-
vomhorizon
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 194
- Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:05 pm
- Location: India
- Thanked: 26 times
- Followed by:8 members
- GMAT Score:730
Wrote the GMAT yesterday, Scored Poorly (680 Q44, V41)
My experience :
AWA : Went well, got 5 solid paragraphs in. Finished with about 5 minutes to go
IR: IR seemed a mix of Easy-Medium level questions and some Brutually hard questions (Harder them most of the hard questions in QP1) .. Guessed on 2, but spent solid amount of time on the remaining 10. Since IR is so new, it will be some time before colleges use it as a benchmark. I was hoping to get a 5 on it, and think that i have done enough.
Quant: This was the deal breaker for me. I am a non traditional candidate (MD) and quant was never my strength. Through self prep and using this forum, I had built myself up to a level where i was reasonably confident with GMAT quant. In my MGMAT Mocks i was scoring between 42 and 46, with constant improvements in Mock 1 to Mock 4. In GMAT prep, i scored between 45 and 48. My lowest score on Kaplan was 80th percentile (quant). I do not know what happened to me on test day, but i am assuming that i made a string of careless mistakes. The Quant section was very much like GMAT PREP, especially if you take into account Question Pack 1. In fact, I feel GMAT PREP questions, coupled with Question pack 1 are more Representative of the REAL QUANT SECTION then A) any other test prep company, B) Either of the OG. I got only one Probability question, and NO P&C question on the test. I got 2 questions on SIMPLE INTEREST, and atleast 2 on SETS. As expected Number properties dominated the DS, and i also got 4 geometry questions (2 triangles, 1 area/perimeter DS, 1 circle). Overall i am EXTREMELY disappointed with my quant performance needless to say, i need to take a break, and get back to the basics.
Verbal: Verbal went very well. I feel that it was quite close to GMAT PREP (and QP1). SC was a bit of a worry for me going into the test, as i had heard that the NEW SC is quite a bit difficult from OG, and that QP1 SC is old and not representative of the modern test. In my practice mocks (Official & Non official) i was getting around 2-3 questions from SC incorrect per section. SC on the GMAT, was fairly similar to GMAT PREP. I think MGMAT does a great job with SC on their CAT's and the advanced set (set of 25 questions that can be purchased for 5$).CR on the test was pretty manageable and most answer choices were CLEAR (unlike many non official mock tests that do not get CR right). Usually i get all CR questions right in a section, and i was fairly confident with all but one CR question on the test. I feel Practicing LSAT questions is great for verbal, the first 15-18 questions per LSAT section are great, and very similar to the GMAT. I got 3 RC passages (2 short , 1 long) , One short passage had 5 questions (guessing i got some experimental ones there). RC passages were very interesting to read and "personalize" however i made 2 careless mistakes (That i realized soon after submitting the answer choice
) .. In my mock tests i was scoring between V42 and V44, i feel that the STUPID mistakes in RC cost me a point or 2 but my overall Verbal score is to my satisfaction.
Materials Used : *MGMAT SET (Mixed set , some 4th edition books, some 5th edition)
*LSAT Logic Bible
*Veritas Prep : Advanced word problems, DS Book, RC Book
* Actual 10 LSAT Practice tests with answers
* MGMAT Advanced Quant
* Kaplan Premier & Kaplan 800
Shout outs: David Newland , Ron Purewal for his remarkable videos, Brian Lange for being kind enough to review my essay, beatthegmat.com and Eric Bahn, for providing such a good platform for test takers, All the others that have painstakingly taken the time to answer my queries.
What Next ? : Hoping for some advise from some of the experts who have constantly helped me in my prep. Here is what i think i need to improve my score :
- QUANT : Need to go over the basics, I may need specialized coaching given that i have self prepped but was unable to remove certain chinks in my strategy (The way i tackled inequalities for example (DS) )
- Verbal: Stay at par, but beef up on SC concepts (Since i have time) and keep on practicing CR and RC.
WHEN?: I rushed to take the GMAT as i will be extremely busy between march and april (Have to polish up and finish my Doctoral thesis) however i can probably find around 5-8 hours a week for the next month. I Will not be applying until later this year (Round one , around October-November) so am looking to re-test around Mid June - Early July ...
