Unimportant Introduction I took the GMAT for the first time in November 2008 and scored 700 (Q47, V39). At the time, I thought I had made the mark. After all, I had hit the magical 700 barrier that everyone talks about. It didn’t take long for me to realize that 700 was technically below average all of the top 10 schools. Although I had studied for 3 months prior to hitting the 700 mark, I knew I could do better, so I decided to retake the exam. This time I’d be shooting for 750. In January 2009, I decided that I would use the GMAT Club Tests and the MGMAT SC guide to improve my quant and verbal scores. I finished 2 chapters of the MGMAT SC guide and quickly realized that this plan sucked. I was still worn out from my first attempt and I didn’t have any motivation to study on my own. To top it all off, the economy was getting worse and a lot of people were nervous about the impact on b-school job opportunities. I put the GMAT on the backburner and began to research March Madness strategies to ensure that I would get last place in the GMAT Club March Madness fantasy league. By the time March Madness was done and I had succeeded in taking last place, Knewton was offering their course for $699. It seemed like a reasonable price and the program looked promising, so I paid for the program and chose the session that would run from June – July. So now that you know how I got back into studying the GMAT, here’s how it all went down… I took my Knewton diagnostic test and got a dismal 640 (Q46, V32). I was pretty pissed off because I only missed 2 questions on the quantitative portion. I couldn’t help but wonder if this program was just a marketing scam. Did they sandbag my performance on the first test just to make their 50 point guarantee easier to back? I called Knewton support and they said they’d look into my results and send me an email. I never got an email. I went forward with the course and most of it was actually pretty good. As most people will tell you, the instructors are great. The practice material is also really good. Most of their practice problems are official questions that have been rewritten. I actually liked this approach, because it gets you in the habit of looking for the pattern. Rather than seeing a random question, you see the concepts that are being tested. It’s also really helpful to practice with questions that are representative of the real exam. I was mostly disappointed with the CATs, which I thought was funny because they’re so quick to brag about having the original creators of the GMAT scoring algorithm on staff. The scoring on the Knewton CATs sucks, but I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the algorithm or simply a lack of difficult questions. It was also a little annoying that there wasn’t a good library of information to reference. The concept library was great for seeking explanations to problems you had missed, but there wasn’t a clearly organized method for reading material before you’re tested on it. This led me to seek resources outside of Knewton. The Recommendations Quant For quant, I used Jeff Sackmann’s Total GMAT Math, as well as his Extreme Challenge Questions Set. Total GMAT Math is by far the most thorough quant book available for the GMAT. It starts with the assumption that you know nothing about the GMAT and ends with the most difficult subjects, such as combinations, permutations, probability, and symbolism. Total GMAT Math contains every concept that you will need on the GMAT, but it won’t expose you to every combination of concepts. This is where the Extreme Challenge set comes in. The question set contains 100 questions that are all 720+ difficulty level. What I liked most about this question set is that it requires you to solve difficult questions by combining concepts. Consider the following question: "How many ways can you select 4 people from 5 married couples if no two people from the same couple can be selected?" You know that order doesn’t matter, but you can’t really solve this question with the combinations approach either. What’s the solution? You use the permutation approach and divide out the number of ways they can be ordered. (10x8x6x4)/(4x3x2x1) = 80 Jeff Sackmann’s explanations are outstanding and all of these questions appear to be based on official questions. Verbal SC MGMAT SC is an absolute must. This book will teach you everything you need to know about GMAT Sentence Correction. If you’re serious about getting V40+ on the GMAT and you’re not already an SC wizard, you have to buy this book. I learned a couple odds & ends from Knewton as well. CR & RC I didn’t use any books for these sections, because Knewton is actually really good with these subjects. I didn’t use Knewton’s approach to reading RC passages, but their explanation of question types was really helpful. I’m probably going against what most test prep companies will tell you, but I don’t use any tricks for CR or RC. I read the passage and answer the question. For me, it was really helpful to understand the types of wrong answer choices (too extreme, out of scope, etc). As you can see, I didn’t mention GMAT Club Tests or the Brutal SC document. I’ve tried to use these resources, but they’re just too demoralizing for me. A lot of people really like these resources, so don’t be swayed by my opinion, but just know that they aren’t the only resources that will take you to Q50 or V40+. The Test Scores Knewton #1 640 (Q46, V32) Knewton #2 730 (Q46, V45) Knewton #3 750 (Q48, V45) Knewton #4 730 (Q48, V41) *I lost faith in the Knewton CATs and never took the last one. MGMAT #4 730 (Q49, V41) GMATPrep #1 750 (Q49, V42) -9 Quant errors, 6 Verbal errors (1RC, 2CR, 3SC) GMATPrep #1 RT 780 (Q51, V47) -3 Quant errors, 2 Verbal errors (1SC, 1CR) GMATPrep #2 750 (Q49, V44) -10 Quant errors (timing issues), 5 Verbal errors (3SC, 2CR) GMATPrep #2 RT 770 (Q50, V47) -6 Quant errors (finished early), 2 Verbal errors (1SC, 1RC) (finished early) Official GMAT: 770 (Q50, V44) The Ratings Knewton Course 3.5/5 Stars - $699? Total GMAT Math 5/5 Stars - $50 Extreme Challenge Set 5/5 Stars - $25 Manhattan GMAT SC 5/5 Stars - $18 Edit: I forgot to mention that this has been my desktop wallpaper at work and at home since I started preparing. My friend says that I should have made one that said 800 :p GMAT3.jpg

Congrats! I was laughing on seeing that you actually made that image! But hats off to your single minded focus!

