Calling all November Gmat Aspirants !!

Hii gmatcracker, best wishes to you for the gmat. Nice to know you are comfartable with quants. Please keep updated about the cats etc which you take and also I am also in same situation as you in verbal. Sc is the main concern.



hello rjdun03,

first of all congrats for getting such a brilliant score on oct 8. As for quants, I can understand that you could have done better. sometimes you can have a off day. Many test takers have claimed to get very few geometry questions, but unfortunately you got more so it was just a unlucky thing for you. seeing your practise cats marks i can tell that you will definitely get your target score in quants this time.

As for me i am going to start my practice cats in a day or 2.....till date i have given many cats but mostly in pause mode and none with AWA. In my last 2 cats which i took without any pause but also without AWA I got 730 (knewton - 46,45) and veritas 700 (51,38). I have knewton and kaplan cats remaining which I will give under full test conditions with AWA. best of luck to you all . keep updated on your progress and share with us any strategy which might have helped you. one strategy which is helping me right now is that I have noted down few key points to remember on my notebook and every day when I star my study I read those points. ex -always consider x can be 0 or non-integer or negative, always check if both quadratic solutions are valid etc, look at question part of question etc etc.

Hi Aj85,

M also takingmy exam in Nov, m comfortable with Quant but SC and CR are nighmares for me as of now.My target score is 720+.Have started doing Kaplan CAT's but m nowhere near my target.
All d best 2 everyone on this thread.

Hi everyone!

Although I joined GMAT Club a while ago, this is my first post. I'm taking the GMAT on 11/28 and shooting for a 700+. I'm scoring in the high 600s on the MGMAT CATs partially timed, so these scores probably do not reflect my true score range. Unfortunately, timing is a serious issue for me. I'm using MGMAT to prepare for the exam. Studying for the GMAT while working full-time is definitely not an easy task. Good luck to all of you! =]

Hi all,

Am giving my exam on Nov 22. WOuldnt settle anything below 700. Am getting lower 600s in the mock tests and somehow should push and surpass the 700 mark. Hopefully i do it.
All the bet my fella test takers.

Hi everybody,
I am an Ex- Defense officer and after 7 years and three months of struggle with rifles and guns, I decided to brush my shoulders with corporate honchos, but i understood that i need a degree "MBA" so decided to go for GMAT and after 3 months i will be taking test on 1st Nov 2011, aiming for around 700, lets see.

Hello Guys,

Since Nov is approaching fast,lets buckle up and help each other and ourselves in the process.
Lets post our strategies,ques,pain areas and our progress.
To start with i have my date on 11/11.
I attended Kaplan's Practice weekend. There were two 7 hour sessions on Sat and Sun.
They started with 2 practice tests on both the days followed by some cool strategies for 2.5 hrs.
There is another one next weekend, do register for it if you get a chance and if time suits you(EST).
Wish u all Luck.

Good thread, Aj85..

I am planning on Nov too... As you can all see from my username, I am targeting Above 750 but would even settle for Above 700... I think am on panic mode now so would take anything but above 700 is a must.. this is a retake for me so cant afford any less...

My Quant range is 45-50.. yeah have scored 50 and 47 but some 45 too .. and verbal varies like crazy from 38 to 45... So am not really sure what the real GMAT is in store for me... but I think Verbal is my strength tho' my score doesnt always reflect it..

arpshriv, the Kaplan weekend you are talking about.. where is it and how useful did you find it?? Please let me know...

All the best to all of you out here!!

hello buddy,

Even my test is scheduled on 11/11, so we both are on same boat. Regarding strategies I think one strategy I have recently found doing me some good is eliminating sc choices which repeat subject of the sentence when not required. Mostly be on lookout for pronoun 'it' after a modifier. very often it adds to wordiness and is unnecessary. so by noticing the options in which subject of sentence gets mentioned twice without any purpose, you can save a lot of time by getting rid of such options. I will suggest saving some time for going over gmatprep documents.



hello above750,
yes same for me too, I wont be disappointed to miss 750 but 700 is a must. However unlike you I am not even sure whether quant is my main strength or verbal and like you panic attack has set in me too. Gave knewton 2nd cat today got q50 but in 12th question I took 10 minutes. The problem with me is that if I feel I can solve a question and couldnt get the answer for some reason I don't move on. Today I mistakenly read $25 as 25% and kept struggling to solve that question. After 9 minutes I realized it was $ 25 and not 25% and then solved the question correctly. I know that all experts advise to move on but I still can't do that in cats and god knows what I wll do if I get stuck in such a situation on real test.

Best of luck to all the test-takers.

Hello, plan on taking the test Nov5, incidentally my birthday as well, still need to sign up. As noted in my signature, sitting around a 700 at the moment. I plan on going MBA part-time, NYU first choice, so shooting for a 650+; however, now that I am doing so well, I really am looking to slay this GMAT beast. Also, second guessing the part-time, so looking for a big score in case I decide on full-time.

