760 on 4/19

Question

Scored a 760 on my first try. I forget my Q and V scores, but I got 99%tile on V, 90%tile on Q which surprised me a little since I'm an engineer. I was really hoping to hit the mid 600 level and was pleasantly suprised to see the 760.

I thought the test was easier than the Kaplan materials I studied from, although I never took a complete practice test so I really can't make a comparison. I finished the Q with 5 minutes to spare and the V about 15 minutes to spare. None of the questions are what I'd call hard, but (as an engineer) I had to fight the temptation to conclusively solve each Q problem. The CAT makes it really hard to pace yourself.

In fact, I studied very little due to family and work constraints, probably about 10 hours total. I was extremely relaxed during the test. I actually enjoyed taking the test; it was nice to have 3 hours of quiet just to read stuff and solve algebra problems.

My GMAT tips:
1) Relax. Tell yourself "this is fun". 
2) Take extra time on the early questions.
3) Don't be afraid to take an educated guess on later Q problems.
4) Only study what you need to. I see lots of people posting results of many practice tests. You should be able to figure out your weak points from just one practice test.

jdb · Answer

Here's exactly what I did

Quant: 49
Verbal: 46
Total: 760

luminos24 · Answer

great score....congratulations...welcome to the club :-D

You know what...i too took the test on 4/19...and got the same score...and i too was expecting a score of around 700... maybe there was a computer glitch in ETS on that day :twisted:

Now i am afraid that the official score card will have the magic words "Sorry! the un-official score given to you was wrong due to a technical glitch" :shock:

Makes me wonder....Has this happened ever before? Can your un-official and official scores be different? I hope not... cheers!

mckenna · Answer

great score congrats! i took it on 4/18 and got a good score. may be the computer went bonkers this whole week

anyone who wants to beat gmat, this is the week to take your test ! just joking! congrats and relax.

MA · Answer

definitly a great score. congrats!
goodluck.

swath20 · Answer

You guys rock!!!

Wonderful performance.

Congrats and all the best with your future endeavours.

jdb · Answer

Nightmare material about the score cancellation, huh? I'll post again when the official score comes. Reminds me about a recurring dream I used to have that I never graduated from college because there was a mistake and I never took the final exam. Years later I had to go back and take the digital signal processing exam.

Well, I wasn't surprised by my Q score, but was surprised by my V score. I've always done pretty well on standardized tests though, and usually always do better on V than Q. I believe my PSAT, SAT, and ACT scores were all around the 90%tile overall and I never studied for *anything* in high school. I took the GRE about 15 years ago without studying and scored in the 85-90%tiles for verbal and math.

Compared with the Kaplan materials I studied from (GMAT 800 and the basic GMAT study guide), the verbal section of the test I took on 4/19 was easier. CR was entirely softball, and SC and RC were mainly obvious. 

Although I studied from Kaplan, I didn't follow any of their test taking tips. I actually set up the algebra and solved on the Q test, and I completely and deliberately read the RC passages before answering any questions on the V test.

wunderbar03 · Answer

jdb, Great score! Congrats!

It seems that you are pretty strong at verbal. Could you show a little bit more about your verbal approach as well as your progress during preparation?

All the best to your application

forrestgump · Answer

Big congrats !

Something about the month of april - or something about gmatclub - people are cracking the gmat like anything.

actudiant1 · Answer

It must be the gmatclub! I'm sure there will be a lot more 700+ achievers coming up in the next few months.

Congrats!

Folaa3 · Answer

Congrats and good luck in your next step

jdb · Answer

As you know, verbal is made up of 3 sections -- sentence correction (SC), reading comprehension (RC) and critical reasoning (CR).

I didn't spend much time preparing for the verbal section. I spent most of my time studying the math section since I knew I'd be pressed for time there. My approach for both sections was to solve the questions the "long" way and not use any clever guessing methods. 

I spent several hours going through CR questions in Kaplan GMAT 800 and the standard Kaplan guide. My advice is to become familiar with the logical fallacies and errors and poor reasoning you're likely to see on the GMAT.

I worked maybe 30 practice SC questions to get the hang of what I was likely to run across. I don't have much advice on learning this stuff if you don't already know it.

I did just a couple of RC practice questions. Again, I'm fortunate that my reading skills are pretty good so I didn't have to spend much time working on the RC.

If your GMAT is still several months off, you can probably improve your verbal score by starting to read more. I'm not talking about reading stuff you like reading, but stretch yourself and read material that's difficult enough that you have to read it two or three times to understand. After a while, you'll find you only have to read it once to understand it.

jdb · Answer

Took the GMAT on 4/19. On 4/30 I received my official scores.

Nothing new here but the AWA scores.

Total: 760
Verbal: 46
Quant: 49
AWA: 5

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760 on 4/19

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