I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi Guys,

Just gave my GMAT today. I am extremely satisfied with the score. Now just waiting for the official reports and AWA scores. My profile is 26 years, Indian male working for last three years in the Australian Mining Industry. I did my Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the top technological school in India graduating in 2007 with a GPA of 3.3.

I would like to extend my thanks to the BeatThe GMAT forum, its moderators and those who posted actively providing me with extremely difficult and rare questions thus honing my skills.

Now for the debrief:

This is a more than a bit long so sorry if you are bored by the end of it!

Coming from a very mathematical background that formed part of my undergraduate curriculum I did not have to work on the Quantitative side at all. I however did have to brush up a bit on Combinatorics (i.e. probability, no of ways of choosing etc) and the Statistics. Make sure that you have got your means, medians etc sorted out on the day. If you want to know where you stand I suggest starting with the Diagnostic Test from OG12. This gives you a very good starting point.

Being a non-native speaker of English however, I had to work on the Verbal side of things. All three areas needed attention and I set myself to task. I started seriously preparing in July. I used to do SC based on playing it by ear and more often than not got it wrong. Manhattan SC however proved to be the absolute bible in this regard. It gave me a set of rules which meant that at the very least I could always narrow down my options to two in this regard. Feeling a bit confident, I started with the Kaplan Primer Tests attached on the CD.

Not having gone the traditional route starting with OG12 meant that I ended with a dismal score. I will post the scores of all tests below in one hit. I found that CR needed a bit of brushing up as well. So I started with the OG on Critical Reasoning and also got the Manhattan CR book. After reviewing base concepts on it my scores improved but that was more due to getting SCs right. The Critical Reasoning was proving a tough nut to crack. Suggested by many in this forum, I then got the Powerscore CR Bible. This was an immense help as well but the scores were still not up to scratch. At this point I almost resigned myself to the fate that a 700 would be possible if I rode my luck on D-Day. Also the intial seriousness of preparation slacked off. At RC I was faring no better.

At this point of time, I decided to go for the Manhattan Tests. Although the quantitative part on them was way harder than on the actual GMAT this was not my sore point. I found the Manhattan scoring system to be less skewed than Kaplan's scoring algorithm and started to feel a little better as my score started to inch past the 700s. However I had a target of about 750 and moreover wanted a good verbal score so I could show a near even-split. RCs were proving to be my bugbear now with SC and CR more or less covered. I do not want to sound like a Manhattan agent and no they are not paying me to write this! But I decided to order their RC book based on the strength of their other two books. This proved to be the right move as my RC scores improved slightly. At this point I had given 4 MGMAT tests and left two up my sleeve along with the GMAT tests. This was about mid-August. At this point I decided to take a Test date and yet leave myself a month's time. I took 17th Sep as my test date.

Now I gave the Veritas free test and scored a 730 on it. This was the first time I had gone past 710. In the meanwhile I was always on the lookout for new verbal questions on the forum. I gave MGMAT5 and pleasantly surprised myself. At this point I downloaded the GMAT Prep and gave the two tests on it and also MGMAT6.

I only started attempting the AWA section from MGMAT 4 onwards in order to build up test preparation. I would always take a break after the Analytical Section and the Quant Section to regather my thoughts and recharge the mental batteries.

Today I reached the Test Center about 8.30 for my test at 9.00. Everything went smoothly. I have not received my AWA scores yet but I reckon the essays went well. I finished the Argument with 5 minutes to spare and Issue with about 2 minutes. My advice is get into the topics real quick as the time you have in the practice tests somehow disappear on D-day. At this stage I took a break and attempted Quant. Went like a breeze with about 15 minutes to spare. The big one though was yet to come. With Verbal the first 7-8 questions I was really decisive. However at this stage I started to get stuck a bit. I could narrow everything down to two options but then picking the right one was taking a fair bit of time. With about 12 questions to go I had about 15 minutes left but luckily I was done with my RCs by then. Brushed through the remaining SC and CR and then finished with about 2 minutes to spare.

Closed my eyes, prayed to the Almighty and opened my eyes to find a pleasant 770. Tried to control my excitement as I did not want to disturb the fellow examinees but did a massive fist-pump as soon as I was out!

Now have to work on my essays real hard. Trying to make Round 1 for the Top B-schools but it is going to be hard I reckon as my essays need to be worked upon.

In sum, Manhattan Reference Materials were awesome. OG 11 and OG12 told me what to expect on D-day. Kaplan was a big let-down for me. The only positive I reckon is that it makes you work harder.

