I just Beat The GMAT!

emrahercan wrote:mgross,

760 speaks for itself! Don't worry about the AWA - I just had a 1-on-1 conversation with UCLA Adcom and he told me that AWA is just a check up to see if somebody actually wrote their essays. So in your case - you are fine bro! Just dont apply with Essays that could be rated 4.5!

Hi emrahercan,

Thank you very much for your post. I have heard similar information from other sources and am now a lot more comfortable with my score. I will let you know how it plays out in a year when I apply to schools.

-mgross

dilipbobby wrote:HI i have OG quant review with me it has 170 proble solving questions and around 120 data sufficiency questions. , is it the same quant book from which u studied, i jst wrote the test 2 days back so i realy want to improve in quant within 30 days please help me , and if the quant book is different then how much does it cost, please reply ASAP

If it has a green cover, then it is the right quant book. By your description, it sounds like it is right. Other than that, get the Orange full Official Guide book and use the GMAT Prep software. Good luck.

-mgross

I know this post is pretty old, but the information is pure gold. This was a fantastic post mrgross, thanks a lot for putting it up. Cheers.

kageman wrote:I know this post is pretty old, but the information is pure gold. This was a fantastic post mrgross, thanks a lot for putting it up. Cheers.

No problem at all - I am happy you appreciate it.

Great score and great de-brief mgross......Congratulations for a wonderful score

Thank you. Your timing strategy proved invaluable - made a huge difference to my confidence and score. Cheers!

mgross wrote:So I just found out my AWA was 4.5 and I am definitely not happy about this. I certainly thought I scored better than that, but I guess not. Will this significantly affect my ability to get into top schools? With a 760 and an AWA of 4.5, does anyone think that I should rewrite the GMAT?

I guess this means that people should not follow my AWA suggested strategy. Take it more seriously than I did and practice it at least 4 times.

Or, perhaps I should request a re-score. I think that it is worth the $45 and I think that there is a possibility that my score will increase, not decrease. At the very least I don't think that it could hurt. What do you guys think about this?

This might seem like a remarkable coincidence, but just after posting my own score in this forum, I found someone who got the same GMAT score (incl. AWA) as me. & here I was, asking if an AWA of 4.5 would screw my chances.

Yes, I also scored a 760 (although with a different split, Q51 & V41) & AWA 4.5

I was also quite disappointed with my AWA score & was considering the option of requesting a revaluation of my AWA essays.

But, from what I have read; & from what u have also written in subsequent posts in this thread, I guess its nothing to lose sleep over.

All the best mate... 760 + 4.5 rocks..!!!

Awesome score, awesome debrief and an awesome attitude to help people.
Way to go dude, Hats off.
All the best for your applications

Moderators can we have this thread as another sticky one ??

Mgross, you got an AWA score which is good enough. Don't loose sleep over this as you have a strong gmat score. IMO taking a re-take just for improving AWA score from 4.5 is not a great idea. However you can always opt for a re-score if you think that it would give you a corrected score of 5.5 or more.

eshahid wrote:Moderators can we have this thread as another sticky one ??

Mgross, you got an AWA score which is good enough. Don't loose sleep over this as you have a strong gmat score. IMO taking a re-take just for improving AWA score from 4.5 is not a great idea. However you can always opt for a re-score if you think that it would give you a corrected score of 5.5 or more.

Hi eshahid,

Thank you very much for requesting that this be a sticky - that is very kind. With respect to my AWA, I did a little bit of research and learned that it will likely not hurt my chances anywhere and that I should focus on my essays and applications rather than worry about a re-score or re-writing the GMAT. All-in-all, I am very happy with my GMAT score and with the support I received from this forum.

Hi,

Thanks for the post. I am thinking of taking my GMAT in March (giving myself enough time here). Online questions are a whole different ball game than paper questions. I get around 90% on my quant but online (out of the OG), I got a 60% online. I think it just comes with practice.


QUESTION -

>> You mentioned the GMAT Prep Quiz bank. How do you identify your weaknesses on verbal questions exactly? If I do a sample exam in the quiz bank, does it detail out which section sI ned to focus on? What about for the quant? I'd rather buy the quiz bank knowing that I'm going to be focusing on my weaknesses, given that I know how to find them.

Can you suggest any place to practice tough RCs? I would like to practice tough RCs so that I can get my speed up to a decent level. RC is so far my strong point but I take a lot of time in reading and understanding the passage. I would like to practice tough RCs so that I can increase my speed on the easier ones.

piyushdabomb wrote: QUESTION -

>> You mentioned the GMAT Prep Quiz bank. How do you identify your weaknesses on verbal questions exactly? If I do a sample exam in the quiz bank, does it detail out which section sI ned to focus on? What about for the quant? I'd rather buy the quiz bank knowing that I'm going to be focusing on my weaknesses, given that I know how to find them.

Hi piyushdabomb,
I think that you may be confusing two products (or perhaps I am the one that is confused). One product is the free GMAT Prep Software provided by mba.com. This is the best practice you'll get in testing yourself in an almost-real GMAT environment. It neither tracks your score nor gives you solutions to problems that you got wrong. It is just excellent practice. The other product is the Kaplan Quiz Bank. This is made by the third-party Kaplan and does track your progress and weak areas. The stats is keeps are quite useful and it will definitely help you focus on your weaknesses. Its only drawback is its price. ($179 with the beatthegmat discount).

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Mike

smalishah84 wrote:Can you suggest any place to practice tough RCs? I would like to practice tough RCs so that I can get my speed up to a decent level. RC is so far my strong point but I take a lot of time in reading and understanding the passage. I would like to practice tough RCs so that I can increase my speed on the easier ones.

Hi smalishah84,

I don't know where you can practice really hard RCs. Honestly though, the RC style on the GMAT is very specific and very tough for third-parties to emulate. So, to get the best practice, I would only work from the official guides (purple and orange). They are ordered by difficulty, so work on the ones in the back.

Good luck,
Mike

Good job mgross!
You really cracked GMAT

I have one question. How long after you take the Gmat, will the scores be sent to your chosen universities?

Thanks a lot!
And wish me luck;)