I just Beat The GMAT!

final result 730 ( 50 | 38 )
read my last post

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Practice CATs:
just added some results

Date Label Overall Score(Quant/Verbal)
25.11 PR 610(47/28)
26.11 PR 610(48/26)
26.11 PR 620(48/28) (constant rate? 10points within one day )
30.11 PR 630(51/26)
02.12 Ma 680(47/35) (Math hard, Verbal better cause of SC Guide? or just variance )
05.12 Ma 690(48/36)
08.12 Ma 700(50/35)
11.12 Ma 690(48/36) (bad day )
13.12 Ma 750(51/41)
15.12 GP 750(49/42)
17.12 GP 750(51/40)

19.12 GMAT

700(49/37) or better would be cool
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Hi !

I`m a 21 year old German student of industrial engineering.
English is not my native language and my 109 points TOEFL score proofs how bad my language skills are.
Before discussing how I could improve my verbal skills, I`d like to list all the GMAT books I bought (maybe too many :roll:):

- PR Cracking the GMAT 2009
- Manhattan GMAT SC (3rd edition)
- Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook
(- Kaplan Math)
- Kaplan Premier
- Kaplan 800
- GMAT OG 11

My test date is 12/19/2008, so there ist just a little more than 3 weeks left (exactly 22days). Yeah, you are right, that is not that much time, but I am able to learn 10 hours daily (maybe total amount of 200h).

Just finished the PR book and the first three tests. Seems like I should rerererererereread the verbal part as often as possible. My scores are:
610(47/28 ) 610(48/26 ) 620(48/28 ). Quant mistakes nearly only DS, but I feel really confident there. My verbal score could be divided into SC (60>47>67), RC (79>71>79) and CR (67>58>58 ).
Like you recognize I really need to improve the damn Verbal part. I am able to solve nearly every problem in the book, but need much more time than 1,7mins..... It`s damn frustrating .

I already looked up general grammar and got few hints (explained online by a dog ). Furthermore I write a lot of stuff on flashcards and printed those available here.
How to go on?
Should I concetrate on specific verbal topics before I continue doing the CATs?
Which topic first? Or any general advice?

mowie

With such a limited amount of time, you're focus should be to pick off the low hanging fruits. CR and SC are the easiest portions of the test to make significant gains in due to RC being something that must be practiced over a long period of time. SC in particular requires learning basic grammar rules and idioms so that should be an area to focus on.

Last point, you should be taking CATs with your practice not after. You want to apply the things you've learned to a real test environment because you need to be able to recall those lessons quickly and efficiently. Don't wait until after you finish studying verbal.

Thank you very much for the helpful advice mayo.

I started working through the Manhattan SC book yesterday and really like their explanations (much better than PR). I should be able to "finish" the book until Tuesday and start improving my CR skills afterwards.
Now I will take the last PR cat. The result will show me whether my skills improved already (the other possibility would be just getting unlucky ).

Best regards,

mowie

mayonnai5e wrote:With such a limited amount of time, you're focus should be to pick off the low hanging fruits. CR and SC are the easiest portions of the test to make significant gains in due to RC being something that must be practiced over a long period of time. SC in particular requires learning basic grammar rules and idioms so that should be an area to focus on.

Last point, you should be taking CATs with your practice not after. You want to apply the things you've learned to a real test environment because you need to be able to recall those lessons quickly and efficiently. Don't wait until after you finish studying verbal.

Mayonna5e, I'm always reading your posts and I like them. I followed your plan to improve my verbal, however the CR is still bad because of my weaken vocabularies. Could you assist on that pls?

Vocabulary is something that can be worked on. Make flashcards and keep them on you at all times. Read through them in sets of 10 and throughout the day just take them out. It should only take a few minutes to go through 10. Practice this with 5/10/20 whatever number you feel is most efficient for you - the key is to look at them several times a day.

mayonnai5e, I gave my Powerprep and got a dismal 580. This is my very first attempt. I got 42 on Q and 33 on V. I know my weakness is verbal especially SC and CR.

I want to know if my target is 750, how long before should I enroll for my GMAT? Should I wait to see some improvement to maybe 650+ then enroll...

