Reached my target score 700 49 Q 36 V

[gmatgoal]

Hi all,

The is perhaps my 4th post on this site and my first in this section. Although I did reach my target score of 700 overall, I did not reach my verbal target of 40, which is a pity!! Two days before the exam I got a score of 620 in one of the GMAT Preps. Initially I did panic after seeing the score, but then I knew my level was closer to 700. I closed my eyes and recollected what exactly had gone wrong. I realized that i was rushing in both my quant and verbal. I noticed a pattern. I had made I think 5 continuous mistakes in both my quant and verbal within the first 15. After the 15, I had made I think just 2 mistakes in quant, but still my score did not rise above 47. So, I made a strategy to tackle my problem. No matter what, get the first 15 questions in both quant and verbal correct to get a higher score. I took 2 more tests with this strategy in GMATPrep the remaining two days, and scored 710 and 730. This was a reassurance. Do not hesitate to take more than two tests in GMATPrep ( three, four, five ). There are plenty of quant questions. Only thing which can get repeated is the Reading comprehension.

In the actual test I followed the strategy in quant and verbal. The strategy was perfect for quant and in verbal i felt shortage of time.

I hated to take Manhattan GMAT CAT as well as Kaplan. As a matter of fact I took Manahattan GMAT CAT twice, and scored 660 and 670. But, I did not like the CAT ( my perspective ) and hence discontinued taking any more. I took 7 GMATPreps.

Now coming to the materials:

Preparation materials:
Quant:
Manahattan GMAT books for initial concepts. -
GMAT Bible by GMATHacks
Challenge question set from GMATHacks.
and OG11 and OG Quat review.

Verbal:
Manhattan GMAT
OG11 and Verbal review
https://thousandsc.blocked/

A methodical study is more important than slogging. However, you still need a week off from your work so that you can concentrate only on GMAT.

Last but not the least, thanks to so many people who have posted in this section. I learnt from all your mistakes as well as got inspired from your successes. I have visited this section daily, hourly for the past 3 months.

Regards,
gmatgoal

Please post any questions, I would be happy to answer.

[iamcste]

well done and All the Best !!

[bluementor]

Congratulations on your score!!

A couple of questions:

How would you compare the difficulty/feel of the questions from OG/GMATprep to those you saw in the test for both Quant and Verbal?

What are your thoughts on the challenge question sets from GMATHacks? How would you rate the difficulty of those? Are they OG like?

Good luck with your apps!

-BM-

[gmatgoal]

Thanks iamcste.

Blue mentor,

I would say, the Reading comprehension questions in verbal was tough for me and it has always been. I guessed most of the questions in one long reading comprehension, although intelligently.

Quant questions, they are interesting and not difficult. They are tricky and you will enjoy answering them. If you are thorough in all your concepts, then there should be no problem in identifying the tricky questions.

GMATHack quant challenge, I would say, they are of the same difficulty as the diagnostic test questions in OG11. So, the concepts will stick more thoroughly. Each question in those challenge files, you would have encountered them in either GMATPrep, or OG11. So, if you want some drill of the concepts the challenge files are good.

Regards,
gmatgoal