I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello Everybody,

I have not appeared for GMAT, but I have been reading this section of the site regularly. I have always got some valuable inputs from the guys who have beaten GMAT or have been beaten by the GMAT. I have been preparing for the exam since the last 3 months. I started my preparation fro Kaplan Premier Program and OG 11. I have always scored decently in the Math section, but today I appeared for my first GMAT prep test and to be honest I am completely devastated by the level of Math questions. Its way too tough from the questions given in OG 11, the questions were close to Kaplan Math questions. I read a post on this site, that OG is a bible for Verbal but Quantitative section is not close to real GMAT.

My practice test results are –

******************************************************************************************************
(Note all these are number of questions answered correctly not the section score)

Princeton Test 1 – Q31, V27 (Never got an overall score on Princeton)
Princeton Test 2 – Q30, V26
Princeton Test 3 – Q29, V27
Kaplan Test 1 – Q26, V24 (Don’t remember the overall score)
800 Score Test 1 – Q28, V27
800 Score Test 2 – Q28, V28

******************************************************************************************************


On all of the practice questions of Kaplan or OG, I have always scored appx. 80%. I am sort of losing confidence in Quantitative section after today’s practice exam. I was able to only get 21 questions correct in the quantitative section. My total score was – GMAT Prep 1 - 490 (Q24, V34).

I would request you guys to tell me whether OG’s quantitative section is close to real GMAT or not? Also, can you guide some good material for line number properties, standard deviation and geometry please? Is GMAT math bible a good resource to improve math score?

Look forward for help from you guys.

Regards,
Vikas

A couple of things

a) Kaplan is WAY! harder than the real stuff - so if you've not done too well on it - just see where you went wrong and move on

b) Princeton is relatively similar to gmat stuff - they claim to have a SD of 30.

c) Ive seen that MGMAT maths problems are stellar. You should either buy the series ( costs about USD 25 ) or go to their online forum and just start seeing other people's problems - thats a great way to learn..

74 Views but just one reply....Come on guys...need your inputs.

Thanks for the help Sumit.

I would request you guys to tell me whether OG’s quantitative section is close to real GMAT or not? Also, can you guide some good material for line number properties, standard deviation and geometry please? Is GMAT math bible a good resource to improve math score?

I thought the real test was way harder than OG quant. I have found the GMATClub Tests/Challenges to be quite useful.

Hi,
Let me be honest with you,you will need to get MGMAT maths on number properties and to understand the basics to do well on maths section of GMAT.I did not use MGMAT books except the Sentence Correction one.But my cousin did and he got 51 on the quantitative.
If you are short of cash,try this alternative site.
https://www.purplemath.com/modules/index.htm

Dont spend too much time on Permutation Combination,probabilty,and mixture.They are not common but you will need to know the basics incase one crops up. Inequality,average,mean median,rate,ratio and function are common on GMAT.


Verbal,
Get MGMAT SC

I encourage you to do GMATPREP 3 times each. The quantitative section has a huge question base.You may not see many repeat questions.But the verbal questiosn in the GMATPREP are somewhat limited after two attempts.(Dont waste these practice questions unless you have studied to asseess your progress).If you have any trouble understanding any quantitative question in the GMATPREP,search the forum throughly.
peruse why you get some questions wrong after each test and you will see a paradigm in the way GMAT sets questions

After you have known the basics,you can start to work on the Kaplan 800 or the last 75 questions of the OG11 and the supplements.

I am not an expert but just my two cents.
If you need some materials to study,PM and i will be happy to help.
Good luck

Hi John,

Thanks for the info. I have heard quite a few good things about MGMAT books as well as about the practice tests. However, I have Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook which covers all the basic fundamentals. Do you recommend this for revising the fundamentals?

To be honest I feel this score is not reflective of my math capabilities. I have always scored well in Quantitative section.

Thanks,
Vikas

I think my plan would be to evaluate each and every problem of GMAT Prep 1. After that I'll start with OG11

john1234 wrote:Hi,
Let me be honest with you,you will need to get MGMAT maths on number properties and to understand the basics to do well on maths section of GMAT.I did not use MGMAT books except the Sentence Correction one.But my cousin did and he got 51 on the quantitative.
If you are short of cash,try this alternative site.
https://www.purplemath.com/modules/index.htm

Dont spend too much time on Permutation Combination,probabilty,and mixture.They are not common but you will need to know the basics incase one crops up. Inequality,average,mean median,rate,ratio and function are common on GMAT.


