700 debrief(Do not let your score drop from 750 to 700)

You're right; I've felt the same but I guess I try to pull back myself to immerse my thoughts into the question.


Anyway, I just wanted to update this post with what I'm doing - I started my prep again about a month back and have taken 3 tests so far:
1. knewton2 - score 640 - was hugely disappointed and felt that perhaps my gmat score was right.

2. went back to mgmat3 - score 770 - happy but then felt that perhaps my thinking matches with mgmat pattern and so I score more plus it was a revision test so score will be inflated.

3. today, I took Knewton3 - score 750 - happy that my score is good not only in mgmat but also in knewton.

All these scores are without coffee or any big break - just a normal 3-4min break.

I'm hoping to continue scoring above 740 and then take the 2nd gmat test.

I'm a morning person as well, I prefer to get it done as early in the day as possible. No need to have that cloud looming over me all day

I contacted the GMAT guys and got the following response :
Thank you for contacting Pearson VUE. All of our Pearson VUE testing
centers proctor different types of exams. Candidates are provided with
ear plugs and headphones to help block out noise from other candidates
in the testing room.

If you have any further questions or inquiries, please contact us again.

Btw, I too would like to retake the exam. Now ,I am intrigued by Knewton's 50 point guarantee but I have heard/read that the Knewton course is useful only for people scoring in mid 600 or below. I didn't happen to come across a lot of success stories of people that have an initial score of 700 and then improved by 50 points (using Knewton alone)
Any thoughts on this? If I enrol and start my prep from June (using Knewton)and give in two months..can I significantly improve my initial score of 700?

Other than giving tests are your practicing something else.
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As you have passed the 700- standard, I think the best option is to practice on your own. Review mistakes , your weaknesses as well as your strengths regularly

I haven't started my prep yet, plan to start from June.

I used the Manhattan series books(SC,CR,RC) and Powerscore (CR) along with OG 12 and Nova maths for the first time.And used the Manhattan SC Tests.

As someone has rightly said in this debrief and these are not enough and practice is the key. As I have scope of improvement in both QA and VA ,I do not plan to only take mock tests , rather I would like to review the material again from scratch. But I would like to do this in an organized way and at the same time I don't want to depend only on the above mentioned resources.
I think my areas of improvement are DS , CR and RC.

Before starting my prep again, I would like to identify all the resources and then devote 2 months. Can anybody give his/her opinion about which resources could be used?(I have already shortlisted Sackmann after reading this debrief) Is Knewton safe enough to for someone already scorin 700?
What are the best available resources for Verbal if we don't consider Manhattan and Aristotle?

I haven't started my prep yet, plan to start from June.

I used the Manhattan series books(SC,CR,RC) and Powerscore (CR) along with OG 12 and Nova maths for the first time.And used the Manhattan SC Tests.

As someone has rightly said in this debrief and these are not enough and practice is the key. As I have scope of improvement in both QA and VA ,I do not plan to only take mock tests , rather I would like to review the material again from scratch. But I would like to do this in an organized way and at the same time I don't want to depend only on the above mentioned resources.
I think my areas of improvement are DS , CR and RC.

Before starting my prep again, I would like to identify all the resources and then devote 2 months. Can anybody give his/her opinion about which resources could be used?(I have already shortlisted Sackmann after reading this debrief) Is Knewton safe enough to for someone already scorin 700?
What are the best available resources for Verbal if we don't consider Manhattan and Aristotle?

You scored 700 => You know stuffs,man.. Do not need to attend any prep class, just prepare on your own.
I want to add some material:
Verbal review 2nd
OG10+11
SC1000
https://codecoax.com/grerc/ for RC
Hope it helps....

Thanks hellscream

Although I am aware of the 1000 SC document , I am not absolutely sure how error-free it is! Probably I may need to look for some authentic question banks.

Also, I would appreciate if you or anyone could let me know about any good practice tests? I have the Manhattan set already but I think no other prep-providers have a test-only deal!

gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-cat-practice-tests-links-prices-reviews-77460.html
This link may help you.
Many members, including me only use MGMAT CATs and GMAT prep. I think you can reuse MGMAT too, because the questions bank is large (in my opinion)
Another great choice is our forum's tests :D https://gmatclub.com/tests/ , especially quantitative.

Thank you Hellscream!

I went through the link and apparently the only options I have are the GMAC and Manhattan tests. I will definitely try out the GMAT Club tests, but it seems that I would essentially be using more or less the same review material which I used the first time.

yeap, review your mistake and weaknesses is always essential to a great score.. But I see another option : Why don't you try solving every problem here in our forum There are a lot of problems with full answers.. Of course leave away the OG tags +)

Yes... that makes sense !

Plus office time can also be utilised for browsing the forum

Okay, more on what has been going on with me and how did the test go.

I took more Knewton tests and scores were 720, 750, 720, 710.

I was not very sure, what to expect from final test but felt that I should be able to increase my score by at least 20-30 marks.

........................and my gmat score was as expected 720(50Q, 37V) - a little disappointed that my Q fell from 51 to 50 but happy that my V increased from 32 to 37.

I'm pretty much done with the test - I would rather put my effort into applications in September than re-take.

Bottom line or lesson learned:
I scored as much as 780, 770, 760 in mgmat - mgmat inflates the score. Knewton's overall score is better though I never agreed with Knewton's scores; I see that KN was always closer to final test score.

I do not think that KN made a huge difference. I knew most of the things when I scored 700; I think KN is good because the problems are good and the tests are better.

The only reason I took Knewton was the 50 point guarantee; now that my score has increased by just 20 points; I hope they return my 300 buck

On the test - I think there were probably 15 or 16 SC questions - the later ones were a little difficult; CR was difficult at later stage too; RC was simple(small passage and options were distinguishable).

Keep in mind, if you're getting more SC questions in the beginning, you should save some extra time for more CR and RC questions at the end. I think, I was aware of this, and yet did not handle this situation as well as I wanted.

Probably one of the big mistake I did was getting stuck at the 5th last question - I had 8min to answer 5questions and then I was stuck at this CR question for 3min; so I was down to 5question in 5min 15sec. I guessed between last 2 options for 5th question and because of lack of time I had to guess 1 more cr question.

A bad luck - I had to wait for 1hr 15min because this stupid Pearson representative was not available. My 8:00AM test, for which I reached the center at 7:40, started at 9:00AM. Though the representative gave us option of rescheduling the test, she could not say what date it would be and because I had utilized 4days of my precious vacation days I could not reschedule the test to an unknown date.

Strategy for admission: To my knowledge, they look at 5 major components for admission:
1) undergrad college and gpa - decent
2) gmat score - decent
3) work ex - decent/ above avg.
4) recommendations
5) interview
I'd focus on 4th and 5th....would try to do more of social work, become better at presentation to larger audience and interview with companies just to be prepared for b school interviews.

Please chime in on what else I could do to increase my chances.

Hey buddy, congo for the 20 point improvement. Now you're perfectly set for ur target schools as you will be applying with the scores that are the mean scores of these schools.
All the best for ur application .
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Congrats ! 720 is a great score.

Congrats, man. Its good to see that you have put GMAT out of the way.
BTW, Why do you think your Q decreased from Q51 to Q50. Did you face any tough/time consuming questions ?
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Exactly, this was the reason that I took the test again. I was not comfortable with below mean score. 715-720 is avg. score at most of the Ivy league schools.

I think, I was focused on doing verbal well...I finished both the AWAs in 20min and Q with 10min remaining... I told myself that V is the main test. My AWA score was 5.5 last time and hopefully it will not decrease.