Done - 730 (50Q, 38V) - thanks a lot guys

Hi Guys,

First of all I would like to say thanks to GMATClub and all the members on the forum . This forum has really helped me a lot in planning out my work, getting my queries resolved and providing extra practice material. I would certainly say that without help of all you guys, probably I couldn't have got this score.

Anyway, its time now that I should share my experience. I would feel really glad if this post of mine could be of some help to others.

Since there are already so many detailed write-ups, I will try to keep it brief

My Progress Report

Started with Kaplan Premier and then followed by Kaplan 800

• Kaplan CAT - 1st Attempt
  Test 1 : 560 (50Q, 23V)
  Test 2 : 590 (41Q, 30V)
  Test 3 : 550 (40Q, 23V)
  Test 4 : 590 (40Q, 32V)
  
  I was devastated with my above score. Went through the whole Kaplan Premier and Kaplan 800 once again, understanding each and every question and their explanations.
• Kaplan CAT - 2nd Attempt
  Test 1 : 620 (50Q, 31V)
  Test 2 : 660 (41Q, 37V)
  Test 3 : 610 (50Q, 30V)
  
  Started with the real stuff to get a feel of where I stand
• GMATPrep - 1st Attempt
  Test 1 : 680 (50Q, 32V)
  Test 2 : 600 (47Q, 27V)
  Problem area identified - Inequalities, coordinate geometry, statistics, probability, SC and reading speed.
  
  Completed OG 11, trying to understand each and every problem.
• GMATPrep - 2nd Attempt(1-2 questions repeated)
  Test 1 : 700 (50Q, 34V)
  Test 2 : 670 (48Q, 34V)
  Problem area identified - coordinate geometry, probability, SC and reading speed.
  
  Completed Manhattan SC guide, OG 11 SC section once again, OG Verbal review, and for quant went through my High School Mathematics book and practiced GMATClub Quant tests. Worked on improving verbal speed.
• GMATPrep - 3rd Attempt(10% questions repeated)
  Test 1 : 710 (50Q, 38V)
  Test 2 : 720 (50Q, 37V)
  This is just 2 days before the actual test.
  Problem area identified - DS and SC were still a problem. Keeping this in my mind, worked carefully on DS during actual test.

Preparation Time
Around 3 months, on an average 2 hrs daily (stretching to around 8 hrs in the last few days)

Study Material used
1. Kaplan Premier (nice book to start with)
2. Kaplan 800 (overall a good book, but certainly not of 800 level)
3. OG 11 (Must have book)
4. Manhattan SC Guide (Must have book)
5. OG Verbal Review (Must have book for additional practice)
6. Some high school Mathematics book (good for refreshing concepts and practice for selected topics)
7. GMATPrep tests (this is the real thing, questions similar to actual GMAT)
8. GMAT Club Quant tests (very good questions, though I could attempt only 6-7 tests)
9. GMAT Paper Tests (good for Verbal practice, quant questions are very-very easy)

Improving Speed in Verbal
* I started reading editorials in English daily news paper. One trick to improve speed is to scan the sentences rather then reading word by word. If you practice daily you would certainly feel the difference in 1 month.

* Solving GMAT Paper tests (Verbal section) in strict time condition. Each paper test has around 22 SC, 16 CR and 22 RC questions as separate sections, with 25 mins allocated for each section.

* While working on speed, don't bother much about the accuracy rate. If you are able to complete the entire section, than a lower accuracy rate would also give better results.

Time-scale
After attempting few tests, I realized I was not able to keep track of the time and towards the end I always had to guess in around 7-8 questions. I was getting frustrated, so I devised a Time-scale (which actually worked for me).



This may sound crazy, but before I started my test, I wrote down this time-scale on my notebook and strictly followed it till the end of exam.

As I promised I have kept my exp brief .

Last but not the least, try to solve questions posted by others on GMAT forums. And PLEASE do post your explanations as well everytime you post your answers. By providing explanations to others you'll learn a lot of new things and get your concepts clear.

Suerpb score, and nice post, congrats and all the best for your Apps.

bigoyal ,
Congrats on great score. thanks for the nice debrief.

Goodluck with the app process. which schools are you considering?

Great score and great post. Thanks for sharing your books and your approach. I agree about the timescale--mine was a little different but it was ultimately a big help to managing pace. Good luck on the rest of the journey.

Congrats Bigoyal for a superb score! You really nailed it.
Could you throw some light on time scale and reading speed? How did you manage to stick to your time scale? I mean did you guess questions to stick to time scale or did you solve the problems (ones you could solve but were taking bit more time) even if you were lagging behind.
I agree with you about completing a test is more important. Once again congrats!

Big Congrats, and you truly deserve it! I've seen your posts and they have been very helpful.

I noticed something, you mentioned :

GMATPrep - 3rd Attempt(10% questions repeated)
Test 1 : 710 (50Q, 38V)

...however, on your actual GMAT, with the same breakup, you nailed : 730! Its interesting

great score,congratulations !

Great score !!!

Great write up and fantastic score! Good luck with apps

Great Score and nice write-up!

It's good to see people from the forum coming out with good scores.
Best of Luck in applications!

Great job! Nice job on the quant section!!! I'm envious!

You've certainly travelled a long way there. Congratulation!

Congratulations! All the best for your Apps.

Congratulations!

Quick question on quant and verbal

Quant - How did you prepare for difficult questions (700+). from your post it seems you just did OG/Kaplan and some GMATCLUB tests. Looks like quant was your inherent strength

Verbals - Since you used only OG + supplements for verbals...how would you compare it to the actual gmat

thanks and good luck with ur apps!

Great job. Congratulations!

Regarding Time-scale:
During the exam, I used my time-scale to periodically check how much I was lagging behind. For example, when 40 mins left, I should have already attempted 16 quant questions (or 19 verbal). If you notice, I have kept lesser time for first few questions in quant, i.e. 8 questions in 1st 15 mins since initial questions in quant are easier. The next 10-15 questions in quant are generally very time consuming.

If I was lagging behind by just 1-2 questions by the time 40 mins is over, I tried to speed up the things, and yes certainly I guessed in 2-3 questions randomly in the last 20 mins. But this guess-work was also scattered (and mostly intelligent guesses), instead of panicking in the end and concentrating all the guesses in the last few questions.

One more tip, try to nail some of the most difficult questions which GMAT will start throwing after around 15 mins. This will shoot your score. But again towards the end you'll start getting easier questions.

Regarding reading speed:
Generally when we read any article, we tend to repeat words in our mouth (or brain) which slows down the process of reading. Whereas most of the fast readers just glance at the sentences. Our brain is really capable of doing that, provided we do some practice. Start reading small easy articles without repeating words in your brain. It will take some time to get accustomed to this...... it worked in my case to a certain extent.

yes, thats a surprise to me as well. And did you notice my GMATPrep Test 2 scores, which was 720 (50Q, 37V), with scores in verbal less than Test 1 score and overall score higher.

Yes, quant has always been my strong point. But anyway, after attempting GMATPrep tests, I figured out some of my weak areas in quant. To practice on these weak areas I picked up a high school mathematics book, reviewed all the concepts and attempted the exercises generally given for those high school students. GMATCLUB tests were also very helpful for practicing the difficult questions. GMATPrep tests are also a very good practice.


Actual gmat questions were difficult as compared to OG 11. Somehow I found Verbal review better than OG 11. But its only the GMATPrep tests, which actually reflects the same level of difficulty.

congrats! nice job!

Thanks for the details.