770. Q51 V42. Thanks a ton BTG. For everything...

Find out how Beat The GMAT members tackled GMAT test prep with positive results. Get tips on GMAT test prep materials, online courses, study tips, and more.
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Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
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GMAT Score:770
Hey guys I just finished my GMAT a couple of hours ago. Took my test in Bangalore, India.

My score 770 (Quant – 51 Verbal - 42)

The staff at Pearson were very kind . They were very methodical in their approach. This made the whole experience a lot more amazing.

I will start of by thanking ron , Stacey , ian , stuart and the several other tutors of this community for all the tutorials and contributions which have helped me in my preparation.

The posts of dumb.doofus , gmat740, domnu , scoobydooby , tohellandback to name a few were extremely helpful. Thanks guys.

I booked my slot for august 4th and I did this on March 29th. That gave my 4 months for preparation.

During the first one and half months, my preparation was very haphazard. I would randomly pick up material for preparation. I stumbled upon BTG in the month of April (mid April) and participated actively in the forums. BTG has greatly improved my score. In fact I will credit BTG with having increase my score from what would have been a 650 or 660 to what I have scored.

1. Materials I used for preparation.

OG 12
MGMAT SC guide
BTG forums for CR , SC , PS and DS (An invaluable source)
Nova’s GMAT prep guide.
Platinum gmat. (Online resource).
1000 SC
1000 CR
MGMAT 6 test series
Kaplan 2008 CD test series.

2. Practice scores
Crack-gmat (free test) - 620
Kaplan test 1 – 630
1 July 2009 - Kaplan test 2 – 640
3 July 2009 – Kaplan test 3 - 640
4 July 2009 – Kaplan test 4 – 610
(trying a diff RC strategy)
6 july 2009 – Powerprep 1 - 720 (quant – 50 , verbal – 36)
9 july 2009 – 2007 powerprerp – 770
11 july 2009 – 2007 powerperp – 730
13 July 2009 – MGMAT test 1 – 710 (Q48 Verbal 38)
16 July 2009 – MGMAT tetst 2 – 690 (Q43 Verbal 40) (Thrashed in Quant. Did not even complete it.)
19 July 2009 – MGMATtest3 – 710 (Q50 , Verbal36)
22 july 2009 – MGMAT test4 – 720 (Q50 Verbal 37)
26 July 2009 – MGMAT test5 – 720 (Q51 Verbal 37)
28 July 2009 – MGMAT test6 – 780 (Q51 Verbal 45)
1 August 2009 – Powerprep2 – 760(Q50 Verbal 42)
4 August 2009 - GMAT - 770 (Q51 V42) :D

3. Strategies for CR
Practice the OG CR’s well. Also practice the CR’s available in the BTG forums. CR is nothing but practice. The more you practice the better your performance in this section.

4. Math preparation
The OG material is helpful. However the MGMAT quant is the closest to the GMAT quant. I received a rude shock when I encountered the difficult problems in my first MGMAT test. This was necessary to get me back on track. I solved the problems in the BTG quant and DS forums diligently. One advantage in using the forum questions is the variety of problems you encounter. Just like in the exam. You are not limited to a particular topic.

5. Verbal preparation
GMAT increases the difficulty level on the verbal section by increasing the standard of the SC questions. I remember encountering some ruthless SC questions when I had completed half my verbal section. I feel it is all right to spend more time on such questions. The 1000
SC doc proved extremely useful.
I encountered 4 RC’s in my exam. One of the RC’s was extremely long and difficult. The others were short and the questions were straightforward. I think solving the long RC is extremely crucial.

6. Strategies for using the BTG in the most effective way

I had difficulties initially when I used BTG on my Windows Vista machine because the posts which I had already visited were not dimmed and I ended up visiting the same topic again. So I switched to winXP and I could immediately notice the difference between the posts I had already visited.

Timing the visits to BTG
I stay in India and I soon realised that a lot of posts in the SC section were during the nighttimes (daytime in the US). So when I visited the posts the next morning, each had many replies ad opinions. The advantage was that in a single shot I could learn a lot from all the replies.
For posts which from other parts of the world, I would eagerly wait for each reply during my daytime. I would visit posts and find one additional reply each time. So I decided that I would not visit a topic (for which I was awaiting reply) more than once a day.

