I just Beat The GMAT!

sumanr84 wrote:Oh..so Hardik was also there..Hardik planned and executed GMAT in a really nice fashion.

So, Are you going to try any new material this time ? When are you aiming the 2nd attempt ?

Arorabhai...i am also sailing in the same boat.. i am not planning a retake this year...BECAUSE 50 points jump would be a big thing, considering the verbal getting tougher and i don't wana miss the R1 deadlines.

Boss definitely dont feel bad about your score.
Its a good score, maybe you would have liked better, but its a very solid score.

I took my GMAT 2 weeks ago.

I will echo what you said and say that mine did not have much geometry on it. I scored 45 in Quants with only about 2 weeks of Quant study (reading and questions), out of my 10 week study time. I used only Kaplan Math Review only which actually didnt have any on Permutation and Combinations on it. It was a necessity tho, since I knew my study time was going to be short.

I got 4 reading passages ... 2 of them had 4 questions each. My 3rd passage was ridiculusly long, longer then in any MGMAT Prep i've done.

I started my Verbal Amazingly well (for me, it was likely better then I did on any previous test), since I saw "question types" that I rarely ever saw (only once) on my Manhattan Preps. I prolly peaked my verbal score right before the 3rd passage.

Verbal on GMAT is essentially on par with GMAT Prep, but harder then MGMAT

Hi Nishant

You should not be disheartened..

Once you get a decent verbal you will be soaring in high 7...

Nishant can you give some advice on Quants section though.

I am going through MGMAT quant books and doing OG questions.

People say OG questions are easier ..

Once done with OG.

If i take GMAT prep tests and MGMAT Cats should this be sufficient for Quant??

Or do i need to go through any other material?

For the questions in the forum i am not so sure about the source and difficulty level.

Cheers!!

sumanr84 wrote:Oh..so Hardik was also there..Hardik planned and executed GMAT in a really nice fashion.

So, Are you going to try any new material this time ? When are you aiming the 2nd attempt ?

Well.. I have registered for Grockit, would like to go thru everything which i went thru a bit differently,
I guess I would like to give lot many tests before the real thing... so will be in search for good tests...
This time on.. I had MGMAT and Kaplan old CD which I had gone thru...
I hope GMATPrep has a new software pretty soon.....
As far as the dates are concerned... well... I will not be taking them soon... will decide upon test date a day or two before the exam! These 4-5 days I have been taking it easy.. and not logging in to BTG or doing anything regarding GMAT or MBA...
Will come back stronger.. then we shall hunt down the tiger!

arora007 wrote: Will come back stronger.. then we shall hunt down the tiger!

you'd for certain....just don't delay it for too long

Suman not going for a retake soon..
not nikhil too...
Arora has late plans for taking gmat...

So, grt members will still be around...
Keep up the good work guys!!

Hey Arora,

First off, congratulations on a 670, which is no easy feat...I think it's important for all of us with significantly-above-700 aspirations to remember that scoring in the 84th percentile on the GMAT is impressive - that's better than 84% of an already-successful group! The average person doesn't sit for a graduate admissions test...to even sit for it signifies that you're significantly above average academically, and to score that high in a range of such people is something that you should be able to take some pride in!

Now, that said...I know you're interested in and capable of an even-higher score, so let's set sights even higher! A few thoughts:

1) Be confident - you admittedly struggled in spots, felt some real stress, and still came out of it with a strong score. 670 is your baseline now, which should provide you with the confidence to overcome that stress and pressure next time out. One of my most devastating life experiences was when I was on pace to qualify for the Boston Marathon for the first 20 miles of a race and then crashed and burned the last 6...until a day or two later when I realized that I was incredibly close to that goal. I ran that pace for 20 miles, and could better train and strategize to keep it up for 6 measly miles more. Six weeks later I did, mainly because of the confidence that that first "failure" gave me.

2) Another confidence-builder is that hopefully you recognize now that there's no great way to gauge your difficulty levels on the test, so don't waste energy on it. If you're waiting anxiously for one of the "hard" problem types (Boldfaced CR, Permutations/Combinations, etc.), it may not come, but that doesn't mean you're not doing well...you may just have been hit with similarly-difficult problems in other genres. One of my favorite examples of it is this one: https://blog.veritasprep.com/2009/03/gma ... -week.html. This student was so convinced that she bombed the quant that she literally couldn't function during the verbal...and ended up over 90th percentile on the quant with an awful verbal score that rendered all of her great work on the quant moot. Stay upbeat and you'll probably surprise yourself with how well you're actually doing.