I hope I could get some insight on how you decided to enroll for GMAT based on your very first GMAT assessment test.

mayonnai5e wrote:Vocabulary is something that can be worked on. Make flashcards and keep them on you at all times. Read through them in sets of 10 and throughout the day just take them out. It should only take a few minutes to go through 10. Practice this with 5/10/20 whatever number you feel is most efficient for you - the key is to look at them several times a day.

mayonnai5e, I gave my Powerprep and got a dismal 580. This is my very first attempt. I got 42 on Q and 33 on V. I know my weakness is verbal especially SC and CR.

I want to know if my target is 750, how long before should I enroll for my GMAT? Should I wait to see some improvement to maybe 650+ then enroll...

I hope I could get some insight on how you decided to enroll for GMAT based on your very first GMAT assessment test.

mayonnai5e wrote:Vocabulary is something that can be worked on. Make flashcards and keep them on you at all times. Read through them in sets of 10 and throughout the day just take them out. It should only take a few minutes to go through 10. Practice this with 5/10/20 whatever number you feel is most efficient for you - the key is to look at them several times a day.

mayonnai5e, I gave my Powerprep and got a dismal 580. This is my very first attempt. I got 42 on Q and 33 on V. I know my weakness is verbal especially SC and CR.

I want to know if my target is 750, how long before should I enroll for my GMAT? Should I wait to see some improvement to maybe 650+ then enroll...

I hope I could get some insight on how you decided to enroll for GMAT based on your very first GMAT assessment test.

I started one Manhattan CAT in the morning and quitted it after 1 hour...
Comparing to Princeton the Math Section was so damn hard..
Just finished the next one (completely ) few minutes ago and recognized that the test is scored differently?
Difficult questions seem to occur earlier in the Manhattan CATs than they do in the PRs, dont they? So the testtaker can do more mistakes for a good score.
680 (Q47,V35) - 90% (81%,77%)

need to learn...

Math
- DO NOT try to SOLVE EVERY problem, sometimes plugging in is so easy... (esp. formulas)
- GUESS intelligent instead of restart solving a complex question
- learn the damn vocabulary to understand the math questions ^^

Hope to become much faster there...

Verbal
- Stop thinking tooooo hard
- get the main idea BEFORE reading the answer choices
- get the assumption(s) before...
- vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary

Maybe I will do the next CAT tomorrow in the morning, hopefully I wont quit again .

Best regards and thanks for all the tips,

mowie

great going mowie...680 is fantastic considering you still probably have sometime to your gMAT...and its awefully close to the 700+ mark.

becoming more confident but just 5 1/2 days left

becoming more confident

Keep up the confidence buddy! Even if u miss some questions from the CATS u r going to take instead of worrying about wat u missed, look at the conceptual takeaways from it so that if something similar does appear on your real test u willbe able to crack it where it really counts.

Confidence(not over confidence) almost always means + some points in GMAT.

Attack it with a free/uncluttered mind! Think positive for eg: that u r going to score in the 700's. After each question assume u did the previous one right (the score we are going to get cannot be changed in the sense t it depends on our performance that day within the 4 hours but our approach can be......) This will help u stay positive throught out the test and help u give 100% on each question.

Just my 2 cents on positivism.....

Gutes Glück mein Freund! Sie töten GMAT

Finished the first official GMATPrep with 750 (49/42).
Quant:
Lost a huge amount of time during the first quant questions. I got 13 incorrect (last 5, just not enough time left :/... If i had had guess one 7Minute question I would have made maybe 3 errors less...).
Verbal section:
Wrong answer first question (thinking too hard), but overall only 6 errors.
Hope to improve my quant, but I think that my verbal score was at least 2 or 3 points over ev.

It felt like the verbal part was easier than all I finished before. Maybe I would think a realistic result would be (49/40) or so. It is just impossible that I score 95 % verbal ^^.
It seems like I should learn almost exclusively Quant the last 3,5 days. I would really prefer 50/40 or even 50/39 to 49/x.
I will repeat the Princeton Review Math section and work through the Kaplan Math book today. Furthermore, I will start Kaplan 800 tomorrow. I hope it is enough time left to solve the math questions in this book.


Best regards,
mowie

@ logitech, really nice one

Final test result

730 ( 50 | 38 )

it was very hard for me to focus at the end

I had quant 30 minutes left for the last 6 questions... I thought I completely destroyed this part but 50 is ok. Overall I am not happy, but for sure I am not sad, so its ok .

Best regards and thanks for all the help

mowie