THE GMAT HAS NOT HEARD THE LAST OF ME :twisted:
My experience :
AWA : Went well, got 5 solid paragraphs in. Finished with about 5 minutes to go
IR: IR seemed a mix of Easy-Medium level questions and some Brutually hard questions (Harder them most of the hard questions in QP1) .. Guessed on 2, but spent solid amount of time on the remaining 10. Since IR is so new, it will be some time before colleges use it as a benchmark. I was hoping to get a 5 on it, and think that i have done enough.
Quant: This was the deal breaker for me. I am a non traditional candidate (MD) and quant was never my strength. Through self prep and using this forum, I had built myself up to a level where i was reasonably confident with GMAT quant. In my MGMAT Mocks i was scoring between 42 and 46, with constant improvements in Mock 1 to Mock 4. In GMAT prep, i scored between 45 and 48. My lowest score on Kaplan was 80th percentile (quant). I do not know what happened to me on test day, but i am assuming that i made a string of careless mistakes. The Quant section was very much like GMAT PREP, especially if you take into account Question Pack 1. In fact, I feel GMAT PREP questions, coupled with Question pack 1 are more Representative of the REAL QUANT SECTION then A) any other test prep company, B) Either of the OG. I got only one Probability question, and NO P&C question on the test. I got 2 questions on SIMPLE INTEREST, and atleast 2 on SETS. As expected Number properties dominated the DS, and i also got 4 geometry questions (2 triangles, 1 area/perimeter DS, 1 circle). Overall i am EXTREMELY disappointed with my quant performance needless to say, i need to take a break, and get back to the basics.
Verbal: Verbal went very well. I feel that it was quite close to GMAT PREP (and QP1). SC was a bit of a worry for me going into the test, as i had heard that the NEW SC is quite a bit difficult from OG, and that QP1 SC is old and not representative of the modern test. In my practice mocks (Official & Non official) i was getting around 2-3 questions from SC incorrect per section. SC on the GMAT, was fairly similar to GMAT PREP. I think MGMAT does a great job with SC on their CAT's and the advanced set (set of 25 questions that can be purchased for 5$).CR on the test was pretty manageable and most answer choices were CLEAR (unlike many non official mock tests that do not get CR right). Usually i get all CR questions right in a section, and i was fairly confident with all but one CR question on the test. I feel Practicing LSAT questions is great for verbal, the first 15-18 questions per LSAT section are great, and very similar to the GMAT. I got 3 RC passages (2 short , 1 long) , One short passage had 5 questions (guessing i got some experimental ones there). RC passages were very interesting to read and "personalize" however i made 2 careless mistakes (That i realized soon after submitting the answer choice
) .. In my mock tests i was scoring between V42 and V44, i feel that the STUPID mistakes in RC cost me a point or 2 but my overall Verbal score is to my satisfaction. Materials Used : *MGMAT SET (Mixed set , some 4th edition books, some 5th edition)
*LSAT Logic Bible
*Veritas Prep : Advanced word problems, DS Book, RC Book
* Actual 10 LSAT Practice tests with answers
* MGMAT Advanced Quant
* Kaplan Premier & Kaplan 800
Shout outs: David Newland , Ron Purewal for his remarkable videos, Brian Lange for being kind enough to review my essay, beatthegmat.com and Eric Bahn, for providing such a good platform for test takers, All the others that have painstakingly taken the time to answer my queries.
What Next ? : Hoping for some advise from some of the experts who have constantly helped me in my prep. Here is what i think i need to improve my score :
- QUANT : Need to go over the basics, I may need specialized coaching given that i have self prepped but was unable to remove certain chinks in my strategy (The way i tackled inequalities for example (DS) )
- Verbal: Stay at par, but beef up on SC concepts (Since i have time) and keep on practicing CR and RC.
WHEN?: I rushed to take the GMAT as i will be extremely busy between march and april (Have to polish up and finish my Doctoral thesis) however i can probably find around 5-8 hours a week for the next month. I Will not be applying until later this year (Round one , around October-November) so am looking to re-test around Mid June - Early July ...
THE GMAT HAS NOT HEARD THE LAST OF ME :twisted:
Last edited by vomhorizon on Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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