690 - finished!

Question

Nailed a 690 today. So close to the 7+ mark, but Iâ€™m still extremely pleased. Breakdown was approx 70% in Math and 95% in Verbal. Not as balanced as my last time (80%, 80%), but beggars canâ€™t be choosers.

Quant was a real challenge this time aroundâ€¦.harder than the other two times I took it, primarily b/c the 3rd and 4th questions were brutal. I know I missed one of those, so Iâ€™m sure it really hit my quant score hard. Oddly enough, the problems mirrored those of Kaplan (who I usually trash) â€“ with enough time any of them were solvable but given the short time window, cranking through each successfully was almost impossible. 

Typical stuff though â€“ 2 SD, 2 Mean/Median, 1 comb, 1 probability, % change, mixture, etc. Again, they were multi-step (3-4 step) problems that just took time. FYI â€“ the comb/perm and probability guides on this site are THE BEST. Look no further than these guides if youâ€™re weak in these areas. 

Verbal was a breeze this time around, as I made sure to practice it diligently over the last 2 weeks. Know your idioms (tricky ones such as â€œlikeâ€

srijay007 · Answer

Great job jjomalls!!
Good score!!

Paul · Answer

Congratulation. You really did not want to give up at 660 did you :wink:

Good luck with the application process :writer

GoalStanford · Answer

Congratulations. 95% in verbal is really good. Any specail preperation you did for verbal or are you one of those guys for whom verbal is always a cake-walk.

Any suggessions on improving verbal skills for those like me who get hiccups when others say verbal is always easy...

jjomalls · Answer

Thanks guys. Paul -you're right...660 wasnt going to cut it. 690 looks a lot better (I know I'll not get tossed out of the applicant piles based solely on my score now. 7+ would be nice, but I'm not going to fret over 10 points.)

GoalStanford - verbal really comes easy to me, I'll be honest. I got a 6.0 on the AWA the last two times I took the test, w/ 15 minutes to spare left on each essay both times. 

My strategy for verbal?

  1) Reading Comp  
 - Read the passage, concentrating your focus on the first sentence of each paragraph. Speed read the rest, but make sure you have a good idea of what's going on before you tackle the questions. A good idea is to read the first sentence of each paragraph again before you tackle the questions. You dont want to be caught having to re-read the entire passage again once you hit the questions.
 
 2) Sentence Correction  
 - This comes easiest to me, but I also think it's the most coach-able. My advice:

 a) Know your idioms cold!!!!  
Over the course of my tests, I'd say 60% of my SC questions tested idioms. Get the Kaplan and PR books and know the idioms COLD. 

 b) Know your tenses 
Verbal vs. singular. Filter out the noise and focus on the basics: Subject-Verb agreement, noun-verb agreement

 c) Avoid passive voice; use active voice whenever you can 
(e.g. "I bought the book" is alot better than "The book was bought by me")

Also work on  parallelism  and use of  infinitives  (e.g. use "to learn, to write, to know" versus "to learn, writing, and to know"....notice the use of "to") 

  3) Critical Reasoning - the hardest verbal part, IMHO  

a) Read the question stem first. Always. Read it 2-3x's if you must. 
b) Get an answer in your head before you even view the passage. Your answer may not be right, but there's a good bet its on track.
c) Cross off every answer choice that is out of scope. 
d) Cross off every answer with "extreme" words. For example, "Some", "Generally" and "Perhaps" are a lot better than "All", "Definitely" and "Certainly". Avoid the sweeping conclusions in the answer choices.
e) Avoid "trap" answers - e.g. on questions that ask "....all of the following EXCEPT" make sure you dont fall into the trick answers that the authors want you to use. Re-read the passage again if you must clear up any uncertainties.

And finally, my biggest assistance as to great a grid on 1 side of a sheet of scratch paper. Do this BEFORE you start your test.....even before the AWA. You have time if you dont start clicking away.

Divide the page into 4 quadrants, and list 10 questions in each quadrant (11 q's in the fourth quadrant). Write A, B, C, D, E. next to each question. As you go through the verbal questions, cross off every letter choice that doesnt work. You'll be surprised how much easier this makes it for you to focus on the 1-2 answer choices that are appropriate.

Hope that helps.

GoalStanford · Answer

There you go...I get hiccups again

On a serious note,thanks for sharing the tips. I agree SC is coach-able and I think the same applies to CR as well to certain extent.

Praetorian · Answer

Congratulations!! Wow, justin, you have been extremely patient and worked really hard.

Great post about your prep and the strategies. You took PR classes right? We get a lot of questions about test preps companies and i would be grateful if you can write us a review. We will try to publish it on the website. Congrats again Justin. You are welcome to help out other members with their GMAT Prep. Hope you can continue visiting. Sincerely Praet

srijay007 · Answer

jjomalls
Thanks for shaaring the tips, I hope they help me improve my timing for verbal.
Good luck with ur apps,

vivek_dj · Answer

Great score jjomalls...you can amble your way to some top b-school.
On another note...SD was it any different from what we have on the boards?

Vivek.

jjomalls · Answer

I definitely look forward to helping you guys out...so many people on this board assisted me during my studies, and I feel I can add some tangible value to the study efforts of the folks on here...especially with verbal.

I did take a PR class. Honestly - it was very good. It really helped me get my math up to speed and helped me polish my verbal skills quite a bit. Their practice tests are good, especially on the verbal side. Was it worth the money? Ehhh...hard to say. It helps to discipline you, and the amount of prep material is endless. The instructors are great. However, there just still isnt enough HARD material to prep you for the tough questions on the GMAT. However, they are very, very good at building your confidence, and giving you the know-how to handle this monster of a test.

But honestly..... and many here have already said this.....there is no prep material that can prep you for what you see on the real GMAT, especially math.

My thoughts on prep material: 

 PR questions  - too easy, one-step problems
 Kaplan questions  - too time consuming, too-many-steps in most problems
 Crack GMAT -  great at testing concepts, but questions are not representative of the exam.
 GMAT Club -  good dialogue, good practice; many questions are way harder than what you'd see on the real test (no questions asking for binomial distributions, mod, pre-calc, etc.). But still a phenomenal way to brush up on skills
 Official Guide  - all you need for verbal. The best...by far. For math - only the last 100 DS and 100 PS questions are representative. The rest is just too easy.

I have been asked by PR to teach for them in the fall....part-time, primarily because my verbal is so high, and that is what they try to help students improve upon. Praetorian - I will write a more in-depth review of the course this week and send it along.

Vivek - the SD werent all that tough. Nothing too different from this board. However, the mean/median questions were very tricky. 

Never will you see a question that says, for example "What is the median of 15, 17, and 19?" Too easy. 

Instead, they'll show you something like "You have 29 numbers. Is the mean greater than the median?" ....and then give you some cryptic info about the set of numbers in choices 1) and 2) for the data sufficiency. (I honestly think some of these harder ones are practice questions).

Hope that helps.

ariyer2003 · Answer

Hi
What are the new question types appearing on the GMAT

Cheers
Ash

patelsharad · Answer

I cant seem to find these Guides. Can someone point me to them ?

Thanks in Advance

Paul · Answer

https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1585

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690 - finished!

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