead. But, oh well!

bsd_lover wrote:

Hi Paul,

I dont want to sound negative because your score is outstanding (I have a similar score), however I learnt recently that Wharton school specifically looks at the breakdowns between verbal and quantitative and pays close attention to the part not related to your undergraduate. For instance if you studied law, they would look closely at your quant score and if you did engineering they would look at your verbal scores.

I dont know if they do so at your target universities, however I would be vary of the fact. Having said that, I do not think that your quant scores are poor, they are fairly standard and your over all score is pretty balanced.

So good luck.

paul_ragos wrote:

Ok, now that the euphoria has worn off, I'm starting to debate whether my score's good enough for the schools that I like. I'm ecstatic about the overall score. But my quant score? Not so much. I'm looking at Fuqua, Johnson, Kenan Flagler and Kelley. These schools aren't really quant-intensive are they? Plus I'm not going into Finance or i-banking. More strategic management with a marketing/supply chain focus. If I get into Duke, I'm looking at a dual concentration of Decision Sciences and Management.

I'm 26. I was born and raised in the Philippines. Undergrad at one of the top universities there. BS Management Information Systems. GPA was ok, nothing spectacular. I've lived in Michigan for the last 5 years (will be a US citizen by the January next year). I have 4 years experience as a data and process analyst for a home health care company. I handle clinical/reimbursement data analysis for all 3 branches and provide feedback to senior management. I sit-in in senior management meetings for their strategy sessions. Things of that nature. Every yeat I've worked I've been given more and more responsibility.

I guess what I'm asking is, would my quant score be good enough for the schools I mentioned? My grades in statistics,eocnomics and operations courses in college were pretty good. But my calculus was horrendous.

Am I worrying too much here? Help!

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02 Aug 2007, 10:43

Hello Paul.

Congrats! Great score. I have the same problem as you. I think I will probably **** my quant too. Could you tell me how you reviewed?

Anyways, mukhang galing ka rin sa Ateneo. Atenista din ako. Actually, nagaaral pa ako. Hahah! At C lang din ang nakuha ko sa Ma18. Bahala na pare.. Sakin lang, pag naka abot ako ng 700 dito, kahit sa hindi ganong kagandang school ako mag apply, libre na yun! ayaw ko lang talaga mag trabaho. lol

Sige,.
Good luck with your apps
See you around.

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02 Aug 2007, 11:48

Gablaze23, yeah, I'm from Ateneo. Batch 2001. When you say you're still in school, do you mean undergrad?

Anyway, I did a lot of practice questions for quant. OG, Kaplan and Princeton Review. I found the Kaplan Math Workbook to be very helpful. Number properties, esp in DS format, was my main weakness, so I worked on that that. I'm glad I did that because I got a bunch of number properties questions during the test.

And I took around 9 practice tests. I know Kaplan has crappy scoring, but the CATs help build your stamina.

My verbal has always been pretty solid, so I didn't do a whole lot there except do all the SC questions and the last 50 CR questions in the OG.

Anyway, buti ka pa nga nag Math 18 ka. Freshman year, basic math lang ako. Haha! Anong batch ka?

gablaze23 wrote:

Hello Paul.

Congrats! Great score. I have the same problem as you. I think I will probably **** my quant too. Could you tell me how you reviewed?

Anyways, mukhang galing ka rin sa Ateneo. Atenista din ako. Actually, nagaaral pa ako. Hahah! At C lang din ang nakuha ko sa Ma18. Bahala na pare.. Sakin lang, pag naka abot ako ng 700 dito, kahit sa hindi ganong kagandang school ako mag apply, libre na yun! ayaw ko lang talaga mag trabaho. lol

Sige,.
Good luck with your apps
See you around.

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03 Aug 2007, 02:24

Knew it. If there were any Filipinos here, they'd be from Ateneo.

I've always had problems with number propertie and geometry. How did you study for number properties? Geom too..

Batch ko? Pare, hindi pa ako nag gragraduate. Sa marso pa lang!:) Gusto ko lang magaral pa next year, one last. Hehehe! Hindi ako basic. Pero D lang Ma11 ko. C nga lang calc ko. Hindi ko talaga sineryoso! Pero okay lang, malulusotan yan. Ayaw mo mag take ng extra classes? Plano ko mag take ng calculus or accounting sa CSB or sa PSBA. Yan ang advice sakin ng isang University na a-applyan ko. Pagmababa ang calc/accounting, take extra classes. Siguradong "A" yun pag CSB or PSBA, tapos diresto na sa B-school. HEHEE!

paul_ragos wrote:

Gablaze23, yeah, I'm from Ateneo. Batch 2001. When you say you're still in school, do you mean undergrad?

Anyway, I did a lot of practice questions for quant. OG, Kaplan and Princeton Review. I found the Kaplan Math Workbook to be very helpful. Number properties, esp in DS format, was my main weakness, so I worked on that that. I'm glad I did that because I got a bunch of number properties questions during the test.

And I took around 9 practice tests. I know Kaplan has crappy scoring, but the CATs help build your stamina.

