don't wake me up...760 (50M/44V)

Question

am i dreaming?!...is so, then please don't pinch me...it feels good up here.... :twisted:

finallyyyyy...done with it...after two and a half months of dragging myself to study after work, two and a half months of no-fun-i-have-to-study weekends...boy! i am glad it's over...a big load off my chest.. my break up... Total - 760 (99) Quant - 50 (95) Verbal - 44 (97) To be honest, i was not expecting this good a score...i didn't think that my prep was as good as it should have been...but then as Forrest said "Life is like a chocolate box. You never know what you are going to get."...and i guess it was my day and i got a bigger bar... :-D

thank so much to all of you guys here...the questions, the problems, the suggestions, the advices...they really helped me a lot...i wouldn't be doing justice to this great web-site if i name a few guys and leave the rest...so....a big thanks to ALL of you... and right now i am feeling pangs of guilt, because all this time that i have been associated with this website, i have been more of a 'taker' :oops:

....but i will try to reverse that and be a more active participant (whenever time permits). Will back with more details (and i do have some more surprises to share)... right now...it's time to implement the latter part of my signature 8-)

cheers!

gmat2me2 · Answer

Congratulations !!

Folaa3 · Answer

Congratulations.....goodluck in all else! :lol:

swath20 · Answer

Well Done !!! Congrats....

jpv · Answer

Nowadays.. almost all our members are becoming trend-setters.. Another wonderful score.. Congrats.. :beer

banerjeea_98 · Answer

wow ! we r having quite a streak here. Congrats on a gr8 score ! Once u r rested, come back and let us know ur prep strategy, practice scores, OG hit rate in diff sections etc. Congrats again !

kevinw · Answer

good job!. i wish I can find a piece of chocolate like yours! my date is on the 12th.......... :lol:

luminos24 · Answer

Thank you guys....

Kevin, i am sure you will get an even bigger piece...best of luck...

Banerjee..thanx...and you are right...lot of people among us are getting a good score...and this definitely is in part because of you guys....i will be posting my details asap and i am sure they will lift up the confidence of a lot of guys here as my prep scores were not all that great....

thanx jpv, swath20, Folaa3 and gmat2me2 for your wishes...and best of luck to you guys...

cheers!

mckenna · Answer

congrats luminos, great score! good luck with apps.
all, lets keep it rolling - this club is producing great results.

MA · Answer

you did a gr8 job. Enjoy your party and have fun........

Congrats for beating gmat. all the best for the application process.

luminos24 · Answer

Hi guys...sorry for this late post...finally i have some time to pen down tid-bits about my overall GMAT experience...will try to put in as much as time permits...rest in the subsequent posts.... I had been toying with the idea of taking gmat ever since i was in the last year of college. Couldn't find the resolve or inspiration to commit myself for the same. Monetary considerations - maybe, Wasn't sure of my ability to get a good score - maybe, Was enjoying the job and money associated with it - maybe. There were a lot of things to which i attributed this lack. So, in a way, this whole affair was almost 6 years in the making :twisted:

