I have no suggestions for you since I have no idea where you stand today vis-a-vis what your goals are..skins81 wrote:nice score! how do you suggest to prepare for quant and verbal?
Please elaborate a bit more on your question...
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760..(Q51, V41)..I just beat the GMAT!! :) Debriefs updated
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scorpionz
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Please elaborate a bit more on your question...
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scorpionz
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
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- GMAT Score:760
Here goes my debrief for my preparation...Again, extremely long, but might be useful for some...Feel free to drop a comment here or shoot me a PM if you have any comments / questions...
My tryst with GMAT began in 2008. I decided to take the GMAT although I had no plans to apply to B-schools that year. I prepared for about 30 days when, out of the blue, I was offered an irresistible opportunity to lead a project in Chicago. So I was off to Chicago with all GMAT related thoughts left way back in India. Incidentally, in 2008 also I had taken my GMAT date as 16th September and I chose the same this year just to create a sense of nostalgia for myself!!
Study Material
I began my preparation this year in early July. Since I had researched a bit in 2008, I was not at a complete loss for a start. I was confident about Quants and knew that my focus had to be on Verbal since I am not a native English speaker. Considering the resources at hand and my focus areas, I decided to solve the below books -
1. Kaplan Premier
2. Kaplan Verbal
3. OG 12th Edition
4. Manhattan SC
5. Kaplan 800 / Kaplan Advanced
A quick word about all the books now -
Kaplan Premier - A very good book for people wanting to develop strategies for different types of questions. Although the quality of the book and the questions is good, I cannot say it was very helpful for me because it did not provide me with as many practice questions for Verbal as I would have liked.
Kaplan Verbal - An excellent resource for Verbal. I will certainly rate it on par with Manhattan SC.
OG 12th Edition - A must solve book for GMAT. It has plenty of good quality questions. However, I disagree with some opinions in other threads in which people have compared the level of difficulty of the tough GMAT questions to the last say 40 questions on the OG in each section. Those who have read my test-day debrief know that I got an extremely difficult Verbal section. Now if I compare this with OG, in the last 40 in RC I got only 4 wrong, in the last 40 of SC I got only 2 wrong and in the last 40 of CR I got only 1 wrong. Nevertheless, this book should not be missed by anyone preparing for the GMAT.
Manhattan SC - The best book for sentence correction without a doubt. A must read in my opinion.
Kaplan 800 / Kaplan Advanced - The trashiest of all books that I read. The structure of the book is poor and the quality of questions is definitely not up to the mark. I started this book with great hopes but was sorely disappointed. Quants especially was extremely silly. I would not advise anyone to read this book at all.
Apart from the above books, I also got the opportunity to read the books by Tata McGraw Hill, Princeton Review and Manhattan CR guide. The first two are a definite not-to-be-read while the third one is an average book. I was interested in reading the Power Score bible for CR but I couldn't get a hold of this book anywhere...
Study Plan
Well now this is an area where I really cannot share any worthwhile experience or give any advice because I never created a study plan. My job is a very time-intensive one. I used to get barely 1 to 2 hours a day to study. That too would not be daily. Weekends were similarly busy and I could only get a max of 3 hours over the entire weekend. Quite often there used to be a string of 4-5 days when I wouldn't have touched any study material at all. My only aim was to ensure that I did not lose touch with the GMAT altogether.
Test Plan
Now this is something that I think I did right and also a point where I hit a roadblock. I was initially planning to take the Kaplan CATs and the GMATPrep CATs. However things changed and I ended up taking the MGMAT CATs as well. First I will list all the scores and then elaborate on the issue I faced.
