From 690 to 690 to 730 (50Q and 39V)

hi there, congrats! You mentioned GC questions you can save answers and it's a godsend- would you be so kind as to send a link to this facility?

Also do you have any advice for someone who works 10 hours a day has early mornings and late nights and weekends but also needs to get 7 hours of sleep but wants to finish the GMAT by august 15th? i got a 660 the first time (44Q 39V) and want to reach for over 700+ but would be ecstatic with a 720. My weak areas are sentence correction and I hate MGMAT for this, just can't understand the book. Math- overlapping sets, probability, varies on word problems, coordinate geometry. CR is okay, I winged RC!

Thanks a ton!

totally understand the "tied to a sink" analogy, I'm writing for the FOURTH time next month.. yup, the frickin fourth time.. couldn't get myself to open the book for a week..
Btw did the Kaplan tests help? I always heard they're too tough and unrealistic?

Third time's a charm!
Congrats on the amazing score!

Sorry my dear fellow gmat clubbers, I was out of action for few days. I had to do a lot of catch up at the work and chalk out a plan for the applications. Frankly guys, it seems that being an Indian, working in IT and seeking a career change to Finance is analogous to challenging Superman for arm wrestling - only way out is if a spider bites me;).

Foremost, thank you to everyone and wish you guys all the best in your endeavor - be it GMAT or be it apps.

Anyways as I had promised here are my 2 cents -

1. Never lose focus, keep inspiring yourself. Why do you need MBA, what will happen if you don't get the score you want. I used to check out the threads of applications to top schools and their score distribution (the charts with red, black, blue , green & yellow dots). I watched movies such as Invincible, Seabiscuit, Lakshya, etc to stay on track.

2. Concentrate on fundamentals specially in math. If your basics are clear you are good e.g. if x^2 < x then x must be a +ve fraction. OR its always true that x^2 * |x| > 0

3. Don't assume - e.g.If x^2 < 121 & y^2 < 4 then it is not necessary that xy < 12 because X & y can be Fraction (x=10.9 and y=1.9).

4. If your basics are clear and you are solving 50 Q/ 40 V level questions then please don't waste money on Manhattan's advanced quant/verbal class.

5. I found that few tips switched my sentence correction from 5th to 6th gear.
- FANBOYS connect two independent sentences.
- Although, even though, despite, etc dependent clause +,+ independent clause
- Where to use - Ing modifier
- use of Past perfect (GMAC loves HAD)
- use of would
- Does the comparison make sense!

6. For slow readers such as I - Please do yourself a favor, in RC do not take notes. Come on guys you will get only 3 questions, so stick with mental notes and pause for 10 secs to check out the organization of the passage.

7. Don't spend your hard earned money on GMATPILL. I wasted 200$ and couldn't go beyond 2 lessons in CR & SC.

8. Knewton is good, specially the 13 video sessions, and I guess Dave must be its rockstar employee. Tests aren't good, verbal questions are photocopy of OG questions.

9. E-GMAT is blessing. Loved it! They cleared my -Ing modifier dilemma and As vs Like curse. Please give standing ovation to Rajat, Payal and the E-gmat team!

10. Know your strengths and more importantly embrace your weaknesses. I love maths and after 1st test I realized that you have to let go of problems, and if you know your weaknesses it makes the process easier.

e.g. I knew that inequality was my nemesis in Q, so I never spent more than 30 secs in any test after my 1st debacle.
Another e.g. I always spend 4 mins on complex sets problem, so as soon as I got a tough set, I gave it a pass.

11. Solve gmat club questions they will cement the fundamentals in your head. I did a handful of them but they were good. |Kudos| to Bunuel!

12. Solve the 700 level questions collected by BB. Great Job dude! That's what I did at work for last 10 days before exam The best thing about it is that the answers get saved into the workbook and tough questions can be reviewed later on.

13. Lastly, practice with timer and (practice with timer)^2.

Phew! I missed a few things but I am out of gas for tonight. Let me just put together a list of books that I enjoyed;) and will never read them again, Woohooo!

1. MGMAT books, a must (I must have gone through them thrice) - Unless you need 51 Q, don't buy Advanced.
2. OG 12 & 10 ( OG10 have lot more questions)
3. Stats & PS by Veritas
4. Probability & PC by Veritas
5. CR 2 by Veritas
6. RC by Veritas
7. Powerscore CR.
8. Kaplan 2013 - I liked the verbal question set.

That's enough for one post, I don't wanna to kill you with my French.

