I just Beat The GMAT!

As you can see from the joining date in my profile, I have been trying to beat this monster for nearly four years now. One of my friends was/were (I don't have to worry about this anymore haha... you can pick whatever you would like lol) pulling my legs saying, if I had joined in a MBA program when I started preparing for GMAT, by this time I would have not only completed the course but also paid all the tuition fee loans. As funny as it sounds, it is heart wrenching. I have the complete story of my first two attempts here https://www.beatthegmat.com/640-q47-v30- ... tml#275891

People here suggested going through LSAT materials, as I needed to improve CR and RC skills. I am glad I listened to them. I was having issues in evaluating my progress and took the help here https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsat-cr-and- ... tml#297793

Finally things were getting better and after completing 20 LSAT tests, one test each week (except logical games section) I could feel the improvement. LSAT content is totally different at least with respect to CR. But I used these tests to practice my strategy (details are below).

As this forum has all the general ideas and strategies, I am just going to write about verbal .

What I did different this time to improve my Verbal score:
1. During earlier attempts I read all the materials and practiced many CATs. But what I didn't do is, apply what I learnt. That is, reading MGMAT SC guide 10 times will not help you unless you put them to work when you face a SC question. As many people here, I too thought memorizing the grammatical concepts will improve my score. Yes it will, but only if you apply them.

2. Whether it be (I am sure this sentence would sound incorrect to you as I am writing "be" after whether) CR or DS, don't just jump into the answers/statements without realizing what you have and what you are expected to do. I knew how to weaken an argument by theory. But never bothered to stop and think whether the question I have is actually a weaken question.

3. Whatever the subject or scenario in CRs, the skeleton is the same. When you strip it down to the very basic structure, there are only handful of concepts GMAC uses. I was amazed to see how I could identify and come up with correct answers. LSAT helped me here as I needed new material to put my strategy to work.

4. I am sure writing a totally unrelated test and reviewing it for four days and continuing the same routine for 20 weeks is not an interesting task. But if you think of this activity as a means to achieving your goal/paying your dues, you will make peace with it.

5. I thought writing road maps wasn't necessary because it is time consuming. As LSAT RC's are really huge and very specific about individual words, I realized how important the roadmap is. You don't have to write down your ideas as long as you have it in your mind. After reading a passage I will identify the following
a. Topic and scope
b. Main idea
c. Primary purpose
d. Tone
e. Whether author adds his/her idea or just describes something
f. Individual paragraph contents and relation between one another

These points will help you a lot, believe me. Don't move forward otherwise.


Test Day:
It was business as usual. Nothing was different except my back pain. The chair wasn't very comfortable and half way through my AWA Issue essay, I just couldn't continue. So I had to take extended breaks. I lost 2 minutes and 3 seconds in my Quants and 18 seconds in verbal section. Good thing is, I didn't worry about losing time as I was feeling better.

Don't give up. Concentrate on the right strategies that work for you.

As GMAT is out of my way, I need to start things such as TOEFL, School visits and other parts. My plan is to clear out all the other stuff by end of May and concentrate only on Essays after that.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate. I will be happy to help.

Thank you.

first of all I congratulate you with 730 score on GMAT!

gtvisa2002 wrote:2. Whether it be (I am sure this sentence would sound incorrect to you as I am writing "be" after whether) CR or DS, don't just jump into the answers/statements without realizing what you have and what you are expected to do. I knew how to weaken an argument by theory. But never bothered to stop and think whether the question I have is actually a weaken question.

interesting note about "be" and whether is inter-played as the conditional/alternative here; we could use "should" too --> Should it be, BUT then you change the sentence direction from one set of subjects "CR or DS" to different subject - person - and put request action. This sentence indeed sounds weird, as I would structure this sentence in a different way __ Whether it be CR or DS, there is no need to jump into answers/statements ... (eliminate command/request in person, the sub-clause must have neutral direction) Anyway, you scored your well-deserved 41 in the verbal and there's no way for to articulate any with my verbal score 16

gtvisa2002 wrote:3. Whatever the subject or scenario in CRs, the skeleton is the same. When you strip it down to the very basic structure, there are only handful of concepts GMAC uses. I was amazed to see how I could identify and come up with correct answers. LSAT helped me here as I needed new material to put my strategy to work.

4. I am sure writing a totally unrelated test and reviewing it for four days and continuing the same routine for 20 weeks is not an interesting task. But if you think of this activity as a means to achieving your goal/paying your dues, you will make peace with it.

So, you actually prepped for GMAT by using not GMAT stuff and extrapolating your GMAT horizons with different test format, specifically with LSAT for the verbal part, right? I am making a note of this, because one fellow has replied in the negative way about extrapolating other test success rates to GMAT ...

Congrats on your score. Really well done.

You have no idea what your post does to me. I have been worried sick of the GMAT because of the negativity surrounding the sudden score reductions in April. Night reader knows all about that. Even though I am confident that nothing has changed with the Algorithm, I was still getting worried due to the number of such cases reported. Hence this is soothing.

Hey where did you pick up practice LSATs from? RC, CR are concerns for me too.

Thanks Vineesh.
Please check your messages. I have sent you a PM.

You don't have to worry... In fact everything seemed very normal to me and I felt that the scoring was perfectly fine because it was in line with the range for the practice tests.

Prepare well, sit for the test with confidence, you will be fine.

Thanks.