Kaplan 1 - 640 (After solving Kaplan Premier)
Kaplan 2 - 650 (After solving Kaplan Verbal)
GMATPrep 1 - 770 (After solving OG12)
Kaplan 3 - 680 (After solving Manhattan SC)
MGMAT 1 - 750 (3 weeks before GMAT)
MGMAT 2 - 740 (2 weeks before GMAT)
MGMAT 3 - 730 (2 weeks before GMAT)
MGMAT 4 - 780 (Weekend before GMAT)
GMATPrep 2 - 740 (Weekend before GMAT)
In all the above tests, the breakups were similar - Quants in the range of 49-51 and Verbal in the range of 41-46.
Now, the main problem with Kaplan CATs is that many of their questions repeat over from their study material. In my opinion, this is a very serious drawback because answering repeat questions in CATs falsely makes you believe that you have answered a question correctly. It could've been possible that had the question been an unknown one, you could've answered this one incorrectly, become more anxious and screwed up more questions to follow. The GMAT is as much about your ability to stay calm as it is about your quantitative or verbal abilities and Kaplan doesn't help in this aspect. The second major problem with Kaplan is that their scoring system is screwed up. It definitely gives a lower score for the same breakup of Quants and Verbal than the actual GMAT, GMATPrep or even the MGMAT. For people who think that getting lower scores in practice CATs is OK if they are finally pleasantly surprised by their GMAT score, Kaplan scoring will be fine. However, I am certainly not one of those people. I was really pissed on seeing the Kaplan scores although I was doing reasonably well in the tests.
The above reasons were primarily what drove me towards searching for alternative to Kaplan. Although it was only 3 weeks to my GMAT, I decided on investing the $70 to purchase the MGMAT CATs and their questions banks. The Manhattan question banks in my opinion are fairly simple. However they do give you good options to time them. Some of the questions are really good. The MGMAT CATs are of a very high quality. Now I have seen a lot of people complain about the level of difficulty of Quants in MGMAT CATs being unreasonably high. After giving the GMAT, I can safely say that yes, the level of difficulty of MGMAT Quants is slightly higher than that in GMAT, however it is far more accurate than Kaplan. The verbal sections on the MGMAT are however very lame and not at all representative of the type or difficulty of questions coming on the actual GMAT.
GMATPrep as expected turned out to be the most accurate indicator of the final score on GMAT. The overall feel of the test is identical to the actual GMAT and that helps further. The only bad part about these tests is that there are no explanations for answers. However most of them can be found on the BTG forums. That said, I would advise everyone to take the 2nd test two weeks before your actual GMAT to get a true picture of where you stand. This will also give you sufficient time to postpone the GMAT if you think you need some more prep time.
I also got a chance to solve a few Princeton, Barrons and Tata McGraw Hill CATs. Stay miles away from these if you are looking at scoring anything 700+.
Finally Beat The GMAT. Well, I never knew such a wonderful forum existed. Believe me, I was kicking myself for not having researched well enough and not having discovered this brilliant website earlier. I joined the website only a month before my GMAT. This was the time when I was researching alternatives to Kaplan. I tried to be as active as possible and came across wonderful questions and discussions which undoubtedly helped me a lot. One word of caution...If you are too active on BTG forums and solve all the questions on all forums, chances are very high that you will see repeat questions when solving CATs since those would have been discussed here. As I've said earlier, this should be avoided at all costs to truly ensure that the practice CAT is a close simulation of GMAT..
So finally, the takeaway points in my opinion are -
1. Know your weaknesses, accept them and be prepared to work towards them.
2. Have a decent study material set at hand to focus on your weaknesses.
3. Give lots of practice tests. Do not underestimate the stamina and concentration required for 3.5 hours. I can happily admit that I lacked this before. I would start getting very restless after about 2 hours. I could develop my concentration only after giving so many tests. The longer you have been out of school or college, the more this rule is applicable to you...
4. Have a realistic target. For this it is very helpful to have a fair idea of the schools that you will be applying to. Remember, the GMAT score is only one part of your application. If a 720 suffices, a 700 will also suffice for your app. In the practice CATs, if you are hitting the range of score that you want to achieve, don't stress yourself too much to go 20 or 40 points further.
