Beat it today - 770 - 99 p (Q:50 - 95 p, V:45 - 98 p)

dipanjan · Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:10 pm

Wish I found this forum before, but busy professional that I am, I did not really spend that much time looking for info about the exam on the web. Very Happy

I am probably older (32) than most of the others in this forum. I have about 8 years of work experience as an engineer and a software development manager and am currently working as a senior manager in an enterprise software company. After a long delay and numerous INS screwups, I finally got my green card this year. I wanted to get over that hurdle before starting an MBA program. I am thinking of taking the EMBA route, but am still debating over it. Anyone else in my boat?

My GMAT preparation over the last month or so has been challenging. It was a constant juggling act of studying and familiy - yes, I am married and have a two-year old daughter - and work responsibilities. I do have a good track record at standard tests though, so was not too scared of the test. Long long time ago I cracked IIT JEE and scored a 2330 at GRE (800+800+730 in old format) prior to doing an MS in CS in USA. I kept thinking about those tests as happy old memories are good for morale. So go-for-800 was my mantra over the last month and it did help me to keep going in face of challenges at work and home.

As I am a CS guy with strong math background, Quant did not take much preparation, but one big warning. The questions were undoubedly tougher than what those I solved in the Kaplan, Princeton practice tests. Not sure how many of the tough ones were experimental though. I very rarely used to miss any quant in the practice tests, but couldn't crack 51 in the real one. There were a couple of DS questions I guessed 50/50 and I must have made one or two silly mistakes as well. Just a couple of tough DS misses do not explain Q:50, 95 percentile instead of 51/52 and 98/99 percentile I was expecting in Quant. Does anyone know how many I might have missed ? Still a little bummed about it. GMAT math is surely tougher than GRE math and I under-estimated it a little. Engineers and scientists, be wary.

In verbal, SC is where I spent most of the prep time. Kaplan 800 and Kaplan verbal workbooks were invaluable resources - must-reads for 700+ aspirants IMHO. The way they categorized and combined the common mistake patterns was extrremely helpful. Also did all OG SCs a couple of times. Still found some of the SCs challenging today - mainly the ones that were about style and expression. The ones on grammatical mistakes were straightforward in comparison. At least two of the choices were always very close on the hard ones and I must have missed a few.

I am a fast reader and have always been a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction, so did not spend a whole lot of time on RC. Honestly, none of the four passages posed a problem and I am sure I got them all right. The passages were unexpectedly straightforward and I am guessing I did not get passages from the easy bin as with 98 p in verbal, I could not have made too many mistakes prior to those sections. Some of the Kaplan passages in comarison were a lot more challenging.

Some of the CR questions were tricky and on at least a couple of them, I did not quite get the assumptions and the thrust of some of the options and had to guess. The paragraphs describing the argument were a bit obscure at times. On average, tougher than what I expected. I found Mark Stewart's '30 days to the GMAT Cat" to be particularly strong at CR. It helped me quite a bit.

General tips - try at least two or three complete simulated tests. Doing just one section is very different from taking a four and half hour test, particularly when you are 8 years out of school like I am. I worked quite a bit on my stamina. Have a solid 8 hour sleep the night before. And time management is probably the most critical part. I finished both the sections at the very last minute and am quite proud of that. On average, the rule: "One question - two minutes for Q" and "One question - one and a half minute for Verbal" worked for me. That probably helped me in getting 770 more than anything else.

Good luck to everyone here. Keep at it and you can beat it too.

EDIT: Got a 6/6 in AWA.

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beatthegmat · Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:33 am

Hi dipanjan:

WOW. Fantastic performance! Thank you so much for sharing your experience here, and best of luck to you in your apps![/u]

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mukul · Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:30 pm

Dude!!

u rock...me also an iitian...took gmat and scored a 770...but only one yr after college...u r amazin!! so wot now?? columbia stan wharton mit...u jus hav to apply dude!!

