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640 -> 620 ---- beaten

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640 -> 620 ---- beaten

by gmat_dest » Thu May 28, 2009 1:48 am
There must be something between the actual GMAT and me.

I have given it twice. 2nd time was today.

Wont go much into my first prep as it was flawed.

2nd prep. 3 months. Did :

OG10+11+12
OG verbal and quant guide.

Kaplan 800
Kaplan Premier

Took quite a few tests:

Kaplan 1 : 640(V33)
Kaplan 2 : 640(38)
Kaplan 3 : 670(V38)

Veritas free test : 650

MGMAT free : 670
MGMAT 1st CAT : 720(V48, V40) --- 2days before test

GMAT Prep 1 : 710 - 750 - 770
GMAT Prep 2 : 710 - 770.

Main GMAT : 620(Q48, V28) :-(((

I got blanked out today. I don't know what happened today.
Except a couple of tricky CRs which I guessed, I did not guess others.

I am planning for a couple of schools like AIM, Manila and NUS, Singapore along with ISB, India. 640 is too low a score.

Should I try again? How do I start analyzing?

Or should I just give up, kill my dreams and be happy with the decent paying job that I am in. Last few months, I have sacrificed on work front, personal front. Studying all weekends (7-8 hours). Weekdays (3-4 hours).
Did I overkill?

Please help guys.
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by mike22629 » Thu May 28, 2009 5:38 am
In what order did you do practice tests?

The reason I ask is because people often suggest to take GMAT Prep multiple times before GMAT, which I agree with. However, they seem to overlook that it may screw ur your timing because you get used to answering every question. But during the actual test there will be a few problems that you will have to guess on, especially if you are doing well. To remedy this, I decided to take a MGMAT on Saturday and a GMAT Prep on Sunday for the month before the test. I thought that this was a good balance to practice timing and learn the material.

Furthermore, remember to get rest the night before the test and do not study the day before (if you don't know it by then, 1 day is not going to help you anyways). If you are getting in the mid 700s for GMAT Prep (that is what I got), you should definitely be able to break 700 for the real thing. Keep trying and YOU WILL GET THERE!

Best of Luck
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by mike22629 » Thu May 28, 2009 5:39 am
P.S. Dont waste anymore time with Kaplan, the tests are nothing like the real thing!
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Re: 640 -> 620 ---- beaten

by skang357 » Thu May 28, 2009 12:17 pm
gmat_dest wrote:There must be something between the actual GMAT and me.

I have given it twice. 2nd time was today.

Wont go much into my first prep as it was flawed.

2nd prep. 3 months. Did :

OG10+11+12
OG verbal and quant guide.

Kaplan 800
Kaplan Premier

Took quite a few tests:

Kaplan 1 : 640(V33)
Kaplan 2 : 640(38)
Kaplan 3 : 670(V38)

Veritas free test : 650

MGMAT free : 670
MGMAT 1st CAT : 720(V48, V40) --- 2days before test

GMAT Prep 1 : 710 - 750 - 770
GMAT Prep 2 : 710 - 770.

Main GMAT : 620(Q48, V28) :-(((

I got blanked out today. I don't know what happened today.
Except a couple of tricky CRs which I guessed, I did not guess others.

I am planning for a couple of schools like AIM, Manila and NUS, Singapore along with ISB, India. 640 is too low a score.

Should I try again? How do I start analyzing?

Or should I just give up, kill my dreams and be happy with the decent paying job that I am in. Last few months, I have sacrificed on work front, personal front. Studying all weekends (7-8 hours). Weekdays (3-4 hours).
Did I overkill?

Please help guys.
Maybe you got the same V section that I did. Took it on Tuesday, and it was the hardest V section I ever took.

If you had a passage about women homemakers in labor unions at the end, a passage about the stock market, CR question about building a coal power plant, then you had the same as mine. I always get over 40 on the V section and I got 35 on that one. It totally tanked my overall score.
Impossible is nothing
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by gmat_dest » Thu May 28, 2009 7:48 pm
Thanks guys...I am doing a post mortem of my debacle...

Yeah I did mgmat to get used to harder questions....but I did one thing in gmat that I did not do in other practice tests...that is cross verify whether my calculation/answer is correct or if I missed out some trick...that knocked off 30-40 seconds I guess ....


sigh...

