Finally my post in this section!!

Prasanna · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:03 am Post subject: Finally my post in this section!!

My background - I am 28 yr old Indian male with 8 yrs of workex.

I began by GMAT journey in Feb this year. I started of with a Kaplan test and scored 530. This was without any preparation. I started googling...found this forum and things changed. From this forum I got guidance on the way forward. Procured the OG - all 3 books and worked out all problems. Between office and family, I was hard pressed for time. I worked couple of hours everyday. I used to spend some time on this forum too daily. Apart from OG I also worked through Kaplan 800 and Princeton review. I found Kaplan 800 very useful.

After 2 months with OG, in April I took GMAT prep and scored a 710 (45Q, 41V I think). I was very pleased. I found that I was making careless mistakes in Quant. In verbal I was lacking in SC.As the next steps, I had planned to get the Manhattan SC and strengthen SC skills.

But too many obstacles (official and personal) came by in the month of May and I lost focus. I realized I was losing what I had gained. Somehow resolved and came back on track in June. In June I worked through Manhattan SC. As everyone says, the book does wonders. I was also surprised when I realized that it came with 6 tests online. Every week I took one test (June/July). I scored 640, 680, 730, 700 and 680 in that order. I realized that I was not consistent with the scores. I was concerned with the scores fluctuating. In the first week of July, I went ahead and booked test for today. I was not sure whether I would be done by then, but I realized, there was no point in postponing the exams. Some of the discussions in this forum helped me take this decision. In the third week of July took GMAT prep second exam and score 700. I was looking to score more than 700 and hence was not very happy. I kept on with my schedule. I reworked OG problems. I worked on the retired tests papers. I used to work couple of hours every day. Last week I took another GMAT prep and scored 750. I was sure the score was inflated because I had seen the the difficult math problems in this forums by then.

One problem I found in Quant was that I was solving them too quick and hence was making careless mistakes. I decided that on the exam day, I will work on the probs more carefully. I never got to do this in the practice exams. In the practice exams I used to speed through and later find that I had done many silly mistakes.

On the verbal side, I was stuck. I could not push my score beyond 41 in any test. This surprised me. In April, when I took my first GMAT prep, I had scored a 41. At that time I did not have a handle on the SC questions. After Manhattan SC, I was very comfortable with SC, but still my scores did not improve much. In VA too, I used to finish the section very early - atleast 15 min early. I was telling myself that I had to slow down in the actual exam.

During the last few weeks, I kept working on 50 problems a day (VA and Quant put together). This gave me lot of comfort.

Finally I took the test yesterday and scored a 740 (97th percentile - 49Q, 42V). Needless to say I am very happy with the score. I could say its exactly what I wanted. Testing experience was awesome. I had taken a 8 AM appointment. I cannot sleep late in the mornings and hence this worked fine. Could not sleep well the night before. But I made sure that I got excellent sleep the entire week before. I was at the test centre at 7 AM. The admin checked me in at 7.20 AM. The essays went on fine. I am not very sure how I performed. Then took the 10 min break. Had a banana and drank water. Got back in for Quant. Quant went on very fine. Luckily I was able to slow down in the actual exam. This gave me sufficient time to check the answers twice/thrice. I changed atleast FIVE answers before I hit the next button. (Now I realize what a diff it has made on the score- I had never got a 740 in my prep except the last GMAT prep score considered inflated). The questions got difficult as time went by and I was still able to answer them well. Couple of questions bewildered me. Hope they are experimental questions - they did not make any sense to me. I got a question on GP and a question based on (a+b+c)^2- I have never seen these before in any prep material or in these forums. Luckily the math I had learned almost 10 yrs back helped me.

After quant, I took the 10 min break. Had a strawberry milk shake (thanks to my wife) and used rest room and got back in for VA. The VA went on very fine. It is by far the toughest VA section I have taken. And the best performance too. The questions got difficult as time went on. The SC questions got longer and longer. Some of them looked like CR when they showed up. I did not get a bold face question (Manhattan was troubling me with those) but I did get two 'complete the passage' questions. While taking the VA, I was getting excited about my score, I felt the score would be more than 720. I tempered my emotions and concentrated on the exam. 75 min went by and finally when the score came up, I was very happy. Was very happy with VA 42.

I know a good score by itself does not guarantee admission. But I am happy that I have put this exam behind me and this will not bother me in any way in the admission process. I am very contended that my efforts in the past 6 months have paid back. I have done justice to the sacrifices made by my wife. I could not help her much in taking care of my 6 month old daughter.

Apologize if I have bored you with too much detail. Hope it is useful to atleast a few. If there are any questions on the exam prep do shoot them.

Special thanks to Eric for this forum. Without this forum, I would have struggled. I was active in this forum till April. With the break in May, I never got very active again. But I checked the forums atleast 3-4 times a day. With GMAT behind me, I am planning to stay back and contribute to the forum. Special thanks to jayhawk. In the initial months of my prep, his posts were very useful. The posts were very detailed and concept driven.

Guest · Target GMAT Score: 701

congrats bro............
way 2 go..................

aim-wsc · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:50 am Post subject:

Added later: Oh! that, I think, made you the first MONITOR to beat the GMAT!
gabriel never told about his GMAT but I am suspicious that he's already done with it in June/july & scored 730 :spy: Am I right? gabriel?

This is indeed going to be helpful to many people out there Smile

gabriel · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:22 pm Post subject:

aim-wsc · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:42 pm Post subject:

Prasanna · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 5:57 pm Post subject:

Got my score report today. Surprised it came in 3 days Very Happy

Scored 5.5 AWA....completely satisfied Very Happy

Lorelai · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:13 am Post subject:

Prasanna, congratulations on your score. My situation is somewhat similar to yours. I have hit a roadblock in Verbal. My MGMAT scores are 670, 710, 680, 700. My performance in OG questions however is much better with a higher hit rate.

Your post has given me the confidence that going over 40 in Verbal is possible. Do you have any suggestions regarding the verbal portion?

Prasanna · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:23 am Post subject:

Lorelai

I found my MGMAT verbal performance very fluctuating. It has ranged from 37 to 44. GMAT prep has been a very good indicator. I scored 40, 41 and 41 in the three attempts. On the actual exam, I got 42. Hence I suggest you take GMAT prep to get a good indication.

I kept in mind my weakness in verbal on the actual exam and that helped. I made it a point not to hurry through the questions and avoid falling into traps. As stated in my original post I could not improve any more on the verbal scores.

Hope this helps. All the best for your exams.

Prasanna

givemeanid · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:34 am Post subject:

Prasanna, maybe this is a stupid question, but how does one find out the scaled score in GMATPrep. After I finished the test, it only gives me an option to save or not. Nothing else. Is there someplace where you need to look up the score?

Congrats and good luck with all your apps.

Thanks.

Prasanna · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:45 am Post subject:

givemeanid

I think GMAT prep does not give percentile scores. It asks us to look at the website to find that out. I was not able to do that either. Another thing I noticed was that I was able to view raw scores later.

Sorry I could not help Sad

..Probably someone else can

beatthegmat · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:09 am Post subject:

Prasanna:

Fantastic performance! Thanks very much for your excellent write up as well as your ongoing work as a moderator--your contributions and this post will help countless GMAT test takers in the future.

Best of luck and I do hope you stick around for a while. Smile