I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi everyone,

I took the GMAT today and got a 770 (99th %ile): 49Q (88th %ile), 47V (99th %ile)!
UPDATE: AWA 6.0

My practice scores were:

GMATPrep 1: 760, 50Q, 44V (taken after 1 month of studying)
GMATPrep 2: 760, 50Q, 44V (I know, same score, weird; 2 weeks before test)

I started studying roughly 10 weeks ago. I've used The Official Guide, 12th edition, Kaplan 800, and Manhattan's Sentence Correction book.

Review of Materials I used

The first book I used, actually, was Kaplan 800. I just went from start to finish, doing ~1 hour each morning (I'm still in college, so I had classes). It was a great way to become familiar with each type of question and see some really hard questions. I would highly recommend this book.

The book I used the most, however, was the OG. I also got the V and Q additions, for more problems; I'm not sure if they've released V and Q supplements that match the 12th edition OG, though. Anyway, I would complete a minimum of 5 questions in each section everyday, maybe more if I did poorly and wanted more practice after reviewing the answers. It's especially important to review answers for verbal so you get a chance to see "how the GMAT thinks." I've always been one of those people to over-think questions, so this was very valuable to me.

Of course, after reading another post, I decided to get Manattan GMAT's Sentence Correction Book. Honestly, I didn't notice any specific things I learned from this book on the test, but still think this book is extremely valuable (lol... "how can you remedy the contradiction above..."). By seeing many many many right/wrong sentences, I became very quick at identifying incorrect sentences. I studied this book a lot after my second test because I knew sentence correction was where I was hurting, not that I was unhappy with any of my practice test scores. This book is great -- especially the section on idioms.

My Test Taking Experience

I'm a quant person, so I was really surprised that I scored better on verbal. However, I always have 5-10 minutes left on verbal, but am rushed for time with quant.

In fact, when I took the test, I was so nervous that my teeth were chattering! On quant, there were a few questions I just had to guess on because the time factor didn't help.

For the verbal section, it went as usual. On most questions, I'm usually just 85% sure, but answer correctly. I know lots of people have different strategies for reading comprehension. I read the passage quickly and then refer back to it whenever I need to. Usually, the answer is right there! Also, I find reading comprehension to be some of the easier questions, which definitely not "normal" for me.

My Advice

1) Take lots of practice tests. Although my scores were very consistent, I doubted how valid they were. If I had taken 2-3 more practice tests, I probably would not have been nearly as nervous.

2) BUT, don't take your first test before practicing. Some people might not agree with me here, which is fine, but I think this helped me a lot. Getting a 760 on my first GMATPrep was a huge motivator. After I saw that score and knew what I was capable of, I knew that I would be disappointed with much less.

3) Do more than just problems. Of course, doing problems is probably the best one thing you can do. However, I got A LOT better after Manhattan GMAT's Sentence Correction book, even though I didn't do the problems in it. If you're struggling with something on the conceptual level, step back, slow down, and take the time to really learn what is going on. Once I started recognizing modifiers, parallelism, etc... quickly (that's the key), it makes the test a lot easier.

4) Don't come on this forum 1-2 days before your test (lol!). So, maybe this is just me, but I was nervous for this test a whole 5 days before it actually happened. This place is GREAT, don't get me wrong. But there's probably not much you can do 1-2 days out to vastly improve your score. And it just made me more nervous. Exception: I looked at some AWA posts to see strategies for organization, etc...

5) Don't worry if a passage/question seems too easy. The first passage I got covered a very basic topic -- I thought I was screwed. But then I took the time to relax, remind myself that I can't do that, and move on. Plus, a good chunk of the questions are test questions, so it might not even count.

What about AWA? Yeah, I did them in my practice tests, but didn't practice them otherwise. I did lots of writing last term, so I was used to it. It will be interesting to see what I get.

So, I don't think any of this is really groundbreaking, but maybe it will help some. Thanks for all the help, btw -- I used the posts around here a lot to plan my own study scheme. I'll check back here to make sure and answer anyone's questions!

Best,
Tim

Congrats, thats an awesome score..!!U nailed it ..!!

WOOOHOOO...!

congr8s dude! verbal is the key while maintaing good quant.

Congrats on the awesome score!

Thanks AceofSpades, indir0ver, and chitanjadwani!

Verbal is definitely key -- it's great having a balanced score, too.

I don't think I made it explicit enough in my last post -- THANK YOU to everyone here. This is a great test prep resource! My score probably wouldn't have happened without this forum.

Tim

Wow!! Fantastic score!!!

A 47 in Verbal - Dude you should be a writer!!!!

verbal =47??

That's great.....

i mean that's amazing....!!!

Have you done LSAT before???

congrats man!!!

Hatts off to you

Thanks hk, raunekk, and kuhu!

Just got my official score report today: AWA = 6.0. I must have gotten lucky, because except for looking at some posts here, I didn't really prepare for it. Of course, absolutely no complaints!

