I just Beat The GMAT!

Hey all, I think I've finally managed to beat the GMAT and get close to my target score. Things looked bleak a month and a half back when I got a mere 620 after preparing for 3 months. While my Quant score was a decent 48, it is verbal that let me down terribly with a mere 29, when I was expecting at least a 36-37. In hindsight it was probably SC and RC that let me down because I always had the tendency to go by what sounded right rather than apply the SC rules. Also I probably hadn't practiced enough RC passages 'coz they are so boring.

For my retake, I figured I couldn't really do much to my quant score so I decided to focus only on SC and RC. I had used the Manhattan SC book for my first attempt and nothing specific for RCs. I had just done about 15 passages from the OG 13 apart from the ones that I did on the practice tests.
For my second attempt I used the SC Grail to improve my SC skills. While I had heard good things about the book, I didn't bother with it in my first attempt coz I already had the Manhattan SC book, which was a mistake. I found the rules in the SC Grail much easier to absorb than those in Manhattan SC. I also found it to be a more complete book because it has rules, practice questions, everything. For non-native speakers who are struggling with SC, I strongly recommend the SC Grail over any other book.

For Reading comprehension, I decided practice was the way to go so I decided to do 4 passages every day for the next 30-40 days that I had. This meant that I needed close to 100 plus practice passages for which I used the following resources - the OG 13, the OG Verbal Review book and the RC Grail. I ensured that I didn't go lax on the discipline front and diligently did my quota of 4 passages every day. This strategy actually works brilliantly because, if nothing else, it makes you very confident of tackling any kind of passage that the GMAT could throw at you. I liked the passages in both, the Manhattan RC Book and the RC Grail, specially the RC grail because it gives you a lot of practice passages and doesn't go too heavy on the strategy bit. One complain that I have with the OGs is that most of the passages contain a lot of questions, which kind of spoils your RC strategy. But all in all practice and more practice is the way to go if you wish to improve your RC skills in quick time.


On test day, one thing I noticed was that I was more relaxed than I had been the first time. I guess the fact that you've been there and done that once does make things a little easier the next time around. The AWA, IR, and quant sections went quite well by the time I reached verbal I was absolutely ready to take it head on. While I didn't think my verbal section went particularly well, I knew I wasn't doing badly either because a lot of the questions were looking fairly difficult to me. I even got two bold faced CR questions! One word about SCs, I think I saw a lot of questions in my second attempt on which more than one option looked grammatically correct and I had to actually focus on the meaning of the sentence to get the answer right. So don't get too technical with all the grammar during your prep.

All in all I'm sufficiently happy with a 720. Now it's time to start working on those apps which is looking like a Herculean task at the moment. However, I'm sure with discipline and hard work, this mountain too shall be conquered.
Cheers!

Awesome improvement. You have the perfect balance of score and you should be competitive at all schools with this score.

Excellent and inspiring debrief !! Hearty congrats to you ....

I wanted to ask about the Aristotle RC 99. I am finding it very difficult to comprehend even the Easy section. I am just trying to follow your strategy to do 4 passages a day.... but feel like completely stumbled at the first day's trial itself... Even if I ignore the timed attempts, the accuracy is still only about 50% , which is a shame.... Can you suggest me some help ?

ani781 wrote:Excellent and inspiring debrief !! Hearty congrats to you ....

I wanted to ask about the Aristotle RC 99. I am finding it very difficult to comprehend even the Easy section. I am just trying to follow your strategy to do 4 passages a day.... but feel like completely stumbled at the first day's trial itself... Even if I ignore the timed attempts, the accuracy is still only about 50% , which is a shame.... Can you suggest me some help ?

RC99 is not good..AristotlePrep admitted that the passages in RC99 were not good enough for the GMAT and that's why discontinued the book and replaced it with the RC Grail.

Thanks for sharing your story. I am in a similar boat to the one you were in. I took the GMAT a little less than a month ago and got a dismal 600 but my target score is 720. I have given myself until mid or end August to take the test. I know you already did well on quant but that is actually where I am struggling the most. Do you have any tips/materials/strategies you used to get really good at this? I have been using the MGMAT strategy guides, OG 13, OG Quant.

Thank you!

Congrats for the nice score.! Could you please let know how did you prepare for CR part? I am finding it difficult.

avaniptl88 wrote:Thanks for sharing your story. I am in a similar boat to the one you were in. I took the GMAT a little less than a month ago and got a dismal 600 but my target score is 720. I have given myself until mid or end August to take the test. I know you already did well on quant but that is actually where I am struggling the most. Do you have any tips/materials/strategies you used to get really good at this? I have been using the MGMAT strategy guides, OG 13, OG Quant.

Thank you!

Since you are already learning rules/concepts from MGMAT guides, what you will need now is a lot of practice. Use PS and DS boosters to practice questions.You may also want to look at gmatclub quant tests

Congrats for the nice score.! Could you please let know how did you prepare for CR part? I am finding it difficult.

Use CR Grail or CR Bible. I liked CR Grail more because it is written more for the GMAT. CR Bible is a good book too but it has been written for LSAT and just been converted to GMAT. Also it hasn't been updated in the last 8 years so some of the question types are missing altogether.

Excellent improvement, Keep it up...

campbellronald7 wrote:Excellent improvement, Keep it up...

Thank you very much. All the best to you too!

Congratulations on the great score. can you please compare how did you find the aristotle verbal grail series in comparison to the manhattangmat verbal series ? i have both and i want to know which one should i use

Hello,
My congratulations, it's a nice score. You've set the goal and you've reached it. Keep doing things in the same manner.
My name is Tanya and I am the Project manager at GoGMAT company. We are preparing students for the GMAT.
We truly believe that you have tremendous experience in GMAT preparation. That is why we really want to invite you as a consultant in our project.
What do you think about that? Our skype is galibier2012.
Thank you in advance for your reply.