Guys, Before I begin let me thank few members from RC forum Icandy - you are amazing man, you accuracy in RC passages always pushed me do better. Ritula and Nitya34 : you guys are awesome. Thanks Sonibubu and Walker too, unknowingly you guys really inspired me a lot. I scored pretty badly in my verbal section in my first attempt on 08/29/08. I was well prepared for GMAT, but did not give much attention to exam day preparation. I was struggling in verbal section during my exam and ended up getting mere 19. This score led me to go back to my shell. I never performed so badly in any exam. Nothing seemed right at that moment. I was pretty much depressed and never wanted to talk about my GMAT day. 3 of my friends appeared for GMAT and everyone got more than 700 in GMAT. All I was thinking during that time is “Am I this bad that I cannot even go past 650 mark”. Next 4 months went by and never thought I will give GMAT again. Earlier I was good in CR and SC and all I wanted was to go past 700 so that my applications will become competitive for the schools that I am aiming for. Well clearly that did not happen and I was completely shattered and devastated. I changed my goals in New Year and after doing all the research on b schools I realized that I need to get 85+ percentile in both the sections. With this goal in mind I started my preparation again. I knew that problematic area for me was RC and unless I kill RC there is no way I can go past 700+ mark or my 85+ percentile mark. With burden of past failure and RC ghost, I pretend to work normally in office where work was killing me. One day while doing my research on Chicago booth, I came across soni’s blog. This led me to the discovery of GMATclub. This was the only place where RC forum was moving. I thought may be other guys don’t find RC that much difficult. With so much going on I thought let me check gauge my level so I gave GMAT prep and scored 600(Q37, V25) well this was not bad as I gave this without preparation, but still it did pinch me. I thought dude GMAT is not your cup of tea and let’s forget about it, but on a second thought I realized do I have another way? With all these thoughts I started with LSAT stuff and RC forum, where Nitya34 used to post 3 RC passages every day. Initially I never felt like doing 3 R gruesome passages after full day of work, but somehow I managed. This is the forum where I met Ritula and Icandy (Thanks guys). I loved Nitya’s signature “3 RC passages a day keep RC fear away” Time was flying out of my hand, sometimes I felt I should have started early. All I did during this time was RC, RC and RC. After a while I became consistent with LSAT passages and while at the same time RC forum also helped in gauging my skills against other good people. For SC I used MGMAT SC guide and OG. While doing OG I realized that certain things are always wrong such as “because of”, “in order to”. After doing certain exercises I became good at finding these errors, but again I knew that this would be area where I will face toughest questions. I completed 1000SC series with 75% accuracy. I was not happy but this was still better than my 570 score. This 570 score ghost never stopped chasing me. For CR I used power score book and did some LSAT passages. After a while I found myself doing better in this section. So I started enjoying CR forums. For Quanta I did not study. I was taking 2 mins for Quanta problem without all those formulae so I was happy that I don’t need to work on this section. Oh did I tell that I am Electronic and Telecomm engg so quanta was not a problem for me. Soon April,09 came, I thought now onwards I will give test on every weekend, but again this was the time when I started feeling that I could not study anymore and started feeling exhausted. Since I did not want diminishing returns so I thought let’s take a break for while. I made quick trips to NY, NH and VA with friends. Here came last weekend of April and I thought dude you need to complete this GMAT before June. From 04/25 onwards my focus was to give only practice tests on weekend with essays and take off on one weekday. With this strategy in mind, I spent next few months giving 5 MGMAT test and GMAT preps. I also planned that I will book GMAT date once I get 3 continuous 700 scores. MGMAT 1-620(Q47, V29) -04/25/09 MGMAT 2-640(Q48, V31) -05/10/09 MGMAT 3-700(Q51, V35) -05/16/09 MGMAT 4-700(Q51, V35) -05/23/09 Prep1 -730(Q51, V38)-05/30/09 Here I achieved my target of getting 3 700 scores, but still I was not convinced so next day I went for one more test. MGMAT 