No pain No gain!! got 710(Q45, V41)

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No pain No gain!! got 710(Q45, V41)

by sharat » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:38 pm
Gave my gmat today.. it was my first attempt.. not so happy with my Quant score:( (Hope the colleges don't consider it too bad!)
but overall I am happy with my performance although i was targeting 750 when I had started my preparation.

My gmat journey started in August 09 and along the way I have braved kidney-stone pains and numerous hospital visits, got overloaded with office-work, spent sleepless nights making flashcards, got disappointed numerous times over not improving in the tests to finally get to this point. That's why the title.. :)
If I could do it I believe everyone of you can.. it just takes everything you have got!


There are a couple of resources that helped me a lot in my prep:

1. OG (of course! 12th Edition problems after 70-80 range were similar to those i got on actual gmat)
2. Manhattan Gmat Sentence Correction Guide(Often advised by many and rightly so! did not have to refer anything else.)
3. Power Score Critical Reasoning Bible (Same here.. after going through it never had to refer anything else.)
4. All Manhattan Quant Books (Although I was doing OK on Quant already these books improved my Data Sufficiency solving skills immensely, also a great resource for inequalities and absolute values etc.)
5. Manhattan Online Tests (Perfect resource for test-taking. Best for analyzing when used as per Stacey Koprince articles on Analyzing. Also a good predictor .. the last manhattan test i gave before taking the actual gmat, i scored a 720)
6. How to Analyse Tests, practise problems.. articles on BTG by Stacey Koprince (Stacey Koprince rocks!!)
7. Manhattan gmat flashcards for Sentence Correction. (I had already studied the rules a number of times from the SC book but going through the flashcards helped to me actually start recognizing the pattern of errors and the way errors are 'hidden' in the SC qs)
8. Test Grid on BTG (used it for practicing OG problems)
9. Last but not the least..Making Your Own Flash Cards!! (Made my Quant FlashCards in the final week just before the exam!!.. from 1am to 5 am i would be found working with chartpaper and manhattan quantbooks busy making flashcards and it definitely helped!! Although I could hardly revise them 2-3 times... the process of writing them itself helped me brush up things I had forgotten. This is not to say that you should postpone making flashcards till the final week like me! Keep a habit of making a flashcard as soon as you learn an important concept and keep revising the cards weekly.)


Will give a detailed debrief soon... have to catch up on some sleep now!

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GMAT Score:540

by Perminology » Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:28 pm
Congrats on the score, will wait for the debrief.