I just Beat The GMAT!

milanproda wrote:How do you figure out the effiicency level? (Sorry never took the gmat prep or prac test)

I didn't get you. Are you taking about the efficiency level as in the stamina or the efficiency level as in the ratio of the number of questions you get right to the number of TOTAL number of questions ? Will appreciate if you can be a bit clearer.

Hello Rishi,
Congratulations for your amazing score! I have read a lot of your posts and have found them really useful.
I plan to take the GMAT in Feb end. I just wanted to know how difficult is the actual GMAT vis-a-vis the GMATPREP tests ?

please post your debrief only for verbal in more details...especially for CR and RC....i mean the best strategies that you used to crack the section...also discuss in more details about the FLT you took to prepare for the exam

cheers!

ssgmatter wrote:please post your debrief only for verbal in more details...especially for CR and RC....i mean the best strategies that you used to crack the section...also discuss in more details about the FLT you took to prepare for the exam

cheers!

I have addressed a query related to CR on the 3rd page of this thread. It's a reply to winner's attitude query on CR . I think you'll find it helpful.

Regarding RC, I think two strategies which really work are
1) Taking quick breaks after every paragraph.And this is especially important in those paragraphs which you find difficult. You need to make sure that when you start with a new paragraph you concentration is at peak and your brain is not tired.

2)Read the first paragraph very carefully and understand it well and then focus on the first sentences of the subsequent paragraphs and just skim through the rest of the verbiage in the paragraphs. Do not get too engrossed in the details. Your goal is NOT to understand each minute detail in the passage. Your goal is just to focus on why a particular thing has been mentioned in the paragraph and to just gain a macroscopic ,and NOT microscopic view, of the paragraph.

Just try implementing these strategies and let me know if you see any difference. You may also wanna read Stacey Koprince's articles on Reading Comprehension. You'll find them helpful.

Rishi,
Can you please answer my query ?

hie rishi..congratulations on your g8 score.)..
Just like you i am also a silent spectator of this site and this is my first post .I am also from india and i am doing engineering from gujarat.
i have scheduled my gmat on 29th jan. i took gmat prep 1 and got 560 score Q42 and V25. i am really devastated and don't know what to do? my target score is 650+.
As you can see my verbal is very weak .Can you give me sum suggestions and tips how i can increase my verbal score in this short period of time.

Waiting for your reply !

swati_06 wrote:hie rishi..congratulations on your g8 score.)..
Just like you i am also a silent spectator of this site and this is my first post .I am also from india and i am doing engineering from gujarat.
i have scheduled my gmat on 29th jan. i took gmat prep 1 and got 560 score Q42 and V25. i am really devastated and don't know what to do? my target score is 650+.
As you can see my verbal is very weak .Can you give me sum suggestions and tips how i can increase my verbal score in this short period of time.

Waiting for your reply !

Thanks!
As you're taking the GMAT in another 14 days, I'm afraid that I,and for that matter anyone, wouldn't be of great help as you have just a fortnight for the real thing and making a dramatic change within such a short period of time is difficult,if not possible.
However, I think we can help you out if you can put your questions more specifically . Which areas in Verbal are you struggling in ? What material have you used ? How long you have been preparing ? What is your approach while tackling the various areas on the Verbal section ?

Hi Rishi ,

I have a very similar background as yours , and i m looking forward for some suggestion from your side . I am doing somewhere near 44 - 48 in quant , but my verbal score fluctuates , and my max in verbal has been 40, and hence i m not able to break the barrier beyond 700 in my practise tests . What would u suggest so as to enhance the verbal score ? Tips from your experience are welcome .

Congratulations for the fabulous score .

[Material used till now : - MGMAT's , Kaplan and OG's ]

Thanks and Regards ,
AIM GMAT

Well, your query is quite generic. If you could provide more information ,then probably I would be able to better help you out because until and unless we don't find the exact problem, any solution which I suggest is not gonna work.
Would appreciate more details such as
1) The duration of your preparation
2) When do you plan to take the GMAT
3) Which resources have used to prepare for the Verbal section ?
4) How do you approach the questions you're facing difficulty in ?
5) Are you facing difficult in all the three areas on Verbal or just on any one area ?
6) How long do you analyze the questions you attempt irrespective of the fact that they're correct or not.

I think the answers to all the questions above will help us in finding a solution to your problem.

rishi raj wrote:

msrrautela wrote:Thanks a lot,rishi for your guidance. After reading your replies to people's queries, it's not difficult to see why you have such a great score.

Thanks. Glad that I can be of some help to people here.

Would be glad if you can please help me out with this problem : When I do the questions under untimed circumstances, I get the questions right but when I do the exam I somehow seem to get even the easy questions wrong and I realize this when review the exam. Any tips or suggestions ?

Well, that's a problem which we all face. Don't we ? If you'll analyze any test,you'll see that you could have probably gotten a lot more questions correct than what you have got. It happens with everyone and the ability to reduce the damage is what separates a low scorer from a high scorer.
Firslty,let's see why we don't perform to the optimum level on the exam ?

1. Anxiety : Anxiety during the tests gets the better out of you. You'll have seen that our adrenaline starts pumping more if we come across some difficult question . And the worse thing is that even after getting done with that question,we seem to have a high "anxiety" level which continues throughout the test lowering our performance. While anxiety to a certain level helps you remain focus, but the overdose of it proves counterproductive.

2. Fluctuating concentration level : One thing I use to observe with myself while taking the test is that I used to try concentrating on the questions too hard and used to move from one question to the next expecting the same level of concentration. After having observed this and seeing the futility of this way in which we approach the test, I realized that instead of trying to be a superman and ending up like a fool, let's do the test assuming that I'm a human who cannot concentrate for long stretches of time.