5. Finally believe in yourself to achieve what you aim for. If you don't believe in yourself, no one will!
My tryst with GMAT began in 2008. I decided to take the GMAT although I had no plans to apply to B-schools that year. I prepared for about 30 days when, out of the blue, I was offered an irresistible opportunity to lead a project in Chicago. So I was off to Chicago with all GMAT related thoughts left way back in India. Incidentally, in 2008 also I had taken my GMAT date as 16th September and I chose the same this year just to create a sense of nostalgia for myself!!
Study Material
I began my preparation this year in early July. Since I had researched a bit in 2008, I was not at a complete loss for a start. I was confident about Quants and knew that my focus had to be on Verbal since I am not a native English speaker. Considering the resources at hand and my focus areas, I decided to solve the below books -
1. Kaplan Premier
2. Kaplan Verbal
3. OG 12th Edition
4. Manhattan SC
5. Kaplan 800 / Kaplan Advanced
A quick word about all the books now -
Kaplan Premier - A very good book for people wanting to develop strategies for different types of questions. Although the quality of the book and the questions is good, I cannot say it was very helpful for me because it did not provide me with as many practice questions for Verbal as I would have liked.
Kaplan Verbal - An excellent resource for Verbal. I will certainly rate it on par with Manhattan SC.
OG 12th Edition - A must solve book for GMAT. It has plenty of good quality questions. However, I disagree with some opinions in other threads in which people have compared the level of difficulty of the tough GMAT questions to the last say 40 questions on the OG in each section. Those who have read my test-day debrief know that I got an extremely difficult Verbal section. Now if I compare this with OG, in the last 40 in RC I got only 4 wrong, in the last 40 of SC I got only 2 wrong and in the last 40 of CR I got only 1 wrong. Nevertheless, this book should not be missed by anyone preparing for the GMAT.
Manhattan SC - The best book for sentence correction without a doubt. A must read in my opinion.
Kaplan 800 / Kaplan Advanced - The trashiest of all books that I read. The structure of the book is poor and the quality of questions is definitely not up to the mark. I started this book with great hopes but was sorely disappointed. Quants especially was extremely silly. I would not advise anyone to read this book at all.
Apart from the above books, I also got the opportunity to read the books by Tata McGraw Hill, Princeton Review and Manhattan CR guide. The first two are a definite not-to-be-read while the third one is an average book. I was interested in reading the Power Score bible for CR but I couldn't get a hold of this book anywhere...
Study Plan
Well now this is an area where I really cannot share any worthwhile experience or give any advice because I never created a study plan. My job is a very time-intensive one. I used to get barely 1 to 2 hours a day to study. That too would not be daily. Weekends were similarly busy and I could only get a max of 3 hours over the entire weekend. Quite often there used to be a string of 4-5 days when I wouldn't have touched any study material at all. My only aim was to ensure that I did not lose touch with the GMAT altogether.
Test Plan
Now this is something that I think I did right and also a point where I hit a roadblock. I was initially planning to take the Kaplan CATs and the GMATPrep CATs. However things changed and I ended up taking the MGMAT CATs as well. First I will list all the scores and then elaborate on the issue I faced.
Kaplan 1 - 640 (After solving Kaplan Premier)
Kaplan 2 - 650 (After solving Kaplan Verbal)
GMATPrep 1 - 770 (After solving OG12)
Kaplan 3 - 680 (After solving Manhattan SC)
MGMAT 1 - 750 (3 weeks before GMAT)
MGMAT 2 - 740 (2 weeks before GMAT)
MGMAT 3 - 730 (2 weeks before GMAT)
MGMAT 4 - 780 (Weekend before GMAT)
GMATPrep 2 - 740 (Weekend before GMAT)
In all the above tests, the breakups were similar - Quants in the range of 49-51 and Verbal in the range of 41-46.