Hk -- we'll see about writing. Sometimes, I love it. At other times, I hate it. I love giving presentations, though. I think that's as close to becoming a writer as I'll get, lol!

Raunekk -- I haven't taken the LSAT. Do be fair, though, I had a very verbal spring term. I took this history class that required lots of reading, writing, and discussion. I'm a pretty firm believer in the idea that, through consistent work, one can increase their ability to focus, especially in certain areas. I was reading for at least an hour everyday and writing a lot on the weekends, in addition to my GMAT practice. GMAT RC was insignificant in comparison to the dense readings I had for class. Also, I'm a huge "research methods" geek. Being a psychology major, I've analyzed different interpretations of data and evidence for a long time now, so CR also wasn't that bad.

Anyway, thanks for all the congrats! Hopefully I can help some people by answering questions in the future!

Tim

770 is just damn impressive! Well done! A very big congratulations!

Tim, when you say that you're still in college, do you mean you're still in undergrad school, or are you already in a graduate psychology program somewhere? If you're still in undergrad and have already obtain a score of 770, that's just super impressive. I'm blown away!

@tkherrmann

Thats impressive!! I just asked cause maximum of the verbal high scorers over here have either given lsat in the past or were involved in preparing for it at some point of time...

But you did it without it...that's just impressive...!!

We would be glad if you can provide us with some tips on sentence correction and quant.


Thanks.

Congrats once again..

also, what would you suggest to people who are aiming for high verbal score.. I have seen many people over here who don't have English as their first language and who are trying hard to get a decent verbal score to balance their total gain....

Thanks a lot!!

Alpha800 -- Thanks for all the flattery, lol! I am still an undergrad. Here, the conventional knowledge is that it's best to take the GMAT while you're still used to studying, etc... Maybe that's not the case elsewhere? I think it definitely helped me.

Raunekk --

First, about quant. I made some mistakes early on in my preparation because I assumed there was some easy, conceptual way to solve problems that really just required some complicated computations. Learning to recognize those definitely helps; that way, you don't waste time thinking. Honestly, if I had to take the test again, I would practice difficult quant questions with even less time to train myself to do it fast. For me, quant isn't very "flowy." By that, I mean it's just a "mental marathon." I think it's very important to approach quant with BOTH confidence and the expectation that you will be challenged. In a weird way, you should want to be challenged. I know this is not very specific feedback, but that, IMO, is what math is like. You learn as many specific rules as you can. In a sense, you acquire tools. How you use those tools is a completely different thing -- and just as important, if not more so, during the test.

I'm going to go over all of verbal at once because I honestly don't think there's that much that is special about SC in terms of general preparation.

It's hard to answer your questions about verbal because I am a native English-speaker. My best advice is to become as fluent as possible. Read books, newspapers, and magazines in English. Spend time talking with others who speak English, if possible. Listen to/watch TV in English. The GMAT's RC, CR, and SC are too variable, IMO, to strictly learn the test without increasing English fluency. I understand what I am saying is a huge undertaking. I took Spanish in High School for 3 years and was good at communicating, but was not fluent by any measure.

My prep for verbal focused on learning "how the test thinks." What kind of tricks does it use? How does it justify it's answers? Of course, this prep already assumes English fluency. Because I'm a native-speaker, I'm not sure if I have much additional advice. Do let me know if anything is unclear, though.

Thanks again for all the congrats!

Tim

tkherrmann wrote:Alpha800 -- Thanks for all the flattery, lol! I am still an undergrad. Here, the conventional knowledge is that it's best to take the GMAT while you're still used to studying, etc... Maybe that's not the case elsewhere? I think it definitely helped me.

Well, MBAs are a little different than most other master degrees. Most B-schools want the candidate to have a couple years of working experience before applying to their schools. So unlike going for a Psychology masters or Phd--where indeed I believe you'd want to take the GRE while still in college--most MBA students probably took their GMAT after they had graduated. That being said, the convention certainly does not preclude anyone from taking the GMAT while still in college. Your GMAT score is valid for 5 years I believe, so it's fine to take it if you're planning to get a MBA in that time frame.

Alpha800 wrote: Well, MBAs are a little different than most other master degrees. Most B-schools want the candidate to have a couple years of working experience before applying to their schools. So unlike going for a Psychology masters or Phd--where indeed I believe you'd want to take the GRE while still in college--most MBA students probably took their GMAT after they had graduated. That being said, the convention certainly does not preclude anyone from taking the GMAT while still in college. Your GMAT score is valid for 5 years I believe, so it's fine to take it if you're planning to get a MBA in that time frame.

Definitely -- I actually took the GMAT for an application with a summer deadline, so I needed it now.

Cheers,
Tim

Thanks a lot for that info...

Consistent reading does create wonders!!

Thanks a lot

Congrats and all the best!!!