Chalk another 690 up on the board

Question

Thanks to everyone who created this forum. I took the test this saturday and got a 690. I spent ALL of my time in the math forum. Members like Sparky, Himalaya, HMTG, thearch and others I am forgetting will surely score in the 700's if they do well in the verbal section.

The test environment was very nice. I took the LSAT before and it was a real pain to sit and wait for everything to get passed out and the procotor to read instructions. For the GMAT, I just arrived an hour early, got a small coffee at the starbucks nearby and did a quick warmup on math. Nothing hard, just easy problems to get my mind thinking correctly. I then walked into the testing center, signed in, and within a few minutes stepped into the room and put on the headphones. In minutes I was working on the essays. I thought math section went well. Nothing hard, 2 probabilites, everything seemed at or just above OG level. I finished with 4 minutes to spare. I only scored in the 70th percentile so I must have gone too fast. I am sure I missed really easy tricks like I always do.

Verbal was a different story. Believe it or not I finished the verbal with 18 minutes to go. SR seemed the same as OG. Although I only did 40 questions. I don't know how the reading or CR compared as I did not study these at all. If you are stuggling with these you should just drop everything and start doing LSAT RC and Logical reasoning. They have much harder material. I scored in the 94th percentile in verbal or somewhere around there.

Study strategy was like most around these forums.

Princeton
Kaplan
OG
Gmat Challenges and the forum

Take a test every weekend and also record all mistakes

If I had to do it over again I would have focused more on math when I first started to study (my weak point). The problem was that I failed to properly assess that I didn't need anymore practice with verbal until I got to OG. I also think I discovered how much help the math forum and challenges were too late.

Another factor was that I stopped studying 2 weeks before my test. I found out that I was accepted to Law School which really killed motivation. So basically I just took a 250.00 dollar test for nothing

Maybe if I fail out of Law School it will come in handy.

Anyway, thanks again for the great site and all those who contribute. I will try and answer any questions anyone has...

Maybe if I fail out of Law School it will come in handy. Anyway, thanks again for the great site and all those who contribute. I will try and answer any questions anyone has...

Folaa3 · Answer

Congrats on your great score. :lol:

AJB77 · Answer

Great job cipher0!

Congratulations on your GMAT as well as Law School acceptance!

tkirk32 · Answer

thanks guys.

let me know if I can answer any questions about the GMAT for you.

Folaa3 · Answer

How did you do on timing and how did you find the Reading comprehension passage? 
Did your prep meet your expectation?

tkirk32 · Answer

Hey folaa3, 

Timing was not an issue for me at all except on the essays because I am a slow writer.

I finished the math with about 4 minutes to go and never felt like I was behind the clock. I do not look at the clock for the first 10-15 questions as these are really important to your score. I find that if you look up at the clock during the first part of the test its just makes you more nervous then really concentrating on the questions. If you have to, you want to spend more time on the first 10-15 questions. At about question 20-25 your start taking the time into account and adjust resources accordingly. I think on one or two I made an educated guess and moved on simply because I felt the extra time could not be justified.

The verbal section was a whole different story. I am a native speaker so I have an advantage. I finished with 18 min left in the section. I remember getting 2 science passages and one history... maybe another one, cant really remember.

I am able to read the passage extremely quickly and just answer off the questions, most of the time without going back to the passage. I really devoted no time to RC or CR. I think I did so well because of my study for the LSAT. The GMAT RC and CR are really a joke compared to the LSATS RC and Logical Reasoning. I would suggest you pick up an LSAT book if you are struggling. 

Hope this helps. I was really surprised that timing did not play a bigger role. I thought for sure that I would be running out of time in math. Maybe my score did suffer a bit because I went to fast.

jwm206 · Answer

Congratulations on your socre!

I am currently studying for the GMATs and I am scheduled to take them next month. Math is definitely my weak point, especially geometry. Can you offer any pointers on study techniques that you used to study for the math section?

Thanks.

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Chalk another 690 up on the board

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