Now, the main problem with Kaplan CATs is that many of their questions repeat over from their study material. In my opinion, this is a very serious drawback because answering repeat questions in CATs falsely makes you believe that you have answered a question correctly. It could've been possible that had the question been an unknown one, you could've answered this one incorrectly, become more anxious and screwed up more questions to follow. The GMAT is as much about your ability to stay calm as it is about your quantitative or verbal abilities and Kaplan doesn't help in this aspect. The second major problem with Kaplan is that their scoring system is screwed up. It definitely gives a lower score for the same breakup of Quants and Verbal than the actual GMAT, GMATPrep or even the MGMAT. For people who think that getting lower scores in practice CATs is OK if they are finally pleasantly surprised by their GMAT score, Kaplan scoring will be fine. However, I am certainly not one of those people. I was really pissed on seeing the Kaplan scores although I was doing reasonably well in the tests.
The above reasons were primarily what drove me towards searching for alternative to Kaplan. Although it was only 3 weeks to my GMAT, I decided on investing the $70 to purchase the MGMAT CATs and their questions banks. The Manhattan question banks in my opinion are fairly simple. However they do give you good options to time them. Some of the questions are really good. The MGMAT CATs are of a very high quality. Now I have seen a lot of people complain about the level of difficulty of Quants in MGMAT CATs being unreasonably high. After giving the GMAT, I can safely say that yes, the level of difficulty of MGMAT Quants is slightly higher than that in GMAT, however it is far more accurate than Kaplan. The verbal sections on the MGMAT are however very lame and not at all representative of the type or difficulty of questions coming on the actual GMAT.
GMATPrep as expected turned out to be the most accurate indicator of the final score on GMAT. The overall feel of the test is identical to the actual GMAT and that helps further. The only bad part about these tests is that there are no explanations for answers. However most of them can be found on the BTG forums. That said, I would advise everyone to take the 2nd test two weeks before your actual GMAT to get a true picture of where you stand. This will also give you sufficient time to postpone the GMAT if you think you need some more prep time.
I also got a chance to solve a few Princeton, Barrons and Tata McGraw Hill CATs. Stay miles away from these if you are looking at scoring anything 700+.
Finally Beat The GMAT. Well, I never knew such a wonderful forum existed. Believe me, I was kicking myself for not having researched well enough and not having discovered this brilliant website earlier. I joined the website only a month before my GMAT. This was the time when I was researching alternatives to Kaplan. I tried to be as active as possible and came across wonderful questions and discussions which undoubtedly helped me a lot. One word of caution...If you are too active on BTG forums and solve all the questions on all forums, chances are very high that you will see repeat questions when solving CATs since those would have been discussed here. As I've said earlier, this should be avoided at all costs to truly ensure that the practice CAT is a close simulation of GMAT..
So finally, the takeaway points in my opinion are -
1. Know your weaknesses, accept them and be prepared to work towards them.
2. Have a decent study material set at hand to focus on your weaknesses.
3. Give lots of practice tests. Do not underestimate the stamina and concentration required for 3.5 hours. I can happily admit that I lacked this before. I would start getting very restless after about 2 hours. I could develop my concentration only after giving so many tests. The longer you have been out of school or college, the more this rule is applicable to you...
4. Have a realistic target. For this it is very helpful to have a fair idea of the schools that you will be applying to. Remember, the GMAT score is only one part of your application. If a 720 suffices, a 700 will also suffice for your app. In the practice CATs, if you are hitting the range of score that you want to achieve, don't stress yourself too much to go 20 or 40 points further.
5. Finally believe in yourself to achieve what you aim for. If you don't believe in yourself, no one will!
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mj78ind
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
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@Scorpioz
That was an awesome debrief dude, I took the exam today (Sep 21st) got the same break down - 51 Q, 41 V; 760!!
Your advise on not giving up and keep hammering at each question was awesome!!
Cheers
That was an awesome debrief dude, I took the exam today (Sep 21st) got the same break down - 51 Q, 41 V; 760!!
Your advise on not giving up and keep hammering at each question was awesome!!