Materials Used

OG11
OG12
Kaplan Premier Program
Manhattan SC
Manhattan CR
Manhattan RC
Powerscore CR Bible

Practice Test Scores

Kaplan CAT1 -> 580 (Q34 V29)
Kaplan CAT2 -> 640 (Q50 V35)
Kaplan CAT3 -> 660 (Q50 V36)
MGMAT CAT1 -> 640 (Q44 V37)
MGMAT CAT2 -> 710 (Q51 V36)
MGMAT CAT3 -> 710 (Q51 V36)
MGMAT CAT4 -> 710 (Q49 V38)
At this point I took a date and prepared hard. Had a bit of break before the next few tests.
Veritas Free Test -> 730 (Q51 V42)
MGMAT CAT5 -> 780 (Q51 V45)
GMATPrep Test 1 -> 780
MGMAT CAT6 -> 750 (Q51 V41)
GMAT PrepTest2 -> 750

Sorry if it is a bit long. If you have any questions let me know and I will be more than happy to help if I can. Special thanks also goes to myohmy for his superb AWA template.

AMAZING Score!! Congratulations!!

How would you rate the Quant & Verbal questions to what you saw on GMAT Prep tests and OG?

Thanks mate.

Quant was interesting. There were some questions there that needed well over 2 mins to crack (At least 3-4). In that they were lengthy. I still remember the questions but in accordance with GMAT policy I will not disclose them. But these were questions where you had to plug values of every choice in. My recommendation is that brush through the easy ones rather than double-check to make sure it is right. You waste valuable minutes there.

Verbal the SCs were ok. CRs got to a point where I could narrow down to two. RCs were a bit befuddling with at times all 5 options looking good. But then that maybe because I was never able to master RC. My advice here is if you really get stuck take a punt and move on. One question won't hurt as much in the overall scheme of things, even if, it is at the start of the section.

By the way I see your test date is not far away. Best of luck!

great score
congrats

Hi Abhi .. Amazing score.. congrats !!! I have my GMAT on Oct 15th. Did you take any practice tests in last few weeks ?

@ outreach

Thanks!

@selfmade

Well from lurking on this forum I knew that the GMAT Prep Tests were closest in accuracy to what I would eventually achieve. My test date was on the Friday and I gave the last test (GMAT Prep 2) on the Sunday. After that I just focussed on individual questions on this forum and reviewing concepts, idioms etc.

Even if you have already given the GMAT Prep Test you can always reset the pool of questions. I reckon that is the best way to brace oneself. If you haven't given them yet I would recommend leaving them till the last weekend before your test.
Good luck!

nice score! how do you suggest to prepare for quant and verbal?

@skins81

For quant and verbal both I reckon start with the Diagnostic Test on the OG. This gives you an idea of where you stand on both. With quant as I mentioned in my debrief, I came from a rigorous math background so did not have to work much. Sorry I can't help you much there.

With verbal, Manhattan SC is very important. It gives you a set of pre-defined rules you can then apply to most SC questions. Start with OG problems to get you started

For CR, I found Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible helped me. Then again go through the questions on OG for practice.

For RC, there is no book that I would class as a bible. It was also my weakest suit. If you have time on your side , get a good habit of reading papers like the New York Times, Economist etc. If you do not have the luxury of time, I suggest any standard verbal book to get a general idea and then solve all the OG problems.

Solving OG is the key. This is because the questions here are the closest you will get to the questions on D-Day.

Good luck. Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with!

How you deal with timing issues for verbal section if yo uhad any ,especially for RC , ?

Thanks Abhi.

You have got amazing score in Maths. I could get to 43/44 in my practice tests. Any tips on how to go from 43 to 52/52 ?
DS is really a pain for me.

Thanks in advance
- Arati

truely awesome score!! tht too in first attempt .. Big congrats and thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Also, Wish you all the best for your application .. may you get thru best b-school..

Cheers
Vaisha

@abhi84v

Thanks for the debrief. Took the exam to day (Sep 21st) got a 760 pretty happy!

As I mentioned in Scorpioz reply, I liked your debriefs because both of them exhorted one to go on and not worry about the past question or anything else. This was great for me, since this was my second attempt, as you guys had mentioned that in verbal after Q8 - 10 things get really tough and I had floundered last time, this time I focused and at the same time your advise on getting to two choices and then praying and picking one and moving on really helped!

Thanks buddy!

@ selfmade

First find out whether it is because of timing issues or concept issues. If it is time that is causing a problem, see whether you can solve the problems any quicker or maybe eliminate any redundant double-checking. The reason I say this is one or two odd wrong answers will still fetch you a 51 if not a 52.

If it is concepts I would recommend going through the indepth solutions, reasons behind them and then go back to your quant ref material (i can suggest none as i used none). The key to DS is to check independently if each part can solve your question. Make sure that it is not solvable by either before you decide to use both parts to solve it. Also if it is solvable by the first part, make sure if it solvable by the second part as this is where the each can solve option comes good. DS is pretty slippery and I always think a bit more time should be given compared to other quant problems.

@mj78ind

Thanks. I am glad that I could be of help to you in getting a very good score. Good luck with the application process!

Thanks Abhi .. Did you just practice OG problems or you used some other material for practice ? I find the questions in this forum more helpful.

Thanks
Arati

Since you are in the advising mode, I'll ask you one too while you are at it
I am currently at 46 in Quant, I have noticed while reviewing that I tend to make at least 2-3 questions wrong cuz of sheer carelessness.. Any idea on how that can be fixed 4 days before the test?