690 Q47 V38

Question

Hello All,
 Here is my little debrief. Took GMAT first time on Jun 20th and scored a 640. Obviously, way below the score range needed for Booth and Kellog's. These are the only two schools that I'm aiming for. So, enrolled in Kaplan's advanced class for GMAT. (based on my score above 600). I don't know about Kaplan's books that are available in stores, but their in-class material and teaching is way too good. They are particular about enrolling people who score above 600 in their advanced program. The classes therefore are of good quality. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and felt confident before attempting one more time.

Now, coming to the actual test. Felt Q to be a little tough this time. The first question threw me off. It was a number properties based question that took 4 minutes to try out all scenarios, but started cruising after that until I hit Question no. 18, started to get really tough around there. On hindsight, I should have passed-on 2 or 3 questions, my score would've been a lot higher.Towards the end, I had to give up on relatively easy questions because I did not have time. I feel the test now has a lot of co-ordinate geometry questions these days. Had I just been a bit careful with my time management, I could crossed into 700 club.

Verbal was actually easier than what I had thought it would be. Around question 12 though, I had this phase where I just froze. I have no idea why, I was just reading the sentences and not comprehending it. Wasted sometime there before I could refocus my attention on the test. I guess this is where GMAT tires you out. Anyways, reading comprehensions were way too comprehensible than those that I had encountered in Kaplan's tests. Was actually expecting a 40+ in Verbal based on how well I did. Apparently, I did not do that well. I did feel a little bit constrained by time towards the end. All that said, I'm now done with this test.

My question to gurus here, I plan to app for part-time MBA program's in either Booth or Kellog. Do I need to take GMAT another time. I have 7 years work experience in US. I also have MS in Computer Science with a GPA of 3.7. I have extensively worked in start up companies and would like to focus my MBA on entrepreneurship. I do have extra-curricular activities in my UG but not a lot in my MS.

How do you guys rate my chances at either of these schools? Do I need to re-take GMAT?

Thanks - Vik

hoogly · Answer

With the kind of experience and GPA, I feel you could give a worthy try to send in your applications. Pep up your application essays and work more on them first. Check out the median and average gmat scores of their previous class and you may observer that 710 is the median meaning there are quite a few around 680 who got admitted. Its all about your profile and how you portray it.

Neither if you are in a hurry to apply for this year or do not mind trying for next year, yes re take gmat and send in apps for next year.

Neither if you are in a hurry to apply for this year or do not mind trying for next year, yes re take gmat and send in apps for next year.

samramandy · Answer

Hi Vikram,

That is a very competitive score. I would suggest you to work on your apps now.
Make them look good so that they can buy it.

BR
Mandeep

suraabhi · Answer

HI Vikram,

Can you please give us information on the changes in real GMAT compared to all the infromation flowing on the forum.

Did your KAPLAN course helped you tackle the changes seen in SC. I am also doing KAPLAN online course and here is what i feel.

- Quant (very easy)
- Verbal
 - RC (good)
 - CR (not in same mood as you see in real GMAT)
 - SC (oakish)

Thanks

geevikram · Answer

I don't think you should look at their questions per-se. Look at their strategies. They teach techniques which will very likely be useful on T-day. I actually remember solving one problem using their substitution approach and got the answer in less than 30 seconds. Solving it the way I would've typically done (engineer, so algebra is my forte) would have taken me atleast a min and half. Savings like these will help your overall score. I don't totally agree that Kaplan's quants are very easy. If you start getting a lot of them correct in your test, you will start to see really tough questions. When I took my test, I did not follow their strategy for one question, give up if you cannot figure it out in 2 minutes, that cost me dearly as I ran out of time. But their overall strategy really helped me. I was confident that I will fall in this range (47 to 49).

Verbal,
Their RC is too good. I don't think I ever got all of Kaplan's RC questions correct, but in the real GMAT, I felt the passages to be too easy. Must have lost one or two questions tops.

CR is comparable until you start seeing 700 level questions. It's a different ball game then. I had couple of questions that were way too close. Again, bad time management. I should've given up on those questions and moved on. Sentence completion is not even close is what I would say. The answer choices in real GMAT are so close, in fact this time I found a question that used "tend to" construct in two different ways. They both were grammatically correct. It was very difficult to differentiate the right from wrong. I would strongly suggest that you use OG12 and Verbal supplement for sentence completion. Just stick with Kaplan for RC and use a mixture of Kaplan and OG for SC. IF you are in Kaplan's advanced course, use their advanced booklet, it has very few questions, but some of them are really good.

But most importantly, manage your time well on the test day. I'm positive that I would've scored 20 to 30 more points with better time management. It doesn't help if you have to solve a SC or a CR in 30 secs.

Let me know if you have any questions.

-Vikram

suraabhi · Answer

Thanks for the feedback Vikram. I am not doing on-demand course and not advanced course as i could not do it due to time difference.
Definitely helps a lot.

Capricorn369 · Answer

Hi Vikram,

Congratulations for the score and I personally feel that it is very competitive score. You should now concentrate on your apps and make it a strong case. Try to make a pefect story and use your rich experience as a sword to kill.

I'm my GMAT in 20 days. I'll apprecite if you can respond the below.
1. What was the Verbal split (SC/CR/RC).
2. How was SC? Did you find any Idiom in any SC? Any recommendations/insight on SC?
3. Lately, other GMAT takers are complaining about monster RCs. Good to know you got easy ones. Any insight on this?
3. How do you approach verbal overall? I need the same score as yours V38-V40.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

Thanks in advance! Cheers!

brandy96 · Answer

great Score! I don't think for part-time course you should be worried for score. Work extensively on your apps. That should be key in getting you in.

geevikram · Answer

1) I got the normal split. Around 14-15 SC, 13-14 CR and 12-14 RC questions. 
2) I don't remember the exact SC's, I'm actually pretty decent in SC. I had couple of questions that were too close. What I mean it, grammatically there were no errors in either of them. Just have Manhattan SC book at the back of your head and practice 1000 SC documents.Take 30 to 40 questions from each hundred (as they are in alphabetical order) and try to apply these rules. If you diligently follow the rules in Manhattan SC, you will start to see patterns and will figure out the issues with SC, right away.
3) I think for RC, Kaplan made a huge difference. Their classroom strategies were just too good. I was able to spot the trick's that GMAC plays and learnt to avoid them. To that effect, my tutor was truly good. He definitely was aware of what he was doing.
4) If you can start, reading NYT or Economist or Wall street journals on a regular basis. Your reading stamina will improve. Their quality of writing is very representative of GMAC. Also, try spotting error in those journals (they do not confirm to GMAC's rulebook). This will improve your verbal proficiency.

Raghavender · Answer

Hey Vikram, 
congrats on your score.
Could you please post all your practice test scores.

Thanks,
Raghu

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