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Need a score of 730 - 740. Target date Fourth Week of July

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Need a score of 730 - 740. Target date Fourth Week of July

by amitk7771 » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:34 pm
Hi,

I am 35 years old and this has been a return to these type of questions after almost 10 years. I am specifically preparing for the one year executive MBA programs in India. All of these programs have a average GMAT score > 730+. Therefore the need for high score.
I started GMAT preparation in the mid May and only do self study.

Test Results so far :
  • May 3rd week : OG Diagnostic - Except for RC was below average on all other sections.
    June 7 - Kaplan Test 1 - 560
    June 21 - GMAT Prep - Q49, V37 - 700
    July 1 - MGMAT Test 1 - Q42, V40 - 670
    July 5 - MGMAT Test 2 - Q45 , V37 - 680
Study Material :
  • OG 11
    Kaplan Premier
    MGMAT - SC, CR, VIC, Number Properties
    Kaplan 800
    Scoretop 1000
    Powerscore CR LSAT Bible.
There is a very clear weakness on Verbal scores, which however I may have tried, I am not able to improve. I believe that even marginal improvement in Verbal will give me higher scores.

The paradox is that I do very well in timed tests which are on a single topic. For example , Kaplan's timed tests , where I do more than 90% correct all the time. Do I just need to give more *COMPLETE* tests ?

I do not do well on SC however I may try , so RC and CR are the areas I want to focus into.I have a good reading speed , ( 250 -300 wpm) , yet I don't do well on RC in tests, although I get hardly anything wrong on un-timed tests.

There is a very clear divide between my on-test and not-on-test performance. Will it be safe to assume that I only need more practice on complete tests and already have the required knowledge ?
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by netigen » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:47 pm
GMAT is a long test. One of the virtues it tests is the stamina. The only way to build that is by giving practice tests. I have a post in the strategy section which list most of the available practice tests.

Also, check the beat the GMAT section for tips on how to improve verbal scores.
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:54 pm
Agree with netigen - stamina is a huge issue, and lack of stamina affects your verbal score the most, since that's the last section of the test. You should definitely make sure, from now on, to practice FULL tests, including the essays. (I know you don't care about the essay score so much, but you do care how that one hour of writing may affect your multiple choice score!)

I can't say whether that is ALL you'll need to get the score you want - but you can test the notion by taking more full practice tests. Pacing / timing and nerves often come into play along with stamina. Most people find that nerves cause their weaknesses to be amplified on the real test, so it's important to go in knowing your weaknesses and knowing how you'll address various situations to avoid having your weaknesses pull you down (eg, if timing is an area of weakness, what will you do if you find yourself 5 minutes behind halfway through the test?).

Also, just curious - have you actually done the research yourself to see that these schools report average scores of >730? I ask because 730 is the 97th percentile... it seems a little unlikely that a school could have an average score higher than the 97th percentile. It seems like they'd have to reject almost everybody to maintain such a high average.

In any event, remember that an average means around half the people scored lower than that and still got in... :)

It looks like you've got some strong scores from recent tests; keep up the great work. FYI - an improvement of around 50 points at the high level will be challenging to pull off in just a few weeks. (Frankly, getting a 730+ is challenging to pull off no matter how long you take! By definition, very few people score that well. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it!) Good luck - let us know how it goes.
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by bhasinvishal » Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:29 pm
Hi Stacy !

Even I am trying for a good score to get into one of these One Year Programs in India. As our friend has mentioned the average scores for admission to these courses are actually very high... ISB Hyderabad as a score of 720 posted on its website as average... so targeting a higher score is not a bad idea (though a tough act to follow !).
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contact info

by crak.gmat » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:58 pm
Hello,

I am interested in eMba programs too, can you pls give me your contact info amitk, so we can share info

thanks...

you can write to me at [email protected]
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:40 am
Wow - that is amazingly high! Just remember not to neglect the other parts of your application in your quest for an amazing GMAT score. I don't know how it is in India, but in the US, even the top schools care the most about your work experience, personal essays, and recommendations. I know plenty of people with scores in the mid-600s who have gotten into top b-schools here in the US.

It might not be a bad idea to talk to someone in admissions or someone you know who is in one of those programs to ask them what things tend to be most important to the admissions team.

You might also want to ask over in the admissions consulting thread. I'm not sure how much experience they have with b-schools in India, but they probably know more than me!
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Made some progress - Thanks Stacey.

by amitk7771 » Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:42 am
Yes, it is true, IIM-A executive MBA has average of 738. Being an average candidate in terms of work profile, I thought making a good score would be my best bet.

But, Stacey's point of making the overall application good is well taken. I think I will start working on this very soon. Since IIMA application already online. As Stacey suggests, I really did try writing a good essays this time.

BTW, gave another test :

GMAT Prep 760 ( Q 49, V 44) . (Re-Take).

Though some questions were repeated, never the less, I am encouraged by the score. May be it is equivalent to a 730.. I dd badly again on timing. Had to guess 4 Quant and 2 Verbal in the end.

Last GMAT Prep was 700.

