I got a 710 two days ago...tips from a non-genius newbie.

Could you give some advice on what kind of probability & combo
question did you get on the exams?

Did you get any interesting question that took more time to solve?

Great post. I feel like i'm in the same position you are. My first time around after only about 2weeks of medium and 2weeks of hard core studying I got a 610(36M38V). Fast forward to 6 months later and I recently got a 780 (57M45V) on my last 800score test. After feeling pretty good about myself I took my last Kaplan and got a 550(31M33V I think) and have hurdled back down to earth. That was my second lowest Kap score. I'm scheduled to take the test on saturday. The worst part about the whole thing is that I seem To have developed a nasty habit of making math errors on almost all the questions. Not only do I get alot of questions wrong because of it but I also waste more time on the ones I eventually get right. So far I haven't been able to correct the problem, but I better do so in a hurry. I plan to take my last PR on thursday to get one last confidence boost.

Anyway, Congratulations 710 is a great score. The goal I set for myself after my pathetic 610 was a 720(47M42V), so I hope to follow in your footsteps.

Were the questions alot easier than the ones on kaplan or did they just require less computation?
what type of questions did you see....rate, mixture,work, num. properties, probability, etc.

Posted by kpadma:

"Could you give some advice on what kind of probability & combo
question did you get on the exams?

Did you get any interesting question that took more time to solve?"

My reply:

I don't know if it was luck, but I didn't feel that any problem was completely unapproachable (something I did feel on some of the practice tests.) Also, time was not an issue, surprisingly, since on the practice tests I always ran out of time on the math sections thanks to a couple of painstakingly long problems. None of that here....3-4 steps at most.

I don't really remember much in detail (one of my strategies was to completely forget about previous questions so that I could approach the next question with a clear mind. DO NOT DWELL on previous problems or they will haunt you throughout the rest of the section. Let go and start new for every problem. I truly don't know how people are able to retain what they saw...I could not replicate these problems it if my life depended on it. I cannot stress this enough...do not fall in love with a question.

Probability was a pretty straight forward "at least" prob (1-unfavorable outcomes) and the combination was just a very simple "double combination". My advice is to not focus on easy pre-packaged approaches for specific versions of these advanced problems (combo/permutation/pattern recognition/Prob/etc...), but to truly spend at least a couple of days learning the basics of these topics so that you know how to approach them with the possibility of slight twists. In my opinion, the basics are all you need of these advanced topics unless you are scoring in 46+ on math. If you see something crazy, having to do with remainders, etc...chances are that it is just a pattern recognition type problem. You cannot possibly expect to retain all the little tricks you've read floating around for these. Give every question a try... as you work them out, these types of problems will click into place. Remember...there are only so many concepts that are covered. As long as you know enough to build on for most of these concepts, you do not need to learn all the "easy-solve" cliff notes.




Posted by Sandoval:

"Were the questions alot easier than the ones on kaplan or did they just require less computation?
what type of questions did you see....rate, mixture,work, num. properties, probability, etc. "

My reply:

I feel that Kaplan's Data Suff. is much harder than the real thing. Kaplan tries to get really tricky with the number properties. I don't really feel the actual concepts are much harder, but that Kaplan makes it a point that you know a million different properties of fractions, negatives, odd vs. evens, exponents, roots, etc... Much, much trickier than the real thing.

The problems were a good mix of rate, work, special right triangles, etc..... Trust me...Nothing you have not seen in the OG. OG, combined with basic level Prob/combination/Permutation...and a little pattern recognition just in case (read my reply above), and you are well on your way towards the 720 you need.

Toujours28:

Bonne Chance!

djacks1914:

You have no time to doubt yourself. Just learn the basics enough to allow you to work through the twists. Apply what you know with confidence during the test because if you are like most people, you'll never feel completely ready. Sometimes the only way to know where you stand is to take the plunge.

Best of luck everyone!!!

Buenas noches,

iluminado

PS...Oh....and one more piece of advice that I got from a friend...I think it worked for me as well:

On your way to the test center, blast you car stereo with your favorite music, roll down the windows and scream the words to your favorite song. This will help put you at ease and make you feel invincible! You favorite tunes will remind you of who you really are and help minimize those terrible insecurities associated with the GMAT blues...

Hi Iluminado..Thanks for sharing ur experiences, ur's has been a very refreshing attitude and you've reinforced a lot of common beliefs, of being confident during an exam, being strong with the basics etc.

My weak area has been the quant section, my first (and only) attempt, yielded a score of 35, I'm hopint to pump this up during my 2nd take in October. I know you, and many others, have sworn by the concepts in the OG, but I can't help but feel I need to look around and grasp concepts from other sources, I'm trying to stick to the OG bigtime though!

hey iluminado, if you're still around, tengo una pregunta mas:

your quant and verbal scores are quite similar, do you consider yourself to be stronger in one than in the other, generally? which bit were you more worried about?

again, thanks for posting!

Lazerbud:

Actually, to clarify a bit, I feel that perfecting OG alone will only get you up to the 630-670 range. To kick it up to the next level you will also need to be comfortable with the BASICS of Probabilites, Combinations, Permutations, pattern recognition, etc... I do not think that these topics are covered in great detail in any of the basic books (Kaplan, OG, Princeton), so you might want to check other sources for this information. Do the bulk of your work from OG, but DO look into the more advaced stuff I just mentioned. Some of the members of this site have published some good study guides for these topics, and in the Math/Intellectual Problems forum you will also find additional help. Do not be overwhelmed by the harder problems though...unless you are scoring 46+ in quant, you just need to get the basic concepts down.

Good luck!

Hey Toujours28,

Yo tengo una respuesta mas

About quant vs. verbal. I feel that I was in a good position to improve my total score because my verbal scores were consistently much higher than my quant scores. This is a good position to be in, because quant, in my opinion, is much easier to improve than verbal is. On one of the practice tests I got 46 verbal and 30 Quant! Needless to say, I focused on math and forgot about verbal as test day was getting closer.

On the real test, I was able to bring up my quant score to 44 and actually beat my verbal score by two points.

If your weakness is math, then you are in a good position to significantly improve your score. If your weakness is verbal, then you are in a little tougher position. This is just my personal opinion though...for what it's worth.

Buena suerte!

Where can I find a tutorial and practice problems for pattern recognition type questions?