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Killed it - 790 (51 quant / 49 verbal)

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trooper: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:54 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:790

Killed it - 790 (51 quant / 49 verbal)

by trooper » Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:15 am

Hey guys,

Thanks a lot for all the great advice here. Needless to say, things went really really well. Also, got a 5 on AWA but from all I've heard, that doesn't matter much.

What helped me most during prep was doing a number of practice tests. By test day, I had the timing down to a science and recognized most of the question "types" from having seen similar questions before.

Providing my avg. practice test scores:
- Kaplan Test 1 - 730
- Kaplan Test 2 - 740
- Kaplan Test 3 - 640
- Kaplan Test 4 - 730
- GMATprep Test 1 - 760
- GMATprep Test 1 - 770

Good luck y'all! Feel free to hit me up if you want any help/advice.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — I just Beat The GMAT! | Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:15 am

gmat_dest: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 186; Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:57 am; Thanked: 7 times; GMAT Score:720

by gmat_dest » Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:45 am

Bravo!!!

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kyabe: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 82; Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2009 3:03 am; Thanked: 2 times; Followed by:1 members

by kyabe » Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:45 am

I couldn't resist myself to hail your achievement.. Congrats buddy.. U seriously killed the beast

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DanaJ: Site Admin; Posts: 2567; Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:05 am; Thanked: 712 times; Followed by:550 members; GMAT Score:770

by DanaJ » Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:47 am

Great score! Maybe if you have the time you could post some of your strategies/materials used, so that the community might benefit from your experience...

Good luck with the apps!

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fmohsin: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 13; Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:30 am

by fmohsin » Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:53 am

Congrats, pal!!! That's a killer score!

Can you debrief on how you studied for quantiative and what texts you used? Math has always been my strengh. I usually average from 44 to 50. But I would love to gain the consistency of 50+. I believe if I work hard I can get there...it's not too far away. BTW - verval hasn't ever been my streangth. I usually average from 27 to 35. I need consistency there too. My aim is around 40 so that I can break the 700 barrier. That's all I ask for!

Thanks in advance!

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jjk: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 43; Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:56 pm; Thanked: 10 times; Followed by:1 members; GMAT Score:730

by jjk » Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:25 am

Now THAT is how you demolish the GMAT. Awesome score.

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EMAN: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 162; Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 4:17 pm; Location: Minnesota; Thanked: 1 times

Insane

by EMAN » Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:59 am

Absolutely amazing! Congrats!

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trooper: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:54 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:790

by trooper » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:18 am

Thanks a lot guys!

Break down my prep in case it helps you guys:

Materials Used:
- OG 11
- Kaplan CD
- GMATprep (Practice Tests)
- Kaplan 800

I started with the official guide and can't stress enough how useful that book was. I think just going through the 1 - 2 page summaries and doing plenty of questions helped me a lot at the beginning. I probably worked through ~75% of verbal and ~50% of quant questions through that book. I struggled with SC sometimes and wasn't completely confident on DS, but was pretty strong on the other stuff. I probably spent 1+ months into this since I was fairly busy at work.

I took my first CAT test at this point, a diagnostic on the Kaplan CD (I got it from a friend, but I believe it comes with the Kaplan book). I had a 680 on the diagnostic and with the assumption that I can push that another 50 pts, I registered to take the test (giving myself about 5 weeks of more prep time).

From here on I completely focused on taking as many CATs as I could get my hands on. I occasionally reviewed the lessons and exercises on the Kaplan CD (probably went through them twice) just to re-enforce the basics. I think going through the lessons particularly helps iron out issues with SC, since SC basically centers around a few key concepts.

I listed the Kaplan 800 book because I bought it, though I didn't spend a lot of time on it. Just spent a day or so browsing through the lessons and a few practice questions. Looked generally useful, but wouldn't say added much value to me.

Test day was all about 2 cups of coffee and a calm head. I will say though, 4 hours of testing can get very tiring (I never did the essays during practice). Also, I really could not have guessed that my score would be that high. So if you're not sure how your first section went, don't let it dishearten you for the rest of the test.

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etnry: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 16; Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:32 am; Location: india; GMAT Score:710

by etnry » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:20 am

Excellent score buddy!one question did you rely on the "first 10 questions very very important" stratergy or did you give equal importance to all questions.Please share with us how you worked on your timing.As in my case i'm never able to finish the practice test on time.

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trooper: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:54 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:790

by trooper » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:29 am

fmohsin wrote:Congrats, pal!!! That's a killer score!

Can you debrief on how you studied for quantiative and what texts you used? ...

Since your quant score's already pretty high, I'm assuming your basics are pretty strong. Just make sure you review the core concepts (any GMAT book should do) so you're not missing the same types of questions every time. For example, I struggled with permutation/combination questions at first but fixed it with 30 mins of review.

Once you're confident on your basics, PS should be easy. DS was pretty tricky for me in the beginning. I'd advice not trying to work around it but actually evaluating it step by step - i.e., try solving with just option 1, then just option 2, then both.

It's also important to keep reviewing questions you're getting wrong in quant and making sure you can answer them later. The same types of questions appear repeatedly (and in the actual test) and you don't want to be repeating the same mistakes.

As far as materials go, same as my general prep materials:
- OG 11
- Kaplan CD
- GMATprep
- Kaplan 800 (only a little bit)

For verbal, in addition to all the prep, try to read on a regular basis. Doesn't have to be books - news articles, movie reviews...whatever interests you. I do this by habit and I think it definitely helps in the long run.

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trooper: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:54 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:790

by trooper » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:46 am

etnry wrote:Excellent score buddy!one question did you rely on the "first 10 questions very very important" stratergy or did you give equal importance to all questions.Please share with us how you worked on your timing.As in my case i'm never able to finish the practice test on time.

I definitely relied on the "first 10 questions very very important" strategy. I worked through initial questions pretty carefully, re-checking when I thought necessary. Once questions got harder (probably around ques 15), I was just solving the question and moving on.

I should add that I definitely had early issues with timing. It really helped me to build some structure around it, since I could keep a check on working too slowly. This is what I aimed for:

Starting backwards from min 75:
Min. 60 -> Q8
Min. 45 -> Q16
Min. 30 -> Q24
Min. 15 -> Q32

The idea is basically 8 ques / 15 min through the first 32 questions with some extra time at the end for the harder ones. Also important to note is that I'm giving questions 1 - 8 the same time/Q as 9 - 32, even though they should be easier. This, once again, is to allow me to work through the initial questions carefully. Can't say I could always stuck to this completely, but I tried to stay close.

This is just something I came up with, not something I read somewhere. So take it with a pinch of salt and see if it works for you. You should definitely tweak it around the edges as you feel necessary. In general though, I would say that structuring your timing certainly helps.

Also don't spend 5+ mins on a single question. If it's going to take that long, take a good educated guess and move on. I probably did this for 1-2 questions in the test.

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costarica: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 19; Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:12 pm; Location: Costa Rica; Thanked: 4 times; Followed by:1 members; GMAT Score:640