I just Beat The GMAT!

700 (Q-47,V-39) : A beutiful journey over..what's ahead?

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took the test yesterday in Kolkata in India...Relaxed to see 700 on the screen...though some 20 points less than my target...but happy to just scraped through to the 700 club...I got somthing out of this forum, too, for my prep...hence feel duty bound to share my test and test prep exp...may be it help some of the felow forum mates...

My background: Age 40 yrs; B.tech. Electronics & comm. Engg., Competed UPSC Civil services and Engg. services exam in 1990 and since then working in Department of Telecom, Govt. of India.
Although I had a very brilliant academic record , Math was never my forte. I got always nervous in any type of math test . Hence, in Civil service exam, I took Geography and anthropology as my optionalS rather than Physics & math, which was the natural choice for technocrats at that time.

Test prep: Decided in June to appear in GMAT, with vague aim of joining any one of the reputed Executive prog...One fellow friend was the inspiration; He initiated me to the GMAT
Took Gprep I : Got 670 (Q-46, V-37): Set my target to 720 and started preparing seriously. Prep Materials I consulted:

OG11; Kaplan Premier edition 2007 with CD;PR with CD; TMH ;Rein & Martin for Eng. Grammer(Selected chapters), Grammer for Dummies, Manhatten SC guide 2003ed; Online Forums: Test magic and Beat the GMAT; Manhatten Math challenge; Kaplan 800

OG 11 is undoubtedly the pick of the material...particularly for verbal...ans exp in quant do not reveal many important concept...instead of generic algebra it solves ques through no. picking...may be that is better strategy for GMAT test...Manhatten challenge is very good for building concepts...ans explanation are very elaborate and provide many useful concepts...although the toughness of ques is much above the GMAT ques...

Practice Test: Kaplan (CAT 1-4), PR(CAT1), GMAT PAPER TEST(Set 1,2,3), Crack GMAT, 800 SCORE; Gprep1(thrice :670, 670, 730), Gprep2(710)

GMAT prep is best...and only this actually mimic the real test...none of the other test come anyway near in mimicking the real test...either too convulated ot too straightforward....but each helps ...give lots of practice and clear many important concepts through their explanations...

pREP sTRATEGY: I gave maximum prep time to Quant and SC. Few tips, personal opinion may not be true for all, to overcome the GMAT challange:

1. No doubt the GMAT CAT is challenging...not because of toughness of the prob/ques...but more because of its format and trickiness of its ques. So one need to put serious effort in learning the required trick and get used to the test format.

2.A very clear concept of following is required (Most of the ques would be based on these cocepts):

Quant: Mean, median, range; Inequality with absolute value; Number properties(Properties of consecutive no., prop of prime nos, even/odd, prop of integers; prop of perfect square/perfect cubes,Prop of remainders, unit digit values,etc); Overlapping set (2 and 3 sets); Either Or set (mutually exclusive set); Very basics of Probability,and Geometry (Expect only few ques on prob and geometry)

Verbal: SC: Sentece structure (simple vs. compound vs. complex) ; Clause Vs. phrase; Co-ordinating Vs. subordinating clauses and conjuctions; parallel structure; Idoms; Proper use of perfect tenses

In SC most useful is to pay most attention to the Intended meaning and structure of the given sentence...Un-underlined portion holds the key by revealing the proper tense, proper agreement(sub-verb), proper mood(indicative vs. subjunctive), and proper voice. Prallelism need careful examination...remember sent parts logically parallel ONLY need to be structurily parallel...take spl. care of items in a list, where some unintended element is included in the list or subordinate pharases/clauses made parallel to main clause...these are traps...

Actual Test Exp: AWA was a breeze, for I had seen all the topics listed on the www.mba.com site...there are about 300 topics( 150 each in Argu. and Issue) Remmember the list is exhaustive and you will get topics from this list only...hence better to have at least a look at each and every listed topic. It will save valuable time in the AWA..

Quant: As expected I became a bit nervous during the first 10 or so ques...was taking more than required time...very edgy...nothing much was in the ques...all were on expected line moderately tricky...most of the first 10 ques were from inequality, seems to be the favorite topic of GMAT Quant, Number prop, and complex airthmetic....by the 15th ques...I was really pressed against time...took almost 40 min or so...hence rushed through few of the ques...guessing...and solving as fast as possible....ques became easier from 25th onward...may be beacuse of my not so impressive performance till then...it helped me making up time...i felt comfortable in last 12-13 ques...quickly solved all...for last ques (a no. prop ...consecutive number) i had 1.5 min...was able to solve it within the time limit....OVERALL a mixed exp...I knew i messed in the first 15 ques...but picked up in the later half...somewhere i knew it wud be in the range of 47-49...

Verbal: In contrast to Quant...felt comfortable...was able to properly dissect the sentences in SC and see the logic in CR, RC passages were short (except one), crispy and easy to comprehend...nothing like KAPLAN's ...was under time pressure till 25th ques...then rushed through some SC ques....and had enough time in the end...finished some 2 min before...

Filled BIQs...and relieved to see 700 on the screen...

A very enriching, beautiful journey of GMAT prep ended...I thank all the forum bembers for their valuable insights on some of the concepts.... I also use this forum to thank my family, particulrly both of my sons, who scarificed many of their small happinesses for my GMAT, my father and of course my dear wife, who suffered the most during past 4 months or so. Best of luck to all fellow GMAT aspirants...I would be glad to help anyone on this forum in any way I could...

Sorry for the long thread...but really felt like sharing all these to you guys on this forum...pl. raise any queries...will be glad to respond...bye for now

Congratulations Niraj!
Really great post.This shows your detail prep for 4 months.
I'm bit weak in Verbal.If you can explain me in detail your study method for CR,RC it will be great help for me and others

Thanks,
Ajay

Hey Neeraj! Remember me? I was the first person who started agruing in ur first post - A PS post, I think. Congrats man! Well done and really thanks for sharing ur preparation strategy. Yop! U have crossed the hurdle but for me it's way to go and I don't know what will happen! Go ahead man! Hey as Eric has suggested, please do a post regarding the admission processing. I think it will help us a lot.

Congratulations Neeraj & best of luck for ur apps.

Thanx all for ur good wishes. Amitav, i do remenber our discussion....go man...u'll crack it ...i'm sure of it...

Ajay...i put on maximum time on SC, my biggest worry, rather than on CR/RC. But I solved OG 11 & 10 couple of times( my advise wud be to solve OG atleast thrice...without remembering the ans), solved some 200 ques out of CR 1000. Also practised CR/RC while taking various practice tests.

In CR, it helps to remember the OG tip, which is to pick the essence or crux of the argument. the right ans choice will contain the crux, all other choices wud either be away from or tangential to the crux. Broadly speaking, crux is defined by the scope of the argument....but actually it is even narrower than the scope...try to pick it ...it wud help u in POE...best of luck

Hi all;

Got the official score card, and with it the AWA core of 5.0 ; Happy to get 5, i targetted at least 5...once again will suggest everyone to have look on each and every essay topic, about 300, available on the www.mba.com. It helps. Also, 2 to 3 good points are enough a/w a nice simple structure.