From 620 (q36, V40) to 720 (q49, V40;) AWA from 5 to 6!!

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Hey everyone,

This may prove helpful for those who have struggled with Quant. Untypical of other Indians I have seen blog here and on other sites, I have traditionally been very strong at English and weak in Math/Quant. Sure enough, in my first attempt in August 2007 I scored a 620 (q36, v40). As you can see from the split, my quant score was pathetic.

I knew that if I continued to harbor my MBA dreams, my math skills and specifically GMAT quant skills needed to improve substantially. That said, I did no prep work whasoever upto Januray 2009.

For my quant prep, I knew that the standard quant material - OG, Kaplan and Princeton would not suffice. I needed to get back to the basics. Yet, I did not want to waste precious time revising basic concepts that would not be tested on the GMAT. That is where I found this Quant series (a set of 4 books) on a site called 4GMATin January this year.

I am not here to advertise on their behalf. All I will say is that the material in those 4 books - 2 topic wise books that cover the basics, I book containing DS speed tests and I containing PS tests - made me feel extremely confident leading up to the test.

I did not pay any attention to my verbal the second time around and that explains the static scaled score of 40! That said, with a total of 720 I am extremely pleased and the perfect 6 in the AWA was an icing on the cake.

My profile in brief. 27 year old India male (married). 5 years of management consulting experience ; pathetic undergraduate scores (Eco, Delhi University). Am hoping my GMAT score and work experience help make up for my hopeless undergrad scores!

Any non IT/Engineering background Indian (or other National) struggling with Quant, I recommend checking the 4GMAT material on their site.

Cheers

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by karmayogi » Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:27 am
Congrats. Great turn around in 3 months. Which all colleges you are targetting at?
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divine within.
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by ahuria15 » Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:59 pm
Thanks. Am applying to INSEAD and HEC Paris for the Jan 2010 intake and LBS, Oxford SAID, Cambridge Judge, Cranfield and Manchester for the Sep 2010 intake.

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by rajibgmat » Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:52 pm
Dude...impressive score.

Unlike you, I am very poor in Verbal(my prev scores in Verbal were 23 and 23 resp) whereas I am very good in quanta(scored 49 and 46 resp) in two attempts of GMAT.

Now dear, if you can tell me why do you think you are good in Verbal or how do you manage to get a score of 40. I will pay anything to get a score of 40. I have all kinds of books recommended for Verbal. Can you tell me something which can help me skyrocket my Verbal. Sometimes I feel there is no way I can do better in Verbal, Any direction in this regard will be a huge help for me.

Thanks.
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by mjjking » Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:57 pm
Rajib, it takes a looot of practice to get a 40 on verbal, but practice on everyday life level. Read american-english newspapers, and try to analyze the reasoning behind every question on the OG guides. That's what helped me the most!
Good luck, and congrats on your score ahuria!! :)
Last edited by mjjking on Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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REAL THING 1 (AUG 2007): 680 (Q43, V40)
REAL THING 2 (APR 2009): 720 (Q47, V41)

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Hi

by prasantnaidu » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:09 am
@Rajib: have u read sc guide from manhattan. i think they have dissected each topic and explained very well to understand. I am improving my skills from there. So thought of telling you.All the best

@ahuria15: great score and all the very best for ur applications.

Keep Rocking,
Prasant.
You don't win the Silver, You lose the GOLD.

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by ahuria15 » Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:07 pm
Thanks guys.

Rajib. To echo what mjking said, it takes a lot of practice in everyday life as well to get a really good verbal score. As I stated in my first post - I have traditionally been very good at verbal - from winning essay prizes in school, scoring a 92% in both my board exams in English (ICSE and ISC) to winning debates in school and college. To top that my work predominantly revolves around writing research reports in American English for senior executives.

Have you anaylyzed what you have struggled with the most (in Verbal)?

On a generic level, here is what I can add/suggest:

1) Read articles from american-english newspapers and magazines everyday (FT, Times. Washington Post, NY Times and the one I consider to be top-nocth - the Economist)
2) Echoing Prashantnaidu - Use the Manhattan SC guide. Presonally, I did not use this guide but a number of my friends who were struggling with SC on the GMAT recommend this guide
3) For CR and RC, remember that the GMAT tests scope more than anything (my view). Everytime you get stuck between 2-3 options, ask yourself what is out of scope? Typically, the most obvious answer (which comes across as so straightforward at times that you tend to think it can not be this option because this option states something so obvious) is the correct one.

All the best for your verbal in the next GMAT. Am pretty sure you will be able to raise your verbal score considerably.