As for Kaplan tests, I was not using them as a indicator of gmat, I was using them to get to the harder Verbal...

And Skang,

Its neither ethical nor legal to discuss actual GMAT stuff...
Please don't do that...you have been told about that in other posts too I believe...

But to answer your question buddy, yeah!

Mods, please prune the lines regarding those Qs....
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by skang357 » Thu May 28, 2009 8:09 pm
gmat_dest wrote:Thanks guys...I am doing a post mortem of my debacle...

Yeah I did mgmat to get used to harder questions....but I did one thing in gmat that I did not do in other practice tests...that is cross verify whether my calculation/answer is correct or if I missed out some trick...that knocked off 30-40 seconds I guess ....


sigh...

As for Kaplan tests, I was not using them as a indicator of gmat, I was using them to get to the harder Verbal...

And Skang,

Its neither ethical nor legal to discuss actual GMAT stuff...
Please don't do that...you have been told about that in other posts too I believe...

But to answer your question buddy, yeah!

Mods, please prune the lines regarding those Qs....
dude chill out... all I did was talk about the questions in a way that would make identifying the question possible.

the other post where I actually posted the question, that I can understand but there is no way that anyone can know the answer to any questions on the test by just by knowing what the topic of the question was like I posted.


anyways, you have to agree that was a crazy verbal section. never had one that hard before. that was like mgmat.

I also guess you had the same Q section as me too. (hint the first question started by asking what is the ratio of male to female heights) <---- again posting something about the test along these lines seems totally ethical because I seen other people do it and not a peep from the moderators.

That was an unusually easy Q section.
Impossible is nothing
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by gmat_dest » Thu May 28, 2009 8:22 pm
Ok Ok...

no not similar in Q. Anyway 48 is my lower average in Q. I generally score around 49.

My problem is verbal that too when I feel pretty confident about it.
Irony in life :-(

Anyway, have decided to give it one more shot at gmat ... thought of taking a day off yesterday...reviewed what I did wrong...as I said earlier what you do in practice tests should be replicated in main GMAT..I should not have done the revision I feel..

BTW other folks on this alias, any question bank from where I can draw more Qs from? I think i remember all the As from OG10/11/12 :)
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by skang357 » Thu May 28, 2009 8:37 pm
gmat_dest wrote:Ok Ok...

no not similar in Q. Anyway 48 is my lower average in Q. I generally score around 49.

My problem is verbal that too when I feel pretty confident about it.
Irony in life :-(

Anyway, have decided to give it one more shot at gmat ... thought of taking a day off yesterday...reviewed what I did wrong...as I said earlier what you do in practice tests should be replicated in main GMAT..I should not have done the revision I feel..

BTW other folks on this alias, any question bank from where I can draw more Qs from? I think i remember all the As from OG10/11/12 :)
Question for you : actually question to most people who score 48 or 49 on Q.

I can't get past 45 on the Q.

Do you finish all the questions on time? Do you answer #37 before time runs out? Also how many questions do you miss on GMATPrep including blank ones to get 49? How many right do you need to get 49 (like 30 right??) Just curious because that is my Q target.

I'm always guessing totally blind on the last 5 to 7 questions.

And you can get all the questions you need from 1000 RC,SC ,etc... (all the other sections on the test) from Esnips

One can only devote so much time out of their life to this test. I'm going to give it at most 3 or 4 more months. I already spent 2.5 months for this test and that is enough. If you can't get it you can't get it. Have to just get the best you can after a certain period of time invested, and then move on.. IMO there will be diminishing returns after a certain point.
Impossible is nothing
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by mike22629 » Fri May 29, 2009 6:26 am
I finished the Actual GMAT math section with 9 minutes to spare and got a 50Q so I can shed some light on timing in the math section.

I think that people waste the most time on Data Sufficiency. In general, these are the most difficult questions for people when they FIRST start studying for the GMAT. But in reality, these questions can be answered relatively quickly. Remember, the purpose of these questions is to determine if there is enough data...not what the answer is...

For my test, I do not think that I even wrote anything down for any of the DS except for 2 or 3 of them. Because of this, I was able to spend approx. 6 minutes on a very difficult geometry problem. Learn to save time on DS and timing will not be an issue with Quant.
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