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# How I earned a 690! Motivational Brief!

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Current Student
Joined: 30 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
Location: United States
GMAT 1: 510 Q34 V28
GMAT 2: 580 Q35 V35
GMAT 3: 640 Q34 V44
GMAT 4: 690 Q43 V42
GPA: 3.61
WE: Education (Education)
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How I earned a 690! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  26 Jul 2013, 16:37
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I took my GMAT exam this morning. This was my fourth and final attempt. Score: 700!!!! Initial score: 510. Improvement: 190!

During my preparation I benefited greatly from reading others’ GMAT debriefs and can only hope that my debrief proves useful to someone as well. Before I get into the details regarding specific resources and strategies, I want to take a second to acknowledge a few facts and to motivate each of you to keep working hard.

First, the GMAT is a separation mechanism; its intended purpose is NOT for everyone to get a 700 score. Whether the exam is “difficult” per se depends on one’s definition of difficult I suppose. But based on student results, it is not easy to get a score in the top 15%. I believe that it is essential to acknowledge this fact, deal with it, and move on. While it may be “unlikely” to get a 700 score, it is certainly not impossible and you must not believe that it is. Treat the GMAT as a war, where YOU are the warrior. You will sometimes experience defeat (as when you score low on practice tests, etc) but no great war has ever been won easily. As the great warrior that you are, you treat defeats as learning experiences that will aid you in ultimately winning the war! Believe that you can and you will!

Now, a quick summary of my GMAT results. I will not get into too many specifics regarding each of the first three tries as I do not think they will provide useful information. Scores were as follows: 510, 580 and 640, respectively. The main piece regarding the first three administrations is this: DO NOT SIMPLY DO QUESTION AFTER QUESTION WITHOUT REVIEWING CONCEPTS. Despite reading over and over that focusing on concepts was crucial, I did not listen and simply worked through the OG and PowerPrep Quant questions. My results: on each of the first three exams I scored in the 35th percentile for Quant. 35, 35, 35, respectively!!! No improvement.

Fourth try

I went back to the drawing board and began with decimals and fractions. I used the Manhattan Guides as a general outline. I would then fill in the gaps with info from Total GMAT (book). If something was still unclear to me, I would look up information on the web. Of course, I also made use of the forum when a question was particularly difficult. When I got to coordinate geometry, I knew that I remembered nothing from middle school so I actually took two full days to relearn the basics. Since the MG and Total GMAT book did not provide basic info, I looked up the topic on YouTube. I found several videos by a middle school teacher; he explained the basic concepts thoroughly. I used this approach for every topic that is outlined in either Total GMAT or the MG. [Please note that since I’m a teacher myself, I had all summer to work on my preparation. Each day I worked at least 8 hours going through the material.] I spent 45 days reviewing basic math skills that I had forgotten. Again, I used OG, MG, Total GMAT ($50), web (free advice from other GMAT companies), and YouTube. I also purchased the GMATPREP Question Pack I ($29). I did not work on any questions from OG or GMAT prep during the 45 days. I did not take any practice tests either.

After relearning some of the basic concepts, I then began to redo all the questions in the OG. I still struggled with some of the challenging questions but I was getting all the easy questions correct and I understood the reasoning behind the answer! I did the questions untimed. I answered about 75% of the questions. Again this was untimed. This took about 5 days.

After the fifth day, I decided to take one of the GMAT PREP exams. I had seen the questions during my earlier study attempts but did not remember most of them. I scored a 690! I realized that the score may have been inflated since I did recall some of the verbal questions but my main reason for taking the test was to see how I did with math. I used the next TWO days to do all 494 questions on the GMATPrep package. I solved each of these questions under “exam” mode, which has a screen clock that warns you once you have spent excessive time on a particular question. I answered the questions in sets of 20, including easy, medium, and hard questions in each set. I was getting most of the easy and medium questions right and about 40 to 50 percent of hard questions correct. Since I had completely ignored the verbal portion during my preparation for the fourth attempt, I decided to do all of the verbal questions on GMATPrep as well and answered about 90 percent of all questions correctly.

I then decided to take one of the Manhattan Practice tests. I got through 4 or 5 quant questions and quickly realized that the questions were more challenging than the ones on GMATPrep. I had read on the forums that Manhattan GMAT CATs were not reflective of the real GMAT so I quit the exam. Because I had worked out all the questions on the OG and GMATPrep, I had also developed an intuition for how the GMAT questions should look like. Manhattan’s CAT questions had a different format. Rather than attempt other Manhattan CAT’s, I decided to take the second GMATPrep exam. I scored a 710. Again, I knew that the score could be inflated given that I remembered some of the verbal but I felt confident with the quant. This was yesterday.

I had not planned to take the test until after my trip to Cancun next week. However, I figured that it would not be fair to my girlfriend if I spent some of my Cancun time buried in GMAT books. Plus I did not think that waiting another week would provide additional benefit. So I registered to take the test! I scheduled the test for TODAY!

Test Day

Best of luck and gig’em!

Jose

Last edited by josemnz83 on 20 Oct 2013, 07:32, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  26 Jul 2013, 21:24
Great Debrief. These stories are inspiring to see great improvement by 190 points. Any tips on your improvement in verbal score. You went from V 28 to V 43 ( Big Jump)
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Amazing Free video explanation for all Quant questions from OG 13 and much more http://www.gmatquantum.com/og13th/

GMAT Prep software What if scenarios gmat-prep-software-analysis-and-what-if-scenarios-146146.html

Current Student
Joined: 30 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
Location: United States
GMAT 1: 510 Q34 V28
GMAT 2: 580 Q35 V35
GMAT 3: 640 Q34 V44
GMAT 4: 690 Q43 V42
GPA: 3.61
WE: Education (Education)
Followers: 11

Kudos [?]: 111 [0], given: 16

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  26 Jul 2013, 21:58
Sure! The easiest section to improve in verbal is SC. There are about 10 specific "tricks" that you can use to eliminate wrong answer choices. I can provide specific examples tomorrow. I'm in bed already lol.

