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740!!! Increase from 660 - I did it!

Find out how Beat The GMAT members tackled GMAT test prep with positive results. Get tips on GMAT test prep materials, online courses, study tips, and more.
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740!!! Increase from 660 - I did it!

by robhunter » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:31 am
Hey Guys,

Some great resources on here, I really appreciate everyone's help.

I did the GMAT two months ago and basically flunked the Quant (39 Quant, 47 Verbal), for a score of 660.

Went back, did every single problem in the Official Guide, did about 1/2 of the 198 problems posted on here, and spent a ton of time on Data Sufficiency. 47 Quant, 46 Verbal this time around, for a score of 740! Good enough to give me a good crack at any school in the world given the rest of my background.

Interestingly - I have taken the GMAT twice, and each time I took GMAT Prep a week before. In BOTH cases, I got EXACTLY the same score on both tests (660/660 and 740/740) - don't underestimate how close to the actual test GMAT Prep can be!

Good luck to everyone studying! You can do it!
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by Frankenstein » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:39 am
Hey,
Congrats on your awesome score!
Good Luck with your apps. Any tips on high Verbal score would be appreciated!
Cheers!

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by robhunter » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:38 am
In the prep work my biggest help came from really drilling down on the sentence correction. I was getting most of the CR/RC questions right, but generally fewer than half of the sentence correction. I think a lot of it's just practice. Reading them out loud and seeing if they sound right.

My other initial problem with verbal was actually going too fast - I'm not sure what to recommend for non-native English speakers - but I found I would finish verbal with 10-15 minutes left initially which could have probably gone to other questions.

I think the other important element is to think of the RC/CR questions almost like "math" - since everything is generally pretty logical in nature.
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by Buix0065 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:27 pm
Congratulations! That's a dream score.

As you were going back to improve quant, what did you change in your thinking or approach with studying? Or was it just repetition that improved your score?

thanks!
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by robhunter » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:45 pm
I think it came down to three things:

1) I actually made the foolish mistake of not getting the official guide prior to doing the test for the first time. Spend the money and get it, and do every question. It's a great resource and the questions are closest to what you'll actually find.

2) Really drill down on Data Sufficiency. I finished the first 660 GMAT with 5 seconds left on Quant, but on the 740 GMAT I had about 5 or 6 minutes - it's because I wasn't spending time actually solving the DS questions, but coming up with the right answer specifically instead. It's about learning how to think differently.

3) I got a little unlucky on the first test with Quant, and a little lucky with Verbal. My Prep score of 660 was a little more balanced.
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by tracyyahoo » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:08 am
Are native speaker?

Your verbal is surprisingly high and quant is quite low. If you are native speaker, it seems fine, but if you are not, could instruct me how to improve verbal? I got 10 in verbal section in my last attempt.

(1) Currently I have been reviewing verbal OG12 key answers part, all of them, SC,RC and CR. I'm bit of improved on this part but get a score of 35 or 40 in verbal still seems to be difficult for me. I really need someone who can teach how to improve this.


robhunter wrote:Hey Guys,

Some great resources on here, I really appreciate everyone's help.

I did the GMAT two months ago and basically flunked the Quant (39 Quant, 47 Verbal), for a score of 660.

Went back, did every single problem in the Official Guide, did about 1/2 of the 198 problems posted on here, and spent a ton of time on Data Sufficiency. 47 Quant, 46 Verbal this time around, for a score of 740! Good enough to give me a good crack at any school in the world given the rest of my background.

Interestingly - I have taken the GMAT twice, and each time I took GMAT Prep a week before. In BOTH cases, I got EXACTLY the same score on both tests (660/660 and 740/740) - don't underestimate how close to the actual test GMAT Prep can be!

Good luck to everyone studying! You can do it!
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