vikram4689 wrote:Thanks Neo, can you please give one example for SC as well. May your example will be turning point for me in SC (as it was in CR).

rishi raj wrote: GMAT SC is all about application of rules and understanding the meaning. Follow the same old thing-Read the options vertically, understand the meaning completely. Also watch out for those trigger words/phrases that will indicate whether there's a modifier or a parallelism error. If you do all this , SC should be your baby

neodante wrote:That sounds good. All the best. Do keep us updated and post here if you any issues. We'll try to help ya out

puritan wrote:Great tips for CR neodante. Do you have any such tips for RC. I am facing a lot of difficulty in Inference and function questions. What was your strategy for function questions ?

neodante wrote:I am veteran here on beatthegmat(maybe not in terms of the number of posts but for the sheer regularity with which I would visit beatthegmat and the duration I have been here for). Am finished with my GMAT today and got an adorable score of 760.To be honest, I wasn't expecting this much. I was aiming at 740 and the thought of targeting 760 did occur but I thought it's better to target a little lower and get higher and be happy instead of targeting higher, pressurizing oneself and eventually getting a low score.

Here's the break up of the scores;

Overall score - 760 - 94th percentile
Quant score - 50 - 93th percentile
Verbal score - 42 - 94th percentile.
Haven't got the AWA score yet but I think it should be above 4.5.

The stats above look nice, don't they? It's hard to believe that they are mine. As hard to believe as it gets when you know that you can't get a hot girl and suddenly you get one. ;-D

Target schools - ISB, NUS, NTU, HKUST

The journey began and abruptly ended...

I started my preparation around 8 months back. The preparation went well for 1 month but I got sick with typhoid and this kept me out off from the prep for around 3 months.
Finally, I started my preparation again in Dec 2011 so in all I roughly spent around 4 months in preparing which I think is the ideal amount of time.

Diagnostic test result before starting my preparation: 630 on GMATPREP1


Material used:...
I chose the material after seeing the recommendations here on the forum.
SC - Aristotle SC+ Manhattan sc .Liked both but found aristotle sc to be written in an easier way

CR - : Used CR Grail but since I work for a Big4 , critical reasoning came naturally to me. I just went a lot of articles of CR in the GMAT Library section in a systematic way and I knew that I was good to go. I went through the Manhattan CR book initially but didn't like their approach of making T-diagrams and all. It seems inane to me. Also I didn't see much point in reading a lot of theory on something which came naturally to me. I read that much theory that helped me recognize the type of questions and the strategies for tackling them.For rest commonsense rules.

RC- OG RCs+RC Grail passages. I think this should be sufficient.

Quant- Manhattan advanced quant guide for theory + aristotle ps and ds boosters for practice
OG 12 - did OG12 two times in a systematic manner.A book you simply can't do without.

Practice test scores:
Did the Manhattan test series. I think that the Maths section has too many difficult questions. I did all the 6 tests and got varying scores.
Got a 740 on GMATPREP1 a week before the exam
Got a 740 again on GMATPREP2 4 days before the exam.

Now the most important elements to get 700+

1. Getting familiar with the test center :I live in Ghaziabad which is a satellite city to Delhi and my test center was almost 2 hours from my home. I was a little anxious about the distance because I had never seen that area where the test center was. I went to check the test center one day before the exam date for two reasons -to avoid last minute tension and second avoid last day study. You may not want to do this if you live closeby otherwise I think it makes sense to do it.
2. No study in the run up to the exam :Take at least 3 days off from office before the exam date so that you can unwind. Also don't keep any word pending in the office because this will psychologically disturb you,even though in a small way.You want to ensure that no unwanted thoughts clutter your mind as you take the test.

3. Relaxation is critical to victory: I think beyond a point, studies can't help you at all and the best thing you can do is to not study at all. Also while going to the test center on the test day, I put a relaxing Tibetan incantation Om mani padme hum. That chant really calmed me down as it always does.

4. Concentrating too hard during the exam?Think again Do not concentrate too hard during the exam. This may seem a bit contrarian but trust me this is important. If you concentrate too hard on the exam, either you'll get a headache or your anxiety level will shoot northwards. You need to give your brain "breathing space" otherwise it will simply not work the way you would want it to.

5. Assessing your performance during the exam. Avoid It: Do not try to assess how you are performing on the exam WHILE you are taking the exam. I cannot overemphasize this. We have a tendency to constantly think/judge/evaluate our performance on the last few questions and we tend to guess our score . Doing both of these things can prove fatal.

6. Stay relaxed :Things are bound to be different on the actual GMAT. There will a certain ups and downs during the exam. Take them in your stride and keep going.

7. Enjoy the exam. This simple yet important tip I read here on the forums helped me a lot. It's easier said than done but try to enjoy the whole GMAT experience rather than considering it to be a burden and you will feel that during the exam you will be able to focus better. In fact, enjoy the entire process of preparation.As goes one famous quote
'Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating'

neodante wrote:
RC is all about practice. I did OG13 and Aristotle RCs and I think i did a total of around 60-70 passages. This doesn't include the ones i did during the practice tests. So i think practice works in RC.
Functions questions are not very difficult- ask yourself "Why" and for inference questions, ask yourself "What" and you should be able to get them correct

ashok27 wrote:

neodante wrote:
RC is all about practice. I did OG13 and Aristotle RCs and I think i did a total of around 60-70 passages. This doesn't include the ones i did during the practice tests. So i think practice works in RC.
Functions questions are not very difficult- ask yourself "Why" and for inference questions, ask yourself "What" and you should be able to get them correct

I've a lil different opinion here. I think RC is very difficult to improve. One develops his reading habits and breadth of knowledge on different areas over a long period of time. Am I saying practice doesn't help? It does. But it can help you go from say 60% to 70-80% accuracy but not from 40% to 80%.