-
paddle_sweep
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 379
- Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:53 am
- Location: Chennai,India
- Thanked: 3 times
First of all, I would like to thank the BTG team, all members and moderators of this forum. BTG is a fantastic site for those preparing for GMAT. I took my GMAT on Wednesday(20th October 10) and managed a score of 650. I know that it is not a good score but I am not sure if it is a decent score or a bad one.
A quick summary on the books that I referred to and on my preparation:
I prepared for about 6 months for this exam, spending about 1-2 hour on a daily basis. On many days I didn't have time to prepare and on some days I had ample time. The books that I referred to,during my preparation,are as below:
1. OG 12 Review
2. OG 12 Verbal Review
3. OG 12 Quantitative Review
4. KAPLAN 2010 - Premier
5. MGMAT - Number Properties
6. MGMAT - Word Transalation
7. Power Score - CR Bible
At this point, I would like to thank Dana J. Her review of various GMAT books was very helpful and I decided to buy the above books based on her recommendation. I missed buying MGMAT - Sentence Correction and this may have cost me few points on the exam. I thought that I may not have time to go through that book. My preparation plans were a bit chaotic, actually.
I started taking mock tests two weeks before the actual exam date. I think this may have been another mistake. But I really wanted to get a grasp on all concepts before trying a mock. Also note, I had fixed my date even before I really started the process of preparation. I had to reschedule my exam once, from an earlier date to the October date, as I had some personal and official issues to attend to in between.
The mock results are as below:
GMAT Prep 1 - 600
GMAT Prep 2 - 640
MGMAT 1 - 590
MGMAT 2 - 640
MGMAT 3 - 630
In the actual exam, I got 650, which I think is fair enough considering that I was averaging around 630 in the mock. In hindsight, I should have fixed a date once I started averaging around 700's,which is my preferred range,in the mocks. But I wanted to take the exam as early as I could.
I think the key lessons for me from the GMAT experience are as below.
1. I need to improve the time that I take to solve SC problems.[RC and CR are time consuming anyways]. Improve the overall speed in quant. section. I was struggling to finish the quant section in both my mock and actual tests.
2. Fix a date for the actual GMAT, only after you start averaging your preferred score in the mocks.
That's about the debrief. Now, I need some feedback from you guys. I have couple of questions/views,as below. I would appreciate if I can get as many opinion as possible on these two.
1. Based on my current score, is it worth applying to medium level universities in India and US? Is there a remote chance of success, if I apply to top universities in India and US.
2. I would consider taking another shot at GMAT, to try scoring in the range of 710/700, only if I am sure that score would improve my chance by about 25-40% at least. I might need another 6 months or so to go from 650 to 710/700.
Thanks. Looking forward to your views now.
A quick summary on the books that I referred to and on my preparation:
I prepared for about 6 months for this exam, spending about 1-2 hour on a daily basis. On many days I didn't have time to prepare and on some days I had ample time. The books that I referred to,during my preparation,are as below:
1. OG 12 Review
2. OG 12 Verbal Review
3. OG 12 Quantitative Review
4. KAPLAN 2010 - Premier
5. MGMAT - Number Properties
6. MGMAT - Word Transalation
7. Power Score - CR Bible
At this point, I would like to thank Dana J. Her review of various GMAT books was very helpful and I decided to buy the above books based on her recommendation. I missed buying MGMAT - Sentence Correction and this may have cost me few points on the exam. I thought that I may not have time to go through that book. My preparation plans were a bit chaotic, actually.
I started taking mock tests two weeks before the actual exam date. I think this may have been another mistake. But I really wanted to get a grasp on all concepts before trying a mock. Also note, I had fixed my date even before I really started the process of preparation. I had to reschedule my exam once, from an earlier date to the October date, as I had some personal and official issues to attend to in between.
The mock results are as below:
GMAT Prep 1 - 600
GMAT Prep 2 - 640
MGMAT 1 - 590
MGMAT 2 - 640
MGMAT 3 - 630
In the actual exam, I got 650, which I think is fair enough considering that I was averaging around 630 in the mock. In hindsight, I should have fixed a date once I started averaging around 700's,which is my preferred range,in the mocks. But I wanted to take the exam as early as I could.
I think the key lessons for me from the GMAT experience are as below.
1. I need to improve the time that I take to solve SC problems.[RC and CR are time consuming anyways]. Improve the overall speed in quant. section. I was struggling to finish the quant section in both my mock and actual tests.
2. Fix a date for the actual GMAT, only after you start averaging your preferred score in the mocks.
That's about the debrief. Now, I need some feedback from you guys. I have couple of questions/views,as below. I would appreciate if I can get as many opinion as possible on these two.
1. Based on my current score, is it worth applying to medium level universities in India and US? Is there a remote chance of success, if I apply to top universities in India and US.
2. I would consider taking another shot at GMAT, to try scoring in the range of 710/700, only if I am sure that score would improve my chance by about 25-40% at least. I might need another 6 months or so to go from 650 to 710/700.
Thanks. Looking forward to your views now.
