Gmat experience 630 to 710

Question

Hi everyone,

I just came back from the test center and finally relieved.

My GMAT score: 710 (92percentile) Q49 V38

I made my 1st attempt in February, 2010 and got 630 (Q 45 V 31). That score was a big surprise then because I scored in the range of 660 to 680 in my MGMAT practice tests. I don't remember my GMAT prep scores from that attempt, but definitely above 650.

I was very disappointed with the score and was planning to make a 2nd attempt since then. It took a while for me to get started and finally started studying in August. Being an engineering graduate my strategy for the 2nd attempt is to maximize my score in quant and improve my score in verbal. I felt that I was overconfident in quant in my 1st attempt and I must spend as much time as I can studying SC.

Books used: Manhattan GMAT 8 books, 11th and 12th edition , Verbal review , Quant review, Powerscore CR

My prep time was about 2 hours each day after work Monday to Thursday and studied on Friday and Saturday during the last month.

I first started with the 5 MGMAT quant books and finished all the 5 books in a month. I would credit MGMAT books for the increase in my Quant score. After finishing the 5 books and the 12th edition and quant review in August I did not have to go back to math until today.

Once I was confident about the quant part I put my focus on SC. I want to tackle idioms first and so I prepared index cards with the word on one side and the extension on the other side. For example for the idiom 'ability to' I wrote 'ability' on one side and 'to' on the other side of the card. This process was very helpful in memorizing the idioms. I downloaded Gayathri's SC notes from this forum and it was very helpful. It took me a while to understand the concepts of Sentence Correction. So I studied MGMAT SC book twice and did all the SC questions from 11th, 12th and verbal review twice.

I started taking MGMAT tests to gauge my progress in between.

MGMAT test 1 (9/8): 660 (q46 v34)
MGMAT test 2 (9/11): 600 (q43 v31)
MGMAT test 3 (10/15): 660 (q47 v33)
MGMAT test 4 (10/20): 660 (q46 v34)
MGMAT test 5(11/03): 680 (q47 v35)
MGMAT test 6 (11/05): 680 (q48 v35)

Knewton free test : 650

GMAT prep 1: 700 (q49 v35)
GMAT prep 2: 700 (q47 v38)

I noticed a difference in the scoring of MGMAT and GMATprep. As per MGMAT I am doing worst in RC but as per Gmatprep I am doing worst in SC.

I initially scheduled the test on Oct 30th but thought I need some extra time and rescheduled to Nov 11th.
Finally, the day of the test, I went to the test center and completed all the formalities. Completed the AWA part and took the break. Time was not a factor for me as I was able to do almost all the practice tests within the time limit. I practiced not to spend too much time on 1 problem. If I am totally clueless on the question I will simply pick some answer and go to the next question not wasting anytime. This has worked for me. I bombed the 1st quant question and had to make a guess. I noticed that my 1st 3 quant questions are hard. Other than that everything went fine. But I have seen some very simple quant questions in between which made me to panic and made me think I am not doing good. I finished quant section with 1 min to spare.

Took the break and started the verbal section and it went smooth overall. As I started approaching the last 15 mins I was so anxious. I just want to end the test and see my score. Finally I barely finished the verbal part in time and eager to check my score I just skipped the next few screens as fast as I can and voila :lol:

710.

I am very relieved and happy. My target schools are MIT, Tuck and Yale. Hopefully, this score is enough and I don't have to take it again.

Thanks everyone on this forum. This forum has been very helpful through out the past few months and once again I thank everyone here.

Good Luck.

710. I am very relieved and happy. My target schools are MIT, Tuck and Yale. Hopefully, this score is enough and I don't have to take it again. Thanks everyone on this forum. This forum has been very helpful through out the past few months and once again I thank everyone here. Good Luck.

rg1 · Answer

Congratulation. I'm planning to prepare flashcards for idioms the way you've explained. I find myself in a situation with two answer choice with one incorrect usage of idiom. I want to go past this barrier and increase accuracy in SC. 
Good luck with your application process.

rg1 · Answer

Few questions:

1. I understand that going back to incorrectly answered questions from OG is a must but while attempting the same questions gives you an undue advantage of knowing the content ahead of time. Did you feel it during your preparation? 
2. Do you recall any questions/problems during REAL GMAT that were basically the same problems with very little change/rephrase from questions you did while practicing for GMAT? I know there is too much pressure during the test and you don't realize these things but I wanted to ask this. May be you were telling yourself in your unconscious mind .."Ah!!! I know this or I did this earlier".

Rahul81 · Answer

1. The way I approached SC questions 2nd time is by picking the answer and by putting a short note next to the answer explaining why I picked it. For example I pick answer 'b' for a question and note right next as parallelism, subject-verb agreement or idiom or pronoun agreement. This way I am looking more at the reasoning than the answer.

2. I think about 90% of the quant questions are concepts I went through one way or other. I prepared using Manhattan GMAT books and their quant questions are harder than regular GMAT. So I think that helped. I got the standard triangle geometry, probability, number properties and inequalities questions. I would say except 2-3 questions nothing surprised me. On the verbal part I was able to recognize few idiom questions but I was under some pressure when doing that section.

Rahul81 · Answer

Thanks.

I tried the regular way of studying idioms for some time but I find them hard to memorize and most importantly hard to recognize when there is one in the question. But the above mentioned way of preparing helped me to a point where I can instantly recognize the idiom in the question. Over the last 1 month daily I spend my 1/2 hr commute going through those flash cards and I noticed a difference in about 10 days. I think the only mantra is to repeat them over and over.

Good luck.

Fijisurf · Answer

Congrats on the great score!

I have noticed the same thing: it appears that there is "a difference in the scoring of MGMAT and GMATprep. As per MGMAT I am doing worst in RC but as per Gmatprep I am doing worst in SC."

I just finished my GMATPrep1 and was surprized to see better performance on RCs. There no way I got better in this. It is clearly difficulty level or scoring.

Do you suggest working on SC instead?

Rahul81 · Answer

I would say GMATprep mirrors the original test better than MGMAT.

srivicool · Answer

congratulations!!!!!!!

	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

Gmat experience 630 to 710

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards