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See previous 690 post here: 690-clubbed-by-the-cat-100919.html
So 31 days later I retook the GMAT after previously getting a 690 (Q44 V41). The only studying I did was the harder OG 11 and Quant book PS and DS problems. I glance at my formula sheets the night before the test, but overall I really barely studied this time and definately was not as well versed in the material than the first go around.
What turned my luck around was taking a different test taking approach. The first GMAT I got stuck on some easy problems and panicked, rushed some of the first 10 questions then slowed down and got to the last problem with 1:30 left. What I did this time was operate under the theory that since beginning questions are worth more, I'd rather work out each problem I could eventually solve, then do all my guessing at the end (ideally spacing out educated guesses to every other problem as time dictated). I also found that DS were better at to guess since even when you solve, you don't always know if it's right and you can eliminate answer choices much easier than in PS.
Once thing I got lucky on is that the first 4 quant questions were super basic and quick. I blew through them so far it built up a time buffer for harder questions. I think I guessed on 5 and 6 (first two DS) after getting stuck on either C or E answers. Toughed it out and started doing educated guesses on a few that were hard and then to save time around Q 28 or so. One thing I noticed is that both time the last 5 quests were insanely easy. I thought I was screwed and would get the same 44 quant score like the last time but it doesn't seem related. Finished really strong even though I had planned to guess on those problems.
Verbal seemed to go the same as last time when I got a 41. I never actually studied any verbal after consistently scoring low 90 percentile on every practice test so I could focus on raising my terrible quant scores. I felt like I was more methodical this time though. On SC problems I would look for an error in an answer choice, then look for other options with the same error and cross them out. The problems started getting extremely tough half way through the test and I actually went from a significant time surplus to a deficit. On some RC or CR questions I'd read 2-3 answer choices over and over. I actually blundered at the end because I had like 1 minute left for 3 questions. For some reason I thought I only had 2 questions left so I got my last answer on question 39 with 5 seconds to go then blind guessed 40. Then for a split second I saw 41 come up and timed out while leaving it blank.
At this point I thought I just screwed myself because quant did not seem to go much better than the first time, and I saw those easy questions at the end which made me think I was ranking at a terrible level. Then I also guessed then left the last verbal Q blank, so I thought that would ding my usual 41 down to maybe a 40.
To my surprise I ended up with a 48Q score (82 percentile) and a 44V score (97 percentile!). My overall score was a 730 and a 96 percentile. Definitely an improvement over the previous 690, and largely due to test taking techniques rather than any improvement in topical knowledge.
So 31 days later I retook the GMAT after previously getting a 690 (Q44 V41). The only studying I did was the harder OG 11 and Quant book PS and DS problems. I glance at my formula sheets the night before the test, but overall I really barely studied this time and definately was not as well versed in the material than the first go around.
What turned my luck around was taking a different test taking approach. The first GMAT I got stuck on some easy problems and panicked, rushed some of the first 10 questions then slowed down and got to the last problem with 1:30 left. What I did this time was operate under the theory that since beginning questions are worth more, I'd rather work out each problem I could eventually solve, then do all my guessing at the end (ideally spacing out educated guesses to every other problem as time dictated). I also found that DS were better at to guess since even when you solve, you don't always know if it's right and you can eliminate answer choices much easier than in PS.
Once thing I got lucky on is that the first 4 quant questions were super basic and quick. I blew through them so far it built up a time buffer for harder questions. I think I guessed on 5 and 6 (first two DS) after getting stuck on either C or E answers. Toughed it out and started doing educated guesses on a few that were hard and then to save time around Q 28 or so. One thing I noticed is that both time the last 5 quests were insanely easy. I thought I was screwed and would get the same 44 quant score like the last time but it doesn't seem related. Finished really strong even though I had planned to guess on those problems.
