740 (Quant 48, Verbal 44) - first try

Question

Just gave my GMAT today - the quant was extremely tough. I felt like I was on a roller coaster - the first question was wayy too easy, the 2nd one was tough, third was too tough, and then suddenly the fourth one was again too easy. After every easy question, a hard question, followed by an easy one - I just kept on thinking that I got every alternate quant question wrong.

Verbal was very easy - nothing too complicated. The RC, SC and CR all followed the GMAT OG format. 

The buggest surprise was that there were 4 repeat questions from prior year's stuff - I saw 2 from quant and 2 from verbal that were on the OG.

Was very happy with my overall scores - math 48, 85%, verbal 44, 97%, score 740, 97%

snow wolf · Answer

Congrats on a fantastic score and good luck on your apps.Do post your debrief and let us know how you did it.I hope to join you in the 700 club.



 Cheers.

AimHigher · Answer

Congratulations on a great score :woohoo

kryzak · Answer

YAY! Congrats aviroop!!!! I'm so envious since you can go to the Haas infosession without the GMAT looming over your head! 

I hope I can do that well!!!!

aviroop · Answer

Alright,
My debrief for all the GMAT aspirants - first this forum is top notch - reading this forum is going to increase your score by 100 points - no joke. The forum members give great tips, provide awesome help and give the best moral support. 

I started preparing for GMAT from end of Jan 07. I went to Barnes & Noble, picked up the OG 11th edition and Kaplan Comprehensive review. Went to the Los Angeles library and picked up copies of princeton, arco and baron's. Ok this is the way I broke up my studying

I decided to first set my date for Gmat - I made my plans for summer (sometime between july - august).
That gave me 6 months to prepare.

I decided to work first on the verbal section. Since I had too much time to burn, I alloted one section for each month. For the whole of February, I kept on practising SC, while doing the others less. Then repeated the procedure for RC, CR. ..and so on..In that way, I covered my weak spots and got enough practice.

Ok books that I really focussed upon -

OG - This is the bible, koran, talmud, bhagwad gita of GMAT. Instead of roting off answers, read the explanations and see why the answers are what they are.

Kaplan - just do the book exercises and the practice test. Similarly do the exercises on the CD and skip the tests - the tests are confidence busters. They do not provide a correct evaulation of your true potential.

I would recommend anyone not to give the Kaplan online tests, look at the scores and feel that the world is crashing down. Kaplan online tests do not measure your true potential. I scored 510, 550, 590 and 610. There was nothing I could do to improve the scores.

Baron's - just read the sentence correction tips. It clears a lot of stuff and provides help.

Arco - do the tests and practice.

GMATPrep and PowerPrep online tests - the best estimators of your true GMAT scores. If needed give the test repeated times, once every two weeks. The test has many questions, so not all of them get repeated when you do them - the tests boost your confidence and you get to know what you are doing right or wrong.

A week before my exams, I just kept on giving the GMATPrep tests and did the OG.

Then I stopped doing GMAT preparations altogether, and just read books , novels and magazines to prep for the essays - Look up essay samples on OG and Kaplan. Rest is crap.

On the day of the test, I played video games, read a good novel, drank a lot of water.

A tip for all test takers - drink a reasonable amount of water (not coffee or anything caffeine related) - this helps you go for pee breaks and refreshes your mind when you leave the test cubicle.

Thats all I can remember - do not panic over the essays, just write what comes to your mind and organize it.

kryzak · Answer

thank you for the debrief aviroop! Great tips and I will follow them!

Did you do the AWA every time you did the GMATPrep in the later stages? I want to, but finding a 3.5 hour block to do the entire test seems to only work on weekends, and I have exactly 2 weeks left (to the hour) when I take the test...

aviroop · Answer

kryzak,
the AWA part in GMATPrep does not change. It gives the same question - since you have 2 weeks, do the AWA part separately. Look at OG, choose some of the essays and work on them.

Best of luck - I am sure you will do well. The GMAT is all about keeping your cool.

pi10t · Answer

Congrats! -)

Online tests? What's that? Could you explain about the GMATprep and PP online tests?

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740 (Quant 48, Verbal 44) - first try

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