My verbal has always been pretty solid, so I didn't do a whole lot there except do all the SC questions and the last 50 CR questions in the OG.

Anyway, buti ka pa nga nag Math 18 ka. Freshman year, basic math lang ako. Haha! Anong batch ka?

gablaze23 wrote:

Hello Paul.

Congrats! Great score. I have the same problem as you. I think I will probably **** my quant too. Could you tell me how you reviewed?

Anyways, mukhang galing ka rin sa Ateneo. Atenista din ako. Actually, nagaaral pa ako. Hahah! At C lang din ang nakuha ko sa Ma18. Bahala na pare.. Sakin lang, pag naka abot ako ng 700 dito, kahit sa hindi ganong kagandang school ako mag apply, libre na yun! ayaw ko lang talaga mag trabaho. lol

Sige,.
Good luck with your apps
See you around.

paul_ragos

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03 Aug 2007, 06:31

Yeah, I'm planning on taking some classes. I'm actually thinking of applying for Fall 09 instead of 08, so I can have 2-3 classes under my belt before I apply. But we'll see. I guess the moral of the story is "Don'tbe a slacker in college!!".

I actually struggled with geometry at first. The Kaplan Math Workbook did wonders for me. I got to a point where I Was looking hoping to see a bunch of geometry questions on the test. So make sure you get that book or the OG Quant review.

As for number properties, I forced myself to test a bunch of numbers. Positive and negative integers, zero, positive and negative fractions. Don't get me wrong, it was still tough. But at least it was manageable.

Napanood mo yung game vs DLSU last week? Man, I wish I could have seen that. Last Ateneo game I watched live was Game 3 UAAP finals vs DLSU. Ano bang major mo? Management related?
[quote="gablaze23"]Knew it. If there were any Filipinos here, they'd be from Ateneo.

I've always had problems with number propertie and geometry. How did you study for number properties? Geom too..

Batch ko? Pare, hindi pa ako nag gragraduate. Sa marso pa lang!:) Gusto ko lang magaral pa next year, one last. Hehehe! Hindi ako basic. Pero D lang Ma11 ko. C nga lang calc ko. Hindi ko talaga sineryoso! Pero okay lang, malulusotan yan. Ayaw mo mag take ng extra classes? Plano ko mag take ng calculus or accounting sa CSB or sa PSBA. Yan ang advice sakin ng isang University na a-applyan ko. Pagmababa ang calc/accounting, take extra classes. Siguradong "A" yun pag CSB or PSBA, tapos diresto na sa B-school. HEHEE!

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03 Aug 2007, 11:58

Cool. I don't think I have time to wait for the Kaplan Math WB. It takes a while to ship. The tax is really expensive too. I'll get whatever I can from the net.

Anyways, I watched the last game in the school cafeteria. Sobrang enjoy! Did you get to see even the replay? Chris Tiu killed the **** out of DLSU.
Btw, hindi management related ang course ko. Naisipan ko nga mag take ng management elective this semester (accounting or stat), kaya lang wag na. Siguradong bababa lang ako. Whats your cumulative QPI? and what was your course?

paul_ragos wrote:

Yeah, I'm planning on taking some classes. I'm actually thinking of applying for Fall 09 instead of 08, so I can have 2-3 classes under my belt before I apply. But we'll see. I guess the moral of the story is "Don'tbe a slacker in college!!".

I actually struggled with geometry at first. The Kaplan Math Workbook did wonders for me. I got to a point where I Was looking hoping to see a bunch of geometry questions on the test. So make sure you get that book or the OG Quant review.

As for number properties, I forced myself to test a bunch of numbers. Positive and negative integers, zero, positive and negative fractions. Don't get me wrong, it was still tough. But at least it was manageable.

Napanood mo yung game vs DLSU last week? Man, I wish I could have seen that. Last Ateneo game I watched live was Game 3 UAAP finals vs DLSU. Ano bang major mo? Management related?

gablaze23 wrote:

Knew it. If there were any Filipinos here, they'd be from Ateneo.

I've always had problems with number propertie and geometry. How did you study for number properties? Geom too..

Batch ko? Pare, hindi pa ako nag gragraduate. Sa marso pa lang!:) Gusto ko lang magaral pa next year, one last. Hehehe! Hindi ako basic. Pero D lang Ma11 ko. C nga lang calc ko. Hindi ko talaga sineryoso! Pero okay lang, malulusotan yan. Ayaw mo mag take ng extra classes? Plano ko mag take ng calculus or accounting sa CSB or sa PSBA. Yan ang advice sakin ng isang University na a-applyan ko. Pagmababa ang calc/accounting, take extra classes. Siguradong "A" yun pag CSB or PSBA, tapos diresto na sa B-school. HEHEE!

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05 Aug 2007, 02:04

Hey! Congratulations man! 720 is a great score...........and I have never seen anyone who scored 46 in Verbal. At least not yet!....until today!

I'll say don't worry about which colleges see your break up scores......just enjoy your moment!! Good Luck for your applications!

BTW, which language are you and gblaze23 talking?? Is it Philipino??

gmatclubot

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05 Aug 2007, 02:04