i took the test today and was completely surprised. i had taken probably 10 practice tests and never really had any trouble with the math section. the math on the real test today was definitely much harder than any practice test i had ever seen. it really threw me off because normally on most practice tests i was able to focus more of my efforts on the verbal. there were a few questions on the math section that i couldn't even do if you gave me 3 hours to finish it - i simply had no idea where the problem was coming from.

when i had finished the math section and began the verbal, i was kinda surprised to see that questions 2-5 and 6-8 on the verbal were reading comp. the people at kaplan said that reading comp wouldn't kick in until maybe question 7 or 8. although this threw me off, i think (obviously i am not sure) that these passages were not very difficult. there were several times when i felt like throwing in the towel because i assumed that i had blown the math section, and my verbal was always worse than the math, but i just kept with it. when i got my score i was shocked to find that i was able to pull of a 650. normally i would be just satisfied with the results, but considering how hard the math was i was estatic. i really think that no review could have prepared me for some of the questions that were asked on the math.

i am wondering if anyone else feels the same. please respond.

What are your raw scores ?

If you taken all GMAT Powerprep, the reading comp comes first then a marathon starts between CR and some hard SC.

VT

Hi there,
Did u find the quest in actual test tougher than the toughest ones in Kaplan CD...were the quest after first 10 equally tough?..a post in this forum says that easy quest start coming after first 10-20 quest.whats yr opinion?what were yr Kaplan CD quant scaled scores??

Goldsjo,

Congrats on the 650 - that's still a great score. Can you offer more insight into why the math was so hard? Was it a specific category of questions (e.g. perm/combinations, stats), new content or just difficult wording?

I'm taking my GMAT on Saturday and would appreciate any insight you may have!

Thanks
Jess

Welcome OnBoard!

I do find what you remember from probability not so accurate. If Joe were to sit in a seat, the seats are all different. That is sitting in AB is different from sitting in BA.

Did it feel like the PowerPrep- remember we did see some difficult questions there too. DS should be from what I heard.

VT

has anyone tried the probability question:

i got 24 ways as answer.

Do not agree that the answer is 24.
Answer is 60 = 3! x (1+2+3+4)

I agree with Dmitry above.

The way I thought about it was there are 3! possible arrangements for every acceptable arrangement of J and M. There are 10 (4+3+2+1) acceptable arrangements of J and M, so 3! x 10 = 60

Yes you guys are correct. I did not take into account that there are 10 ways not four ways for Joe to be in front of Mary. You see, not only will nervousness get you on the GMAT but carelessness will also.

If I recall correctly, 60 was one of the answers. I think the choices were like:120, 90, 60, 30, (15)

No wonder I don't remember 24 being one of them. Man, I am still careless after the test but I think I guessed 60 on the test!

Lucky