To briefly introduce myself, I am not a native English speaker. I have an undergrad. degree in Engineering from the US. I took the test last Saturday and scored 700 92% (Q 49 - 89% , V 36 - 80 %). I took the GMATprep the first time in my GMAT preparation trip and scored 490. By then I realized I needed alot of preparation to get to 700 or so. I registered for Kaplan's course and spent $1,500. Here is what I think of Kapan's course: it is good only for beginers and those looking for up to 550 - 600. Kaplan classes are more heavily focused on test strategies and guessing tricks than the underlying knowledge and skills needed to score high on the GMAT. My 2 cents ? almost all that you can learn from Kaplan's class in two months can be easily obtained from a Kaplan book or the MGMAT series in two weeks time for ALOT less cost. One major negative side of Kaplan is that they never mention the Official Guide for the GMAT by mba.com. As the kaplan course ended I took the real GMAT and scored 600 (Q 48, V 25). I knew I needed much improvement in Verbal. Early in 2007 I discovered the GMATclub. I learned alot from this forum and I figured out the existence of the OG. I am not trying to be nice or something, but I really want to thank GMATClub for taking me to the 7xx club. I couldn't have done it without the help of all active members of GMATClub at the math and verbal forums. Many posts of old members back in 2005 and 2006 were extremely helpful as well. I spent a great deal of my time surfing the GMATclub forum. I am not going to waste your time with my test day story and my practice scores .. etc. I will start directly with my test prep strategies, hints, and advices. I can summarize my conclusion in ten big HINTS : Hint 1: The GMAT is getting harder and harder. The GMAT a year ago was alot easier, both quant and verbal sections. Hint 2: The Official Guide 11 is a MUST have/do. If you take the GMAT test without doing every single problem in the OG 11, then you're wasting your time and money unless you are really good and already in the 700 level. If you take the GMAT before doing all problems in the OG and taking the GMAT prep 2 tests, then it is entirely your fault and lack of hard work and strong preparation. Hint 3: Take the GMAT Prep tests each once to examine your level and approximate score. Then, retake the GMAT Prep as many times as you can to get new questions for practice in verbal and math, mainly untill you get almost all questions available in the pool. These questions are very good practice materials and reflect the type of questions you would see on the test. Bare in mind that the GMAT Prep is NOW easier than the actual GMAT test. The hardest questions you'll get on GMAT prep math are not as hard as the upper bin ones you'd see on the real test. Hint 4: Don't do the big and most common mistake of the following: I love math, I'm good in math and I have a technical degree (engineer, CS, math .. etc). My English is fluent and I read newspapers in english .. well, at the end I did my degree in an english speaking institute. I can do reading. I know how to write correct english. As long as I'm good in Math I will score good in GMAT. You take the GMAT and boom 560 (Q 48-50, V 15-25). What ?!! This is unfair.. oh I need help ! Hint 5: the GMAT is not an easy test. It is a big challenge for most people. Less than 10% of test takers score higher than 690 on the GMAT. If you want your 720, you must pay alot of time, great amount of effort, and some money . GMAT is not fun by any means. getting an MBA from a top school is worth the effort you put into preparing for the GMAT. Hint 6: You have a free amazing tool for the GMAT. Whether you utilize it or not, it is your problem. If you don't believe me, at least I did my part and gave you the advice. USE GMATCLUB !!!! Be an active member. answer problems, involve in discussion of hard SC questions. Help others and get help. Instead of paying $1000 on GMAT books from every single available test prep company, use the free posts on the GMATclub. It should take months before you can say that you fully utilized and took advantage of the GMATclub. Read posts from even 2004. tons of 7xx scorers have posted their experience in here. Hint 7: If you're shooting for 48+ on the math/quant part of the GMAT, GET THE CHALLENGES (now GMAtclub tests) ( https://www.gmatclub.com/wiki/tests ). Those tests are really amazing and teach you alot of advanced concepts. Previously, they used to be much harder than what you may see on the GMAT. Nowdays, many questions from the challenges reflect the hard big questions on the real GMAT . So these challenges are worth more now than before. Hint 8: To score high on the GMAT you need three things. You can not score high unless you have mastered these three: 1. Knowledge: SC structure and grammer, MATH forumals and concepts, Vocabulary for GMAT in RC and CR .. etc 2. Skills: Process of Elimination, reading skills, logical reasoning, ability to extract information data from a math questions, data sufficiency skills .. etc 3. Strategy: time management, educated guessing, skipping hard and time consuming questions, stamina strategy .. etc Example: By strategy and skills only you can never do very well in RC unless you know good vocabulary to understand the passages. The same thing applies if you don't know the main arithmatic equations. Example: If you master the knowledge and concepts behind the GMAT and have the sufficient skills, you can never do really well if you don't manage your pace throughout the test and end up not finishing the section. Hint 9: Practice .. Practice .. Practice .. Practice .. Practice .. Practice .. No score is out of your league. Once you get the knowledge, skills, and strategy, you can keep practicing untill you reach 800 if you want. Hint 10: I have compiled a list of top qoutes and advices by many top scorers GMATclub members. It is the "Golden Qoutes by GMAT Clubbers !" https://gmatclub.com/forum/1-t43532 What I used to prepare and that I would recommend : o GMATclub challenges (5 of them only) - https://gmatclub.com/wiki/tests o Manhattan Sentence Correction book and Manhattan number properties book (Both are a must) o Official Guide 11th edition and Official Guide Verbal and Official Guide Quantitative Reviews o Spidey notes for SC - https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/p572956#p572956 o GMAT Club forums o Kaplan book (for basic concepts and introductory strategies to left me from 490 to 600). o GMAT prep tests o Peterson AWA book (worth it) I may retake the test to score higher because I know I can get any score I want. If you have any questions, please feel free to post here or PM me . I will be around in the GMAT club for a long while as I will start preparing my MBA applications (Columbia Jan 09 intake and INSEAD ). This Debrief is a part of the Best GMAT Stories - Period collection.