RC can be improved by first and foremost identifying the author's purpose as well as his tone toward the subject. This holds true even if it passage deals with non-fiction. Another important component is the author's use of "signal" words that indicate 1) opposing views, 2) additional support, 3) qualification of earlier statements, etc. Examples of these words include words such as however, but, as long as, etc.

Arguments. The key to solving the arguments is to understand what question is asking and to read carefully. Think of it them as if you were an attorney who was was either finding fauls or finding ways to strengthen them. Sorry about not being too specific with this last type of question.

Hope that this helps some. Try to use only GMAC material. Manhattan is too easy. I scored 99th percentile on almost all Manhattan verbal tests. I would gladly answer any other questions so don't hesitate to ask! Time for bed though!

Jose

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Joined: 07 Oct 2012
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Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Finance
GMAT 1: 640 Q45 V33
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Kudos [?]: 11 [0], given: 7

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  27 Jul 2013, 01:05
Amazing, inspiring. Thats the reason i like to spend some time on GC! Congratulations!
MBA Blogger
Joined: 13 Apr 2013
Posts: 103
Concentration: General Management, Nonprofit
Schools: Cambridge'16 (S)
GMAT 1: 510 Q25 V36
GMAT 2: 510 Q29 V31
GMAT 3: 590 Q32 V38
WE: Research (Non-Profit and Government)
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Kudos [?]: 26 [0], given: 9

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  27 Jul 2013, 02:48
Thanks, very useful tips on improving the quant score.

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Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  27 Jul 2013, 07:36
Hi!
Great debrief!!!

I was wondering how you tackled RC. were your reading the whole passage while taking notes or just skimmed through it?
Thanks!
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Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  27 Jul 2013, 12:20
very inspirational. thank you very much!
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Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  27 Jul 2013, 16:01
josemnz83 wrote:
Sure! The easiest section to improve in verbal is SC. There are about 10 specific "tricks" that you can use to eliminate wrong answer choices. I can provide specific examples tomorrow. I'm in bed already lol.

Btw, congrats on an amazing score. Your debrief is quite inspiring and really walks the reader through a great journey with a "happy ending"

Best of luck to you in your apps!

~ Im2bz2p345
Current Student
Joined: 30 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
Location: United States
GMAT 1: 510 Q34 V28
GMAT 2: 580 Q35 V35
GMAT 3: 640 Q34 V44
GMAT 4: 690 Q43 V42
GPA: 3.61
WE: Education (Education)
Followers: 11

Kudos [?]: 111 [0], given: 16

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  28 Jul 2013, 10:22
Thanks everyone and sorry about the late response. I'm traveling to Cancun tomorrow and have been really busy. I will post the first 5 tips this afternoon. I want to write them in a way that is easy to understand and apply.

Jose

Im2bz2p345 wrote:
josemnz83 wrote:
Sure! The easiest section to improve in verbal is SC. There are about 10 specific "tricks" that you can use to eliminate wrong answer choices. I can provide specific examples tomorrow. I'm in bed already lol.

Btw, congrats on an amazing score. Your debrief is quite inspiring and really walks the reader through a great journey with a "happy ending"

Best of luck to you in your apps!

~ Im2bz2p345
Intern
Joined: 29 Jul 2013
Posts: 1
Followers: 0

Kudos [?]: 0 [0], given: 0

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  01 Aug 2013, 07:38
Hi Jose,

This is fantastic! congratulations. Can you please point me to the tips that you provided for improving verbal score? I think it could help me immensely.

Thanks!
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Joined: 01 Dec 2010
Posts: 43
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Kudos [?]: 4 [0], given: 0

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  02 Aug 2013, 03:27
Jose great brief, I was in a similar boat Verbal / Quant-wise so fantastic job!
Current Student
Status: #TeamFuqua
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 123
Location: United States
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
GMAT 1: 580 Q37 V32
GMAT 2: 570 Q36 V32
GMAT 3: 680 Q44 V40
WE: Consulting (Consulting)
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Kudos [?]: 29 [0], given: 205

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  08 Aug 2013, 18:40
Congratulations Jose! Hope you had a great time in Cancun after a successful GMAT. Your debrief was very encouraging. You mention the 10 types of SC. Could you elaborate on how you went about preparing to solve those? Was it the same method as your Quant - doing the complete OG and analyzing? Or the standard MGMAT strategy guides material?

Cheers,
_________________

-MBAJunkie

Current Student
Joined: 30 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
Location: United States
GMAT 1: 510 Q34 V28
GMAT 2: 580 Q35 V35
GMAT 3: 640 Q34 V44
GMAT 4: 690 Q43 V42
GPA: 3.61
WE: Education (Education)
Followers: 11

Kudos [?]: 111 [0], given: 16

Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief! [#permalink]  08 Aug 2013, 18:50
Let me know if you have had a chance to check out the link below. I posted some specific strategies for SC questions.

Jose

jose-s-5-tricks-for-sentence-correction-questions-156855.html

MBAjunkie16 wrote:
Congratulations Jose! Hope you had a great time in Cancun after a successful GMAT. Your debrief was very encouraging. You mention the 10 types of SC. Could you elaborate on how you went about preparing to solve those? Was it the same method as your Quant - doing the complete OG and analyzing? Or the standard MGMAT strategy guides material?

Cheers,
Re: How I earned a 700! Motivational Brief!   [#permalink] 08 Aug 2013, 18:50
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