My GMAT Experience (760 - V46/Q49/AWA 5.0)

rajarshir

I have never posted here before but this website has been of immense help to me. Therefore I felt that I should contribute my GMAT experience here.

I spent about 10 weeks spanning over 3 months of time preparing for my GMAT. I was quite regular with my studies except for about the time when I was shifting residence. I never spent more than 3 hours a day and almost never studied over the weekend. I used the following resources in this specific order: The OG Edition 11, Princeton Review Guide with the 4 online trial exams and 4 Kaplan CATs. Of course I made good use of Eric's GMAT flashcards and also took the 2 GMATPrep exams. I felt that the OG was indispensible towards preparing for the GMAT and at least a couple of questions that I had encountered in the GMAT were also present in the OG. The GMATPrep exams were also the closest to the actual GMAT itself and I took both the GMATPrep exams twice. When I had begun my GMAT prepartion, the score on the first exam was 630. When I had retaken this exam towards the end of my preparation, I had managed a 700. The highest I got on any of the mock exams was a 710.

The Princeton Review Guide only helped me with the essays. Their essay writing techniques were superb, however I felt that most of their material, especially their Math preparatory was very basic. The Kaplan GMATs weren't of much use, in fact I managed to get a 650 + score in only one of them and got less than a 600 in the others. I wouldn't recommend taking the Kaplan CATs; not only are the questions badly drafted but also are they not of the type that you would face at the GMAT. The only good thing that I saw was the Math practice it gave me.

Most of the mock exams I took were under similiar testing conditions of the GMAT. I never felt that the questions in the GMAT were really difficult. What I felt difficult was the duration of the exam. Getting a high score (a 700+) meant that you would have to really keep your concentration levels at the same peak for almost throughout 3 hours. This was what I really had to practice and therefore almost always wrote the 2 essays at the start of the mock exams and never exceeded my break times.

A couple of things: taking something to eat with you to the exam center is a real help. The added energy is a big boost and taking the GMAT on a hungry stomach really doesn't help one at all. Also I booked the GMAT appointment only when I felt that I was well prepared. Where I took the exam at, appointment dates were available as early as 2-3 days away and therefore I booked an appointment only when I began scoring consistently on the mock exams. A lot of it depends on how you are feeling on the day on the exam. Make sure you don't take any mock exams on the day before. However revising a little on the day and the day before was very useful.

P.S: I am attaching an Idioms list here for your reference.

Prasanna · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:23 am Post subject:

Congrats on your great score. 46 in verbal is terrific.

optimisticsam · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:13 am Post subject:

Congrats! Good showing!

Impressive 760 even though you never broke 710 in your prep!

Thanks for the idiom list by the way! I am reviewing it now, well worth it!

Thanks!

Best of luck in your next step!

samirpandeyit62 · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:17 am Post subject:

Congratulations rajarshir, 760 is a very good score,but 46V is a dream score, can u share any insights about what u did in Verbal.

rajarshir · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:50 am Post subject:

The Official Guide was extremely useful. I made sure to go through this as as thoroughly as possible. In the exercises, I made a note of the ones I got wrong and came back to them after I had finished with the Kaplan and Princeton guides. I also went through several Idiom lists. This was my weakest area in the Verbal section.

I think its very important to identify the GMAT questioning pattern and like I have said already, the Kaplan exams actually hurt one as they take one away from the actual pattern of questions of the GMAT.

I developed a strategy for each section. For RC, I had decided to spend at least 2-3 minutes reading the entire passage and identifying the important contents of each paragraph. For SC, I tried to read up on as many Idioms as possible and also attempted to very careful with questions that had tense errors. For CR, I read the given passage very clearly and tried identying the premise, assumption and conclusion even before reading the question.

All the best. It really isn't that difficult. Look at this way, there are so many people that score over a 700. Even with my score, there is a still a percentile that have done better than I have.

singh · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:26 am Post subject:

Congratulation Rajsri. Your post is very inspiring. I've been struggling with my studies for GMAT. As I've a full time job and also am a single parent.

I live in Toronto and was wondering where are you located and if I could get some tips on doing the verbal section as I'm so average at it. I wouls like to CRACK it. My pacing for both the analytical and verbal is so off. AWA is totally done within the time limit. Any tips for me?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Poonam.

samirpandeyit62 · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:32 am Post subject:

Thanks rajarshir, for providing the info & also the idioms list is very good.

achandwa · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:40 am Post subject:

You have to be out of this world to score a 46 on verbal! Great score rajarshir! Congrats. Good luck with your apps.
-Ashish

beatthegmat · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:58 pm Post subject:

Incredible score! And thank you SO MUCH for the list of idioms!

mayonnai5e · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:39 am Post subject:

760. Amazing. CONGRATS!