I've been taking the Knewton Online Course and couldn't recommend it enough. Definitely a big help. Took GMAT Prep 2 this past weekend and scored 710 (Q49, V38). A bit disappointed with my verbal. Haven't had a chance to review the test, but I felt there were a lot of idiom questions, like half of the SC. On Quant, only had 9 minutes for the last 8 questions and was incorrect on 6 of these, so I was well on pace for a Q50-51 if I would have had a bit more time. Quant problems seemed too easy so I kept double and triple checking the answer which is where the time went.

Anyways, I am nervous for G-Day but seem to be on track. Good luck everyone.

Knewton you say?? I took the Knewton CAT and scored 700 (Quant - 45, Verbal - 42).. and scored 690 on GMAT Prep II yesterday (Q-47, V-35) and am all confused... Am not really sure Knewton CAT is a true reflection of the score... Is the Online course better?

I also want suggestions on what other CATs I can take.. I have exhausted the GMAT prep, MGMATs and Knewton... Would like to take one or 2 more CATs to get an idea about my actual score before the actual one, any ideas?

From my understanding the Knewton CAT raw scores are quite accurate in comparison to the GMAT, although the V/Q splits are suspect. Which makes sense in regard to your scores.

Have you reset the GMAT prep software? You may see a few repeat questions, but this is how most people get extra tests.

Update: took my 5th Knewton CAT this past saturday and scored a subpar 660 (Q46:V35). Very concerned after seeing this score. I wasn't sure if this is an anomaly, but I felt my concentration flagging during the verbal section. So, I took GMATPrep1 on sunday. Scored a 720 (Q49:V39). This is my second attempt for test #1, but the first was back in early July and was my diagnostic attempt, so I'm pretty confident this is a solid score. I think I just need to take the real test. I'm so over the studying. G-day is Nov 5th.

Anyways, hope everyone else is sticking to it and seeing their scores improve.

Taking it on November 19.

I'd like high 600's- 700. Any more is gravy. I should be able to get into most programs I'm interested in, except Georgetown with even a low 600's score.

Good luck to all of you taking the test next month! I still have time before it's my turn

I'm not sure why, but I have been struggling with the Knewton Quant sections.

Recent Scores:

MGMAT 3 - 47
GMAT Prep - 49
Knewton 3 - 39
Knewton 4 - 39

All the above tests were taken within the week. I am slightly concerned, but I have to say that the questions seem slightly 'off' compared to the GMAT Prep and MGMAT questions. I can't quite put my finger on it, and it might just be in my head. Either way...the low Knewton quant scores have me concerned. My verbal has been consistently in the 35-37 range across the board...I need to get that up.

Update - Just scored a Q45/V35 on MGMAT #4.

Sure, I'm a bit inconsistent, still those 2 Knewton quant scores seem pretty low and out of whack vs. the MGMAT & GMAT Prep scores.

I thought the MGMAT quant sections were more difficult, no? Am I the only one that is cursed by the Knewton quant section?

Hey all,

I just took the GMAT on Oct 15 and got a 600 (up from a 540). I'm shooting for a 700 and going to put everything I have towards the GMAT for the next month. I'll be taking my exam the last Saturday in November. In my previous CATs, my Quant was anywhere between 38-44 and my Verbal has been dismally between 33-36.

I read that someone above is doing something similar (retaking after an October test date) so I want to post my study strategy. Feel free to offer me any suggestions or ask me any questions in my quest for the magic 700:

This time around I'm studying from 3 MGMAT guides: SC, Number Properties, and Equations, Inequalities, and VICs. I'm also getting the OG Verbal and Quant (as I've already tore through the OG 12). My goal is to study the math first, one book at a time (about 3 days to get through each book plus 1 day to do the related OG problems that MGMAT recommend at the end of each book), then study the SC just as I will with the quant. I also anticipate reviewing my MGMAT word translations book.

After I review all of the above books I'm going to analyze my practice tests (MGMAT has great analysis and breakdowns of the practice CATs) and determine if there's anything else that I need to brush up with or study. I should also mention that I plan to take 1 practice CAT a week.

I picked these books in particular because they will essentially fill the gap of where I am weak. I realized a few days before my exam, that when you look at the problem types related to difficulty, mid level quant problems are mostly Number properties, Equations, Inequalities, and VICs, and lower level geometry questions. When you start hitting the 650ish mark, you'll run into more word transalations, combinatorics, probability, and harder Geometry. There are definitly harder Algebraic questions there as well, but if your stuck at 600-650, you should focus on the harder basics (like the above books I've picked).

I'm using MGMAT because in my last test prep, I bought the word translations book and I can honestly say that I feel very comfortable with the hard topics of combinatorics, overlapping problem sets, and word problems all because of that book. Unfortunatly I could never get past the upper mid-level questions to get to those more difficult questions. I really like how the material is presented and explained. I highly recommend MGMAT to anyone looking to do more specified studying.

Sorry for the long post but again, I'm open to hearing any suggestions or answering any questions. GOOD LUCK ALL!!!