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My GMAT Journey: from 490 to 700 ! (Q49, V36)

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ekinwang

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29 Mar 2010, 21:04

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congratulations! this gives the rest of us (well, me) hope!

nonameee

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15 May 2010, 06:29

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Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

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17 May 2010, 07:29

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cingratulations

cjanoam

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23 May 2010, 01:24

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23 May 2010, 01:34

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[rating1]Hi everybody.Since i have been working (for 20 years in fact) I did not have the luxury of a long prep time for GMAT. I took one month's leave. I studied entirely from the OG and Quantitative Review and studied exclusively from these two. Initial brushing up of basic skills was from GMAT for Dummies especially since I had studied math a long time back. I also purchased the previous years papers from the GMAT site.These papers are worth it. In the twenty two days that I could study, I used to revise OG in the forenoon and give tests in the afternoon session. The questions that I got wrong in the OG I used to mark for further revision. That strategy is useful if you are hard pressed for time, like I was. I got a decent score, 710 and 6 for AWA.Am applying for INSEAD, ISB, SAID,Queens, Ivey and Judge

Cheers[/rating1]

maivietdung2002

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23 May 2010, 04:06

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meetbhagz

Hi i wanted to know that how do you approach to DS problems and the verbal section.....What should i initailly do....i have no idea.....i gave GMAT today my score was 360....I knoe its worst well but inspite of solving all the DS problems and all the verbal sections from OG I am still unable to knoe the fact that what is the thing that I am missing....i really want guidance on what should be my approach .....I have Princeton Review and OG....I would be great if you can help me out on this...

No offense, but 360 is quite low and you should try very hard. :D
English is my 3rd language and I managed to get 650 in the 2nd attempt. I studied it myself. I dont want to pay to any schools for my GMAT preparation. With $1500 USD I can take GMAT 6 times. :D hehe.

I believe with lots of practice you can do much better than me. One of my friend who is also not a native speaker got 700+ without going to any GMAT preparation.

I think OG is great for practice because its exercises are quite similar to the real exam but not so good on theory.

cjanoam

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23 May 2010, 17:24

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I think if the verbal part is a problem, and if you have time, and the MGMAT, Kaplan etc have not helped, have a look at the original grammar book which all of us were supposed to study in school. I am referring to Wren and Martin, of course. It really clears some fundas. There are also a lot of online exams available.

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24 May 2010, 09:35

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Thank you for your suggestions, I will definitely take a few of your tips into account when working up my studying plans!

Very helpful!

hcb

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27 May 2010, 09:55

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That is really inspiring. Thank you for sharing your story.

anandbha

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01 Jun 2010, 15:37

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Congrats.....Inspiring.

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03 Jun 2010, 00:38

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i scored exactly 490 in my gmat prep test, hoping i can get above 700 just like you!!!!

gmatbull

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12 Jun 2010, 01:54

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This post is a great motivation to many; from 490 to 700- that isn't a joke.

Wolf

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12 Jun 2010, 07:09

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great tips! i want to score in 700s too

EggWhitesOnly

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19 Jun 2010, 08:43

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Wow, very impressive!

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27 Jun 2010, 22:01

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Its been a while since this debrief was first posted by you, but its never too late to congratulate you. I am sure you must be doing equally good in your B school.

Couldn’t emphasize more on "Using GMAT CLUB". Invaluable resource !

gmatbull

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28 Jun 2010, 16:10

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I hope to score within the 700+ range too. However, verbal -the achilles heel - has not been
very responsive to my efforts. Nonetheless, I hope to conquer.

YourDreamTheater

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05 Jul 2010, 11:19

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Although I am an native English-speaker, I have so much respect for people to tackle this exam having not grown up in an English area. Congrats!

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05 Jul 2010, 11:31

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congratz!! very encouraging!!

cchilakapati

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07 Jul 2010, 03:45

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hi my princeton review free online test score is 570(q44- v27) (quant questions 30/37 correct , 3 wrong in geometry, 1 probability and 3 in data sufficiency and in verbal 27 correct and 14 wrong as follows :Reading comprehension 8 correct - 6 wrong; sentence correction 9 correct - 6 wrong and critical reasoning 10 correct and 2 wrong ) . i have started preparation, i am weak in verbal especially grammar and RC, i think i am ok in critical reasoning) . I am looking for 710+ score , iam putting around 20 hours a week. can any one suggest me two things :

1.Is 710 acheivable for me.
2.If 1 above is yes, what is the time frame of acheiving 710.

cchilakapati

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08 Jul 2010, 02:18

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please so one assess my situation and reply.

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