But then i firmly believe that one should go ahead and do (or aleast try to do) what one really wants to do, so that later in life he doesn't regret thinking "What if?!". So, as the world was ushring in the new year, i found myself confronting this daemon again and i thought "What the heck?! Let's get done with it"....GMAT was one of the first hurdles and i decided to keep all the other considerations aside. And now looking back i see the first lesson i learn't through all this...If you are overwhelmed, take up the things one at a time. As, they say "Don't burn the bridges before you reach them". So, somewhere around mid-January i got hold of some of the books like The Unofficial Guide - ARCO (i'll call it UG) and the Official Guide 10th edition. I had no idea where to start and since there was nothing in OG except questions, i decided to go through UG first. I don't find much of a mention of that book in the forums around here but surprizingly that book covers the basics well. It's verbal portion is good (maybe as good as kaplan) and i guess the quant portion is not as good as Kaplan. Gave the first diagnostic test from UG - 640. Based on the results of the diagnostic tests, i found out that i lacked the most in CR and SC. Offcourse! i had no idea about the different rules being tested in GMAT, how to go about attacking CRs, etc. So, i formed a study plan where in i arranged all the six sections in decreasing order of priority - CR, SC, DS, RC, PS and AWA. I then started covering the basics of each of these topics from UG taking occasional excercises from the same book. I also maintained a note book divided in secotions to keep track of new and important concepts. This note book also had a section to keep track of all the tests that i will take. Since i am working full-time, i was not able to give much time for my prep. Every day after coming back from office, my body revolted against my wish to pick up a book. This led me to the discovery of lesson number two ...Try to relax before you sit down to study. No point in pushing yourself to study when you brain is not ready to absorb any of that crap. Using this funda, i managed to put in 1 hour of quality study time every day, on an average. On weekends i tried to put in additional time for one full length test and it's analysis. Did miss some of the days in between either because i was too tired to pick up the book or because there was something else happening. Anyways, i had decided that i will register for the test, the day i cross the 700 barrier in a practise test. I didn't know that i will have to wait for quite sometime for this to happen :roll:

My dual with UG and it's excercises went on for a month or so. I tried to go through each section in detail at first and then browse through them from time to time so that the concepts get set in my little brain. Finally, some where around end of Feburary i was done with the UG...back-to-back....except for the word list section that it has. the strike rate was not at all impressive. Was making a lot of silly mistakes in Quant and the Verbal was still out of reach. to be continued....

luminos24 · Answer

Hi guys back again to pick up where i left...let's see... so, my strike rate for the UG exercises was CR = 74 %, DS = 86 %, RC = 89%, SC = 81% and QA = 88%...This was not good as i was making a lot of silly mistakes...i realized that if could control that, i could increase my score a bit...So, i decided to slow a bit for some of the sections specially CR and PS...Being an engineer i couldn't digest the fact that i was making mistakes in PS section :evil:

Once i was done with UG, i decided to have a look at what all Kaplan had to offer. Since i had covered most of the basics from UG, i just skimmed throught the theory portions in Kaplan. I did learn some new concepts which were duly noted in the notebook i was maintaining....I also registered for a free sample gmat by Kaplan as part of thier Test Drive. Scored 680...hmmmm....i was improving but there was still long way to go...hadn't even registered for the actual test.....Went back to the basics...usual grammer rules and QA fundas from UG and Kaplan....Sometime in between i took the UG Sample GMAt and my score was a dismal 660. I tried to find out why i had done to badly on this test (whereas after all these excercises i was hoping to do significantly well). I realized that i had taken the test on a weekday, after coming back from work and when i was not in the best of my mental states. This dawned upon me the third lesson - Your scores depend very much on your mental state. You might have covered numerous books, solved thousands of problems; but if you are not in the right frame of mind, chances are you will not do well on the test. I guess, that's why they say that one should be totally relaxed before the exam. This also taught me not to get discouraged by bad scores...maybe they are just an aberration (ways ppl will find to make themselves happy!! :twisted:

Got into solving Kaplan excercises and fimiliarizing myself with a computer based test...I still hadn't taken a single CAT...My strike rate for Kaplan excercises was CR = 70%, SC = 80%, PS = 84%, RC = 92% and DS = 75%...no improvement!!!...but then these strike rates could be higher or lower as the number of question in these excercises was not much...So, just to get my current status, i decided to take the first powerprep test on the following weekend. Score - 690....shucks!...not yet there...the magical figure of 700 was still proving to be elusive...And i wondered...what will it take to achieve that... Practice is the answer i found when around the same time i discovered this great website and started going through it's archives...took some Challanges...tried to solve some questions being posted here....gave up while trying to analyze and understand all the grammer rules being published....at one point in time i was so overwhelmed with all the information present here that i thought of postponing my exam for another six months :wink:

