710 in two and a half months...

Guest · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:04 pm Post subject: 710 in two and a half months...

My GMAT Score:
710 (93)
Q49
V38

My GMAT preparation began about 2 and a half months ago.I used the following books.

OG11
Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction
Kaplan 800

The scores from some of the tests that I took:
powerprep1 - 600
powerprep2 - 660
Crack GMAT - 540
8/20/2007 MGMAT CAT1 - 670(Q47,V34)
9/2/2007 MGMAT CAT1 - 640(Q44,V34)
9/8/2007 MGMAT CAT1 - 640(Q46,V32)
9/23/2007 MGMAT CAT1 - 710(Q48,V38)
9/30/2007 MGMAT CAT1 - 670(Q49,V33)
10/8/2007 MGMAT CAT1 - 670(Q49,V39)
gmatprep1(retake 3rd time) - 710
gmatprep2(retake 3rd time) - 740

The first test I took was the powerprep and I scored 600. And with two more weeks of preparation I was able to score above 650. So I thought that I can have this wrapped up in about a month. Everyday at work I would make it a point to read all the new success stories posted on this forum. They served as inspiration for me to come home from work and prepare for gmat. I would spend 2-3 hours on most weekdays and about 6 hours on weekends. I took one test every weekend and would analyze my results and work on my weak areas during the next week. But inspite of all this,jumping from 650 to 700 proved very tough for me. Even after a month of preparation I was not able to score in the 700's. With an engineering background, quant was not a big problem, I was only making silly mistakes, but the verbal section was giving me real troubles. I was not able to score above 34 in verbal.

SC did not give me much troubles. After reviewing Manhattan SC and OG, my SC hit rate was greatly improved. I believe manhattan SC is a must have book.

RC was a big challenge for me. I practiced from OG and http://www.litesee.com/.I had to constantly remind myself that for RC, the answer was right in the passage, I just had to look for it. In the very beginning,I used to get bored while reading the passage and I would just try to guess answers quickly on my understanding of the passage and move to the next question. I would never go back and look into the passage for the answers. After I started doing this, my hit rate went up. But I was still having trouble with the inference/tone/structure type of question. I devised a new strategy. During my first read, I would note down all words used by the author that would signify tone/structure etc..(words such as rightfully, justifiable, convincingly etc..) This helped me very much in understanding the passage better and my hit rate improved.

CR was again a case of me getting bored reading through the cryptic short passages. I think the only thing I did to improve my hit rate was to rephrase the passage in conversation english before trying to answer the questions.

Cracking the manhattan gmat CATs was really tough. The questions are very hard,but the explanations are great. My practice tests included only powerprep, gmatprep and manhattan gmat cats. After every test, I would review the answers for questions I could not answer. This helped me a lot. Manhattan GMAT explanations are great, they teach you great shortcuts. I think the quant section in MGMAT CATs are very tough. I usually give myself 100 minutes for the MGMAT CAT quant section, because I wanted to to make sure that I could attempt all the questions. In contrast, With powerprep and gmatprep I never had pacing issues.

After I scored 700 for the first time, I took a date one month away hoping that within a month I would be able to consistently score in the 700s. But this was not to be. My score oscillated between 650 and 700. The thing that I was most paranoid about was ending up with a score of 650. I took a week off before the D-Day and was determined to improve my score. I retook the powerprep1 test and I got 660. I was shocked. This was inspite of the fact that by then I had memorized answers to a few of the questions. With only a week to go, I was very disappointed. When I reviewed the test results, I found something that changed everything. I had not gotten many questions wrong in the test. The only thing I noticed was I got 4 questions wrong consecutively in the beginning(I think 3-7). I had heard of the theory that 1-20 questions are very important. But I never took it seriously, I usually would try to give the same importance to all questions. So if I found myself spending too much time on any one question I would just guess and move on to keep up my pace. But now I decided to change my strategy - concentrate more on 1-20 questions. I decided to spend as much time as possible on the 1-20 questions. If one approach didn't work, I would try another until I was able to derive the answer. No more guess work for 1-20. But of course I did all this within a reasonable amount of time so I don't completely lose time for the rest of the questions. I think MGMAT CAT automatically gives you the tough questions, but gmatprep you have to get it and the only way I believe you can do it is by concentrating on 1-20. Once I started doing this, I was consistently scoring above 700. The two tests after this change of strategy, I scored 710 and 740.

D-Day:
The night before the test I was not able to sleep at all. I was getting nightmares of scoring 650. My test was at 8:00 AM and I did not sleep till 4:00 AM. We had the alarm set for 5:30 AM, but I don't know if the alarm never rang or we did not hear it, I woke up startled at 7:15 AM. As soon as I checked the time I was shocked and started to panic. I had 15 minutes to be at the centre that was 3 miles away. I was not sure of how the traffic was going to be. In 5 minutes I was out of the house(Not much time to freshen up) and 10 minutes later I reached the centre. I calmed myself down and told myself that everything was ok and that I can still do it. I told myself I was not going to let 2 and a half months of struggle go waste. During the AWA, I calmed myself and I think I did well on the essays. They were not very tough. Took a break and had the shake I had prepared the night before, went to the restroom and reassured myself that I was going to do everything I can. Came back and faced a penalty of 2 and a half minutes. But I did not let that bother me. I completed the quant section, took a break, came back within the allocated ten minutes. Though I was not sure of most of my answers, I followed all my strategies and gave it my best. Finally when the score popped, I was relieved to say the least. My goal was to cross 700 and I am very happy that I did. I know that it is on the lower end, but I am very happy.

All's well that ends well.

I know my post is very long but I hope it will be useful for someone. When I was preparing I used to read all the posts on this forum religiously and it helped me a lot. So I hope this helps someone out there.

Last, but not the least a big thank you to all the souls who selflessly contributed on this blog. I cannot stress how big a role this forum has played in my preparation. On to apps now. Good luck everybody! YOU CAN BEAT IT TOO!!!

shymab · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:07 pm Post subject:

I think I didn't login before posting. IT IS MY DEBRIEF!!!

wongee · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:26 pm Post subject:

great Job! Congratulations!! Thanks for sharing your prep style and your scores.

You have broken them down by Gmat prep and Powerprep - are these two different sofwares? ie a total of four tests? I have downloaded the Gmat prep, where do i get the Powerprep from?

thanks!

shymab · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject:

Powerprep is available for download from http://www.gorillatestprep.com/gmat_resources.html

kajcha · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject:

Congratulations!!!!!! That's a good point you told to concentrate more on questions 1-20... I will keep that in mind.. I have similar experience on my practice tests..

mayonnai5e · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:14 pm Post subject:

Congrats!

shymab · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:55 pm Post subject:

Thank you. My best wishes to you kajcha and everybody else.