Monkey is off the back

Question

Hi Friends,

Completed the GMAT yesterday. The score breakup is -

Total = 730 (96 percentile)
Maths = 50 (94 percentile)
Verbal = 40 (89 percentile)

My journey to GMAT started in Apr-2008.  Preparation material  used were -

OG - 11
OG - 10
Sentence Correction Guide - Manhattan
1000 SC software - was really helpful. Thanks Walker for this wonderful tool.
GMAT Club Challenges
Manhattan GMAT CAT Exams
 
My scores history  has been -

MGMAT - Free - 570  
Power prep 1 - 690  
Power prep 2 - 690  
Peterson 1 - 750  
MGMAT1 - 670  
MGMAT2 - 680  
MGMAT 3 - 710  
MGMAT 4 - 690  
MGMAT 5 - 710

Thanks  - Before I start my debrief let me thank all of you wonderful people on the forum. It would have taken me much longer than 2.5 months without you all here. Your continuous support and eagerness to participate in forums has really helped. The fact that some of you contribute to forum even after getting your GMAT scores is really appreciable.

Exam Day  - I had scheduled the test from 1:00 PM local time. Stuffed myself with some food before entering the test center. After initial procedure started the test. Analysis of argument went well but boy got time management problem on Analysis of issue. I could proof read only half of the essay before time ran out.

Quants section started well. I did not get any unfamiliar question in quants. No probability but one question on permutation/combinations, that too was very basic. I got one DS question from OG-11. My time management was good till last 7-8 minutes. In Last 7 minutes I had 4 questions left. Then I got 1 very lengthy DS questions. I had to read it twice to figure out what it was asking. I got engrossed in reading the question, analyzing and answering it. By the time I answered this, I had 1.5 minutes left for last 3 questions. I had to guess last three. May be this is where I lost a bit. I could have scored little more in quants, had I not got sucked into that question.

Usually when I do well in quants GMAT prep throws me a boldface as first question in Verbal. I did not get the boldface in the beginning of verbal and got little worried about my quants. However there was nothing I could do at this point of time. I did not get a single boldface in my verbal section and by the end of exam I was sure that I had screwed it up big time. I must have got 15-16 sentence correction, got 3 RC. One of the RC was on science  , and thus was easier for me. Few questions on CR were tougher than OG11.

At the end I was scrolling through those 10 survey screens and expecting my score somewhere between 680-700. It was a pleasant surprise to see 730 flashing. However when I look back now, I realize i could have stretched my score a bit.

Now all preparations to focus on application process. My friends say that getting GMAT score is the easiest step in entire B-school admission process. Looks like Monkey is off the back but Gorilla has taken its place.

Cumic

Sunny143 · Answer

awesome score dude!!

You had one question from OG-11...thats interesting...seems OG-11 still has live questions and not all are retired..good piece of information to know...

ATB for your apps....

leonidas · Answer

Very nice score!!!!!!!!

How did you improve from a 570 (MGMAT) to a 700+? Was the 570 the diagnostic score before preparation?
Good luck with your apps......

dushver · Answer

Hey cumic, great score! All the best for apps.

navy01 · Answer

nice school. seems like a trend, those who do more practice CATs do really well.

cumic · Answer

Sunny143 => thnx dude. Even I was surprised to see question from OG11.

leonidas => 570 was towards the middle of my preparation. After 570 I took one week off from my work and focussed on SC. I did more than 500 SC out of 1000SC series. That really helped.

dushver => Thanx man. Woudn't have been been possible without this forum.

navy01 => You are right. CATs are a must. I would say my best investement was to buy MGMAT CAT series for 6 tests.

jallenmorris · Answer

That's a great score! It's very interesting because walker had a Q50, V40 split and got a 750: 8-t66785

kidderek · Answer

50/40 is traditionally a 740. however with the recent uptrend in scoring and consequent downtrend in %iles, 730 seems to be the norm for 50/40.

Very very weird.

cumic · Answer

You are right kidderek. I am just debating if I should retake the GMAT. I can definitely push a little on Quants but not sure about verbal. If you see my practice scores, this was the by far the best verbal score I got. Hence I am doubtful about the real improvement. It might so happen that little push on quants might get offset by little poorer show in verbal and I might end up with almost similar score.

Cumic

Cumic

kidderek · Answer

A 51/40 will definitely get you 750. Doubtful, but maybe, just maybe a 760. If you can puch up your verbal as well, say 51/41 or 51/42 you're in the 760 range.

However, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to get an additional 20-30 points when you already have a 730. I have a 730 as well, and I've given it some considerable thought.

I think scores in general are all the same from 720 - 750ish (maybe up to 760). When you get into 770, that's big boy territory. You rarely find people with scores 770+

So unless you think you can or are attempting to get a 770+, it's probably not worth the effort.

lexis · Answer

Great! Congratulation, Cumic.
Where are you from? You diminish a big gap and achieve nice score.

barfer · Answer

Congatulations!!!! :-D

cumic · Answer

Hi Lexis,

I am from India. Yes I could bridge some gap.

Cumic

cumic · Answer

Thanks barfer.

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