......but then i decided to take stock of the situation once again...next weekend was test 2 of Powerprep....score 710....wow!...finally...i did cross this milestone...i gave myself a pat on my back and started looking for available dates for registering for the actual thing...it was 25th March and i couldn't find a single empty weekend slot for the next 2 months, in any of the test centers in Manhattan.....i decided it was better to take a half day off from my office and take the test on a weekday...April 19th fit the bill...so be it....At this point i can include the lesson number four ...when to take the actual test?...big question...I can say for only myself and the strategy i followed, worked for me....I think one should keep a target score in mind and start peparing....he should then register for the actual test within a month of crossing that target score in a practice test....this is assuming that you know where you stand and you have your traget which you are actually shooting for and the practice test you took is a full lenght test from known resources like Powerprep, Kaplan, ARCO, Princeton, etc...The theory behind this startegy is that once you have crossed the target score...first, you get a big boost in self-confidence and second you are probably reaching your peak...within in a month you will be able to fill in the crackes and should be able to duplicate that score in the actual test....remember that they call it a peak because once you have crossed it, you start going down...this maybe because either you are too stressed out or are losing the steam...you start getting lower scores and this in turn discourages you further... i guess, i'll leave it here for the day...got some work to do... cheers!

Paul · Answer

Fantastic post luminos and my heartfelt congratulations for your score. Good luck with your applications now that the biggest hurdle is behind you.

kenmore3233 · Answer

Congratulations, Luminos!

If you don't mind my asking, what is your academic background? Did you major in engineering?

kenmore3233 · Answer

Excellent post, Luminos.

I agree that it's very important to try to relax and enjoy studying. If you're tired or burned out, don't pick up the practice books. One hour of quality study time is superior to eight or nine hours of trying for force your head to absorb crap that you're in no mood to study in the first place.

I also like your idea of not registering for the test until you crossed the 700 barrier in practice tests. That's exactly how I'm going to proceed now that you've mentioned it.

luminos24 · Answer

Thanx Paul, for your wishes....the problem is i still haven't decide when and where i am going to apply...just gave the test because it was like a thorn in my consciousness and plus i had sometime at my hands..it was winters...can't go out much, can't have fun, plus the workload was not that much....now that gmat is done i'll start thinking about the next step... Kenmore...i am from the most common demography you can find here...Indian, engineer, s/w professional... :lol:

...by the way my engineering major was Civil :wink:

that gives a lot of ammo for the interviewers...why s/w after civil engineering and stuff.... and as for registering for the actualt thing....what's your target score...what are you shooting for?....you should keep that as your barrier while giving the practise tests....i hope this strategy works for you.... will be posting the third and final part of my "story" sometime soon.... cheers!

kenmore3233 · Answer

My target is anything in excess of 700...and I'm willing to work as hard as I have to in order to get it. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to take my first practice test until I feel sufficiently "in shape" to get that score.

This website is fantastic. It's great to have an online community of people who share common experiences and concerns about "the test" and who have all sorts of superb tips about how to prep up. I'm very happy I found it. 

Just for the record, my background is a B.A. in History, and I didn't even learn basic algebra and geometry until I was in college. This was enough to get me a 760 quantitative score on the GRE general test, but I am somewhat nervous about being able to do as well on the GMAT quantitative. Needless to say I've got a lot of practice and drilling ahead of me.

forrestgump · Answer

Heartiest Congratulations !

wunderbar03 · Answer

what an awesome score! congrats!

All the best to your app.

luminos24 · Answer

hi guys... back again...lemme finish my version of "David vs Goliath"....i guess it's going to be a long one....so hold on!! Offcourse once i had registered for the actual thing, it was the "point of no return" for me.... So, i finally started to go through the OG problems...I saved them for the last because I had come to know through these forums that the OG is as close as it gets to the actual thing...I knew i didn't have enough time to cover all the questions and hence decided to cover as many as possible, starting from the end of each section. I divided each section into a set of questions such that each set had around 12-14 questions....less for the sections i was comfortable with and more for the ones with whom i was not...had decided to do one set from seach section per day (so that in all they resemble a full length test) but couldn't follow that...anyways, my strike rate for these OG questions was PS = 90%, DS = 81%, RC = 92%, CR = 79%, SC = 86%....not great!

