Oh Hell Yeah

Question

I'm psyched...just took the test today, did far better than expected... I was expecting around a 700, but got a 750 (50 math, 41 verbal). I guess all my wrong answers were experimental questions (hehe).

The PP tests seemed to be a good indicator of how I did. I took one 2 days before the test and one 1 day before my results were as follows:

PP1 = 740
PP2 = 740
GMAT = 750

I found that the OG10 was an excellent study guide so long as you went over the explanations of your wrong answers in detail and understood the concepts as to why you were wrong.

I think the most important thing I learned that helped me through the test was this: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS. In math, a single digit or negative sign either in the answer or calculations is the difference between a right answer and a wrong answer. In SCs, its usually a comma or a 3 letter word. In RCs and CRs its a single sentence or clause that you skip simply because your eyes glaze over.

If you can control your mental fatigue, you can control the test, especially in the verbal section. Master your algebra skills for math and master your ability to stay awake for verbal.

bb · Answer

Congradulations SOFERE! you did very well. 99th percentile - can't do better than that. I will enter your score to our database of score "guestimator" to help for the future generations. Do you have any other results for Kaplan/PR? How long did you prepare for? We had a guy who took 2 weeks to score 750. It took me more like 4 months... but that's me. Anything takes me 4 months :wink:

--Bogdan

sofere · Answer

I took a Manhattan GMAT 9 week course and took the GMATs a little over a week after the last course. Same pattern I always have...studied hard in the first 2-3 weeks...slacked off in the next 4-5 weeks, crammed in the last 2-3 weeks.

I took 5 of the Manhattan GMAT practice exams (Cambridge GMAT Review) and scored in the 640-660 range. However, I found there to be a lot of errors on those exams. Also by the 4th test I started running out of "very difficult" questions and by the 5th I got no "very difficult" questions.

By the way, where do I find this so-called guestimator. Some of my friends who haven't taken the test may be interested in seeing it.

jamesrwright3 · Answer

Has the CD-Rom been helpful? Is it the one that sells for $40 on their website?

sofere · Answer

I'm pretty sure its the same one as they sell on their website. The test is good for giving you a feel of how the CAT will be in an actual testing scenario. It also gives you info on how many questions you got right in each particular category (PS,DS,CR,SC,RC) in each difficulty level (i think they go in easy, moderate, intermediate, difficult, and very difficult).

My main complaint on the program was that I found 6 or 7 errors in 5 exams. 3 such errors were: (1) the explanation of an answer was for a completely different question, (2) I marked the second choice and it marked it incorrect while the explanation said that the second choice was correct, (3) their answer for a DS question was flat out wrong.

So if you buy the software, I think it'll help (I don't know how good it is compared to other companies' software) but read the explanations of the right answers carefully and be wary of errors.

I thought the course materials for MGMAT were very good and went well with the course structure. It also complemented the OG10 very well. They are also available on the MGMAT website.

crackgmat750 · Answer

Thanks for ur valuable comments. And also congrats.
What you have to say regarding Preparation for SC section. Is MGMAT material for SC good? I think they sell specific book for preparing for SC section.
Any more insights about subtle things in RC and CR section which makes the difference between a 35 -36 and 40+ verbal score?
regards

bb · Answer

Thank you. At least you didn't emberrass me and say you spent a week :wink:

Here is the link to the ESTIMATOR. Check it if it gets your score more or less right

It gets mind within 7 points and I think Praet is within a few points as well, but if somebody is more than 25 points off, please let me know. THE LINK: https://www.gmatclub.com/content/resourc ... /index.php

sofere · Answer

The SC book was decent...It is definitely their most comprehensive book. I think the classroom learning helped me more than the book did for SC. It does have a neat little section in the back where it has a chart of every SC question in the OG10, the grammatical rule(s) they relate to, and what is wrong in each area.

I think MGMAT's most useful book was the number properties one. Number properties was definitely huge in the test I took and the book gives more than just tricks. It tells you the mathematical reason why the tricks work, so if you forget the trick, you can easily figure it out using principles.

For CR, I think identifying the conclusion is one of the most important steps in getting the question right. In many strengthen/weaken questions the correct answer is only thing that relates to the conclusion, while the incorrect answers will relate only to premises.

For RC, my strategy (which may not work for everyone) is to glance at the question, read the passage once in its entirety (I try to pretend that I'm actually interested in what it has to say) One major mistake I used to make was trying to understand everything in the passage. If I found I glanced over one sentence, I would go back 2 sentences and read them over. I learned to just move on if you just miss a sentence or so. You should then generally have an idea of what the passage is about and what each paragraph is about. That will make it easier to scan the passage for answers.

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