550 to 750 - How YOU can be just as successful

great job dude ... you deserve it ...

Congratulations! Really motivating!!!

Wow! Congrats on the great score and thanks for sharing your inspiring debrief.

Hi Risys,

I need some guidance on my retake on 24th June 2010. My first GMAT score was 640(Q46, V31), Nov 2007. I have done two tests each on GMATPrep and MGMAT and the respective scores are:

GMAT Prep1: 620 (Q48, V27)
MGMAT 1: 670 (Q45, V36), 89%
GMAT Prep2: 650 (Q46, V34)
MGMAT 2: 700 (Q47, V39), 93%

I am comfortable on Quant, CR and SC but RC is bit difficult for me. I tried to take notes but found impractical in my case. I have finished OG(10 & 12), Kaplan and Manhattan SC and I have started revision with OGs/Manhattan first, esp yes I am gaining on OG RCs.

Can you please provide me some insights on what would be my final score range and what strategy should I follow?

The GMATPrep is going to be the best indication of your score range assuming you didn't take it multiple times and had repeat questions, and assuming you had taken it fairly recently. Your score range is probably going to be 650-720 if I had to guess. Reading comprehension is an area that is going to be difficult to improve on in a short period of time. I would keep tackling RC questions in the OG and any other sources you can find. Also, read my section on improving RC. That's all the advice I can offer you, as it is going to be difficult to meaningfully improve RC significantly in a short period of time.

Thanks.

kudos!

thanks

This is such a great post. I started studying recently after displaying a chronic disability to find my first graduate job (been interning instead) and am expecting to score something around 600+ based on my performance so far. I am naturally verbal and logical and things like maths and physics have been more of an acquired taste so your post shall be my inspiration in the following months!

I'm glad my post was helpful. Math was a tough one to crack for me.

great and encouraging debrief

Stellar performance! Thanks for the humble debrief, I really appreciate your specific and down-to-earth tips. One query I do have for you, as a native speaker, do what do you recommend to improve on the CR portion? Also, on the SC, what did you do to address specific areas such as the Subjunctive mood (my nemesis)?

Thanks a mil

Hi Royaldane,

For CR, I just did all of the official questions that I could find. Eventually, you start to understand the angle that they are throwing these questions at. A lot of the questions test similar concepts in a different setting.

For example, one commonly tested concept is % vs total population questions. City A's population increased 5% while City B's population increased 2%. City A's population increased by more than City B's would be an incorrect assumption, since amount of population increase also depends on original size of each City's population. These type of questions can appear in a variety of forms including city population, bacteria population, amount of cars on the road, etc.

As you do more CR, you should pick up on more of these patterns, and be able to ace the CR section.

Another resource that everyone on this forum seems to be head over heels over is the GMAT PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible. I haven't used it personally, but many have said it's all you need for CR.

As for SC, if after reading the MGMAT SC book, you are still not 100% clear on certain specific areas, you could refer to resources on the internet. That's what I did when I was stumped (perfect tenses were giving me lots of trouble, as well as countable vs non-countable words). There are a ton of resources on the internet, and seeing the explanation from another angle might spark the light bulb in your head.

Thanks a mil risys! This will certainly help me. So far, I seem to pick the wrong choice after narrowing it down to the last two, but I will certainly look for that eluzive pattern.

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Congratulations!! I think you are being too humble but basically agree that a good graded student should be able to beat this test with lots of practice.

Thanks,
Skip

I agree the test can be beaten by most, but it certainly takes a lot of dedication to do so. For others, it may come more naturally.

That's really inspiring - thank you!