.....I was still lacking in CR and hence the only option I had at my hands was to slow down in CR and speed up in RC....also gave some other full-length tests the scores for which were Kaplan Sample Test = 770 ( i guess the questions were repeat and hence the inflated score) Princeton Review Sample = 720 Kaplan CD Diagnostic = 690 Kaplan CD Test1 = 640 Kaplan CD Test2 = 620 Kaplan CD Test3 = 620 Kaplan CD Test4 = 630 Cambridge Review Study Mode = 730 Cambridge Review Sample Test = 740 Going through these tests, in the final days before the actual thing, came the lesson number five ...Don't take Kaplan tests just before the actual test date. They are tough and are not representative of the actual GMAT. Though they contain good questions, the low score can actualy fill you more with anxiety than with confidence. And trust me, it's all about confidence. The best would be to keep the powerprep tests for the last. Finally it was the day I had been dreading all this time...the G-Day...and the million dollar question was "will it be my D-Day or will it be my V-Day?" :roll:

.....the day before the test, left slightly early from the office...went to the gym, had an early dinner and was in bed early enough to give me 8 hours of sleep...Woke up at 6:30 the next day...had a slightly heavier breakfast than usual....opened up my notes and browsed through them...YES!...i didn't want the GMAT questions to be the first mental excercise of the day...browsed to atleast three questions (at random) from each section in OG...didn't bother to solve them, just read the question and the answers to warm up my brain... Reached the test center around 40 mins in advance...bought some energy bars for the day and that was a one of the good decisions I made...once reaching the test center, I completed the formalities, ate half of an energy bar and I was good to go...They directed me to a seat with not so good keyboard, lot of other people around (taking various tests I guess) and that's where my ear-plugs helped me...and oh ya! Before that I had to convince the admisnistrators there that I will be more comfortable with my ear-plugs rather than with their ear-muffs. Plus they told me not to write any thing on the scrap paper before I begin a section. :?:

...and I had to come out of the test room to keep my wallet in the locker as nothing is allowed on the table (except for your pencil and scrap paper)... Anyways, after providing the initial info, I took some deep breaths and started with the AWA sections...both the sections were pretty okay...i spent around 5 mins to organize my thoughts for each section, 22/23 mins to type and 2/3 mins to review the stuff I had written...then took the 5 mins break...went out...ate some more of my energy bar, drank some water and washed my face. Why I mention about washing my face is because for me there is nothing like cold water splashed on my face to clear my mind and freshen me up...it might work for you (incase you haven't tried it yet)...worth a try...Though this would mean that some of the ladies will have to part with their make up :lol:

(no offence meant) Once I was back on my seat I realized that the break could have been longer 'cause the test did not start by itself as I had been expecting it to. There was a pop-up on my screen asking if I was ready to start the test. So, when I was organized and ready I pressed the "Yes" button to dive into the Quant section...first couple of questions were easy...then came a tricky probability question...i consider perm/com/probabbility as my weak points but one good thing about GMAT questions is that they are usual solvable through simpler means...no formulas required...after struggling with that question for around 3 mins or so, my palms were sweating...i didn't want to get that question wrong as it was just the 3rd one into the test...so, I decided to take a deep breath and start all over again and sure enough I saw what I was doing wrong...got my answer and moved on....DS came around 5th or 6th question...Rest all was a mixture of medium and easy questions sprinkled with a few difficult ones. At one point of time in the test, I was getting such easy questions that I thought "Is it because I am getting the previous ones wrong?" Then I consoled myself by saying that maybe these are the dummy questions which will not count towards my score...There were some tricky DS questions, which on first look had their answers as 'C' but on closer examination, the correct answer was A or B. I believe that I was able to spot such tricks quite nicely and hence did well...finally it was question number 37 and I had something like couple of mins left...spent all the remaining time calculating the last question, checking and rechecking...and then it was over....what a relief!!...but I knew I was a break away from my nemesis...the heart of my Goliath... This second break had pretty much the same iternary as the first one...The energy bar was really seem to be helping me as I was not feeling tired at all (as I used to, during my practise tests)...finally it took a deep breath and started the Verbal section....SC,SC,SC....not tough ones I guess but okay...almost the same level as OG...and then...wham!!....RC...i looked up and it was just question number 4...and the RC itself...phew!..to tell you the truth...it freaked me out...some passage on women and their social standing as compared to their financial state...blah blah blah...i read it twice and could not make sense out of most of it...and again...sweaty palms

