Was able to finish Quant with 10 minutes to spare. I wish I had taken more care and utilized my time more wisely instead. Quant was very easy. I would say, it was very similar to GMAT Prep math, in terms of difficulty. No Permutation and Combination questions. Lot of number properties, algebra, statistics & geometry questions.
Regarding verbal, I ended up spending more time on passages than I expected. I knew, being a non native English speaker, RCs were always going to be a challenge for me. So, I planned to skip 1 long RC somewhere in the middle of the section, just to ensure that I finish the whole section on time. But, instead, I found the RCs interesting. So, I kept reading and before I realized, I was left with 10 questions and only 15 minutes. I just narrowed down answers to the last 6 questions to 2 best contenders per question and picked one randomly (best educated guess).
AWA was not difficult at all.
I thought I messed up the verbal and was expecting a score of around 690, with Q50 and V34 or V33, but instead, a 730 score appeared from no where. I believe this is only because of 2 reasons. I must have answered most of the first few questions correctly, and I must have answered a good percentage of 700 level questions correct. Regarding math, I believe I under performed by getting only Q49. I am more of a Q50 or Q51 kind of a guy. I also believe that luck & being in the right mood also play their part for every test taker. They both could make a difference of about +/-30 points easily. Staying composed, as oppose to getting anxious or nervous could itself boost the total score by 30 points.
Regrading practice material............
Real GMAT Verbal Quality - Slightly higher than GMAT Prep and slightly lower than Kaplan CATs. The key feature of real GMAT is that the SCs in Verbal are much lengthier than what the practice tests offer (the difficulty level will be similar to what is described in the above sentence, but length is different). So, it all depends on how we handle it adeptly.
Real GMAT Quant Quality - very similar to GMAT Prep. Much easier than MGMAT CATs
Scoring system - Much liberal than Kaplan CATs(add about 100 points to your Kaplan CAT scores). Similar to MGMAt CATs and GMAT Prep Cats (exception being the fact that on MGMAT CATs the quant section is much harder. So one can add about 40-50 points to the eventual scores on the MGMAT CATs)
Even though I managed 730, I don't feel too thrilled, as I see lot of people on this post achieving similar scores. So, not sure if this is a true achievement.
- My verbal score of V39, which is below V40 concerns me.
- Also of concern is my age, 31 years. Not sure if schools even admit people with this age.
- Nothing outstanding regarding Extra Curricular activities.
But things in my favor are..
- Good undergraduate and graduate performance and GPA.
- Masters in Electrical Engineering from a top 30 school in USA
- Working in the field of Wireless Communications, both design, development, manufacturing and sales
- I am at a Directorial level and manage a division of a small private company.
- Progressed well in my career, displaying plenty of leadership, street smartness and creativity
I plan to apply for Top 5 schools, but not sure how realistic of a goal this is considering my age and score. Please feel free to comment and I hope my debrief is also of some help to potential test takers. I definitely got benefited from this forum. Good luck folks
Regarding verbal, I ended up spending more time on passages than I expected. I knew, being a non native English speaker, RCs were always going to be a challenge for me. So, I planned to skip 1 long RC somewhere in the middle of the section, just to ensure that I finish the whole section on time. But, instead, I found the RCs interesting. So, I kept reading and before I realized, I was left with 10 questions and only 15 minutes. I just narrowed down answers to the last 6 questions to 2 best contenders per question and picked one randomly (best educated guess).
AWA was not difficult at all.
I thought I messed up the verbal and was expecting a score of around 690, with Q50 and V34 or V33, but instead, a 730 score appeared from no where. I believe this is only because of 2 reasons. I must have answered most of the first few questions correctly, and I must have answered a good percentage of 700 level questions correct. Regarding math, I believe I under performed by getting only Q49. I am more of a Q50 or Q51 kind of a guy. I also believe that luck & being in the right mood also play their part for every test taker. They both could make a difference of about +/-30 points easily. Staying composed, as oppose to getting anxious or nervous could itself boost the total score by 30 points.
Regrading practice material............
Real GMAT Verbal Quality - Slightly higher than GMAT Prep and slightly lower than Kaplan CATs. The key feature of real GMAT is that the SCs in Verbal are much lengthier than what the practice tests offer (the difficulty level will be similar to what is described in the above sentence, but length is different). So, it all depends on how we handle it adeptly.
Real GMAT Quant Quality - very similar to GMAT Prep. Much easier than MGMAT CATs
Scoring system - Much liberal than Kaplan CATs(add about 100 points to your Kaplan CAT scores). Similar to MGMAt CATs and GMAT Prep Cats (exception being the fact that on MGMAT CATs the quant section is much harder. So one can add about 40-50 points to the eventual scores on the MGMAT CATs)
Even though I managed 730, I don't feel too thrilled, as I see lot of people on this post achieving similar scores. So, not sure if this is a true achievement.
- My verbal score of V39, which is below V40 concerns me.
- Also of concern is my age, 31 years. Not sure if schools even admit people with this age.
- Nothing outstanding regarding Extra Curricular activities.
But things in my favor are..
- Good undergraduate and graduate performance and GPA.
- Masters in Electrical Engineering from a top 30 school in USA
- Working in the field of Wireless Communications, both design, development, manufacturing and sales
- I am at a Directorial level and manage a division of a small private company.
- Progressed well in my career, displaying plenty of leadership, street smartness and creativity
I plan to apply for Top 5 schools, but not sure how realistic of a goal this is considering my age and score. Please feel free to comment and I hope my debrief is also of some help to potential test takers. I definitely got benefited from this forum. Good luck folks
