-
me_gmat_verbal
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:25 pm
- Location: Hyderabad
- Thanked: 3 times
- GMAT Score:720
My btg account was deactivated becoz of inactivity so had to create a new account
:roll:. Anyways here is my round one debrief:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/hit-hard-by- ... 39934.html
I took the gmat few hours ago, happy to say that I made a huge improvement 100 points from my past attempt. Although it took me almost a year, I did not prepare for the entire 9 monts
. I took 7 days off from work and grilled my self. I did revise stuff on and off but the past 7 days were really crucial. I studied for 11 hours a day and stayed extremely focussed.
Things that I did this time:
1) For the past 30 days, was very picky on what I ate. Stuffed myself with healthy food, supplemented with vitamins and picked up the habit of driking green tea (lipton green tea).
2) Took practice exams at exactly the same time as my actual exam ( 9:00 AM every day). Practiced taking the full exam (including AWA) every time I took the exam.
3) Revised verbal over, over, over and over.
4) On quant, unlearnt one thing that bumped my score to 50 consistently! (I used this unlearning to some extent last attempt but followed it diligently this time). People with maths background (engineers, IT etc folks) sometimes dont fare well (including me on my first attempt got only 49 where I felt I can get easy 50) because we jump right in to solving the problem. But to get >= 49 you should pause for atleast 30 seconds after reading the question, understand what is being asked and simplify the question. Almost 70% of the GMAT questions dont need calculation but just simplifications. Since the wordings and questions get tricky as you are doing well, the more you need to focus on not solving but understanding what the question is asking. This helped me immensely in managing my time and getting the good strike rate today.
5) For verbal I focussed only on OG (10,11,12) mistakes from round1. I saved my previous OG attempt questions where I was incorrect. So I just focussed on only those and the Manhattan GMAT CAT tests. Thats all I did.
6) For quant just did OGs and Manhattan GMAT cats. I would advice that manhattan gmat for quant is a over kill. The questions need calculations so do them for practise to know the question types but in real gmat the focus is not on the calculations but on the understanding and simplification of the question.
In the exam today (started on time at 9:00 AM):
1) AWA was fairly easy. Analysis of argument was a common one. Finished in 20 mins, revised for 4 mins and moved on. Analysis of issue was the same one that I wrote yesterday. So was happy that I did not have to think for points. Again finished in 26mins, revised for 4 mins.
2) Took the break, ate half banana, gulped some green tea (cold one ofcourse that I got from home)
3) Quant started with a fairly ticky question. Again the motto was not to solve the problem but to analyze the question, simplify the question (without using pen and paper) and then if needed use the paper. Today I felt that almost 70 to 80% of the questions did not need calculation but simplifications and intelligent answer selection. The questions got trickier and tricker. I had to select "Each is sufficient, option D" for a whole bunch of questions in DS. In the entire exam I had to select "E - either is not sufficient" only twice. Finished quant 2 minutes early. Panicked a bit on the sheer number of "D" I had to select on the DS. Also the number of DS were more than the PS i felt.
Got 1 probability question. Around 3 questions repeated from GPREP.
4) Took the break again, ate the remaining half of the banana, ate few yogurt covered raisins (candy that I picked from safeway), drank some more green tea. BTW, green tea soothes the nerves and is good for the body in general. I am big Avatar fan (not the movie but the cartoon, Avatar-the last air bender) so learnt about the green tea from that cartoon
Experimented with it while taking the mock ups and found that it really works !
5) Verbal began. Man I thought I was going to own this section this time ! I took GPREP2 and got 47 in verbal with only one mistake in RC (btw I dont remember anything from my last attempt, so solved every question in GPREP). In the exam today, the SC's were very very tricky and very close !
The RCs were piece of cake, the answers to most of them very obvious. I got 3 short passages and 1 long one.
CRs were usual level as GPREP.
I never scored below 42 in my last 7 day prep (took mgmcat test, gprep) so was stumped to see a 38. Being a non-native speaker and the sheer amount of energy and focus I put in this section I am bit disappointed with the result. A 40 was what I was expecting in the worst case.
Also, one thing to note is that my right hand was shivering for the last 30 mins of the exam. I was so pumped to beat the verbal this time that I wanted to rip it out. BUT, I give the upper hand to GMAT that it won on the verbal section. The takeaway from verbal was that the SC questions were very very tricky and very close.
6) Finished verbal with 30 secs to spare. Was expecting 760 (like lasttime, i always expected 760 ) but saw 720 (Q50, V38). Felt happy that I crossed the 700 hurdle.
Have mixed emotions a 740 would have made me excited but content with 720. I am planning to apply in Europe (LBS, IMD, INSEAD) and India (ISB and IIMa) so atleast my score qualifies for a look at my application.
The best advice I can give is to treat the exam as a physical sport. Prepare yourself both mentally and physically. The concepts and theory can only take you till the 650+ mark but to cross 700+ it needs discipline, smarts (wits and tricks) and good health. Most importantly the "CAN-DO" attitude !
I am not giving up on the 760 which I think I CAN-DO if I take to the next level, but I will try to console myself to be rational and focus on getting the foot in to top tier colleges.