5-730(Q50, V40) -05/31/09 Finally, I scheduled GMAT on 06/27/09. For next couple of weeks I continued with my strategy of giving tests on weekends. Prep2 - 710(Q51, V34)-06/06/09 Prep2 Retake- 760(Q51, V40)-06/13/09 Prep1Retake-770(Q50, V44) - 06/20/09(For the first time the number of mistakes in verbal was fewer than Quanta) As you can see my test was on 06/27 and I had 6 more days to go thru. In the mean time I read blog of another GMAT taker where he mentioned that GMAT is getting tougher and he scored 620 in his second attempt. It shook me for a while and then I came across bb’s post where he mentioned Well this certainly helped, but still this last week was one of difficult weeks to go thru. During my last week I reserved one day for each section from OG. I started with PS on Sunday (06/21) and finished with SC on Thursday (06/25). I did not take off until Friday (06/26) and reason for taking this off was to give my prep a final touch. I woke up at 5 am in the morning and started my day from there. Idea was to go thru all the MGMAT tests, wrong questions in GMATclub tests and all the GMATprep questions. This might help certain test takers what to do in last week of their prep. I went to sleep at 8 pm on 06/26, but could not sleep until 11 pm. I woke up next morning at 6:15 am and reviewed my idioms list, CR question types and meaning of key words for RC (I have posted all this stuff on my wall so I just glanced thru this stuff quickly). I also reviewed my essay templates quickly. I reached Test center, at 7:10 am for my 8 am appointment while listening to NPR radio. Doors were still closed and I was the first one to reach there. I was able to get in thru the back door. After all the formalities I started with awa and finished argument essay with 5 seconds on the clock and moved onto issue essay this one also I finished with 2 seconds on the clock. I took a break for 2 mins, gulped down half red bull and went to rest room. I started Quanta section and soon level of questions started rising. I had to give it a thought before selecting final answer. 5-6 DS questions were really tricky. In last 5 questions I started getting really tough question. I had 6 mins on the clock and 4 questions to go thru. Somehow I managed to finish this section with 15 seconds on the clock. I stick to the following rule Number of Questions: 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 37 Time Quanta : 65 55 45 35 25 15 10 05 Again I took a 2 mins break and gulped down rest of the red bull and ate one energy bar before making a trip to men’s room. I started with Verbal section and those initial SC questions were horrible. I used POE to find right answers. Again, I saw one tough CR followed by a big and complex RC. I said to myself dude no matter what happens you need to kill all the RCs. I moved on with the rest of the questions and all I remember now is that I got one more long killing RC and 2 short RCs, one of them was complex. Finally in the end I received good SC questions; I completed this section with 1 second on the clock. I just ignored the entire survey question and finally I remember one error message came that you cannot select next on this screen. I looked at it closely and realized that this is screen where I need to select report score and cancel score. I selected report score and prayed that please give me 730 score with 85+ in both the sections and finally after a while screen displayed. Overall: 760 (99 percentile) Quanta: 50 (94 percentile) Verbal: 42(95 percentile) I asked proctor to open the door quickly as I wanted to make a quick trip to men’s room:(. Strategy I followed for this section Number of Questions: 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Time Verbal : 66 57 48 39 30 21 12 03 So finally I ended my GMAT journey with 760 . I remember one of my friends who scored 740 couple of years back telling me 2 things 1. He told me I know this does not reflect your true potential and I know next time you gonna just flip the first 2 digits. He also gave me example of his friend who scored 660 in his first attempt and 750 a month after and who is matriculating from NYU now. 2. Second thing, which I feel I will remember for long time He said “Some guys are born geniuses who do not require any study for GMAT and score 780-790, some are lucky like me (he scored 740) while some are like you who have to go through some tough time.” Now, I think that had I gone for just 700 earlier, I wouldn’t have achieved this score. Thanks for giving your precious time in reading this post guys.