Cheers
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scorpionz
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 am
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- GMAT Score:760
Thanks a lot buddy and congratulations to you too on a great score!!mj78ind wrote:@Scorpioz
That was an awesome debrief dude, I took the exam today (Sep 21st) got the same break down - 51 Q, 41 V; 760!!
Your advise on not giving up and keep hammering at each question was awesome!!
Cheers
All the best for the app process!!
Hi Scorpionz,
Firstly, let me congratulate you on achieving this feat, as we all say after seeing this score: "You really Beat the GMAT".......
Thanks for a wonderful debrief, reading the way you prepared i could relate my experience. Due to the pressure of my job and uneven timings, i also can manage barely 1-2 hours a day on weekdays and some 3-4 hours on the weekend. Reading your post, i am confidant i need to keep my spirits high and keep the momentum going so that i don't lose touch with GMAT preparation.
I hope you would be visiting the forum in future too when someone needs your help.
Good luck for your applications.
Cheers
GDK
Firstly, let me congratulate you on achieving this feat, as we all say after seeing this score: "You really Beat the GMAT".......
Thanks for a wonderful debrief, reading the way you prepared i could relate my experience. Due to the pressure of my job and uneven timings, i also can manage barely 1-2 hours a day on weekdays and some 3-4 hours on the weekend. Reading your post, i am confidant i need to keep my spirits high and keep the momentum going so that i don't lose touch with GMAT preparation.
I hope you would be visiting the forum in future too when someone needs your help.
Good luck for your applications.
Cheers
GDK
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scorpionz
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 am
- Thanked: 7 times
- Followed by:1 members
- GMAT Score:760
Thanks a lot buddy!! Yes, keep going at it and you will certainly crack it! Hope to see an excellent score alongwith a debrief from you soon..!!gdk800 wrote:Hi Scorpionz,
Firstly, let me congratulate you on achieving this feat, as we all say after seeing this score: "You really Beat the GMAT".......
Thanks for a wonderful debrief, reading the way you prepared i could relate my experience. Due to the pressure of my job and uneven timings, i also can manage barely 1-2 hours a day on weekdays and some 3-4 hours on the weekend. Reading your post, i am confidant i need to keep my spirits high and keep the momentum going so that i don't lose touch with GMAT preparation.
I hope you would be visiting the forum in future too when someone needs your help.
Good luck for your applications.
Cheers
GDK
I will certainly be around..There's a lot to learn from everyone here and from all the content on these forums!!
Drop in a comment here or send me a shout and I'll be right there!
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scorpionz
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 am
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- GMAT Score:760
Guys,
Just a quick update..Just got the Official score report on my email today..Got it in 6 days, quite fast..quite surprised..
The more important point though..Got a 6 on 6 in AWA..Quite relieved since I was considering my Verbal score to be a bit lower than I would've liked..Hopefully the colleges will like the overall score more now..
Here's the link which contains the template for the Analysis of an Argument essay. In my opinion is a must-have and must-follow for anyone taking the GMAT..It has helped a lot of people, including me, as you will see on reading the various pages...
https://www.beatthegmat.com/argument-ess ... 38032.html
Another shout of thanks to @myohmy for creating such a wonderful and reusable template!!
Just a quick update..Just got the Official score report on my email today..Got it in 6 days, quite fast..quite surprised..
The more important point though..Got a 6 on 6 in AWA..Quite relieved since I was considering my Verbal score to be a bit lower than I would've liked..Hopefully the colleges will like the overall score more now..
Here's the link which contains the template for the Analysis of an Argument essay. In my opinion is a must-have and must-follow for anyone taking the GMAT..It has helped a lot of people, including me, as you will see on reading the various pages...
https://www.beatthegmat.com/argument-ess ... 38032.html
Another shout of thanks to @myohmy for creating such a wonderful and reusable template!!