Verbal,
Get MGMAT SC

I encourage you to do GMATPREP 3 times each. The quantitative section has a huge question base.You may not see many repeat questions.But the verbal questiosn in the GMATPREP are somewhat limited after two attempts.(Dont waste these practice questions unless you have studied to asseess your progress).If you have any trouble understanding any quantitative question in the GMATPREP,search the forum throughly.
peruse why you get some questions wrong after each test and you will see a paradigm in the way GMAT sets questions

After you have known the basics,you can start to work on the Kaplan 800 or the last 75 questions of the OG11 and the supplements.

I am not an expert but just my two cents.
If you need some materials to study,PM and i will be happy to help.
Good luck

Couple of things


a) If you have the Kaplan books - have you solved them completely? Having books doesn't help - solving problems and finding mistakes do ( Sorry if I am coming across as rude here - but its a fact. Even I used to think oh I have kaplan bla ble - but eh! nothing solved - nothing learned) - if you've solved ( and hopefully aced) the kaplan books - then you are be certain your quant skills are good.

b) Give the Free Manhattan Gmat test - the free one at least. Just the Quant sections - it'll give you some indication as per what your quant skills are.

c) Finally, give Kaplan 800 a shot - its the toughest terrain you'll walk on your way to a 51 ( or 52 ) on quant.

d) Finally, your maths skills might be stellar, but do they lose their luster when compared against thousands of other students (Essentially, what I'm saying is that you might be able to solve complex multi variable triple integrals, but might not be able to find or might take too long to find the sign of Y where where |x-3+3-22X^-22*X^1/2| = y)

Hope this helps

Sumit

Hi Sumit,

You are not being rude at all. After completing OG and Kaplan, I took PR tests and I think they are way too easy and do not reflect the real GMAT at all. I'm going to start Kaplan again and revise all the funda's again.
Will also give a MGMAT.

Thanks for the help.
Vikas

sumithshah wrote:Couple of things


a) If you have the Kaplan books - have you solved them completely? Having books doesn't help - solving problems and finding mistakes do ( Sorry if I am coming across as rude here - but its a fact. Even I used to think oh I have kaplan bla ble - but eh! nothing solved - nothing learned) - if you've solved ( and hopefully aced) the kaplan books - then you are be certain your quant skills are good.

b) Give the Free Manhattan Gmat test - the free one at least. Just the Quant sections - it'll give you some indication as per what your quant skills are.

c) Finally, give Kaplan 800 a shot - its the toughest terrain you'll walk on your way to a 51 ( or 52 ) on quant.

d) Finally, your maths skills might be stellar, but do they lose their luster when compared against thousands of other students (Essentially, what I'm saying is that you might be able to solve complex multi variable triple integrals, but might not be able to find or might take too long to find the sign of Y where where |x-3+3-22X^-22*X^1/2| = y)

Hope this helps

Sumit

Also, if you are re going through the material ( essentially that would mean you did not learn 100% of the things when you read the material earlier), try spending 30 mins on thinking over the new stuff you've learn t - so basically, test if you did learn something or just went over everything w/o consuming it
(tasting and spitting it away vs actually chewing, griding and eventually digesting it)

I have just given a MGMAT practice test (just for quantitative) and my section score is 42. Is the score of MGMAT exams reflective of real GMAT??

Vikas,

I just completed MGMAT classroom course, and they claim that your real GMAT is plus/minus 50 points from your overall MGMAT CAT scores.

tripathimani wrote:Vikas,

I just completed MGMAT classroom course, and they claim that your real GMAT is plus/minus 50 points from your overall MGMAT CAT scores.

Plus is ok...minus :roll:

mehravikas wrote:I have just given a MGMAT practice test (just for quantitative) and my section score is 42. Is the score of MGMAT exams reflective of real GMAT??

I scored 670-710 or less on every MGMAT test I took (took three) and 730-760 on every GMAT PREP I did. I scored a 760 on actual test.

For some, MGMAT does give accurate scores, however my experience was that its not a true depiction, although it is good practice.

Read the MGMAT SC Guide as many times as you can, that was the biggest element of my score (that included a V47).