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30 Jul 2006, 16:53
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Hello all,
I just gave my PP3 test#1, and scored 710. Although I do not consider the score bad, I was slightly disappointed, knowing that PP3 is supposedly easier than GMATPrep and actual GMAT.
On verbal, I scored 38, and I had to rush through the last 3-4 questions because I was short on time. I got 4 passaged, where 2 were more than 65 lines! On RC passages, I just got one question incorrect, which is good.
Most of my mistakes were on SC and RC. While I was expecting some SC mistakes, RC was my strong point, and I am worried now. Most of my SC mistakes were either on idioms and/or parallelism. I intend to go over them from MGMAT SC again.
CR took me by shock - I got 3-4 CRs incorrect. Most of them were "which of these, if true, would weaken the authors argument" type. One of the 4 I got incorrect was guessed since I was short on time.
I got a total of 9 verbal incorrect, and 4 quantitative incorrect. *ALL* my quantitative mistakes were really silly! I felt like kicking myself after seeing the answer.
I am looking for help from GMATClubbers. What can I do to :
1) Improve my CR (I follow Kaplan method to attack CR, and I had very good success rate when I went over OG11. I was getting over 95% correct)
2) Improve my timing. Most of my time was spent on RC - and arguably I did really well on that section too! Rhyme's method to skim over paragraph 2 and higher does not work well for me, particularly for global questions, so I read the entire paragraph.
3) Can someone please critique my AWA below?
My target score is 740 or higher. I intend to apply to ISB, IIM and some other highly competetive US colleges (Wharton, Kellogg). While the average GMAT for ISB is around 700, I have lower work experience (3 years), average undergrad GPA (3.66), and from technology industry (Software Engineer Lead), so I need to compensate these weaknesses with higher GMAT and essays.
If I am missing any information please post it here - I will reply promptly.
Thanks in advance to all gmatiers.
--- AWA ---
Analysis of Argument:
Question stem: The following appeared as part of an article in a magazine on lifestyles.
"Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish."
Answer:
The author of fails to substantiate his argument that people living in City L will find a place with good schools, affordable housing, friendly people, safe environment, and flourishing arts. The author makes several critical assumptions based on the annual survey done two years ago. The most important assumptions are the validity of survey two years ago, the meaning of quality of life, missing information on the number of cities surveyed, and the scientific nature of the survey.
First and foremost, the survey was taken two years ago. Many things may have changed in two years - for example, city L may have had more industries that pollute the environment. Being from a big city, I have realised that to maintain good quality of living, the citizens of the city need to be proactive, and the government need to support legislations that can make the city better. For instance, Mumbai, a city in west of India was a flourishing city few years ago. However, due to better quality of living, lots of people from other rural areas migrated to Mumbai. The immigrants made the roads dirty, the housing prices increased, and the quality of living decreased.
Additionally, the author does not mention the parameters considered by the survey adminstrators to determine quality of living. "Quality of living" is a very subjective term - it may mean different things to different people. For instance, I equate quality of living to higher wages, faster transportation, and sophisticated health infrastucture. The author makes the assumption that a higher quality of living equates to better education, affordable housing, friendly people, safe environment, and flourishing arts, but does not mention these criteria as part of the survey.
In addition to the above two points, the author fails to mention how many cities were included in the survey. City L may be ranked 14th, but if the survey only included 15 cities, that is not considered good. The absence of this information weakens his argument considerably, making his conclusion invalid.
Finally, the author fails to mention the scientific nature of the survey. He does how many people were surveyed, what kind of demographic and occupational background these people had, and what questions were posed to the panelists to arrive at the result. For example, if the survey consisted of high-income residents of City L, the survey results will certainly be flawed in favor of City L, since these people have the means to afford better education and house.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, the argument made by the author, claiming City L to have a better quality of living, is incomplete and unreasonable. The assumptions and missing information explained above make the conclusion invalid.
-------------------------------------------------------
Analysis of issue:
Question Stem:
"The presence of a competitor is always beneficial to a company. Competition forces a company to change itself in ways that improve its practices."
Answer:
The issue that competition is better for a company is a very significant one, and has been an important topic of discussion recently. While analyzing the issue, the critics of this issue say that competition is unhealthy for a companies growth, since it increases their marketing expenses. However, there are several reasons why competition may be good for a company. The most critical reasons that make competition beneficial for a company include better products, lower prices, ethical practices, and customer focus. I will discuss these reasons below.
