Hello everyone I took the GMAT yesterday and scored a respectable 730 (51/40) . This was my 2nd shot at the test and I'll discuss my strategies at the end of this post; before that here's a quick summary of the books i used and my practice test scores: Books used: OGs 10, 11 & 12 SC - MGMAT SC Guide, Aristotle SC Grail , 1000 SCs (did around 300) CR - Powerscore CR Bible, LSAT questions RC - Aristotle RC Practice Test Scores (over the period Nov. 20th - Dec 14th) MGMAT 1 - 690 MGMAT 2 - 720 MGMAT 3 - 680 MGMAT 4 - 730 MGMAT 5 - 750 MGMAT 6 - 730 Kaplan Free Test - 750 Princeton Free Test - 710 Knewton Free Test - 720 GMATPrep 1 - 770 (not representative since I remembered a lot of the answers from my earlier attempt) GMATPrep 2 - 780 (not representative since I remembered a lot of the answers from my earlier attempt) Detailed Debrief & Strategies: Background - I had taken the GMAT in Sept 2010 and scored a dismal 630 (50/28). My target score was 700+ so I was definitely going to retake but before that I wanted to make sure I figured out what aspects of the test to approach differently. Quant was never a problem for me and in verbal I was quite comfortable with CR. My two problem areas were SC & RC. In my first attempt my one major weakness had been timing in the verbal section since I could just attempt around 35 questions and guess on the remaining 5-6. Specially in SC I was taking an average of around 2 minutes to get to the answer. I had primarily used MGMAT SC Guide for my SC prep the first time around and while it is an excellent book in my case it made me too conscious of trying to find out what was wrong with every option. This obviously meant i was taking too much time on SC and combined with my lack of practice in RC, this spelled disaster for me. SC Strategy - During my 2nd attempt I decided to refer to some other material as well for SC and came across two options on the GMATclub forums- egmat and Aristotle SC Grail . I was on a tight budget having to take the test twice and i had read good things abt the SC Grail book (and it was cheap at $15 ) so i thought i would give it a try. Turned out to be a great decision 'coz this bok summarizes what the GMAT will test you on in a very crisp manner and provides you with shortcuts to get to the answer in less than a minute. Overall I think MGMAT and SC Grail are more than enough for your SC prep. CR Strategy - Nothing specific since I never really had any problems in CR. Since I had already finished the OGs in my first attempt, I did a lot of LSAT practice questions though I am not a big fan of these. RC Strategy - The other problem area for me (and most students) and simply because its too boring and one just doesn't feel like practicing it. But as I have realised the only way to improve RC is by doing as many practice passages as you can, specially the long boring ones. Here I have a major grouse with most test prep companies because they spend pages discussing RC strategy but don't give you enough practice passages. The ones that do (like the OGs) ask too many questions whereas on the GMAT the idea is to skim through the passages since there won't be more than 3-4 questions from each. The only decent practice material i have come across is the Aristotle RC which provides you with good quality passages (avg. 3-4 questions each) some of which are really difficult. I religiously did each one of these passages and this has a numbing effect on me in the sense that i stopped bothering abt the 'boring' part of it and started approaching the questions in a very practical (almost mechanical) manner. Helped me big time and I recommend it to everyone. If you can do these you won't need anything else for RC believe me. I spent the last 3-4 weeks only doing full length tests (had bought the Manhattan 6-test package for this and some other free tests). Another mistake that I had made the first time around was not spending enough time analysing the tests; this time i spent more time analysing the tests than taking them and this actually helps specially by revealing trends in the questions that you are getting wrong. For example after 3-4 tests I realised that i was consistently making mistakes on 'Modification' questions in SC so I went back to Manhattan and refreshed my knowledge of Modifiers. One final word on mental strength - Test day 'nerves' play a major role in pulling down your score as no matter how confident you are the occassion does tend to get to you. Don't know how you can avoid this except to be prepared for it, though this gets better in the 2nd attempt (at least it did for me), probably because you've been there once so you know what to expect. All in all it turned out well for me in the end . Would love to address any specific queries. Cheers!

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From 630 -> 730 - Mission Accomplished....Detailed Debrief

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M23A

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02 Jan 2011, 20:59

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Thanks for debrief. I'm about to begin studying the SC section. Many people on the forum have recommemded Mgmat SC, but it seems like you attributed your improvement to SC Grail. Is SC Grail sufficient by itself, or do I also need to use Mgmat SC? Thanks.