None of my CR was wrong and only one of the RC was wrong. I can't emphasize enough how good Powerscore's CR Bible is. I revised it again, all the 500+ pages in couple of days and this time I truly understood what CR is.
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Things that helped

by amitk7771 » Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:41 am
Well in last 2 weeks I did the following :

Math : Made copious notes, specially from IMS Maths. Making notes crystallized everything in my mind.
Did math tests from 800score. These are very high quality math tests.
Best was OG 10, I have OG 11 , but OG 10 Data Suff was really good.

SC - By sheer practice, I am now able to figure out the SC type. Parallelism,list, tense etc.

CR and RC - It's the Powerscore Bible, which did the trick. I first classify the CR into one of the 13 types and then attack the question.

My test will be due in Aug 1st week, couple of weeks to go.
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by Alpha800 » Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:53 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:Wow - that is amazingly high!
They would have to be. 1% of US pop is around 3 million. 1% of Indian pop is around 10-11 million. That top 99% still encompasses a lot of people in India. Likewise with China, 1% of China pop would be around 13 million. Competition, from an individual's perspective, is extreme to say the least in those countries.
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by bhasinvishal » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:52 am
Hi Amit

What material are you using for SC preparation & practice ?

Thanks
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:51 pm
Yes, Alpha800, but that would presuppose that all those people are taking the GMAT. A 99th percentile score means that you're in the top 1% just of the people taking this exam.

For the first six months of this year, 120,000 GMAT tests were taken worldwide. In a given year, approx. 20% of tests taken are repeat tests - the person has already taken a GMAT earlier in the same calendar year. So the number of distinct people taking the test in a given year is in the low 200,000's. 1% of that is around 2,000 people- worldwide.

In other words, not that many are scoring in the 99th percentile. There's plenty of room at the top schools for people with lower scores. (And we won't even get into the fact that a 99th percentile score isn't going to guarantee admission - the rest of your application matters far more than a few percentile points.)

:)
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by Alpha800 » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:15 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:Yes, Alpha800, but that would presuppose that all those people are taking the GMAT. A 99th percentile score means that you're in the top 1% just of the people taking this exam.

For the first six months of this year, 120,000 GMAT tests were taken worldwide. In a given year, approx. 20% of tests taken are repeat tests - the person has already taken a GMAT earlier in the same calendar year. So the number of distinct people taking the test in a given year is in the low 200,000's. 1% of that is around 2,000 people- worldwide.

In other words, not that many are scoring in the 99th percentile. There's plenty of room at the top schools for people with lower scores. (And we won't even get into the fact that a 99th percentile score isn't going to guarantee admission - the rest of your application matters far more than a few percentile points.)

:)
Stacey, you're quite right. I respect all your postings very much. I carefully read each and every one of them as if they were gospel directly from the almighty. Your words have a lot of power in my life with regards to GMAT. :) So I hear what you're saying above and I'm not trying to refute you.

I just wanted to point out that in a huge world of 6.5+ billion, 99th percentile doesn't mean such a small raw number. I understand that not everyone--in fact most people don't--take the GMAT exam but 99th percentile still is 99th percentile. Assuming everyone were to take it in China and India, then the top 99th percentile would be the top 25 million (combine both countries) scorers. I know that currently not everyone takes the GMAT exam. I understand that. But it is only going to get worse. In the US schools may factor background and other unique factors as relevant and in fact grant quite a bit of bias to these other factors, but I'm fairly certain in Asia the GMAT and GPA will be the only criteria which matter. The raw GMAT score will only increase going forward, IMO. As China increases in GDP and the per capita income increase there, more and more Chinese students will be able to afford going abroad for a MBA education. They, like Asian Indians, will be seeking MBAs more and they will add to the inflation of GMAT scores.

I can even see a future when average GMAT scores will be 770+ at the most elite Indian B schools. :cry:

I know the US doesn't function this way and thank god for that as many of us don't score so high.

Cheers! :)
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:37 pm
Thanks for the info, Alpha800. I don't know much at all about how things are working in Indian b-schools, so I appreciate the details. People ask questions about every conceivable topic, so I'm always trying to learn more, and it's very good to know that Indian b-schools are placing a greater emphasis on the numbers than they are on the experience and other "softer" parts of the application.

Oh, and thanks for the kind words, too. You made me blush!
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Last Week - Test on 8th Aug

by amitk7771 » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:33 am
Took a week off from work to prepare. I don't intend to study on the last day so it leaves only 4 days for anything to study. Plan to largely revise the notes I have made over the last few weeks and plug some holes in SC.


Timing the test :
  • a) Q - Planning to guess at least 2 questions. One from probability and other from inequalities. I cant find any other way to improve my timing. I tried to see if I can estimate the time I will require to do a question, but I found that I cannot. Perhaps if I tend to read the question twice then it is a signal that I am losing time.

    b) V - Will give more time to SC.
    CR, RC - Identify Contenders and then find the answer.
    SC - Dont read the choice A.
Test Prep:
a) Noted the code of the institutes for scores to be sent
b) Will go and see the test center tomorrow
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Re: Last Week - Test on 8th Aug

by Alpha800 » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:23 am
amitk7771 wrote:Took a week off from work to prepare. I don't intend to study on the last day so it leaves only 4 days for anything to study.
Best of luck on your exam amitk7771!

Hope you achieve 800! :lol:
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