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My Story 570(Q49, V19)-->760(Q50, V42)

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rs2010

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07 Jul 2009, 15:39

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jaxtor

Hi Hemant,

My heartiest congratulations for your great success in GMAT.

Please please advise on the verbal part of the GMAT for all the individual sections.Also talk about this mega transition from 19 in verbal to 42 in verbal......Please advise me and all the future GMATTERS.

God bless!

Best R-
Jaxtor

Thanks for the nice words Jaxtor.

Main idea is to know your weaknesses. Earlier I was good in CR and SC( This time I was better

)and I tried to boast my score thru these 2 factors, of course test day screw up also played major part. After some introspection I realized that better I am in CR and SC tougher question I will face in RC. So finally I knew that there is no way I could go beyond RC unless I prepare for the worst. I started slowly with my friends in RC forum and those guys were really awesome. Normally we post questions when find trouble in getting the right answer. While in RC forum I met people who believed in altruism. There is this guy Nitya34, who used to post 3 RC passages a day for practice and we all used to answer those. This helped me in gauging my level in RC. Whenever I made a mistake in RC I always tried to find the type of question. This process helped me finding the pattern.

First you need to identify your weak area and start working on it. Please do not think that you can get away with that section irrespective how good you are in other sections. If you feel you can perform well in CR and SC then take 30-50 questions from SC and 2 sets of CR. So if you are giving 120 minutes each day then give 60 minutes to RC and rest to the second weakest point.

When I was preparing for RC, I tried to do these 3 RC passages along with 2 RC LSAT passages on my own. Those 3 RCs kept me going while rest 2 RCs were there for my personal front. Sometimes I felt so tired after full day of work that It could not concentrate, but somehow I managed. This also prepared me for the worst concentration time.

My last advice would be to give your 100% irrespective of the result.

Let me know if I need to give few more pointer. I know how it feels out there.

rs2010

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07 Jul 2009, 15:44

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Hussain15

....but what about GMAT club tests??? Did you have a go for those as well or not??

and lastly one loving +1 from my side!

These provided me only practice that I needed.

I knew my level was 51 so I didn't do anything for the maths section apart from doing these tests. After seeing my percentile I realized how awesome people are there in this community :-D

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07 Jul 2009, 19:13

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buddy thanks a heap for all the advise....to get into more specifics what all books one need to crack a 40 in verbal....i mean genuinely what all books are required that are more than sufficient to handle verbal....please advise

Best R-
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14 Jul 2009, 10:23

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jaxtor

Hey Jaxtor,

All this time I set my eyes on 45 score in verbal, but I was not able to touch that mark. One week before the test I was able to touch 44 and I knew on my day I could reach to 45 unfortunately that did not happen.

About your question:

For RC I feel you dont need books, you need practice; you need to get out of the stage where on your day you get 7/7 correct while on some off day you get 2/7. I feel your level should be 6/7 nothing but practice can make this happen. From GMAT point of view you need to know the question type.

For CR I reffered to LSAT powerscore bible. This 500+ pages book is enough to crack this section

For SC MGMAT book is good, but with the present trend in SC, you need to be always on your toes. Make sure you remember every single rule from this book. Apart from that there is one thread started by isa in SC section that has pretty good stuff too. You need to make sure that you remember every SC question from OG. If you need more practice then move onto 1000SC.doc and do not plan to complete all questions unless you have time, If you are in position to complete only 100 question then please do so with complete dedication.

whatthehell

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21 Jul 2009, 12:48

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Inspiring. Great work.

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22 Jul 2009, 01:41

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Very inspiring, I will start indulging into RC instead of shying away. Thanks

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27 Jul 2009, 16:23

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Wow, this is such a fantastic experience.

Thank you for sharing! :cool

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28 Jul 2009, 16:27

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hemantsood, could you share the list of terms that you have used to memorize the key terms of RC?

Also, did you take a LSAT formal course, or only the material?

Any suggestion to improve my Verbal since I live in Brazil? As you can see in my punctuation, (in an official simulate), my problem is Verbal.

