MY 710 story!

escaram · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 3:47 am Post subject: MY 710 story!

Hello everybody,

First of all, I'd like to thank everybody because this forum is really one of the best ressources on the GMAT.

Background: 21 years old, French, senior.

I started my preparation July the 1st and I studied very hard to get this score (8 hours per day until October 10th). I feel I could have a little bit better because during the test I was too stressed and it was difficult to stay concentrated. Too much pressure maybe... Is 710 enough to get anywhere or is it too low? If you have any suggestion, please...

I used OG 11th + verbal and quantitative review. OG 11th really became a bible at the very beginning of the preparation. Then, I took a class with Kaplan and even if it's quite expensive, I think it's worth it. They give you really good materials and even if the practice tests seem harder, you can still use them for practice.
I also had the Kaplan 800 book, but don't buy it, I think it is completely useless.
I also used the MGMAT practice tests. Good practice tests overall.

My test experience:

AWA: read the essays available on this forum and if you're lucky like me, you may have to write about a topic that you read the day before...Confidence builder for the rest of the test!

Math part: the questions were pretty straightforward and everything was perfect until the 10th question. Then the questions became too diffcult for me even if I was convinced that it was possible to find the answer with more time. However, I started to waste time and until the 25th questions, it was horrible. The key here is to breathe and do your best (something I wasn't able to do).

Verbal part: passages were really easy and if you practiced with Kaplan, you'll do fine. During my prep, I was able to answer only 50% of the RC questions I got, but during the test, I answered confidently.
CR: no boldface, but a lot of assumption questions
SC: nothing really hard compared to MGMAT and Kaplan materials

If you have any questions, don't hesitate. By the way, I have one question for the gmat experts of BTG: I got quanti 48 (85%) and verbal 40 (89%) but my overall score is 710 (93%). Isn't there a problem? How is it possible? Maybe, it's something about the algorithm that I don't understand?
Is it worth retaking the test because I think I can get a 740 or is it completely unecessary?

Thanks a lot,

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity"

Prasanna · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:17 am Post subject:

escaram

Congrats. I think 710 is a very good score. Percentile rankings are calculated that way and there is nothing wrong with your score.

On retaking the exam - You will have to decide based on how much time you have. 20-30 additional points may not make a big difference in your application. You might be better of concentrating on other aspects of your app. However if you have lots of time and you are confident that you can hit 740 mark, you can give it a try. Better score never hurts.

All the best.

Prasanna

akay · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:21 am Post subject:

Congratulations / Felicitation escaram

Thanks for the post.

Can you let us all know what was the difficulty level of the questions in the Math and the Verbal portions? Were the questions that you got comparable to OG or were they much harder?

camitava · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:54 am Post subject:

Hey escaram congrats man! Yop! Like akay, I would also like to know the difficulty level of the qs including all the sections. Another point I would like to know that obviously u have answered all the qs right? If so,U said -

escaram · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:29 am Post subject: Thanks

The difficulty of the questions is comparable to what you can find at the end of OG11th. Nothing more. However, I think it is useful to practice with questions a little bit harder because the concepts tested on the GMAT are always the same and by doing high level questions you feel more confident, even under pressure.

For the math part, questions from 15 to 25 were hard and I lost valuable time trying to solve them. However, I had the impression that the last 10 questions were easier. However, as I didn't have much time, I had to rush and that wasn't good. So TIMING IS EVEYTHING!!

Questions from Kaplan are definitively much harder, so you can expect at least 20 points more.

For AWA: practice with the sample essays available on this forum. My strategy was to read the topics and look at the correction only when I knew I would have a hard time finding flaws or examples for example. (especially true for non-native speakers like me)

CR & SC: nothing different from MGMAT or Kaplan (same level of difficulty).

"Chance favors the prepared the mind"

beatthegmat · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:39 pm Post subject:

Congrats! And thanks for sharing your story with us!

camitava · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:14 am Post subject:

Thanks a lot, escaram! Thanks a lot for sharing ur view and it really helps us (those who are preparing for appearing for GMAT). By the way, best of luck for future man...