SO THATS MY STORY FOLKS ! I am hopeful that I will make it in to one of my preferred colleges. Will definitely chime in and keep my account active this time !!!
[/b]
:roll:. Anyways here is my round one debrief:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/hit-hard-by- ... 39934.html
I took the gmat few hours ago, happy to say that I made a huge improvement 100 points from my past attempt. Although it took me almost a year, I did not prepare for the entire 9 monts
. I took 7 days off from work and grilled my self. I did revise stuff on and off but the past 7 days were really crucial. I studied for 11 hours a day and stayed extremely focussed.Things that I did this time:
1) For the past 30 days, was very picky on what I ate. Stuffed myself with healthy food, supplemented with vitamins and picked up the habit of driking green tea (lipton green tea).
2) Took practice exams at exactly the same time as my actual exam ( 9:00 AM every day). Practiced taking the full exam (including AWA) every time I took the exam.
3) Revised verbal over, over, over and over.
4) On quant, unlearnt one thing that bumped my score to 50 consistently! (I used this unlearning to some extent last attempt but followed it diligently this time). People with maths background (engineers, IT etc folks) sometimes dont fare well (including me on my first attempt got only 49 where I felt I can get easy 50) because we jump right in to solving the problem. But to get >= 49 you should pause for atleast 30 seconds after reading the question, understand what is being asked and simplify the question. Almost 70% of the GMAT questions dont need calculation but just simplifications. Since the wordings and questions get tricky as you are doing well, the more you need to focus on not solving but understanding what the question is asking. This helped me immensely in managing my time and getting the good strike rate today.
5) For verbal I focussed only on OG (10,11,12) mistakes from round1. I saved my previous OG attempt questions where I was incorrect. So I just focussed on only those and the Manhattan GMAT CAT tests. Thats all I did.
6) For quant just did OGs and Manhattan GMAT cats. I would advice that manhattan gmat for quant is a over kill. The questions need calculations so do them for practise to know the question types but in real gmat the focus is not on the calculations but on the understanding and simplification of the question.
In the exam today (started on time at 9:00 AM):
1) AWA was fairly easy. Analysis of argument was a common one. Finished in 20 mins, revised for 4 mins and moved on. Analysis of issue was the same one that I wrote yesterday. So was happy that I did not have to think for points. Again finished in 26mins, revised for 4 mins.
2) Took the break, ate half banana, gulped some green tea (cold one ofcourse that I got from home)
3) Quant started with a fairly ticky question. Again the motto was not to solve the problem but to analyze the question, simplify the question (without using pen and paper) and then if needed use the paper. Today I felt that almost 70 to 80% of the questions did not need calculation but simplifications and intelligent answer selection. The questions got trickier and tricker. I had to select "Each is sufficient, option D" for a whole bunch of questions in DS. In the entire exam I had to select "E - either is not sufficient" only twice. Finished quant 2 minutes early. Panicked a bit on the sheer number of "D" I had to select on the DS. Also the number of DS were more than the PS i felt.
Got 1 probability question. Around 3 questions repeated from GPREP.
4) Took the break again, ate the remaining half of the banana, ate few yogurt covered raisins (candy that I picked from safeway), drank some more green tea. BTW, green tea soothes the nerves and is good for the body in general. I am big Avatar fan (not the movie but the cartoon, Avatar-the last air bender) so learnt about the green tea from that cartoon
Experimented with it while taking the mock ups and found that it really works !5) Verbal began. Man I thought I was going to own this section this time ! I took GPREP2 and got 47 in verbal with only one mistake in RC (btw I dont remember anything from my last attempt, so solved every question in GPREP). In the exam today, the SC's were very very tricky and very close !
The RCs were piece of cake, the answers to most of them very obvious. I got 3 short passages and 1 long one.
CRs were usual level as GPREP.
I never scored below 42 in my last 7 day prep (took mgmcat test, gprep) so was stumped to see a 38. Being a non-native speaker and the sheer amount of energy and focus I put in this section I am bit disappointed with the result. A 40 was what I was expecting in the worst case.
Also, one thing to note is that my right hand was shivering for the last 30 mins of the exam. I was so pumped to beat the verbal this time that I wanted to rip it out. BUT, I give the upper hand to GMAT that it won on the verbal section. The takeaway from verbal was that the SC questions were very very tricky and very close.
6) Finished verbal with 30 secs to spare. Was expecting 760 (like lasttime
, i always expected 760 ) but saw 720 (Q50, V38). Felt happy that I crossed the 700 hurdle. Have mixed emotions a 740 would have made me excited but content with 720. I am planning to apply in Europe (LBS, IMD, INSEAD) and India (ISB and IIMa) so atleast my score qualifies for a look at my application.
The best advice I can give is to treat the exam as a physical sport. Prepare yourself both mentally and physically. The concepts and theory can only take you till the 650+ mark but to cross 700+ it needs discipline, smarts (wits and tricks) and good health. Most importantly the "CAN-DO" attitude !
I am not giving up on the 760 which I think I CAN-DO if I take to the next level, but I will try to console myself to be rational and focus on getting the foot in to top tier colleges.
SO THATS MY STORY FOLKS ! I am hopeful that I will make it in to one of my preferred colleges. Will definitely chime in and keep my account active this time !!!
[/b]
