690 Q38 V46

Question

Just got back from the testing center. Got a 38 Q (53rd %) 46 V (99%). Overall, i'm very happy with the overall score. I was just kinda shocked to see how heavily weighted I was towards verbal. Do you think this will be a drawback for me? My background should make up for it some. I double majored in finance and accounting and am currently an accountant. I'm targeting top 35-50 schools. SMU, Rice, Notre Dame, etc. Thoughts?

AK79 · Answer

Congrats on the score!

That is a very competitive number regardless of the split. Yes, it is a bit more towards the V, but as you have a solid quant background (both educationally as well as occupationally). I think you should be fine... focus on doing really well on the essays, getting strong recs, and putting together a cohesive package.

Any tips on the math side of things? I'm in the same boat as far as score splits go, my verbal is consistently higher than my quant...

Thanks, and all the best on our apps...

AK

oustone85 · Answer

Thanks for the response. I've put a lot of myself into this test so it feels good to have that rewarded.

As far as math goes, I was surprised by the question types i got. Obviously, some of that has to do with the fact i wasn't doing so great. I saw 3 to 4 coordinate geometry questions, so if you're in the same boat as me i'd brush up on that. Didn't get a single permutation question, and only one probability. I bought the gmatclub challenges but i got busy at work and only made it through 5 or 6 of them so i can't fully recommend them, but everyone else raves about them.

Verbal was easier than i thought it'd be. I was typically in the 40 to 41 range on gmatprep tests and in the 43-44 range on MGMAT tests. This was the highest verbal score i've ever gotten.

I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have.

AK79 · Answer

Thanks for the feedback, I hear you on the commitment front. Unfortunately, I'm still struggling to make this a number one priority (as it deserves to be). Always letting work, etc get in the way. I've been working on this thing on and off now for 2 years; took the test once last year, got a 570 (31 Q 39 V). My goal is to be in the 670+ range.

As far as your prep was concerned, how long did you spend studying, balancing work etc? Any specific strategies for the Quant, or did you just do the OG backwards and forwards? (I still need to get the Challenges also, heard they are worth it)..

Cheers,

AK

priyankurml · Answer

Great job. You have really mastered GMAT, at least in verbal. :-D

I am fighting for a mere 40 in verbal whereas it was just a cake walk for you. In my last MGMAT test I recieved 33 and that's the highest score till now(other scores are 30,31 and 32, very sequential but not consecutive). I know almost all the answers from both the OGs though seldom chalked them out at the time of exam. Sometimes I messed up in the RC questions and sometimes did mistake in Primary Purpose questions also. CR seems ok to me but still I gallop few if it looks odd or lengthy to me. Comprehension and reading speed are just average for me, so just wondering if you could probably assist me to conquer the verbal section. Thanks in advance.

oustone85 · Answer

The materials I used were the OG11 and both supplements, the manhattan SC guide, and the gmat challenges (though like i said, i didnt use these much, as i purchased them too late in the game).

AK: I prepared for 3 months, although i believe this was too much time. The last couple weeks i got complacent and found i started losing motivation. I think 8 to 10 weeks is the perfect amount of time. My advice is to set a deadline 9 weeks in advance and then begin preparing. It helps to have that light at the end of the tunnel. I followed the same basic routine. On my lunch hour every day, I would take about 10 to 15 minutes to eat and then spend 30 minutes doing problems from the OG. I didn't use this time to learn new concepts, merely to practice problems. In my spare time after work I would usually spend about an hour learning concepts and doing problems. On Saturdays i'd do problems and review for an hour and a half or 2. Just about every Sunday I would take a practice test in the afternoon and then review my mistakes, while adding to my error log. I didn't practice the writing assignments until two weeks in advance. I primarily used mgmat tests (i did 7). I also did the gmatprep several times.

Priyankur: Verbal was definitely much easier for me than most, it just seems to make a lot more sense to me than Quant. Also, I know many of the test takers these days are not native english speakers which makes it that much harder for most. Get the Manhattan SC guide, it's as good as everyone says. There are 9 chapters, for 9 straight days all i did was learn one new chapter of this book a day. This helped to really hammer home those areas for me. Also, later in my prep i would periodically re-read a chapter. I don't really have anything earth shattering to say as far as RC and CR goes. Honestly, early on i was only getting in the 40 range on verbal, because of these 2 areas. Then one day it just dawned on me to stop settling for a particular answer. If there was a problem where I couldnt pick between two answers, I felt like I always ended up picking the one that was the least wrong. I finally stopped this and only started picking answers that I knew felt right. (I know this is quite vague and I apologize).

Overall, I was probably a little overboard taking practice tests, but they helped give me confidence and build endurance. Sorry for the longwindedness haha.

M83 · Answer

This is a really competitive score. Good job.

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