Good luck to all! Hope to see you at the Financial Valuation class at Booth in 2013 Fall.

Congrats on the 40 point jump and thanks for the tips!

I am having trouble with the Probability & slope & XY plane questions in Math.

I agree i also find the MGMAT CR & SC books not very helpful. They are just very repetitive and very tempting to just move on. Or maybe it's just me.

Hey Qweert,

Don't worry too much about probability. You will get one question in the entire test.

Regarding XY plane, take the following approach -
1. Start with just locating points on coordinate plane.
2. Then calculate distances between points
3. Construct straight line using points. (ax+by+c=0 or y=mx+c)
4. Figure out mid point of line that has two points.
5. Calculate slope of a line that has two points.
6. Slope of the line is the most tested topic in GMAT.
7. Slope of vertical, horizontal, parallel, perpendicular lines.
8. intercepts of a line with Y axis and X axis.

Try using powerscore CR and e-gmat course if you are struggling with MGMAT books. Sometimes audio visual learning expedites the process.

You can bump up your quant by at least 4 points. Just work on 25 tests by GC - 700+ is definitely reachable. Also try Jeff Sackmann's quant - I heard that they are good.

Please check your profile in gmatclub and you will see a link to workbook.

Good luck.

Great score, which schools are you applying to. Kudos to you for persisting with the GMAT for so long. You did a lot, considering you also did the egmat course (by the way, I wow them as well and credit them for my verbal score improvement).

Good luck with your application.

Hey Sumeet,

Congrats for getting '7 at hundredths place' score. Your consistency and commitment is really appreciating.

I also gave GMAT yesterday and was very disappointing to see a meager 640 at the end of my GMAT(Q47, V 31). I would like to add that even in my diagnostic test, which I gave without prep in April, I scored 650. And in my last 3-4 Tests I was consistently scoring 670+
GMATPrep Test-1: 680,
GMATPrep Test-2: 700,
MGMAT (Test-5) : 680,
Kaplan Free Test: 660,

I would not give an excuse, but during the test, in Quant, when 22 mins were remaining, I got a message on my screen,
"Your data has been lost and something...... (I don't remember)"

I called Test administrator, who unable to resolve the issue herself, called some IT guy, and finally he resolved the issue after 5-6 minutes. By that time, I had lost my concentration and tempo. After that issue, I was unable to concentrate on my test. The situation at the end of Quant was worse than any of my Mocks. In almost all my mocks, I was able to finish my Qaunt with 4-5 mins remaining, but in actual GMAT, I was left with 3 ques in last 1 min to complete. It was horrible for me.

During my prep, I felt that my score has improved to some extent (from 650 to 680) but not to the extent, I had expected, it would improve in 3 months. I had scored 95%ile & 94%ile in CAT 2010 & 2011 respectively; so, was confident about my Quant, but the area of concern was Verbal.
Now, I am planning to give GMAT again, may be in 1 - 1.5 months.

I have completed following:
1. OG-12, 13.
2. MGMAT SC
3. Powerscore Bible.
4. OG Verbal, 2nd ed.
5. 300 each in 1000 SC, RC, CR.
6. for Quant, I have completed Arihant by Verma (wonderful book for CAT prep and more detailed and difficult
than required by GMAT. Moreover, I had read it twice during my CAT prep. So, easy choice for me)

Can you please provide me the list of quality material for practice. The material which is most near to GMAT and is highest in difficulty.

I know that this is not the score that I deserve and want to get rid of this 6 at '00 place tag.

Thanks Ravs

Congrats Dude, you are an inspiration.

Wow! 640 with all this chaos is encouraging. I remember getting similar message during my 2nd exam. I gave it a pass and forgot to complain latter because I was too depressed.

Raveena, you have very good mock test scores. So please don't give up. I suggest that you take the exam again within next few months before you forget the concepts.

Please don't exhaust yourself with the toughest quant in the world. I had advanced quant from Manhattan, but did not get time to solve it. As I said in the tips - stick with the basics.

For Verbal use e-gmat.com, an amazing course for non natives. It's worth the money. This is definitely in addition to MGMAT SC and Powerscore CR. Just practice, practice and more practice. And believe me when I say that GMAT is the easiest piece of the puzzle and also the only piece under your control if you plan on applying in next 6 months.

Thanks dude. I recently received my IR and AWA. I got 8 in IR (94%) and 5 in AWA. I am surprised with the IR score because I practiced less than 10 Hours of IR and I almost ran out of time with 2 questions to solve in the exam.

Good Luck!