I just Beat The GMAT!

Well I took the test today. I'm happy to have it over with. Overall, things went pretty well. Here is a list of my practice test scores:

MGMAT CAT1 - 700 Q45/V40
MGMAT CAT2 - 740 Q47/V45
MGMAT CAT3 - 720 Q43/V45
MGMAT CAT4 - 730 Q45/V45
MGMAT CAT5 - 760 Q49/V45
MGMAT CAT6 - 750 Q48/V45
GMATPrep 1 - 740 Q49/V41
GMATPrep 2 - 740 Q47/V44

Actual GMAT - 740 Q49/V42

So as you can see, my real GMAT was right in line with the two GMATPrep tests. Overall I am very happy with my score. It would have been nice to have a really good day and get my verbal up to a 44 or so, but all in all, I definitely can't complain.

As for the actual test:
The quant went pretty smoothly. To be honest, I expected it to be harder. It was definitely harder than the OG11, but it wasn't much harder than the GMATPrep questions I got on my practice tests. I got only one probability question, and no permutation/combination questions. There were one or two hard geometry problems. I guessed on the last 2 questions because I didn't have quite enough time.

The verbal went alright. Honestly, I underperformed a little here, but what can you do? I felt that the verbal questions were mostly in line with OG, but there were probably 3 really tricky SC's, 3 really tricky CR's, and a couple of very vague RC's. The SC's (other than the 3 tricky ones) all came down to basic rules, so make sure you know those.

One other note about verbal: I think MGMAT CATS and practice questions are good, but there is definitely a different flavor to the actual GMAC sentence correction problems. I would suggest spending the last few weeks of preparation doing SC's that are only from the OG or GMATPrep.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and help in preparing for this thing.

Hey smkrn,

I'm just curious...what study methods and materials did you employ to get such a terrific score? How long did you prepare for the actual test? I need to get my score up in the high 600's/low 700's. I am jealous!!!


Rahman

Did you have any issues with timing?? Please provide your strategy.

Hi Congrats on your score !!! I wud be very happy if I cud get such a score

I am confident in my quant section

My weak area is VERBAL .. It would be of great HELP !!! If you could tell me in more detail how was the degree of difficulty in CR,RC,SC was it similair to those in OG/POWERSCORE LSAT/ 1000 /powerprep sample questions ...

I am confused because most of them say the questions are very difficult ...

THANKS in ADVANCE
SENTHIL

I didn't really have many timing issues. I finished Verbal with about 2 extra minutes...I had to guess on the last couple of quant questions, but that happened to me a lot on practice tests. In order to get timing down, I didn't do anything special - I just did lots of practice problems in sets of 15 and made sure I could complete them in under 30 minutes.

For quant - I did all the OG problems, and then did a couple of the GMAT Focus sets (I think these are worthwhile if you don't mind the expense). The day before the test, I just reviewed all the quant questions I had missed during practice.

For SC - I read the MGMAT SC book, it was pretty helpful. But again, just do all the OG problems and you'll be fine.

CR - again, I did all the problems in OG and didn't have a problem

RC - Other than my practice tests, I only did one 15 RC practice problems...sorry, I'm a native speaker and reading comes naturally, so I don't have any advice on these. I don't take notes for RC either, I just read them and answer the questions. No special tactics.

Oh and I should add, I prepared for about 8 weeks for the test, probably about 20-30 hours/week.

And as for timing strategy, I would just check the timer 3 or 4 times during each section and made sure I had an average of at least 2 minutes/question left. For example, if I was on question 17, that means I had 20 questions left, so I'd check the clock to make sure I had 20*2 = 40 minutes left. Again, nothing fancy.

Congrats...

U have good scores in MGMAT as well .

I am unable to finish MGMAT Quant section i just land up to 25 qs in 75 mins,,,,and i find them bit tough also....where as in other CAT i get around 45+ in quant, But I trust MGMAT a lot ....could u please comment on this ........PLease help me