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How I upgraded my 700 to a 770 (Q50, V44)

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nravi3

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18 Jul 2010, 11:47

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Thats Inspirational

nravi3

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Thats inspirational

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thanks for the great post.

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Awesome!

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Congrats! I was laughing on seeing that you actually made that image! :-D

But hats off to your single minded focus!

rockzom

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01 Nov 2010, 02:42

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Avernusaur

I took my Knewton diagnostic test and got a dismal 640 (Q46, V32). I was pretty pissed off because I only missed 2 questions on the quantitative portion. I couldn’t help but wonder if this program was just a marketing scam. Did they sandbag my performance on the first test just to make their 50 point guarantee easier to back? I called Knewton support and they said they’d look into my results and send me an email. I never got an email.

I DEFINITELY think that Knewton does this. Does anybody have evidence to the contrary?

Rux10

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27 Jan 2011, 15:43

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Congrats to Op! Huge score and great debrief. Thanks +1

I'm kind of shocked that little more than a year ago, Knewton released a commercial CAT that allowed you to receive a Q46 with TWO incorrect answers. What use is an algorithm that can't give you a score that could be guesstimated almost perfectly by any soul who has been on this forum for a week? By the powers vested in me, by the internet and the ability to type... I hereby upgrade that Q result to Q50!

Seriously though, congrats again. I hope all went well with the applications or any other personal endeavours you undertook.

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27 Jan 2011, 17:15

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Rux10

I was admitted to Michigan (Ross) with a scholarship in Round 1, so I'll be heading to Ann Arbor this summer.

For those of you still prepping for the GMAT, here's my experience. As most people will tell you, you check the box of "good enough" somewhere around the average GMAT score for a school's incoming class. Once a school has decided to accept you, many people believe that the GMAT score becomes a key factor in scholarship awards, because the GMAT is directly linked to a school's ranking. Of course, other parts of your profile play a large part in scholarship decisions, but those details are likely outside of your control.

While I certainly could have been admitted with my 700, I believe that my 770 gave me marginally better odds of admission, and significantly better odds of scholarship award.

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That's great news, thanks for the update. I see what you meam with regards to the GMAT/Scholarship correlation. If anything, aiming as high as possible (like you did) can mean making sizeable short term savings. Definitely something to keep in mind.

Best of luck at Ann Arbor!

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Congrats AV !! Your story is very inspiring and the material reviews would definitely help me as I start preparing in a few days.

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29 Jun 2011, 17:38

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I really enjoyed reading this post!

And a really good problem this..

-----------------
"How many ways can you select 4 people from 5 married couples if no two people from the same couple can be selected?"

You know that order doesn’t matter, but you can’t really solve this question with the combinations approach either. What’s the solution? You use the permutation approach and divide out the number of ways they can be ordered.

(10x8x6x4)/(4x3x2x1) = 80

----------------

It's absolutely true that just using formulas is not going to help on the GMAT. It's all about the concepts. I really think the "slot" method is the best approach to solve these types of problems.

gablaze23

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11 Jul 2011, 07:40

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Congratulations!

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27 Aug 2011, 15:08

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Hello Aver
I'm exactly in the position where you were when you took your first test.
I took my GMAT today and got 700(q:48 + v:36). I'm planning to retake the test in 5 weeks.
How long was your prep course in knewton ?
Do you think it can be completed in 5 weeks ?

Thanks

jaba

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01 Sep 2011, 12:26

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Just like the OP i got a 700 in my first attempt
Just like him I signed up for knewton
Just like him i am going to get a gmat score of ..... :-D

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GMAT 1: 750 Q49 V42 Verified score

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01 Sep 2011, 12:51

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jaba

Just like the OP i got a 700 in my first attempt
Just like him I signed up for knewton
Just like him i am going to get a gmat score of ..... :-D

Love your thinking! Congratulations!!!!

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02 Sep 2011, 09:34

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rockzom

Avernusaur

I DEFINITELY think that Knewton does this. Does anybody have evidence to the contrary?

I know a guy who has scored 760 on knewton diagnostic cat.. So unless he scores an 810, his course is free :wink:

jeprince112

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02 Sep 2011, 19:43

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I ordered the TOTAL GMAT MATH from amazon and will get his extreme math set. Hopefully this will help me get into the 50s for quant

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02 Nov 2011, 09:01

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Thanks for the tips.

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this is a great post! thanks for the insight

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04 Aug 2013, 08:18

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Congrats on your gr8 score!!

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