POSTING YOU RESPONSES
Posting the first reply to a question (for which OA is not yet provided) makes you very curious. You kind of get obsessed with the question. I felt this many a times and would eagerly wait for replies. The result was that even sub-consciously I was thinking about the GMAT.


Helping fellow BTG members, Solving Queries et all
Solving the queries of fellow BTG member has been an enriching experience. I have always felt good when I realised that I was of help to someone. Try solving others queries and engage in discussions. The learning is simply great.

7. The Kaplan mystery
I have observed that a lot of members consider the Kaplan tests least helpful and enjoy Kaplan bashing. I believe that the Kaplan Verbal section helped me improve my score. I encountered some really challenging RC’s and SC questions. The experience helped my keep my keep firm on the ground. The Kaplan Math however was very easy compared to tha actual exam.
The same is true with the MGMAT Quant experience. Both these test series helped me stay focussed in my preparation. Else I would have been a victim of over-confidence.

It would be great if Kaplan would just come out with a package for test series just like how MGMAT does.


8. Hope, the most beautiful thing...
I remember Andy from Shawshank Redemption when he said ,” Hope my friend is a good thing and no good thing ever dies....”. I kept thinking about this whenever I felt low during my preparation. The sweet sound of the guitar flowing out from David Gilmour’s guitar rang in my head as I entered the exam hall and helped me relax.

9. The lucky few
I also kept telling myself that I was one the lucky few who could think about pursuing higher education. A lot of people cannot afford even an under graduate education let along passing out from a business school. This thought rang in my head all the time.


Goodluck to all of you preparing for the GMAT. I have taken a lot of inputs from several debriefs and I hope this debrief of mine is helpful atleast to some extent.

I would be more than happy to answer any of your queries.

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wow

by JeffB » Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:29 am
Great score. Great post.

Where do you plan on applying this fall?

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by ezekielekata » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:04 am
Awesome post....!!!
How did you deal with the RC..... B-)
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All things are possible to him that believes.....

"To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind.
To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will.
To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to move ahead"

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by belize » Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:43 am
Congrats on your great score!

I noticed that your practice scores had a big jump from low 600 to over 700.
How did you make that signficant improvement in just a matter of weeks?
Did you change your prep routine or use a different study material?
What is your strategy a month heading into the actual exam?

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by raghavsarathy » Tue Aug 04, 2009 7:45 am
belize wrote:Congrats on your great score!

I noticed that your practice scores had a big jump from low 600 to over 700.
How did you make that signficant improvement in just a matter of weeks?
Did you change your prep routine or use a different study material?
What is your strategy a month heading into the actual exam?
Thanks Belize. There are 2 things

1. I used to make many silly mistakes in Quant. Many a times I used to finish the QA with 30 minutes remaining. Most of the mistakes were in "inequalities". So I decided to spend time more carefully.
2. I changed my RC strategy.
My old strategy was to read the essay once , read the questions and try to attempt it. If I wasn't able to then I would read the passage again.
Flaw in this strategy
For inference based questions this strategy wasn't helpful as it is not easy to grasp the author's intentions with just one read.
For questions which required facts from the passage , one read never helped me to remember important points.
New strategy
Read the passage once thoroughly. Read the passage for the secone time but not completely. Read only the parts which you feel you haven't comprehended completely.
With this strategy I found out that many a times I never had to read the passage again while answering the questions.
Again, RC strategy varies from person to person. So choose what is best for you.

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by raghavsarathy » Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:04 am
ezekielekata wrote:Awesome post....!!!
How did you deal with the RC..... B-)
Thanks ezekielekata.
I practised RC's from the OG.

I have explained the RC strategy I used in the post above. As you can see, I changed my strategy coz my accuracy was very poor with my old strategy.

When you take the Kaplan or MGMAT tests , every RC question is also classified as either inference based or facts based question. It is important to see in which type of questions you are making mistakes. I used this strategy and it helped me.

For the long RC which you will encounter in your exam, take a lot more time in reading and understanding the passage. Don't worry about time ticking away.

If you already have a good reading habit then you are on the right track to crack the RCs. I never had such a habit and so I started reading magazines (which delved on politics and sports..my interests).