First, competition forces a company to invest in research and development, and deliver innovative products to the consumers. If the competetor is offering a product with better features, the company will have to differentiate their product to gain more customers and higher market share. For instance, in light of increased competition from Japanese car manufacturers, particularly Toyota and Honda, American car manufacturers like Ford and GM delivered innovative product features like automated air bag deployment, seat belt warning, etc. GM also made it easier for low income families to afford cars by offering them affordable financing and low payment installments. This increased the profits of GM, and benifited them enourmously.
In addition, to gain higher market share, the companies have to diversify and target different income groups. This causes several companies to deliver affordable and economic products for middle and low income families. With lower prices, more people can afford products, which causes higher sales, thereby increasing profits. One important example that proves this argument is that of Dell computers. In order to beat Gateway and Compaq computers, Dell computers reduced their costs by producing more computers simultaneously, thereby giving them economies of scale, and delivering high quality desktop and laptop computers to individuals at affordable prices.
In addition to the above reasons, competition faces other companies to remain ethical, creating a "checks and balances" phenomenon among companies. If the a company does not mention the truth about its product, the competing company will deface it and convey the truth to the consumers, thereby increasing its loyalty and image. For example, Microsoft corporation bundled several products with its operating system, which limited the options consumers had when using their operating system. Competing companies like Sun Microsystems filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation, forcing them to provide more options to the consumers. Today, Sun Microsystem's product, Java programming language, enjoys a sizeable market share in comparision to Microsoft. Certainly, competition worked in favour for Sun Microsystems.
In conclusion, the argument that competition is benificial to the company is valid. Competition forces companies to deliver better products and lower prices, and remain ethical in its marketing practices. While better products and lower prices increase market share leading to higher profits, ethical practices increase consumer confidence in the company, which can be benificial in the long run. Naturally, healthy competion can be very benificial to companies.
I just gave my PP3 test#1, and scored 710. Although I do not consider the score bad, I was slightly disappointed, knowing that PP3 is supposedly easier than GMATPrep and actual GMAT.
On verbal, I scored 38, and I had to rush through the last 3-4 questions because I was short on time. I got 4 passaged, where 2 were more than 65 lines! On RC passages, I just got one question incorrect, which is good.
Most of my mistakes were on SC and RC. While I was expecting some SC mistakes, RC was my strong point, and I am worried now. Most of my SC mistakes were either on idioms and/or parallelism. I intend to go over them from MGMAT SC again.
CR took me by shock - I got 3-4 CRs incorrect. Most of them were "which of these, if true, would weaken the authors argument" type. One of the 4 I got incorrect was guessed since I was short on time.
I got a total of 9 verbal incorrect, and 4 quantitative incorrect. *ALL* my quantitative mistakes were really silly! I felt like kicking myself after seeing the answer.
I am looking for help from GMATClubbers. What can I do to :
1) Improve my CR (I follow Kaplan method to attack CR, and I had very good success rate when I went over OG11. I was getting over 95% correct)
2) Improve my timing. Most of my time was spent on RC - and arguably I did really well on that section too! Rhyme's method to skim over paragraph 2 and higher does not work well for me, particularly for global questions, so I read the entire paragraph.
3) Can someone please critique my AWA below?
My target score is 740 or higher. I intend to apply to ISB, IIM and some other highly competetive US colleges (Wharton, Kellogg). While the average GMAT for ISB is around 700, I have lower work experience (3 years), average undergrad GPA (3.66), and from technology industry (Software Engineer Lead), so I need to compensate these weaknesses with higher GMAT and essays.
If I am missing any information please post it here - I will reply promptly.
Thanks in advance to all gmatiers.
--- AWA ---
Analysis of Argument:
Question stem: The following appeared as part of an article in a magazine on lifestyles.
"Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish."
Answer:
The author of fails to substantiate his argument that people living in City L will find a place with good schools, affordable housing, friendly people, safe environment, and flourishing arts. The author makes several critical assumptions based on the annual survey done two years ago. The most important assumptions are the validity of survey two years ago, the meaning of quality of life, missing information on the number of cities surveyed, and the scientific nature of the survey.
First and foremost, the survey was taken two years ago. Many things may have changed in two years - for example, city L may have had more industries that pollute the environment. Being from a big city, I have realised that to maintain good quality of living, the citizens of the city need to be proactive, and the government need to support legislations that can make the city better. For instance, Mumbai, a city in west of India was a flourishing city few years ago. However, due to better quality of living, lots of people from other rural areas migrated to Mumbai. The immigrants made the roads dirty, the housing prices increased, and the quality of living decreased.
