650, 680, and today, 10/6/07...740! 46Q, 45V UPDATE:AWA 6.0

Question

Hello all! Took that stupid f'ing exam for the last bloody time today, and nailed it! I am so excited, and so immensely grateful for the help and encouragement I've gleaned from this site over the past year +. Just wanted to share the good news. If I can do it, so can you!!!
Big bear hugs to all,
Uphillclimb

Ravshonbek · Answer

wow, u shattered the verbal!!!
great!!!

good luck

beckee529 · Answer

nice improvement.. congrats!!

Juaz · Answer

Amazing Score!.....Congratulations!!! Party hard Saturday night :-D

b14kumar · Answer

You have climbed a pinnacle!!

Congratulations for your wonderful show!!

- Brajesh

uphillclimb · Answer

Thank you for all for your good wishes! I have had a few glasses of champagne but wanted to give a a quick download of how I went about things. First, my vitals:
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Occupation: Writer/Musician. Brief stint as a banker on Wall Street for 5 years right after college. (HATED it!)
Current Day Job: At new PE firm. Started off as CEO's assistant, but raised my hand a lot when people were assigning projects, and now handle investor relations/office management/you name it, I probably do it. Doubled my salary and bonus in one year. LOVE the finance world! Ha!
GOAL: To start my own movie/multimedia production company. Maybe not straight out of the gate after B-school, but eventually. Other interests include creating video games and perhaps wine-making. I like to have a good spread.

GMAT prep: Hadn't taken a class since college. Took Kaplan private tutoring, which was helpful, but not enough, given my weak math skills level. Was so irritated over my poor showing (650 - 38Q, 41V) that I studied on my own for another month, and tried again. 680 - 40Q, 42V. Decided maybe a math class was in order. Took a precalculus class down at NYU. Studied hard. Aced it. Signed up for ManhattanGMAT group class (I was determined to leave no stone unturned, this time) this fall. Class was amazing, far more academically oriented than Kaplan, and just what the doctor ordered. Found the class and all of the MGMAT books (not just the Sentence Correction) really helpful. Was still not happy with my CR performance. At the recommendation of someone on this site (can't remember who - sorry) purchased Powerscore Critical Reasoning book. Went through it, hard. Then came back to this site for a few weeks and worked every problem I could get my hands on. Then took Powerprep tests and GMATprep tests.

Scores were:
Powerprep 1: 740
Powerprep 2: 710
GMATprep 1, first time: 730
GMATprep 2, first time: 770
GMATprep 1, second time: 770
GMATprep 2, second time: 740

Final score today: 740, 46Q, 45 V.

Target schools: Columbia (fantastic media program), HAAS (ditto - more digital media, but still - also great exchange program first semester second year). Going to visit Harvard next Monday, sit in on a class, meet the people, etc. Long shot, yes, but who knows.
Was told to look at Stanford, but, while I've led an interesting life thus far, I have not started an orphanage for legless goatherds in the eastern mountains of Sasquatch, which is kind of what I feel like Stanford looks for!

Off to drink more champagne. If anyone has any further questions about my prep, by all means ask.

Advice for newbies to the site: Don't be afraid to ask questions or post problems, even if you suspect the problems are really, really basic. People here are amazingly generous with their time and their explanations. Very rarely, you will get some snotbag who, while answering your question, will imply that the problem was so easy that his pet chimpanzee could have handled it blindfolded. You will ignore said snotbag, and concentrate on your goal. Try your hand at the problems other people post, and read the explanations. I learned a great deal from this site, including some very useful shortcuts - invaluable info when one is preparing for a timed exam.

Blessings on all of you. May all your dreams come true! :-D

ColumbiaDream · Answer

Congrats UphillClimb. Enjoyed your debrief. Good luck on the apps

GMATBLACKBELT · Answer

wow! very nice score. Congrats!

rosellecs · Answer

Awesome!!!! How many months did you prepare for after getting the 680 score - before you took it the last time?

Ferihere · Answer

Awesome!!! NO NEED for extra comments!!!

Fistail · Answer

Grate!

Congrats for your wonderful score. 
Goodluck for your MBA program.

 


Can you please write some more about it/ How helpful is it? Is it Powerscore GMAT CR or Powerscore LSAT CR? 

Thanks a ton.......

uphillclimb · Answer

Well, I took the GMATfor the second time in November of '06. It was at that point that I decided I really needed to take an actual math class. I realized the last math I took was probably 9th grade algebra (was in conservatory at the time, for piano, and got away with not having to take a lot of basics! Bad...) So I signed up for the spring term session of precalculus in the night school at NYU. Class began in February and concluded in early May. I then went to Italy on a badly needed vacation, came back and signed up for a summer session at MGMAT. That was a 9 week class, and it concluded in mid-August. Wanted to give myself a little time to really let the concepts sink in, so scheduled my exam for yesterday. So I waited nearly a year before taking the GMAT again, but you needn't take my experience as gospel at all. If, like many people on this site, you already have a good quant background, etc., then you could probably give yourself a couple of months at the most to study, and do quite well. I personally just felt really discouraged and sad and behind the 8-ball, so to speak, so I gave myself my own little GMAT bootcamp!

uphillclimb · Answer

I purchased the Powerscore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible. I found it tremendously helpful. It is so clear, and gives step by step instructions on exactly what to look for and how to attack each type of question. At the end of each section on a particular type of question, ie, strengthen , weaken, method of reasoning, resolve the paradox, etc. the book provides a quick "cheat sheet" of sorts that summarizes the key points of the chapter. I swear I don't work for the company that publishes this thing - LOL - but I really cannot recommend it enough! It has every single type of question the GMAT could possibly throw at you. I knew my CR was weak, and I also knew that I was already doing reasonably well in the verbal section to begin with, so I would probably see the "rarer" type of CR questions, and I really needed help with them. And I was right! I had a double bolded (Argument Part) quesiton, a Resolve the Paradox Question, a Flaw in the Reasoning Question, a Parallel Reasoning Question, and an Evaluate the Argument question!!

Also, I understand from other people who have used both this book and the Powerscore LSAT CR book, that the GMAT one has many of the same examples used in the LSAT one. So you are really getting a great mental workout!

Fistail · Answer

Thanks uphillclimb for your detail debrief about Powerscore Gmat CR Book.
I have LSAT one but I will still trying getting GMAT one too.

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