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05 Aug 2012, 14:24
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Hi All ,
I took the GMAT a few weeks ago . I prepared for around 2 months. While I was worried that IR section will add to my nightmares , it turned out quite the opposite.
Got perfect scores in AWA and IR.
710 - Q - 49 , V - 38
The majority of my preparation was on the verbal. My verbal scores have generally been decent hovering around 36 and I thought a solid preparation will help me cross 40. During all my practice exams I was losing concentration , in a sense that , atleast in one area I will just perform really badly. The other sections will be ok. It was disturbing as it seemed like I was good in all sections , but could not bring it all together in one exam.
In the GMAT prep I took before the exam I scored a 730 (50 , 40 ) and was happy about it. I really knew the MGMAT SC page by page. But tell you what , none of this will help you in the exam.
I generally do well in real tests than practice tests as I concentrate much more. So I was satisfied with the progress and took the last 5 days a little easy. I did not take any tests during this time.
The key I think I missed was building stamina and performing consistently. In the actual exam , I moved slowly. AWA - I was always behind the clock since I took time to script my response. I did the same with IR. Take your time. Move slowly. I had decided that out of 12 I will complete 10 properly. So even when I was behind the clock I was ok with it. I did take those 2 guesses , (not blindly, but spent little time).
As it turns out , this has helped me quite well.. However the problem was , I think my brain was already firing all cylinders. By the end of the quants , I felt surprisingly normal. But when I started taking the verbal , I could notice I was spending way too much time on the first 10 questions. I kept on saying that I can catch up.. And started making 2 answers quickly in every 10. I could never catch up and in the end I had to finish the last 15 odd questions in around 20 minutes. I could hardly read it once and had to make an answer and move on. I am pretty sure my score dipped atleast a couple of points here..
So here is my tip , when you are doing verbal , practice to work in this speed. (around 1 minute per question), specially for SC. If you cannot do this , don't take the exam. Am serious.
RC accuracy can be improved drastically by writing notes while you read.. but it consumes a lot of time.. (In hindsight , I guess I lost any advantage I gained from RC). So you definitely need to improve on SC.
In case of CR , if you cannot process all the fallacies and question types within 75 seconds , I would say dont bother spending too much time on learning the stem and fallacies. Instead do more questions , so that your brain is wired to identify mistakes by default..
I know I have certain strange suggestions here. This is applicable for people who can score 650+ without any preparation. If you can build a good stamina , practice doing SC really fast and internalize CR reasoning , I believe it will make a difference.
Ofcourse try these tips during your practice test. Dont go to the exam hall like an idiot without any plan on timing ( which is what I did)..Good luck all.
I was a little disappointed when I saw the score to be less than 730. I am pretty confident that on a good day my verbal score would have touched 40.. I am not sure how I am going to go about this.. I dont have the energy to go through this ordeal again.. Does any one think perfect scores in IR and AWA will help my application look better than a simple 710.. ?
Cheers
=/=
I took the GMAT a few weeks ago . I prepared for around 2 months. While I was worried that IR section will add to my nightmares , it turned out quite the opposite.
Got perfect scores in AWA and IR.
710 - Q - 49 , V - 38
The majority of my preparation was on the verbal. My verbal scores have generally been decent hovering around 36 and I thought a solid preparation will help me cross 40. During all my practice exams I was losing concentration , in a sense that , atleast in one area I will just perform really badly. The other sections will be ok. It was disturbing as it seemed like I was good in all sections , but could not bring it all together in one exam.
In the GMAT prep I took before the exam I scored a 730 (50 , 40 ) and was happy about it. I really knew the MGMAT SC page by page. But tell you what , none of this will help you in the exam.
I generally do well in real tests than practice tests as I concentrate much more. So I was satisfied with the progress and took the last 5 days a little easy. I did not take any tests during this time.
The key I think I missed was building stamina and performing consistently. In the actual exam , I moved slowly. AWA - I was always behind the clock since I took time to script my response. I did the same with IR. Take your time. Move slowly. I had decided that out of 12 I will complete 10 properly. So even when I was behind the clock I was ok with it. I did take those 2 guesses , (not blindly, but spent little time).
As it turns out , this has helped me quite well.. However the problem was , I think my brain was already firing all cylinders. By the end of the quants , I felt surprisingly normal. But when I started taking the verbal , I could notice I was spending way too much time on the first 10 questions. I kept on saying that I can catch up.. And started making 2 answers quickly in every 10. I could never catch up and in the end I had to finish the last 15 odd questions in around 20 minutes. I could hardly read it once and had to make an answer and move on. I am pretty sure my score dipped atleast a couple of points here..
So here is my tip , when you are doing verbal , practice to work in this speed. (around 1 minute per question), specially for SC. If you cannot do this , don't take the exam. Am serious.
RC accuracy can be improved drastically by writing notes while you read.. but it consumes a lot of time.. (In hindsight , I guess I lost any advantage I gained from RC). So you definitely need to improve on SC.
In case of CR , if you cannot process all the fallacies and question types within 75 seconds , I would say dont bother spending too much time on learning the stem and fallacies. Instead do more questions , so that your brain is wired to identify mistakes by default..
I know I have certain strange suggestions here. This is applicable for people who can score 650+ without any preparation. If you can build a good stamina , practice doing SC really fast and internalize CR reasoning , I believe it will make a difference.
Ofcourse try these tips during your practice test. Dont go to the exam hall like an idiot without any plan on timing ( which is what I did)..Good luck all.
I was a little disappointed when I saw the score to be less than 730. I am pretty confident that on a good day my verbal score would have touched 40.. I am not sure how I am going to go about this.. I dont have the energy to go through this ordeal again.. Does any one think perfect scores in IR and AWA will help my application look better than a simple 710.. ?
Cheers
=/=
Schools: Goizueta '15 Tepper '15 Anderson '15 Darden '15 Georgia Tech '15 NUS '15 Fisher '15 HEC '15 Erasmus '15 Duke '15 Jones '15 Kenan-Flagler '15 Melbourne '15 LBS '14 Krannert '15 Ivey '15 W.P. Carey
GMAT 1: 710 Q50 V35
Posts: 793
Kudos:
648
06 Aug 2012, 02:50
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inequality
Could you please elaborate on this point.
06 Aug 2012, 04:21
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This is my personal experience.. Apply it during practice tests and see if it works..
Always keep speed of answering as a critical criteria as well. Apply every step you want to methodically in practice tests and try improving on speed. If the speed is not improving and you end up spending more than 1.5 mins on each CR question , it is better to use a common sense approach.
Common sense approach of reading the stimulus very carefully , rephrasing it and eliminating incorrect answers. Dont waste time classifying questions stems or finding out fallacies.. (Knowing fallacies will be a huge help.. even in AWA.. I am just saying , applying the PS CR methods as-is seems like a waste of time for people with good reasoning skills)
Always keep speed of answering as a critical criteria as well. Apply every step you want to methodically in practice tests and try improving on speed. If the speed is not improving and you end up spending more than 1.5 mins on each CR question , it is better to use a common sense approach.
Common sense approach of reading the stimulus very carefully , rephrasing it and eliminating incorrect answers. Dont waste time classifying questions stems or finding out fallacies.. (Knowing fallacies will be a huge help.. even in AWA.. I am just saying , applying the PS CR methods as-is seems like a waste of time for people with good reasoning skills)