Additionally, the author does not mention the parameters considered by the survey adminstrators to determine quality of living. "Quality of living" is a very subjective term - it may mean different things to different people. For instance, I equate quality of living to higher wages, faster transportation, and sophisticated health infrastucture. The author makes the assumption that a higher quality of living equates to better education, affordable housing, friendly people, safe environment, and flourishing arts, but does not mention these criteria as part of the survey.
In addition to the above two points, the author fails to mention how many cities were included in the survey. City L may be ranked 14th, but if the survey only included 15 cities, that is not considered good. The absence of this information weakens his argument considerably, making his conclusion invalid.
Finally, the author fails to mention the scientific nature of the survey. He does how many people were surveyed, what kind of demographic and occupational background these people had, and what questions were posed to the panelists to arrive at the result. For example, if the survey consisted of high-income residents of City L, the survey results will certainly be flawed in favor of City L, since these people have the means to afford better education and house.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, the argument made by the author, claiming City L to have a better quality of living, is incomplete and unreasonable. The assumptions and missing information explained above make the conclusion invalid.
-------------------------------------------------------
Analysis of issue:
Question Stem:
"The presence of a competitor is always beneficial to a company. Competition forces a company to change itself in ways that improve its practices."
Answer:
The issue that competition is better for a company is a very significant one, and has been an important topic of discussion recently. While analyzing the issue, the critics of this issue say that competition is unhealthy for a companies growth, since it increases their marketing expenses. However, there are several reasons why competition may be good for a company. The most critical reasons that make competition beneficial for a company include better products, lower prices, ethical practices, and customer focus. I will discuss these reasons below.
First, competition forces a company to invest in research and development, and deliver innovative products to the consumers. If the competetor is offering a product with better features, the company will have to differentiate their product to gain more customers and higher market share. For instance, in light of increased competition from Japanese car manufacturers, particularly Toyota and Honda, American car manufacturers like Ford and GM delivered innovative product features like automated air bag deployment, seat belt warning, etc. GM also made it easier for low income families to afford cars by offering them affordable financing and low payment installments. This increased the profits of GM, and benifited them enourmously.
In addition, to gain higher market share, the companies have to diversify and target different income groups. This causes several companies to deliver affordable and economic products for middle and low income families. With lower prices, more people can afford products, which causes higher sales, thereby increasing profits. One important example that proves this argument is that of Dell computers. In order to beat Gateway and Compaq computers, Dell computers reduced their costs by producing more computers simultaneously, thereby giving them economies of scale, and delivering high quality desktop and laptop computers to individuals at affordable prices.
In addition to the above reasons, competition faces other companies to remain ethical, creating a "checks and balances" phenomenon among companies. If the a company does not mention the truth about its product, the competing company will deface it and convey the truth to the consumers, thereby increasing its loyalty and image. For example, Microsoft corporation bundled several products with its operating system, which limited the options consumers had when using their operating system. Competing companies like Sun Microsystems filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation, forcing them to provide more options to the consumers. Today, Sun Microsystem's product, Java programming language, enjoys a sizeable market share in comparision to Microsoft. Certainly, competition worked in favour for Sun Microsystems.
In conclusion, the argument that competition is benificial to the company is valid. Competition forces companies to deliver better products and lower prices, and remain ethical in its marketing practices. While better products and lower prices increase market share leading to higher profits, ethical practices increase consumer confidence in the company, which can be benificial in the long run. Naturally, healthy competion can be very benificial to companies.
30 Jul 2006, 19:07
Kudos
Bookmarks
your essays are definitely 5+ materials.
when i gave my gmat, i got a 5.5 which were not as good as these. so dont worry.
just 9 wrong on Verbal is pretty impressive to me, btu i am not a verbal guru.
all the best though!
when i gave my gmat, i got a 5.5 which were not as good as these. so dont worry.
just 9 wrong on Verbal is pretty impressive to me, btu i am not a verbal guru.
all the best though!
30 Jul 2006, 21:13
Kudos
Bookmarks
willget800
Thanks willget800. I am not a verbal guru either. I am not as much concerned about the 9 incorrect, as I am about the fact that I got a lot of CR questions incorrect, which I thought was my strongest area. Also the fact that I almost ran out of time bothers me.
I sucked at AWA till Ryhme gave me some very good advice in another thread. Thanks for the encouraging words. Can't wait till Ryhme critiques the essays