So I started taking short pauses after every 4-5 questions. Initially, I thought that this would waste my time but then when I saw that I am doing the test at my optimum level after taking breaks of 5-10 seconds frequently, I started following this strategy which really did wonders.It also incredibly helped me to reduce the anxiety level which used to build up now and then during the test.
Try to follow this strategy and let me know if there's any improvement.

Awesome man..!!! I was struggling wid my concentration level. But by applying this technique I am able to perfrom well esp. in RC's...Thnx Rishi...

amar66 wrote: Awesome man..!!! I was struggling wid my concentration level. But by applying this technique I am able to perfrom well esp. in RC's...Thnx Rishi...

That's good! I had kinda become a little frustrated while preparing for RCs but figured out this techniques after reading some good articles on the net.

powerpuff wrote:Hello Rishi,
Congratulations for your amazing score! I have read a lot of your posts and have found them really useful.
I plan to take the GMAT in Feb end. I just wanted to know how difficult is the actual GMAT vis-a-vis the GMATPREP tests ?

Sorry,amidst all the posts here, I forgot to reply to yours.
I'd say that the questions on the actual GMAT was a little trickier as compared to those on the GMATPREP. I mean some of the options can't just be eliminated by applying say the "3/2 split" etc. You really need to know the concepts to be able to do those questions. And it applies equally in Quant and Verbal. If you go through more posts on this forum ,you see that others will also echo this opinion. However, then also I believe that there's a strong correlation between your GMATPREP scores and your score on the actual GMAT ,unless you totally don't end up screwing your exam. Most of the people usually get the final score in the range of +-30 of what they get on the GMATPREP CATs . If you go through my scores, you'll see there was actually almost no deviation on what I got on the GMAT to what I scored on the GMATPREP CATs.
Hope that helps!

rishi raj wrote:
Sorry,amidst all the posts here, I forgot to reply to yours.
I'd say that the questions on the actual GMAT was a little trickier as compared to those on the GMATPREP. I mean some of the options can't just be eliminated by applying say the "3/2 split" etc. You really need to know the concepts to be able to do those questions. And it applies equally in Quant and Verbal. If you go through more posts on this forum ,you see that others will also echo this opinion. However, then also I believe that there's a strong correlation between your GMATPREP scores and your score on the actual GMAT ,unless you totally don't end up screwing your exam. Most of the people usually get the final score in the range of +-30 of what they get on the GMATPREP CATs . If you go through my scores, you'll see there was actually almost no deviation on what I got on the GMAT to what I scored on the GMATPREP CATs.
Hope that helps!

Thanks a ton for your inputs. I have been consistently hearing here on the forum that the actual GMAT is trickier than the GMATPREP CATs also.Will have to prepare accordingly. Thanks again. Will let you know if I face any dfficulty.

Hello sir,

I am planning to take my GMAT in April. I have appeared for GMAT 3 yrs ago but ended up with a very bad score of 480 Q 42 V18. This time i really want to score high and cross the 600 barrier. Can you pleas help me how should i schedule my study plan? should i mix both verbal and quant at the same time or finish verbal first. I am following OG 12, MANHATTAN SC, MANHTTAN NUMBER PROPERTIES, MANHTTAN WORD PROBLEMS AND FRACTIONS, POWERSCORE CR.

PLEASE HELP ME TO BEAT THIS GMAT.

THANKS

Reva wrote:Hello sir,

I am planning to take my GMAT in April. I have appeared for GMAT 3 yrs ago but ended up with a very bad score of 480 Q 42 V18. This time i really want to score high and cross the 600 barrier. Can you pleas help me how should i schedule my study plan? should i mix both verbal and quant at the same time or finish verbal first. I am following OG 12, MANHATTAN SC, MANHTTAN NUMBER PROPERTIES, MANHTTAN WORD PROBLEMS AND FRACTIONS, POWERSCORE CR.

PLEASE HELP ME TO BEAT THIS GMAT.

THANKS

Hello, please do not call me Sir. I am of the same age ,or probably younger than you.
You seem to have the right set of books.The first step you should take is write down your strategy(you may wanna post it here ,just in case you want some feedback as to how is it) and then work on improving each of the areas.
Going by your Quant score, I don't think that you have much of a problem on the Quant section.However, since you took the exam three years ago, you might have to brush up that also . If you can work a little more on Maths, I don't see a reason why you cannot take your 42 score on the Maths section to at least a 47.
Your Verbal score seems to be quite a cause of concern and I think you'll have to fundamentally alter the way you approach Verbal. Since you have a good amount of time left for taking the exam, I'd strongly recommend that you start reading quality articles from diverse areas. That would help you improve your ability to comprehend various kind of text.
In addition to that, you should have a proper strategy to tackle each of the three areas on the Verbal section. I have discussed some strategies to master CR in the last page of this thread.For SC, you may wanna use SC Grail,in addition to MGMAT SC Guide. I think you'll able to get a better hold of the SC concepts if you go through that book. I think SC is a lot about being able to understand the concepts well and being able to apply those concepts on questions. I suggest that do the questions in OG12 topicwise and not sequentially. Read the explanation thoroughly. In addition to that, you may wanna google the questions if you any question difficult . You may also post your SC doubt on the forums here and the experts would be happy to help ya.
For RC, I suggest that you go through the articles written on this forum by Stacey Koprince. That would help you approach RC well. Also trying reading as much as possible.That'll be incredibly helpful.
Let me know if you have any specific queries.