For facts based questions ,If you see two answer choices which are very close then read more carefully coz there will atleast be one or two words in the passage which will almost certainly be present( or have a reference ) in the correct answer choice.

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Re: wow

by raghavsarathy » Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:20 am
JeffB wrote:Great score. Great post.

Where do you plan on applying this fall?
Hey Jeff. Thanks.

I am looking for a good marketing course. I am thinking of INSEAD, Asian Institue of Management , Indian School of Business and a few more collges. But I certainly need to find out more about the colleges before applying.
College fees would be a major factor. After all MBA grads unlike MS grads do not have the cushion of a TA or RA. :(
I have not visited the admissions section of this forum. I need to visit it and learn more.

Goodluck with your prep(in case you're preparing for the gmat) else goodluck with your admission process.

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by sreak1089 » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:00 pm
Dude, how are you able to finish the Quant 30 minutes early maan ... that's AWESOME..!!!!!

you know I struggle to complete Quant in time and I have to guess on last 6-7 questions....
raghavsarathy wrote:
ezekielekata wrote:Awesome post....!!!
How did you deal with the RC..... B-)
Thanks ezekielekata.
I practised RC's from the OG.

I have explained the RC strategy I used in the post above. As you can see, I changed my strategy coz my accuracy was very poor with my old strategy.

When you take the Kaplan or MGMAT tests , every RC question is also classified as either inference based or facts based question. It is important to see in which type of questions you are making mistakes. I used this strategy and it helped me.

For the long RC which you will encounter in your exam, take a lot more time in reading and understanding the passage. Don't worry about time ticking away.

If you already have a good reading habit then you are on the right track to crack the RCs. I never had such a habit and so I started reading magazines (which delved on politics and sports..my interests).

For facts based questions ,If you see two answer choices which are very close then read more carefully coz there will atleast be one or two words in the passage which will almost certainly be present( or have a reference ) in the correct answer choice.

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by gabriel » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:56 pm
Congratulations :) . I liked reading your debrief, especially the last few lines and coming from India agree with them too.

I hope you get into a school of your choice. Good Luck :) .

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by raghavsarathy » Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:25 am
sreak1089 wrote:Dude, how are you able to finish the Quant 30 minutes early maan ... that's AWESOME..!!!!!

you know I struggle to complete Quant in time and I have to guess on last 6-7 questions....
Hi sreak1089

This was when I took the Kaplan 2008 tests. It was not the right thing to do. After the test I realised that I made up a few silly mistakes as well. I realised that GMAT Quant is not designed to be finished in a hurry. There is nothing gained from finishing early.

I also learnt from the MGMAT tests that GMAT quant is pretty challenging (esp DS)and I found it difficult to manage time. The BTG forum has some really good questions for PS and DS and practicing these improved my score.

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by tohellandback » Wed Aug 05, 2009 1:04 am
hey buddy..awesome score man!!!!
you are all set..so decided on the colleges you are gonna apply to?
keep us posted!!
The powers of two are bloody impolite!!

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by indir0ver » Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:09 am
very clear strategy and you worked quite hard looking at practice scores.

Well done, congratulations on the hard fruit earned. I am sure you will go ahead further and farther......

good wishes frm manchester.

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by raghavsarathy » Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:14 am
gabriel wrote:Congratulations :) . I liked reading your debrief, especially the last few lines and coming from India agree with them too.

I hope you get into a school of your choice. Good Luck :) .
Thanks Gabriel. I hope so too.
I miss the routine of browsing through the questions in this forum in the mornings
Looking forward to the another difficult leg of this race (the essays and applications)..

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by raghavsarathy » Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:20 am
tohellandback wrote:hey buddy..awesome score man!!!!
you are all set..so decided on the colleges you are gonna apply to?
keep us posted!!
Thanks so much.. I learnt a lot from your posts in the forum..
Goodluck for your GMAT. I am sure you'll beat it and I am waiting for the day you post your debrief abt the same..

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by raghavsarathy » Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:03 am
indir0ver wrote:very clear strategy and you worked quite hard looking at practice scores.

Well done, congratulations on the hard fruit earned. I am sure you will go ahead further and farther......

good wishes frm manchester.

thank you.. I found MGMAT tests to be very useful.

Goodluck with your prep and your journey to the bschool of your choice..