770(Q-51,V-44)- Conceptual Clarity + Practice did the Magic!

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Got done with the GMAT and I think I couldn't have asked for more. I can't just stop being happy with my scores
Overall: 770
Quant: 51
Verbal:44

Background : I'm a native speaker and currently work with an equity research fund as an analyst on the east coast. I plan to work in Europe for sometime post MBA and INSEAD is my primary target and LBS,IMD are the other schools I'll be applying to. I speak French and Spanish apart from English and I love the French culture so want to live and experience the European way of life for a couple of years and then decide whether I want to move back. I don't plan to get into a hardcore finance role post MBA though I'm open to do financial consulting.

Prep strategy : I prepared for around 4 months in all...Started my prep in October end and joined beatthegmat and gmatclub in first week of November. At one point of time, my addiction grew so much that I had set a goal for myself to visit the forums only once in 3 days. But I think that the credit for this score in part goes to these forums only as I learnt everything about the GMAT,preparation strategy etc from here.

Anyway,what I learnt early on from the forums here is that building a strong conceptual base should be the first target so I kept the first two months for theory and the last one month for intensive practice.

For Verbal, I primarily relied on the Verbal Grail series from Aristotle prep. The Grail series is very exhaustive both in theory and practice.I had other books too but didn't refer to them much. MGMAT SC was helpful too but didn't find Manhattan CR and RC useful.

I've done my undergrad major in finance so the GMAT Math didn't seem very difficult. Saying that it was a cakewalk would be going too far but yes I was able to handle Quant better. For higher difficulty level, I referred MGMAT Advanced Quant Guide and for practice PS and DS boosters rounded up my studies.

Testing Experience : The test day experience was smooth. There were around 8-10 people in my slot. I had a redbull and some cookies during the breaks. Got a little nervous at the beginning of the Quant section and ended up doing some calculations again. Took a deep breath after a couple of questions, told myself everything will be okay and then plunged ahead.

In the verbal section, the RCs were quite dense and boring. Some of the options were close and I really ended up changing the options a couple of times before moving on to the next question.

Overall, I felt that I did well and was expecting around 730-740. It was a long pause after clicking on "Report score" and then I couldn't just stop smiling looking at the computer screen.

I know many people would have secured this score in the past and I'm not the first one to get this score yet it feels very special. More than anything else, I feel glad that I won't have to take the test again because frankly speaking for the last 3 months, I have prepared with a lot of focus and to go through the grind again would have been a little difficult.

My $0.02

a) Take around 8-10 practice tests: Use MGMAT and GMATPREPs
b) Take the GMAT early. It helps-I'm planning to apply for Fall 2014 intake and the deadlines of schools are far away. I could have prepared later but hey when I can do it on time, so why procrastinate.Now I have sufficient time to work on the other equally important aspects of the application.
c) Have a plan for yourself and write it down- I think we stick more to our goals if we have a plan for us otherwise the plan just goes out of the window-this is something that I learnt from my job as we need to be very disciplined to meet our targets. On MTW,I focused on sentence correction, ThuFri, I did CR and Sat, I did RC . This helped me stay in touch with the topics every week and also helped ensure that I stick to the goals I have set for myself

d) Conceptual Clarity comes first and then comes practice- One of the instructors here(I guess David@VeritasPrep) had posted this on the forums here long back and this advice really helped me. I think unless you don't have a strong command over the concepts, practicing would be futile.So focusing on understanding concepts, patterns should be your priority. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't practice while learning concepts. You should do practice questions but the focus should still be on understanding the application of the theory.

Thanks a lot to the awesome participants and instructors on the forums. I look forward to keeping you guys posted about my journey post-GMAT!
Last edited by FredT on Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:18 pm, edited 6 times in total.

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by shraddhalanka89 » Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:01 am
Your score is awesome! Congratulations on your success! I am sure INSEAD is now only a good application away! :)

Your tips are pretty useful! Thanks a lot! :)

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by Saunak » Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:26 am
Awesome score! Congrats.

How were your MGMAT and GMATPrep mock scores? And how tricky did you find the IR section (say esp MSR)?

Thanks,

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by FredT » Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:18 am
Saunak wrote:Awesome score! Congrats.

How were your MGMAT and GMATPrep mock scores? And how tricky did you find the IR section (say esp MSR)?

Thanks,
Most of my MGMAT scores were between 720-750. I scored a 740 on GMATPREP1 and 760 on GMATPREP2.. IR section was manageable and I although I didn't prepare for it much, I was able to handle the questions well.

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:42 pm
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by jasmeets » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:18 pm
Wow! Congratulations ..... Great JOB (Y)

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by hungry2learn » Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:40 am
Wow , An amazing score thanks to the super effort you put in .

Some points i would note as takeaway's :

1) Focus on theory and concepts first , get the base real strong and then go on to practice .
2) Plan and strategy needed and yes a very dedicated effort and focus on it to acheive the target !
3) The planning and sheer sense of fore sight you had when you looked at 2014 applications , incredibly awesome, now you're right you have a long time and space to put in your best applications , INSEAD , LBS IMD , they'll welcome you with these traits .

Congrats buddy!
Only Success has it's Kith and Kin , Failure has none .
--Sir Winston Churchill

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by EricaR » Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:09 pm
Great score. I really like your approach concepts first-> Practice second. How many passages did you practice for RC from RC Grail ?

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by HBS2014aspirant » Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:43 am
Congrats..I loved your approach..I'm good with the concepts but while doing full length test, I am making a lot of stupid mistakes. This is really hindering my progress.I'm stuck at 700 and not able to move beyond.

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by beatthe800 » Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:30 am
Thanks Fred.. It would definitely help me to get good score.. Thanks for debrief.. :)

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by SunZu » Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:24 am
Congrats on the great score. Did you also take any sectional tests before moving on to full length tests ?

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by murrayor » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:37 pm
Dude, good job. You beat my 760 by 10 points, tied my Verbal, beat me by 1 point on the quant. You have some serious intellectual mojo. BTW, you are now eligible for MENSA. Savor it, brother. It is a small club.

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by unclesam2013 » Thu Mar 07, 2013 7:06 am
murrayor wrote:Dude, good job. You beat my 760 by 10 points, tied my Verbal, beat me by 1 point on the quant. You have some serious intellectual mojo. BTW, you are now eligible for MENSA. Savor it, brother. It is a small club.
You and I are on the same pedestal.760 here too. haha.MENSA sounds interesting. Let's see whether i can get into it. No harm in trying :-D

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by targetivy » Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:13 am
Great score Fred.. RC has been a pain area for me so far..any tips you would like to share on how did you crack the GMAT RCs ?

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by SunZu » Mon Apr 29, 2013 2:49 am
murrayor wrote:Dude, good job. You beat my 760 by 10 points, tied my Verbal, beat me by 1 point on the quant. You have some serious intellectual mojo. BTW, you are now eligible for MENSA. Savor it, brother. It is a small club.
Mentioning MENSA memership would look quite interesting in the essays..Speaks volumes about the intellect and i'm sure the adcom would notice that