I just Beat The GMAT!

Hello Stancy,
Thanks for your reply. I have created a new thread in "I just Beat the GMAT!" section as i have done my test on 11th of june.
Thanks once again.

Hello Stacey,
Yes, i want to take the test again.

As i have mentioned, i have already created a thread in the "I Beat the GMAT" section. Do you mean that, i should create a new thread in strategy section? Will that spam the forum? I am sorry but is there any way that i can move my thread from one section to another? Otherwise i may lose all those replies that i already got.
Thanks

Here are my scores from the practice test (Forgot some scores):

GMATPrep 1 - 540
MGMAT1 - 560
MGMAT2 - 580
MGMAT3 - 650 (Q46 V33)
Kaplan - 640 (Q46 V33)
MGMAT4 - 670 (Q46 V35)
Knewton - 660 (Q45 V46)
MGMAT5 - 700 (Q47 V39)
GMATPrep 1 retake - 650 (Q45 V34)
GMATPrep 2 - 670 (Q48 V34)
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Hi HK!
Could you pls. describe why do you think your score in Math in the real exam compare with your score in the Cats was lower?

Is the test more difficult? Did you find strange/crazy questions or problems that you didn´t expect? Which type? Of course the problem itself can not be posted (altough maths belongs to the world and is discussed whether it can be a copyright of math exercises) but the type or kind of them. Can you aproximate the number of questions you had of each type, for instance 3Combinatorics, 8 Number Properties, and so on?

Your debrief will contribute to this great community.

Many tks!

Well my quant scores in practice tests ranged from 46 to 49. And my score in the real test was way below that in the practice tests.

Here is what i think - the real test is definitely tougher or rather trickier!! I actually felt fine while doing the test. There were some very easy questions and some very unusual questions!!! Respecting the confidentiality agreement, the weirdest question i came across was one which involved an Algorithm!!!! Never expected that but it was very easy with a very obvious trap!!!

The reason i think my scores dipped might be because (pls take this with a grain of salt) in the practice tests i think the level of difficulty hits a threshold and then it wont get any tougher but in the real test since the database of questions is much much bigger, the toughness of the questions has no limit until you start hitting the 50 or 51 range!!!

Hope that helped.

Here is one tip which i'm going to follow for my retake - Know the fundamentals absolutely well. One has to be fluent with the formulas, concepts, techniques etc because there is absolutely no time to spare in the test to actually sit and analyze the concept being tested. As soon as you see the question you should start solving not analyzing. For this you need to do 2 things - 1) Hone the concepts and fundamentals and 2)Practice, practice and then practice some more.

And as far as i remember i got only 1 combinatorics questions and it was extremely straighforward and easy. Number properties and Algebra were the lead players closely followed by inequalities. Geometry and coordinate geometry represented app. 3-4 questions.

Here is another tip: If you are planning to spend more time on the first 1o questions, then all i can say is that you are digging your own grave. I noticed one thing in both of my GMAT tests. There were a lot more word problems towards the end of the section 23-37 and these take a lot of time. So if you already are lagging in time then chances are that you are going to just randomly guess on the last 5 questions if you want to complete the section, and thus seriously hurting your score.

Hope that helped.

Hari,

What about RCs?

Although OGs have a mix of long/short passages, nowdays GMAT only has 3 short passages and 1 long.... did you came across the same?

Although short, those RCs were very weird ...

gmat_dest wrote:Hari,

What about RCs?

Although OGs have a mix of long/short passages, nowdays GMAT only has 3 short passages and 1 long.... did you came across the same?

Although short, those RCs were very weird ...

You are right i encountered 3 short passages and 1 long (but not too long) passage. But I would pick the OG long passages any day because the passages in the real gmat were extremely confusing with long sentences with complex modifiers. There was one passage where all i could comprehend was the outline structure.

Exactly Hari...

Even I am perplexed on how to get around those RCs....

And this is not to discourage you but GMAT saves the real tough ones for the last. The last RC passage which came around 33th to 37th question was the toughest and the most difficult to understand. This becomes really crucial as a RC screw-up might lead to getting 3-4 questions wrong sequentially and may hurt your score. To make the situation worse the last section was where i was battling against time!!!

Stacey Koprince wrote:or you're so worn out by the end that the last one feels like the hardest no matter what...

lol thats true too. Must honestly stacey, it really feels like the guys updating the database are really trying hard to bring in the weirdest, the most boring, and the most complicated passages. I'm sure the articles from which they extract these passages are read by fewer than 100 people in the whole world. And those 100 would be some history professors who had no other option but to read them!!!

Hi Stacey,

This is Shashi. I am trying to reply to the post where you asked me about the 20 days and when I took the exam. I took my first GMAT on April 13, 2009 and my second GMAT on May 26, 2009. The 20 days was the actual number of days I prepared for my GMAT the second time as I did not start until May 6 or 7. So, you are correct about the 31 days wait.

Best Regards,
Shashi

hk wrote: Now here is what i am aiming for: I would like to take my GMAT in 7 weeks and would like to score 680+. I'm willing to go thro' whatever it takes to get that score. What i dont know is how to approach it differently this time.

Hi HK, was curious if the above plan is still relevant? Have you registered for your next attempt?

Good luck!