-
jerseygirl
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- Posts: 16
- Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 11:54 am
- Thanked: 1 times
wow congrats!
i am taking the test this saturday and am a little worried about the fact that verbal on the actual test has been reportedly more difficult than mgmat test materials.
on mgmat materials, i would consistently get v45, but on gmat prep, which people say is easier than the actual gmat or even the mgmat, i would get v41.
what was your experience in terms of verbal practice test results, and how did it calibrate against the actual experience?
i am taking the test this saturday and am a little worried about the fact that verbal on the actual test has been reportedly more difficult than mgmat test materials.
on mgmat materials, i would consistently get v45, but on gmat prep, which people say is easier than the actual gmat or even the mgmat, i would get v41.
what was your experience in terms of verbal practice test results, and how did it calibrate against the actual experience?
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scorpionz
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 am
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- GMAT Score:760
Thanks!jerseygirl wrote:wow congrats!
i am taking the test this saturday and am a little worried about the fact that verbal on the actual test has been reportedly more difficult than mgmat test materials.
on mgmat materials, i would consistently get v45, but on gmat prep, which people say is easier than the actual gmat or even the mgmat, i would get v41.
what was your experience in terms of verbal practice test results, and how did it calibrate against the actual experience?
Well, firstly in my opinion GMATPrep verbal is not easier than that in MGMAT and is in fact more closer to the verbal on the actual GMAT. If you have scored 41+ in both the tests of GMATPrep, you have a fairly good shot at achieving the same on the actual test and that is not a bad verbal score by any stretch of imagination...
Now none of the CATs that I took, including MGMAT, Kaplan, GMATPrep were truly representative of the difficulty on the GMAT. The GMAT Verbal was way more difficult than all of these..In my opinion, compared to the GMAT verbal questions -
in MGMAT - The RCs are very simple and small. The CR reasoning is quite screwed up and they almost make you perform calculations to arrive at a few answers. SCs are very typical and very simple.
in Kaplan - RCs are unnecessarily dense and with lot of abstract content. The length of RCs is also very long. CRs are fairly good but SCs are very simple.
in GMATPrep - CRs are very similar to the ones on the actual test. RCs and SCs are simpler.
However, as I have stated in my test day debrief, my hypothesis is that I got a real kickass verbal section probably because of doing well in Quants. If my reasoning is correct, the verbal would've been slightly easier had I score probably a 48 or 49 in quants...But then, that's that..just a hypothesis that cannot be proven!!
The major problem I see after having taken the GMAT is that I honestly don't know what else could I have done to improve my verbal score. The difficulty level of Verbal of none of the study materials or the tests was at par with that of GMAT. Hence, I would only advise you to keep your basics & fundamentals straight, target the question at hand and simply move on without thinking how you have answered your previous questions..
Eventually at the end of the test, even if you think you got a real bad verbal section, you can still get a very good overall & sectional score as my case proves!!
So stay cool, all the best & be confident that you can crack it!!
Cheers!
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scorpionz
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Thanks for the wishes Vaisha!!testsgmat wrote:Hey Big Congrats for wonerful score!! and
indeed gereat debrief of test day .. It would be nice to go thru your preparation experience and also please let us know which material you used
All the best for your applications ..
Regards
Vaisha
I have already updated the preparation debrief..you can find it somewhere above your post on the same page..
Let me know if you have any other questions or comments!
Cheers!!
-
scorpionz
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
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- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 am
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- GMAT Score:760
Guys,
I've been trying to respond to a lot of PMs from everyone but there seems to be some problem with my mailbox..Mails are getting stuck up in my outbox and are not going out further..
I'll try to get this problem resolved asap..In the meantime, please direct all your queries directly as a comment on this thread so that I can respond to you in a timely manner..
Cheers!!
I've been trying to respond to a lot of PMs from everyone but there seems to be some problem with my mailbox..Mails are getting stuck up in my outbox and are not going out further..
I'll try to get this problem resolved asap..In the meantime, please direct all your queries directly as a comment on this thread so that I can respond to you in a timely manner..
Cheers!!
