760 (Q49, V 45) - cracked Verbal as a non-native [long note]

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Hi All,

Just got 760 (Q 49, V 45) today morning - feel relieved. Wanted to share my story with the community since I've gained a lot as a BTG member, can only return the favor.

My Profile

First my profile. I have a CGPA of over 3.75 at undergrad level. Will have abt 3.5 yrs of full time work experience by the time I matriculate. Most importantly, I'm not a native speaker (important cuz my V score is better than my Q).

The Beginning

When I started studying, I had a 720-730 target. Never imagined I could get 750+ till 1/2 wks before the actual test. I was a Finance major in undergrad and have reasonable quanti skills. So always had the impression that quant would count more for me.

When I first bought the OG and seriously got down to studying in July, my anticipations were true. I was better in Quant than in Verbal, and realized I had to work on my Verbal if I had to take scores past 700. (Assume I was at a 650 level then)

My Study Strategy

I had the OG cuz everybody says u shud do it (and it is truly the best - evry1 shud get the complete guide plus the individual quanti and verbal guides). But I wondered what else could I get my hands on? Thankfully I met this guy on Grockit who asked me to get Manhattan SC and Powerscore CR. So I got them both, and went thru them in detail. Feel they really helped.

Kept on practising the OG, and gave my first CAT abt 3 wks ago.

GMAT Prep 1 700 (sorry forgot the individual scaled scores - sucks that the software doesn't record them)



Not bad, but could be better. Felt I was getting there. (Still had a target of 730) The most important learning, however, was that the CAT is a very different ball game and can requires a lot of endurance and stamina.

At that point, I became a member of BTG and went through a lot of blogs/posts online and stumbled upon a most important discovery - higher V scores can increase your total score disproportionately.

Verbal became a bigger priority then. Stepped up practice on Verbal questions (used only OG), Q became 2nd priority. At that point, I started giving more CATs.

The CATs (non GMAC)

Here's how my performance went till I gave the GMAC tests in the last week.


Test Name Date Test Score Q V
Knewton Free 7-Aug-2010 730 / 97% 48 42
Kaplan Free 13-Aug-2010 700 / 93% 46 42
Kaplan CAT 1 15-Aug-2010 700 / 95% 50 38
Veritas Free 18-Aug-2010 680 / 86% 47 37
Kaplan CAT 1 15-Aug-2010 650 / 88% 50 36
MGMAT Free 20-Aug-2010 730 / 97% 48 41

I did the AWA section rigorously and never skipped it. It's very important you do due diligence to your practice CATs, otherwise you won't feel the heat of 1 hour essay writing when you move on to Quanti with a fresh mind.

Here's my take on the CATs. Kaplan first. The online one seemed good, but the ones on the CD (it was an old CD btw from a friend) seemed crazy and esp diff on Verbal (in fact they seem a far cry from the actual GMAT). Also not sure how the scoring algorithm works, cuz the calc on 800 score always suggested diff. I just kept believing what everybody keeps saying at the forum that the scores deflate actual test score by 50-100 pts. The Kaplan CATs were very good for math though. Did the timed individual DS sections later on.

MGMAT CAT online was great in terms of the score analytics. The Quant seemed very tough though. Would've bought the extra CATs had I needed more practice and had time on my hand.

Knewton seemed a good test. I didn't like Veritas (prolly cuz it gave me a bad score).

I also had the free Powerprep (old GMAT) and free Princeton Review test in hand, but looking how scores varied with the test company, I decided to stop giving any other test than the GMAC free downloads. Must thank Stacey Coprince from MGMAT here. She was kind enough to advise me to stop focusing too much on CATs and work on my basics and accuracy instead. Great advice, just as in all her articles on BTG. Otherwise my initial plan was to give 1 CAT every two days over the last 7 days before the exam. Now I realize that they would have burned me out.

Final Week

So I went back to working the OG diligently instead of fussing about CATs, with about 2 weeks left. At this point I
downloaded the flashcards from MGMAT and BTG. The former was awesome. I felt they really helped, especially with DS and SC. The BTG flashcards were also good. Also did Bin 3 and Bin 4 questions from Princeton Review to get used to higher level questions. At this point I had realized a 99th percentile score was actually not out of reach.

Last 7 days, I gave the GMAC tests only, and here's how they went.

GMAT Prep 1 27-Aug-2010 770 / 99% 50 45
GMAT Prep 2 30-Aug-2010 760 / 99% 49 45
GMAT Prep 2 2-Sep-2010 770 / 99% 50 45

From my actual score, I can say that this is the most accurate predictor of them all (like duh!). The problems match the sort you get on the actual test. I got 770 on 2 occasions, but each was a retake. Unfortunately I got some repeat questions during GMAT Prep 2 retake (prolly cuz I scored at similar levels on both occasions - whereas the diff was huge between my two scores on GMAT Prep 1)

I myself was confident that my most likely score would be 760. 760+ if I got lucky!