3) If you can get your hands on our Critical Reasoning 2 book (available on Amazon and I think now on the iPad and Kindle if I'm not mistaken), it goes through a lot of strategy on some of the "new difficulty" questions - "best completes the passage"; "which would be most useful to evaluate"; "assumption", etc. David@Veritasprep and I can't get enough of talking about those kinds of questions, so post those on here, too, and we'll chime in.

4) I've heard a lot of, as you said, the quant section focusing more on algebra and number properties and less on geometry than in prior years, so I think you're onto something. Keep in mind, also, that most geometry questions become algebra questions after 1-2 steps (e.g. Pythagorean Theorem, which is really all about the a^2 + b^2 = c^2 algebra once you've recognized the right triangle), so you'll never regret working on your algebra abilities!


Selfishly, I think we're all happy to have you on the boards for a little bit longer, so hopefully your first misstep will not only help to provide you with more confidence to maximize your score the next time out, but will also provide the rest of the community here with great dialogue and insight for everyone else's upcoming tests!

arora007 wrote:Alas! I am not a slumdog millionare, I have fallen with a big THUD! instead of a soft landing and applause!!

Got beaten by the GMAT, 49Q 31V add up to a 670 for me! GMAT Verbal proved to be my Nemesis.Can't say what single reason beat me in GMAT, probably it was the poor accuracy in the verbal section which worked against me, or was it the tension before the exam and lack of sound sleep or was it me getting worried as to why the Boldface was not appearing...or was it plain hard luck!!

Thanks to this wonderful forum(Eric & his team), The wonderful,wonderful help given by experts, especially Ian,Tani,Chris,Jose,Rich,Andrea,Ron,Stacey,Mitch,Brian is invaluable, The tons of quality practice material provided by GMATFix, Knewton, Grockit & e-GMAT amazing... that I have reached this far.

Right now I am sitting back and thinking what should be my next moves. Afterall I live on this earth and dream about the stars!!

Update: AWA 5.0

hi arora...

just read ur post. hey nothing to worry....670 is a good score with AWA 5....i can say this as i also recd. 660 with AWA 5. Since then i have been speaking to a lot of consultants and other people, who have worked wonders with such scores..GMAT scores are not the only criteria for selection...ur profile, nicely drafted essays and good recommendations are also considered when u apply to B Schools....so just don't worry and start working on applications, if you do not intend to write GMAT again.....

@nikhilkatira dude... keep preparing for GMAT... you never know, you might start peaking...

@The Duke thanks mate... i am sure you will do well since you have the taste of the real thing now...

@anirudhsaraf7 well.. it would depend on what kind of score you targeting... I did the same but I got a 49, now there is a big difference between a 49 and a 51. I guess there is lots of free material around...one free resource I keep discussing is
https://www.khanacademy.org/gmat . I guess you can try Kaplan tests / material. They also have a good difficulty level. Strangely I got a 50 on Kaplan(old cd, which did have tough questions) 3 out of 4 times. Yet a 49 in the real test.

@gmatrix thanks man!! sure my GMAT retake is not very far off...

@adi_800 Haha... adi... surely not This time I am going to surprise everybody!! pretty soon...
btw all the best for your GMAT, 31st Aug is it??

@Brian@VeritasPrep

Thanks Brian Amazing post!! After reading through this post I not only have invaluable insights for my GMAT retake, but also gives wonderful ideas about how our essays should be.
When I put myself in the shoes of the Ad-Comm and see... here is one person who overcame his failures and came out a winner in Life ( not just the "Boston Marathon") I would surely like this person on Board!

I too hope to come out winning in the run for a good GMAT score, and perhaps be handpicked by the Best B-Schools around!

@neha.patni thanks neha, i guess I will give my GMAT again, as well as start the application process.... the formula would be the old one... few top-tier few middle-tier and few a bit lower down the ranking... I wish I had got a good score with my GMAT in this attempt itself, afterall I could have put in my energies and time in things more important. My applications, my work and social causes!

Hey 670 is not a bad score at all! It might not be the score you're looking for but at least it's something you can build on for your retake. You should know that most test takers actually retake at least once, so there's nothing to be sad about!