Verbal seemed to go the same as last time when I got a 41. I never actually studied any verbal after consistently scoring low 90 percentile on every practice test so I could focus on raising my terrible quant scores. I felt like I was more methodical this time though. On SC problems I would look for an error in an answer choice, then look for other options with the same error and cross them out. The problems started getting extremely tough half way through the test and I actually went from a significant time surplus to a deficit. On some RC or CR questions I'd read 2-3 answer choices over and over. I actually blundered at the end because I had like 1 minute left for 3 questions. For some reason I thought I only had 2 questions left so I got my last answer on question 39 with 5 seconds to go then blind guessed 40. Then for a split second I saw 41 come up and timed out while leaving it blank.
At this point I thought I just screwed myself because quant did not seem to go much better than the first time, and I saw those easy questions at the end which made me think I was ranking at a terrible level. Then I also guessed then left the last verbal Q blank, so I thought that would ding my usual 41 down to maybe a 40.
To my surprise I ended up with a 48Q score (82 percentile) and a 44V score (97 percentile!). My overall score was a 730 and a 96 percentile. Definitely an improvement over the previous 690, and largely due to test taking techniques rather than any improvement in topical knowledge.
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13 Oct 2010, 21:18
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Voila ! Congratulations on the awesome score ! Your verbal score of 47 (97 percentile) indicates superior command on the section. Please can you elaborate on "test taking strategies" wrt to the V section. What was different in your practice from the last time? Some of us are struggling to reach V40.
13 Oct 2010, 22:18
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Honestly I never really studied verbal. I looked at SC rules briefly before my first test but didn't feel it helped at all. This time I didn't even glance at a single verbal problem for a month before my test. So I'm not sure why I did so much better this time compared to past practice exams or the first try of the GMAT, although I only ever tried the verbal sections twice on practice tests. I'd usually just do the math section then let the verbal time out and look at my math score. I didn't think it was worth spending time on since I was already scoring in 41-42.
The one thing I did do this time was when I identified a likely answer, I just went with my intuition and picked it. When I found a difficult question, I'd go very thoroughly and eliminate answers then focus on what remained. I found I could get it down to 2 answer choices many times, then I would focus harder and eliminate one of the answers and pick the remaining one. The answers become less and less clear the harder the questions get.
One thing that really helped on sentence correction would be to look for common errors that are made in multiple choices. So for example if 3 of the choices start with "is hard to see..." and 2 of them start with "are hard to see..." I would quickly zero in on is/are conflict and I could eliminate a half the choices without ever spending time reading them. Then I would take the last 2 choices and compare them to see grammatically how they differed, which would often come down to 1 word in the middle of the answer choices. From there you pull the trigger on the best one.
I also noticed sometimes in SC, answer A (the original statement) would be worded strangely but I couldn't see anything definitively wrong with it. Often times this would be coupled with answers choices worded more clearly but also containing some small grammar error that would be easy to overlook. It's basically a way to trap you to jumping for the more concise answer without realizing it's introducing a new error that never even existed in the original sentence.
The one thing I did do this time was when I identified a likely answer, I just went with my intuition and picked it. When I found a difficult question, I'd go very thoroughly and eliminate answers then focus on what remained. I found I could get it down to 2 answer choices many times, then I would focus harder and eliminate one of the answers and pick the remaining one. The answers become less and less clear the harder the questions get.
One thing that really helped on sentence correction would be to look for common errors that are made in multiple choices. So for example if 3 of the choices start with "is hard to see..." and 2 of them start with "are hard to see..." I would quickly zero in on is/are conflict and I could eliminate a half the choices without ever spending time reading them. Then I would take the last 2 choices and compare them to see grammatically how they differed, which would often come down to 1 word in the middle of the answer choices. From there you pull the trigger on the best one.
I also noticed sometimes in SC, answer A (the original statement) would be worded strangely but I couldn't see anything definitively wrong with it. Often times this would be coupled with answers choices worded more clearly but also containing some small grammar error that would be easy to overlook. It's basically a way to trap you to jumping for the more concise answer without realizing it's introducing a new error that never even existed in the original sentence.
