Hi,
I just took the GMAT and got a 640(q:42,v:35)
Unlike many of the B-school aspirants here i'm actually applying to an International Relations program at Tufts university. The decision to apply for the program earlier than i planned to came amidst a setback at work regarding immigration issues , I'm an international student(Indian) who grew up in the Middle East with two Bachelor degrees in Engineering from a US university and currently working for a top Technology company in chicago as part of an optional practial training program. So in the last 4 weeks I've had to juggle wrapping up my affairs here, moving and vacating my apartment, studying for the GMAT and college applications.
Since i'm new to this whole thing i would like some feedback, I think 640 is decent considering the other stuff going on in the space of my time crunch. A lot of people here have 700+ scores, Is 640 good enough for admission to a graduate IR program ? Is it a good score overall?(Tufts university is ranked as having one one of the top IR schools in the nation) I know everyone here is a MBA aspirant but if you have any insight to this i would really appreciate it.
Anyways here's my strategy for anybody who's in a time crunch. I didn't get a 700+ but I hope this helps anyway.
Materials:
Kaplan comprehensive 2008
OG 11th edition
Strategy,
At first i proceeded to do all the problems in the Kaplan book this gave me an idea with regards to the type of questions and some detailed strategy to tackle the GMAT monster. Once i completed the very few practice questions. I decided to take the GMATprep exam to get a diagnostic and ended up with a measly 460 or 480. I have trouble focussing and this ate away at my time limit as a result i had to guess 20 questions in each section
I then came upon the site and read Erics and Mayonaisse's posts on how they beat the GMAT, I took their advice and bought the OG and proceeded to practice every question in the book. My goal was atleast 80 questions a day. Unfortunately this led me to sacrifice quality for quantity but it helped me get the fundamentals right. I also tried to do every 10 q in Q in the space of 20 mins. In retrospect this wasn't very wise as this again caused me to sacrifice quality instead of familiarising myself with the problems.
I did this for two weeks, The last 5 days i proceeded to take practice tests
These were my test scores
Princeton Prep Free test: 600
MGMAT TEST 1: Q: 35 (i skipped the verbal)
MGMAT TEST 2: 580
MGMAT TEST 3: 600
GMATPrep1: 680 (this was a great booster)
GMATPrep2: 660 (I saw a lot of repeats)
MGMAT TEST 4: 580 (Did this in the last day)
I skimmed through the AWA about 0.5 hr before i went to bed the day before the test.
My test day was interesting, I wasn't that nervous as practicing all those CATS by visualizing them as the actual test helped me out here. When i pulled up the address in my email i realised i had to get there 0.5 hr prior to the test so i had to rush, luckily it was close. I then proceeded to go through the red tape and once that was done I went to get my materials and was sent back to my locker 6 TIMES before the test thanks to a crabby old hag who didn't know how to read a passport and acted more like an immigration officer recruit and took offense to a key as a potential object to cheat !!! she also believed that drivers licenses were not enough to id somebody even after the lady at the front desk had ok'ed it after I had shown her my passport.
AWA was ok, Like I said I have trouble focussing so almost ran out of time although i do write some mean essays and i think i nailed it. I thought i did pretty bad in Q as i guessed about 5 questions and blind guessed 3 and this kinda bummed me out for verbal.
Suprisingly I got a higher Q score and a lower V score then i was used to. I just saw the score shrugged and left. I did what i could do as the app deadline is Jan 15th, so even though i was aiming for a 650 or 660. This was ok didn't depress me or anything of that sort.
Anyways, thats the story. My advice would be to really focus on getting your quality right while practicing from the OG and use the CATs to get your timing right. The MGMAT and GMAT prep are close to accurate indicators going by Stacy's estimate of the standard deviation (50 for MGMAT, 20 for GMATprep) MGMAT has challenging Q questions however doing them will give you a confidence boost when you see the relatively simpler questions on the actual GMAT CAT.
Also, a big Thanks to Eric, Stacy,Mayonaisse and all the moderators and the folks who posted their strategies in 'I BEAT THE GMAT'. They were no doubt a great morale booster.