Test Day and Before

The day before the test, I just studied for 2 hrs. Some people would advise you not to do that, but I wanted to be in touch with the books. Did a few of all the sections.

I kept getting scared though. While I was confident on Verbal (180 degree turn from my status at the start of all the prep), I kept feeling that my brain would turn off during Quanti and that I'd really screw up my score.

On the test day, I got off to a good start with AWA. Felt I aced the Argument, but did not feel so comfy with the 2nd one (Statement). Let's see how the scores turn out.

Made full use of the break. Had water and took a piss. No solid food. And most importantly, wash my face with water. Works for me.

Quanti started well thankfully. The questions got tougher later on. There seemed to be an even mix of DS and PS. Surprisingly PS seemed tougher. My personal weakness is DS, and at a 700+ level DS can get really tricky. Can't really say how many I got wrong though. But I felt I was doing well. Whether or not you're actually doing well, always believe that you are. Otherwise it'll just put extra weight on your head and hurt your focus on the test.

Timing is very imp. I used the most common milestone technique, i.e. 10 mins left on last 5 ques, 30 on last 15 etc. Was always within 1-2 minutes of this benchmark. Had to rush through the last 5, but thankfully there were easier than expected.

Once again same drink water, take a piss and splash water on face routine.

As for Verbal, it went smooth. The SC seemed really difficult (though SC is my specialty - had 100% accuracy in my last 2 GMAC CATs). RC also threw some long complicated passages (believe it's a good sign - shows test is going well). CR was difficult as expected. Got a lot of method of reasoning, evaluate the paradox questions - which according to Powerscore CR Bible means that your score is at a high level and that the test is throwing you different stuff.

Timing was easier on Verbal than on Quanti. I believe it is possible to crack SC questions at less than 1-1.25 minutes on average. As for RC, if you spend time on the passage (I followed expert advice on the forum and digested the main idea first and just earmarked where all the details are without reading too much into them), your timing can be great there too. Reading the passage took me 3-5 minutes, but the individual questions took me 30-60 seconds. All this gave me a lot of time to work on the diff CR questions.

Finally the test ended, I was confident I had done well. Couldn't wait to see the score. Filled up the stupid survey, and then had my fingers crossed. Was relieved to see 760. Would've loved to see 770 or 780 (cuz I felt my test went well :P), but I can live with wht I've got (ahem...).

Ending Words


Guys, from my personal experience, my most important recommendations would be as follows:

- OG is your bible. Get all the 3 books. Work on them religiously. As close as you can get to the real thing.
- Working on your Verbal gives incremental returns. And it's not as diff as it may seem as first. Take my word cuz I'm from an Asian country most you guys probably have not even heard of but I still nailed Verbal. Work more on SC, cuz u can approach it like a science and POE works really well. RC can be mastered with structured reading (no need to take notes then).
- Quanti is all about practice and keeping your brain working. Stay alert and vigilant. And know what level you're at, then you know what to expect.
- Practice CATs are very important. Do not skip AWA, don't use the pause function, simulate real test conditions. The GMAC CATs are most accurate. Save them for the last 10 days. Some of the prep company ones can be useful too, but use it more for analytics and performance evaluation and building of stamina.
- Spend time on the forums. You never know what you might come across and some tactic you might pick up. You can discuss problems with other members and instructors (BTG is awesome). If nothing else, go through posts of all the high scorers. Makes you believe you can do it too.

Really sorry for such a humongous post. Thanks if you have read it with patience. Just wanted to share my experience with this great forum.

Now that the GMAT hurdle is over, pls wish me luck for the essays and actual applications! And best of luck to all BTG members out there, whether you'll write your GMAT soon or have started writing your essays.

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by outreach » Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:42 am
congrats for the great score
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by Victory_GMAT » Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:55 am
Great experience. Congratulations!
Apart from your experience what I feel is that lack of something scientific, something mathematical, something verifiable is a reason why people have a really hard time in scoring well in verbal section. SC is pretty much verifiable because of presence of rules of grammar but this is not the case with RC. Many times main point is something explicitly stated in first paragraph of passage and sometimes it is implied under examples, characterizations and other elements.

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by pseudonym » Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:20 am
Thanks a lot! I agree with you, verbal is not as black and white as quanti, but i'd say the best tool to use is process of elimination. works like anything on SC, also is a lot of help on both RC and CR.