Thank you

rs2010

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29 Jul 2009, 20:49

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coelholds

Hey Coelholds,

I am sorry, I must have deleted that word file :cry:

. However, I am attaching my some notes that I prepared in the very beginning for RC.

I am also attaching quanta formula.
Meaning of common terms - CR
Some bold face questions- CR

I will try to find it on my system or else I will look for the print out and upload its scanned image.

Attachments

Explanation of common terms often encountered in the 'dreaded' BoldFace Questions.doc [23 KiB]
Downloaded 550 times

Bold_Face.doc [36 KiB]
Downloaded 404 times

rs2010

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29 Jul 2009, 20:51

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1 more attachments.
System dint allow me upload RC notes.

Attachments

Quant fomulae.doc [102.5 KiB]
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coelholds

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30 Jul 2009, 13:08

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hemantsood Thanks a ton, and congrats one more time :bouncer

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30 Jul 2009, 19:41

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Great posts. Helped me big time

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31 Jul 2009, 23:01

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First of all, congrats for such an amazing score! Great story!

I´m planning to take the test in a few weeks, and I would like a few advices on SC. I have already finished the OG and now I'm working on the 1000 SC, but I´m a little bit dissapointed because I´m getting about 75 % of the questions correct. However, I read in your debrief that you were in a similar position a week before the test, is that right? It's a 75% in the 1000 SC ok?

Thanks a lot!

rs2010

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02 Aug 2009, 20:05

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Tacho28

Yup that's correct, my accuracy was ~75% in 1000SC.doc and almost knew every answer from SC section in both OG 10 and OG 11 and when I say I knew I meant I knew the reasons why other choices were incorrect. So just relax and be prepared for exam day, whatever exam throws at you, give your best shot.

Good luck man.

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02 Aug 2009, 22:33

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hemantsood

Tacho28

Thank you very much Hemant. Hope to do as well as you did on the real exam!

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03 Aug 2009, 00:15

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A great story! Congrats!!!
All the best with application!

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04 Aug 2009, 10:59

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Man! This story is great. I feel like I am in a similiar situation. I have been studying for the GMAT since the end of May and I was beginning to feel like I had no chance of getting my goal of 650 (I know that's low but I am certainly not a genious and felt like this was a stretch). I have been taking the Princton Review and GMAT practice test every week since.

GMAT P1 - 570 Q40 V27
PR P1 - 590 Q40 V30
PR P2 - 590 Q42 V28
PR P3 - 570 Q44 V23
PR P4 - 590 Q44 V27
PR P5 - 590 Q44 V23

Then I retook PR P1 and got a 680 Q46 V37

Even though I didnt remember answers or really even that I had taken that test before I decided I shouldn't get excited because I must have done better for some stupid reason.

This past weekend I took the 2nd GMAT practice (that you get when sign up) and got a 700 Q48 V40!!!

I broke down and was the closest I have been to crying in years. The week before taking this last practice I didn't study much at all, but I took a needed break and slept (rather than my 3hrs a day studying, 8hrs of work and 6hrs of sleep).

I am taking my GMAT this Saturday and I have more confidence that I will do well than ever! I really feel like I know what I need, and all I need is good sleep and a good attitude. I was so upset after having 570-590's for over a month and I was working so hard, but it all feels worth it now, and I haven't even taken the test yet.

I just feel that having a clear head and a good attitude can really, really help anyones Verbal who struggles with it.

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04 Aug 2009, 11:37

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That is a great improvement. I am pretty sure you will nail it. We look forward to hearing your experience this coming weekend. Good luck!

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04 Aug 2009, 20:22

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Great inspiring story hemantsood. Can you tell the name of the LSAT books you were using? It would be of great help.

rs2010

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04 Aug 2009, 21:11

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eresh

Great inspiring story hemantsood. Can you tell the name of the LSAT books you were using? It would be of great help.

Hey Eresh,

I used LSAT powerscore bible for CR and that's the only book I used from LSAT section.

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My Story 570(Q49, V19)-->760(Q50, V42)

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