From 570 to 720 (Q 50, V37) .. Long Journey (Don’t Give u

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Hi Guys,
This is my first post in this forum and had to do it beacause I owed one as this community has given me lot and so wanted to give back. I will not be talking about the strategies as it may vary from person to person ... I used to read almost all the posts of people who have crushed GMAT and they used to give me lot of inspiration and so is this post if it inspires some of them, if I did it you can also. Though 720 isn't a great score I could have got 740 or 730 I'm not really much disappointed with 720 I dont know whether I will be captilize on this score or not.

I took GMAT in August 2008, and got 570 (Q 40, V 27) as you can see I screwed it and was baffled with that score but later realized my prepration at that time was not complete and had lot of gaps especially my verbal prepration was zero and Quant I couldn't handle the presssure on the D-Day. The issue was practice I hadn't given the required time for GMAT prepration as much as it deserves.

I delayed my second test because of professional work and started back in September 2009 after 1 year to take the test...I prepared for 2-3 months till december and then took 2 months break...needless to say the 3 months effort was gone..restarted the prepration in March 2010 and coninued till July with lots of breaks and irregular pattern but target was 750... I knew the key is practise and no matter you prepare for 6 months or 2-3 months it depends from person to person , one has to get in to the groove so even though i used to study only 2 or 3 days in week i used to take 1 GMAT test every weekend after I completed my OG 11 (4 times) verbal section because this was the area that needed focus.
Here is the list of books and things that really helped.

OG11
Manhattan SC (Too good book for non native english speakers like me and people who don't know ABC of english grammer and are still attempting SC) I read this book may be some 8-10 times. It is a small book but very intense subject every time I read it I found something new.
CR PowerScore Bible (Good one for CR) After reading this book my accuracy in CR & RC shot up to 95-100%
Manhattan Tests
My scores:
640, 710,730,720,710,700
GMAT PREP - 710,730

On the D-Day:
Quant was like cake walk for me in the real exam may be because of the rigourous practise I didn't feel even one question that I came across was tough, but would have definitely committed silly mistakes I finished this section 25 minutes earlier(of course of no use).
Verbal part (I got screwed ), my SC prepration didnt really help me as much i expected it to, CR & RC I was always i good, all these months i was preparing SC only and it is sad that it ditched me on the D-day also, I seriously was not able to handle the pressure during the verbal section and thus screwed it.
At the end I seriously feel GMAT is a pressure game, that's it OG prepration for verbal, quant will do to excel one needs to do practise & he/she can crack it ... At last the only suggestion I can give is practise ... The only reason my score went up to 720 from 570 (150 points) was practise.

Thanks BTG team and BTG group members.
Source: — I just Beat The GMAT! |

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by kvcpk » Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:14 am
Congratulations!! :)

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by indiantiger » Mon Aug 02, 2010 3:10 pm
All I want say is awesome score
"Single Malt is better than Blended"

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by gtr02 » Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:06 pm
Wow, 25 mins early, awesome quant score! Can you explain your "rigorous practice" in Quant, if you don't mind?

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by skins81 » Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:12 pm
how did you approach Quant and practice for it?

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by nikhilkatira » Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:05 pm
Great score !!

All the best for Apps
Best,
Nikhil H. Katira

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by selango » Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:06 pm
Great score!!!!Congrats.
--Anand--

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by sashiraichand » Mon Aug 02, 2010 10:27 pm
Thanks All.

For Quant , I practised some tougher problems compared to GMAT level.

I did OG thrice.
I did lot of questions from BTG forums, advanced quant also.
Manhattan GMAT Archive - this is a doc which has some tough questions, did this twice. Doing the problems again and again will increase the speed and responses time the moment you see the question.

Manhattan 6 online tests have quant tougher than actual GMAT, since I got adjusted to that level GMAT looked easy on the D-Day.

10 days before the exam on a weekend completed the OG 250 problems in a single stretch ... this gives mental strength to think in pressure ....

All these things contributed for the high speed, ofcourse I lost accuracy. But then Quant on D-Day was very easy probably because the mind was already tuned to work at high speed.

One more point is if you do all the resources mentioned above that is enough for Quant, no question on the day was outside my prepration, all the questions that I saw on the exam I have already seen them during my prepration so there wew no surprises for me :D

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by sandi10017 » Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:03 am
Great score. Out of curiosity - what is the Manhattan GMAT Archive? I use all the MGMAT resources but I have never heard of an archive - can you elaborate?

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by adi_800 » Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:19 am
What is this MGMAT Archive?
I would like to know!!

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by sashiraichand » Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:07 am
For those who asked about the manhattan gmat archive, there is a document in this torrent.
Remember, it has questions which are really tough, dont go for it, i practised it because I'm good at quant like most of the Indians. If you are finished with everything and want to see tough problems, you can give it a try.

https://www.torrentz.com/f80c5baf5a2f175 ... 97494a81a2

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by Joana » Tue Aug 03, 2010 12:32 pm
Hi, Another congratulation!!!

Your post is very positive and optimist.

I want to know if you have another source to get the Manhattan GMat Math archive, because the one you gave us is enabled.

Another question, some teacher told me that the OG 11 was not as useful as the 10 or 12, did you have the opportunity to review them (10 and 12 versions)?

Congrats again, and all the best for you!!!!

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by priyaagarwal » Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:15 am
Hey amazing score.....how do i start preparing for gmat???? thr r no coaching centres.....and how do i get Manhattan test????