...i didnâ€™t want to get the questions wrong so early in the test...As they say " When the going gets tough, the tough take a break ."....I took another deep breath and decided to change my strategy...since I had already read the passage twice I was familiar with it's structure...so I decided to tackle the questions without fully understanding the passage...and this gamble paid off...except for the first question, rest were all such that I could answer them by going to the specific location in the passge....not bad I thought!...and then..... wham!!!...another one...back to back...this one also had the same difficulty level as the previous one...i didn't know what to think...why was ETS doing this to me :evil:

...somehow managed to complete this one too using the same strategy as for the previous one and move on...From there it was the usual stuff....some CRs, some SCs, some RCs.... This went on till aroud number 31...i looked up at the clock and realized that I had lost track of time and had only 10 mins for the last 10 questions....my heart skipped a beat as I scrambled to answer the questions as quickly as I could...but GMAT has itâ€™s own surprizes....first there was a CR, on which I could have swore that I had seen it before!!!! (someplace somewhere)...what are the odds of that happening?!....then came another RC which almost took the breath out of me...i felt it was even tougher than the first two...but then thay maybe because I was short of time....so, I decided to just scan the passage and then get into the questions straight away...somehow managed to answer the associated 5 questions in 6 mins...by that time I had 4 questions to attempt in 3 mins....the next one was a bold face CR...and now I was convinced that something was wrong as the I had definitely come across that question before...unfortunately, I didn't remember the answer so had to read all the choices again

.... lesson number six ....try to cover as many questions as possible during your practice time...you never know which questions you might see again in the actual test...and even if you don't get exactly the same question, a familiar question in familiar format is very assuring.....anyways, the last two were the usual SCs and then it was all over...it was close but it was over...phew!! I was wiping the sweat off my palms while answering those survey questions...then came the big question if I wished to see my score...i closed my eyes and clicked "Proceed"...and wolah!!...760....i thought it was 660 and there was some mistake...i wasn't expecting this score after what I thought was a horrendous Verbal section...but I guess I did better than what I thought I did....the un-official score confirmed that..."Goliath was down"....I am waiting for my official score to put my apprehensions to rest... This was my long story in long :wink:

...Some of the pointers which I used during my test and which might be helpful to those who wanna try them... 1) after each section, take a break and forget about that section. What's done is done. You can't change. Concentrate on the task at hand. 2) Get some energy bars to eat during the breaks. 3) Wash your face with cold water during the breaks...You will feel refreshed 4) and most important...In the verbal section, instead of making a grid on the scrap paper... USE YOUR FINGERS ....five choices to decide from, five fingers (what a coincidence!! :lol:

...they say nothing about not touching the screen of your computer...use your fingers to mark the choices which are not correct....you can place your fingers on the oval marks of the incorrect choices...this is faster...you don't have to read each choice and mark it down in the grid on your scrap paper and refer to it again and again by looking back and forth between the screen and the grid. If you think a choice is wrong then mark it with your finger, then second and then third...worked for me, may work for you.... I guess this is a long enough post...i will be glad if anybody else benefits from whatever I have written....my 2 cents... keep the faith...

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don't wake me up...760 (50M/44V)

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