Good luck
I just took the GMAT and got a 640(q:42,v:35)
Unlike many of the B-school aspirants here i'm actually applying to an International Relations program at Tufts university. The decision to apply for the program earlier than i planned to came amidst a setback at work regarding immigration issues , I'm an international student(Indian) who grew up in the Middle East with two Bachelor degrees in Engineering from a US university and currently working for a top Technology company in chicago as part of an optional practial training program. So in the last 4 weeks I've had to juggle wrapping up my affairs here, moving and vacating my apartment, studying for the GMAT and college applications.
Since i'm new to this whole thing i would like some feedback, I think 640 is decent considering the other stuff going on in the space of my time crunch. A lot of people here have 700+ scores, Is 640 good enough for admission to a graduate IR program ? Is it a good score overall?(Tufts university is ranked as having one one of the top IR schools in the nation) I know everyone here is a MBA aspirant but if you have any insight to this i would really appreciate it.
Anyways here's my strategy for anybody who's in a time crunch. I didn't get a 700+ but I hope this helps anyway.
Materials:
Kaplan comprehensive 2008
OG 11th edition
Strategy,
At first i proceeded to do all the problems in the Kaplan book this gave me an idea with regards to the type of questions and some detailed strategy to tackle the GMAT monster. Once i completed the very few practice questions. I decided to take the GMATprep exam to get a diagnostic and ended up with a measly 460 or 480. I have trouble focussing and this ate away at my time limit as a result i had to guess 20 questions in each section
I then came upon the site and read Erics and Mayonaisse's posts on how they beat the GMAT, I took their advice and bought the OG and proceeded to practice every question in the book. My goal was atleast 80 questions a day. Unfortunately this led me to sacrifice quality for quantity but it helped me get the fundamentals right. I also tried to do every 10 q in Q in the space of 20 mins. In retrospect this wasn't very wise as this again caused me to sacrifice quality instead of familiarising myself with the problems.
I did this for two weeks, The last 5 days i proceeded to take practice tests
These were my test scores
Princeton Prep Free test: 600
MGMAT TEST 1: Q: 35 (i skipped the verbal)
MGMAT TEST 2: 580
MGMAT TEST 3: 600
GMATPrep1: 680 (this was a great booster)
GMATPrep2: 660 (I saw a lot of repeats)
MGMAT TEST 4: 580 (Did this in the last day)
I skimmed through the AWA about 0.5 hr before i went to bed the day before the test.
My test day was interesting, I wasn't that nervous as practicing all those CATS by visualizing them as the actual test helped me out here. When i pulled up the address in my email i realised i had to get there 0.5 hr prior to the test so i had to rush, luckily it was close. I then proceeded to go through the red tape and once that was done I went to get my materials and was sent back to my locker 6 TIMES before the test thanks to a crabby old hag who didn't know how to read a passport and acted more like an immigration officer recruit and took offense to a key as a potential object to cheat !!! she also believed that drivers licenses were not enough to id somebody even after the lady at the front desk had ok'ed it after I had shown her my passport.
AWA was ok, Like I said I have trouble focussing so almost ran out of time although i do write some mean essays and i think i nailed it. I thought i did pretty bad in Q as i guessed about 5 questions and blind guessed 3 and this kinda bummed me out for verbal.
Suprisingly I got a higher Q score and a lower V score then i was used to. I just saw the score shrugged and left. I did what i could do as the app deadline is Jan 15th, so even though i was aiming for a 650 or 660. This was ok didn't depress me or anything of that sort.
Anyways, thats the story. My advice would be to really focus on getting your quality right while practicing from the OG and use the CATs to get your timing right. The MGMAT and GMAT prep are close to accurate indicators going by Stacy's estimate of the standard deviation (50 for MGMAT, 20 for GMATprep) MGMAT has challenging Q questions however doing them will give you a confidence boost when you see the relatively simpler questions on the actual GMAT CAT.
Also, a big Thanks to Eric, Stacy,Mayonaisse and all the moderators and the folks who posted their strategies in 'I BEAT THE GMAT'. They were no doubt a great morale booster.
Good luck
