Beat The GMAT

vaibhav.iit2002 · Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:09 pm

Hi mates,

As already posted, I got total 690 yesterday with Q-51 and V-31

I got few PMs for detailed debrief for Quant.

So this is debrief:

Verbal: I learned from mistakes and really improved a lot in verbal SC and CR. I was consistently scoring 35 , 35+ in practice tests including GMAT Prep and was confident for 35+, but got just 31 in actual GMAT and therefore wont say anything about Verbal.

Quant: Truly speaking I have good Maths. background and didn't put great efforts for Quant. However, I was not scoring 51 initially.

My scores:
Princeton CAT 1: 650[Q-50, V-31]
GMAT Prep 1: 650[Q-49, V-30]
MGMAT CAT 1: 670[Q-48, V-34] - Unfortunately I needed to pause the test for 5 minutes during Quant as Quant was pretty tough and I didn't do any practice.

Princeton CAT 1: 690[Q-51, V-35]--- Quant of Princeton is very easy and is of same level as OG.
MGMAT CAT 2: 690[Q-50, V-35]
MGMAT CAT 3: 680[Q-49, V-35]
GMAT Prep 2: 720[Q-51, V-36]
MGMAT CAT 4: 700[Q-51, V-35]
GMAT Prep 1[2nd time]: 760[Q-51, V-42] - some verbal questions were repeated from 1st test.
MGMAT CAT 5: 730[Q-51, V-38]

As you can see I didn't get 51 in initial tests. Then I realized that I need to brush up the concepts and need to increase speed.

Resource for Quant:
1. Basic concepts through OG and Princeton[mainly focused on OG, which has good elementary concepts]
And
2. MGMAT tests. MGMAT tests were really very very helpful and if done in proper way, can alone reach u to 51.
And
3. Problems from beatthegmat forums.

CAUTION:
If you want to score 51, beware of OG and Princeton tests. These two resources hardly provide challenging problems[exceptions are always there].

Analysis of Quant section:
In initial tests, I made 6-7 silly mistakes and 3-4 conceptual mistakes. Silly mistakes are always much more dangerous than conceptual ones as no one can teach u to avoid those mistakes[Though I'll try to provide some tips later in this section Razz

].

I focused on all the problems[including the ones that I solved correctly] of MGMAT tests of Quant section and treated them as concepts and not just problems.

Tips for good Quant score:
The idea to do a problem in Quant is to get the concept and TO EXTEND IT FURTHER[extending is very very important] so that the same idea can be applied to related problems. I noted down such concepts.
e.g. Whenever a question deals with inequality, always keep in mind that "u need to test inequality for proper fractions, negative numbers and positive integers or improper fractions" as the sign changes for these different type of numbers.

Keep in mind that GMAT will hardly give you a problem which is not covered in the concepts you have already covered in STANDARDIZED tests. Though the framing of problem may differ but the concept will be same.[Identifying the concept is key]

Probability and P&C: - I am weak in Probability and P&C but I am good in GMAT Probability and GMAT P&C Smile

I hope u got the idea. GMAT wont ask out of box Prob or P&C problems. There are a very limited types and these get repeated. e.g. Choosing 2 red and 3 green balls from 4 red, 5 green and 3 white balls.

so you can easily learn GMAT Prob and GMAT P&C.

If you need 51, you need to be fairly strong in inequalities as normally I have seen 3-4 problems per STANDARDIZED test.

In Work-time problems, you can solve even the seemingly hardest problems by assuming total work as LCM of no. of days taken by all guys. Once you do this, such problems are piece of cake. Very Happy

How I avoided Silly mistakes
This is the area on which I worked and am really happy to see improvement. I brought down my silly mistakes from 6-7 each tests to 0 or 1 per test.

In DS, problems always think TWICE before marking C or E. Its a common GMAT problem to give an impression that you need both A and B to solve the problem while you can solve just by using A or B[both integers].
e.g. 2a + 3b = 10
21a + 23b = 67[i don't exactly remember the example]
Its very very easy to mark C as we think that we need 2 equations for 2 unknown variables. Try putting values for a and b[if feasible] in equation 2 as only a=1 and b=2 will fit.

or in 2a + 3b=10 and 4a+6b=20, its tempting to mark C but both of the above eqns. are essentially same.

I know these might be pretty obvious problems but one need to be cautious in such problems as such problems lead to SILLY MISTAKES. Smile

I TELL YOU AGAIN THAT GMAT RARELY TESTS STRANGE CONCEPTS AND THE LIMITED CONCEPTS BEING TESTED CAN BE EASILY LEARNED.

Thanks for your patience for reading this post Razz

I am always here for your help. Plz let me know if you want something more.

ALL THE BEST !!

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rohan_vus · Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:21 pm

Hi Vaibhav.

Great debrief indeed !! and congratulations !

Can you share how difficult Verbal turned out for you ?

I guess it was matter of you getting 3 or 4 more only in Verbal to get into 720

Thanks again for sharing your tips !

Cheers

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vaibhav.iit2002 · Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:34 pm

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rajivn · Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:26 am

Great debrief Vaibhav. I am currently taking MGMAT tests. I found the Quants to be really challenging. I was just wondering if I should stop taking MGMAT tests, and instead focus on OG quants alone. They are also not framed the way OG questions are framed.
But I do accept that I learn some new concepts or logic in MGMAT Quants. Not sure if those advanced concepts are actually tested on GMAT. Hence I have some reservations on MGMAT CAT.

I was just wondering if I should stop taking MGMAT tests, and instead focus on OG quants alone.
Just wondering whats your suggestion on this ? Will working thru all MGMAT CAT quants, really help in boosting my score on GMAT Prep(yet to take) and Actual GMAT ?

Thanks for you reply.

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vaibhav.iit2002 · Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:07 pm

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rajivn · Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:07 pm

I appreciate your prompt reply Vaibhav. I have decided to complete the MGMAT CATs after your reaffirmation. I have taken only 2 CATs so 4 left. I hope they would provide good practice and take my Quants to the next level.

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vaibhav.iit2002 · Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:46 am

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bvn · Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:06 am

Thank you Vaibhav, your debrief is very helpful.
i am striving to get Q51 too

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vaibhav.iit2002 · Fri Nov 06, 2009 6:30 am

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Enki · Sun Nov 08, 2009 1:40 pm

Congrates on Q51 .

Overall, Its a great score .

Will you recommend signing up for gmatclub test .Or sackmann's extreme challenge set?

I have Gmat date on Dec 21st So left with 6 weeks to go .I will take MGMAT cat #1 on nov 14th .

I want to focus on more tougher problems to prepare my self for hardest problem in real GMAT.

Gmat takers recommend doing as many online practice tests as you can. Have you taken any onlne tests other than MGMAT and gmatprep?

Can you also post the link for 198 tough quant file?I couldn't find it .

Thankx

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vaibhav.iit2002 · Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:09 pm

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rveeraga · Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:14 am

Congratulations on your great score and thanks for your detailed tips.

Your strategy for eliminating errors in general and reducing mistakes in data sufficiency sounds doable. I will apply it to see, if I can move towards 50 from 45 in my practice tests.

I have two weeks left to take the real test. I have been practicing OG11, OG12, OG Quant 1st & 2nd e, and OG Verbal 1st & 2nd e.

I have tried searching for "198 Hard Math Problems" with different probabilities on this site, but could not find a resource or file. Can you post the link here or send me the file?

Thanks

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vaibhav.iit2002 · Sat Nov 14, 2009 4:53 am

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