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by nehs » Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:32 am
Congrats!! Great score and fantastic post. Very motivating too.

I wanted to know what you mean by this:
does this mean that doing well on verbal can help increase the score a lot?
pseudonym wrote: At that point, I became a member of BTG and went through a lot of blogs/posts online and stumbled upon a most important discovery - higher V scores can increase your total score disproportionately.

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by testsgmat » Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:05 am
Heartly Congrats and Wish you all te best for ur applications

Thanks for luvly debrief

Vaisha

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by sv77 » Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:19 am
Congratulations for a great score.. Good luck with your applications. Any idea was the difficulty level of the GMAT questions in comparable to the later questions of OG 12 Verbal part .. also did you see any idiom usage in the exam

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by rajeshsources » Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:24 am
pseudonym,

Thanks buddy, You've built confidence in all of us. Your post is pretty awesome. Ofcourse, your strategies too.

All the best for your apps.!!

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by RyanDark » Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:49 am
pseudonym- Congratulations!!! . Getting 45 in verbals being a non-native is really an achievement.

Few queries:
1.Did you refer to any other practice material for verbal questions other than OG? Do you think OG prepares us with hard questions?
2.Off late I have heard so many people saying that actual verbal questions in exam were much different than any practice material they encountered so far.Your take on this?

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by CaseNX » Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:40 pm
Congratulations, and best of luck with the next step!

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by pseudonym » Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:27 pm
RyanDark wrote:pseudonym- Congratulations!!! . Getting 45 in verbals being a non-native is really an achievement.

Few queries:
1.Did you refer to any other practice material for verbal questions other than OG? Do you think OG prepares us with hard questions?
2.Off late I have heard so many people saying that actual verbal questions in exam were much different than any practice material they encountered so far.Your take on this?
I practiced with OG only. Referred to MGMAT Flashcards and SC guide to pick up concepts, but practice was entirely OG based.

I'd say OG does prepare you with hard questions, and are very similar to the GMAT. One exception would be Critical Reasoning. In Critical Reasoning, if you're scoring at a high level, they give you less of the common genres and throw in some Parallel Reasoning or Method of Reasoning questions (the ones with the bold faced parts that ask you what they signify). OG doesn't have too many of them, and that can be a problem. I'd advise you to give each of the GMAT Prep exams from GMAC twice, it will throw some questions uncommon in the book. Also go through Powerscore CR Bible to understand all these CR ques types.

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by pseudonym » Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:41 pm
nehs wrote:Congrats!! Great score and fantastic post. Very motivating too.

I wanted to know what you mean by this:
does this mean that doing well on verbal can help increase the score a lot?
pseudonym wrote: At that point, I became a member of BTG and went through a lot of blogs/posts online and stumbled upon a most important discovery - higher V scores can increase your total score disproportionately.
Yes, your total score can increase disproportionately with better performance in verbal since an increasingly large portion of test takers are doing better in quanti than in verbal (a result of the large influx of Asian test takers). That said, pls note that the top schools will want you to cross a minimum threshold on each section. INSEAD asks for 75th percentile on each section, Wharton asks for 80th. So wouldn't be wise to focus on just one and let oneself get weak in the other.

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by pseudonym » Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:52 pm
sv77 wrote:Congratulations for a great score.. Good luck with your applications. Any idea was the difficulty level of the GMAT questions in comparable to the later questions of OG 12 Verbal part .. also did you see any idiom usage in the exam
OG and GMAT Prep are the closest you can get to the real exam. Latter sections of the OG does throw you difficult stuff, but if you really want difficult stuff at your level, do each GMAT Prep exam twice. It's a CAT and will know what to throw at you.

Idiom usage is very imp, especially in SC. And remember SC constitutes the highest no of ques in Verbal. So know your idioms, best is to go through the list in Manhattan SC Guide. That's more or less it.

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by pseudonym » Thu Sep 09, 2010 5:10 am
Btw just got my AWA score - 6.0! :D

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by pseudotix » Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:09 am
Congrats!!! WOW!! 6.0 in AWA again lauds about the grip you've developed on Verbal..

I have gone through many posts in last one month or so but your case seems to be the closest of mine. I am also from a 'English non-native language' country so am bad at Verbal but am good at Quant. With my GMAT scheduled around 3 weeks from now my scores are also hovering around the same levels as yours initially were. The strategies you've told here are similar to ones that I've developed and are better in some cases. Will be putting them in my practice now as and when they suit me.

Your post has bolstered my confidence to gun for 720-760 level.

Have bookmarked your post!!

Now with these BIG BADGES on your chest you'll certainly land in the B-School you've wanted..Good Luck!

THANKS!