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aim-wsc · Sat Dec 09, 2006 8:22 pm

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mukul · Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:05 pm

Hi guyz!!

For all I know GMAT is tougher than GRE...for all I know GRE is more of a memorising exercise....wordlists and stuff....while GMAT is analytical and thats what expected for an mba entrance exam. GMAT maths is surely tougher...I have seen GRE books and I don't think it has DS...which is the tough part in GMAT...

And aim...all iitians don't take gre...but yes most of them take cat....and lots of them take GRE. Infact very few iitians take GMAT. And thats good...helps in keeping the percentile high.

As I said I havent taken GRE...my knowledge in this case is limited....but I surely will post the huge post on my thread too!!!

But I will be checkin out this thread for any info i may find..

cheers!!

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gmatstriker · Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:46 pm

Congratulations dude....u cracked it big time.

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aim-wsc · Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:48 pm

i dont think the thread starter visits the forums anymore...

so i d answer on his behalf...
dude you could get the soft copy of any book on sharez warez/ upload Laughing

sites

just look for ARCO's 30 days to the GMAT CAT

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gmatstriker · Sat Dec 23, 2006 1:43 am

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aim-wsc · Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:42 am

i cant comment
please.
piracy and copy-write issues are involved
so
no comments

i have given you enough hints though !

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dipanjan · Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:28 pm

Sorry, did not get a chance to read this thread so far. I should have as I started it.

About GMAT/GRE differences in math, the biggest difference is DS. I can speak for only myself - but I think it's true for other scientists and engineers as well particularly the ones brought up on Indian education system - that I find it a lot easier to directly solve a problem, even the hard and complex ones, for an answer. A lot of tough GMAT DS questions are not like that. You do not have to and at times you can not even solve them. Rather you have to figure out the solvability of the problem and the minimal set of data points you need to come to that decision. It requires a different thought process which GRE does not test and which is not tested by math exams and IIT Jee entrance tests either. It is not without practical significance and after 8 years of management and investment/trading experiences I appreciate it a lot more than I used to. In real-time as a manager most of the time I am dealing with insufficient data. Often I just need to determine the solvability or the practicality of a problem and then delegate the task of solving the problem to someone else. So thought processes needed to solve tough DS questions are important tools for a manager.

Also there were a lot of inequality questions on my test set. I personally am not as comfortable with them as I am with equations. Again the uncertainty and non-determinism play into that and I think it's true for most math/CS oriented problem solvers.

Overall, even if you have strong math/cs background and are going for high scores and top schools, don't think that GMAT math is a cakewalk and you could just focus on Verbal. That will be a mistake IMO.

Just finished the apps to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and MIT for the second round. Since I am more interested in general management/strategy, I avoided finance schools like chicago and columbia and softer/marketing schools like kellogg. I have heard a lot of scary stories about how it is pointless for me to apply to top schools as I am too old, don't have shining extra-curriculurs and community work, and they have a diversity bias which works aginst Indian techies with high gmat scores. Well, we will see. I have a 3.9/4.0 undergrad gpa, 4.0/4.0 grad gpa, 770 gmat (also got a 6/6 on awa), microsoft on my resume and good progressive career growth to senior dev mangager, excellent recommendations and 8 years of experience. If it still does not work, I will go for an EMBA next year.

Good luck to all again and happy new year !

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aim-wsc · Fri Jan 05, 2007 6:00 pm

thanks for replying sir. Smile

thats so so so Shocked

comprehensive that i cant comment Laughing

You make a flawless profile. great acads. great GMAT. great w-ex.

just for your information, this forum doesnt end at GMAT. we do have a lot of things for beyond GMAT business Smile

u work in USA? Good. because just now i heard (& its true) that Wharton's only 1 Indian IT male among 800 this year Wink

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dipanjan · Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:03 pm

Yes, all my work experience is in US, I am not in the international student pool any more. I have been living in US for nine years and became permanent resident last year. That's the reason I waited so long - did not want to go back to H1-F1 visa transfer and all that INS nightmare.