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shovitdhar

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04 Jan 2011, 22:57

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Ii actually depends on where you are coming from. In my case I had already gone through MGMAT and found it too detailed so the SC Grail summarised all the important concepts very succinctly. But if you are very weak in grammar then it might be a good idea to go through MGMAT as well since the Grail does not drill too deep into any of the concepts. Ideally go through both.

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05 Jan 2011, 12:04

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nice story!!
wish you good luck for your applications!!

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07 Jan 2011, 08:28

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Thanks for mailing across the files and good luck to you for your apps

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10 Jan 2011, 02:27

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Hey how much did you get in the AWA?

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foofighter5

Hey how much did you get in the AWA?

5.5

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Thanks so much! This is very helpful!

shovitdhar

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ZahraK

Thanks so much! This is very helpful!

Am glad that you found the post helpful! All the best!

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23 Jan 2011, 23:29

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I used to first spend around 2-3 minutes on the passage to get an idea of what each para was speaking about broadly. Then I used to hit the questions and keep moving to and fro between the passage and the questions.

I did the 20th first texts and am finding problems with this strategy :s. I don't really know what to read and what to not read in 2-3 minutes and I have problems with the EXCEPT questions and other questions that oblige you to resee all the text looking for the correct answer. Also I don't know if I should take notes or not.
This RC is making me nervous !
Help please.

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GMAT 1: 750 Q49 V42 Verified score

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23 Jan 2011, 23:55

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See here: gmat-study-plan-for-gmat-novices-start-your-gmat-journey-80727.html?highlight=ml301

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24 Jan 2011, 17:37

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Congratulations! Excellent score!

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thats a great score , quant is 51 wow. my gmat is scheduled @feb end , i do get verbal around 40 in most of the prac tests, but quant is the real issue , not getting over 42-43

. what specifically shall i do to get the quant score in the 50 range ?

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garimavyas

thats a great score , quant is 51 wow. my gmat is scheduled @feb end , i do get verbal around 40 in most of the prac tests, but quant is the real issue , not getting over 42-43

. what specifically shall i do to get the quant score in the 50 range ?

42-43 in quant is very low. In my experience even if you get 8-10 questions wrong, as long as you get some difficult ones correct you can easily go up to 47-48. Before I give any suggestion I need to know how have you studied from quant? Did you use any of the Manhattan guides? Also is your problem PS or DS?

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29 Jan 2011, 23:54

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Awesome improvement +1.

Kindly elaborate more on verbal, especially SC and RC, not in the terms of material you have used but in the terms of strategy.
Eg. how differently you approached the SC and RC questions.
how you solved RC99? in time mode?

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gurpreetsingh

Thanks.

SC- In my first attempt I was paying a lot of attention to pinpointing what was the error in the original question and what was wrong with each option. While this helped in building my concepts the flip side was that I ended up reading every option completely and my timing went for a complete toss. In some cases even though I was sure of the answer I still ended up going through all the options, at times confusing myself in the process. The SC Grail actually introduced me to the idea of 'Reading Vertically' and I think it worked brilliantly in terms of saving time and staying focussed. I am absolutely convinced now that if you are reading all the options in a SC question you are wasting your time.

RC - In my first attempt the problem was simple lack of practice. I found RC too boring so did very few passages and that too from my comfort area. As a result I was completely flummoxed by some of the passages in the actual test. As I have mentioned in my first post on this thread the best and perhaps the only way to improve RC is to practice as many passages as you can and from across subject areas. Just make sure the passages and the questions are representative of those on the GMAT.

Let me know in case you have any specific queries.

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Hi

For RC do you think it would be helpful to go through those American History Journals? Apart from practicing passages what other books should I read so as to generally improve my reading skills?

shovitdhar

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bob75

Hi

For RC do you think it would be helpful to go through those American History Journals? Apart from practicing passages what other books should I read so as to generally improve my reading skills?

You can go through American History books or anything which you think will expose you to complex text. I'd also advise that you go through the "GMAT Fiction" forum and pick a couple of posts suggested there.
Here's the link to the forum
books-to-read-improve-verbal-score-and-enjoy-a-good-read-76079.html?highlight=ml310

shovitdhar

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11 Feb 2011, 09:37

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hareehai

congrats dude

It was so idiotic of you to write the same thing on tens of different threads. We don't need your congratulations if the only thing you can do is spam the threads so that you can increase your post counts!

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shovitdhar

Thanks a lot for your help. Good luck with your apps!

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woow...congrats... great score!!

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