Hey Everyone!
This is my first post (and a long one
).I am new to GMAT Club but have been actively going through the threads for past 3 weeks and found them to be really helpful.I wish I had joined it earlier.Gmat Club Roxx!!
Well,I took my GMAT yesterday (10th March'10) and scored a 660 (Q48,V31).This is my first attempt and to be honest I am not excited about my score because the Verbal Part did not go so well,though the Quant score was quite encouraging.Here is how it went.
1.Both Essays went really well.
2.Took a break of 5 min and used it boost myself mentally for the Quant Section
.(I am quite good at Math and usually able to solve questions without much difficulty but I had this knack of sticking to a hard question when i encountered one during my prepTests.This used to put a lot of pressure on me timewise towards the final questions of the section.So i was very clear on pacing myself.) I Almost remember uttering myself aloud-PACE UR SELF! and sweared I would take a Guess if I encountered any hard questions that took me more than 2 minutes to solve.As expected I Did encounter one of them (somewhere in the middle Q20-25) I took a guess and Moved on.The first 15-20 odd questions were easy to solve.But i could see the level getting tougher from there on.The advantage of pacing myself was evident towards the end questions, which were really tough.I was'nt sure that I finished so strongly as I had doubt on certain DS questions which appeared towards the finish.
3.Post Quant section,(During Break) I was still thinking about whether or not I did so well on Quant.It probably played on my mind for 1-2 minutes (the last 1 or 2 DS question really got me wondering as i wasnt able to test them with values).But Anyhow i put that all aside.I had a piece of choclate and few gulps of RED Bull.
Went Back in...
4. Once I started the verbal section,I was doing good on the starting questions.But I do think i took a lot of time rechecking options per question before confirming.I encountered one RC which was particularly difficult.I had a lot of problem dealing with it.(Even during some of my prepTEST I struggled when faced with a particularly hard RC, getting all the questions wrong at one go).The one on the real GMAT was very long and had 5 questions which obviously seemed so difficult to answer.I was sure that I would have time issues.So this really set of an alarm at the back of my head after some 20 odd questions.I still tried my best to focus on the questions at hand rather than time.(I never had a problem finishing my verbal section before in any of my PrepTESTS!!!!).I had to guess answers for the last 3 Questions in order to finish on time.
I scored only a 660.The verbal score was very low.
I really wanted a 700+ Score.But,having gone through the REAL gmat experience i have a fair idea of the areas I need to work upon as I want to retake the test in 2months.
Verbal:
1. Long and Hard RC Questions
2. Time to solve/question (goes for both Q and V)
3. Strategy to breakdown Long and Complex sentences to derive the Basic Information as Quickly as possible.(Since, I belong from a Non-English Speaking country)
4. Mantaining an
Error Log (learnt about this through a thread by BB!)
Quant:
1. Data Sufficiency particularly the one's related to Numeric properties
2. Regular practice of PS (Dont want to rust!! by completely ignoring it altogether)
So far my practice involved following sources,I am not sure which books or material to refer to, which will help me the most in correcting above Problems.
My Prepartion so far:
Duration: 4Months (11 Weeks of Coaching).
(Practice content followed in order of USE)
1.
NOVA (Started from here) - Really helped in recalling all Maths Formulas
2.
GMAT VERBAL DRILL BOOK by my Coaching Institute (Mixture of Problems from Kaplan and Manhattan)
3.
Prep Test Scores-Kaplan: 570 (took During 1st Month of Prep)
-Princeton Review: 670
4.
OG12 (Finished Twice - Untimed)
5.
MGMAT CR (Really Helped,Used to be very poor at CR)
6.
Prep Test Scores:
-Princeton Review: 710
-Kaplan:630
-
MGMAT:670
-GMAT Prep1(2nd Last week):720
-GMAT Prep2(Last Week):710
-GMAT Prep1(Retake):720
7.Last day Review:
MGMAT Verbal Flash Cards and Light Quant Problems (Involving direct formula application)
Pls Advice Books,Strategy and Advance practice Content for SC,RC and CR.Any suggestions on how to use
error log efficiently.Pls feel free to pinpoint any shortcoming in my assesment.
Target Time:2 Months