Hey guys!
Thanks for the nice comments and sorry for the delayed response . . . I've been sleeping and resting a lot since the exam!
Ok so this is what I did to get to the "700" level . . . My biggest weakness was my verbal. My quant was usually in the 80th and upper 70th percentile. Since I have a strong finance and banking background, I realized that I can get away with a 70th ish percentile in the quant section, as my background in finance will make up for the committees any doubt regarding my math ability.
The Verbal was a different story!
I first took the GMAT back in November 2008, and made a 570. My quantative was 78 percentile but my verbal was shockingly low (33 percentile!!). My AWA was a 6!!My biggest mistake was that I didn't really take the verbal too seriously in terms of studying (I'm from UK so I guess I was too over confident). The materials I used were OG 11, the GMAT Prep Software and a "Kaplan Advanced GMAT Course" (Do not recommend Kaplan - complete waste of money)
So I rescheduled my test for March 2009, and I used the OG 11 and the purple verbal book to prepare for the Verbal section. I also started reading "tougher" and more "complicated" articles online to get used to reading topics that I am not used to. Overall I felt that my verbal was better . . . BUT to my shock, when I took the test the 2nd time around, my quant was the same, but my verbal was even lower!!! I ended up with a 550!! And AWA was a 6 again!!!
It was after my 2nd test that I realized three very important things: (1) Never try to analyze your performance on the test; (2) in order to beat the GMAT, you need stamina; and (3) Only way to improve math or verbal is to MASTER THE CONTENT!!!
This is where my will, drive and determination really kicked in. To do well on the verbal section - go back to the basics! Learn everything there is to know about idioms, pronouns etc. I bought the ManhattanGMAT Sentence Correction (best book ever) and I studied it religously. I took notes and every morning I reviewed them, no matter what. To prepare for the Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning I used the 10 Official LSAT exams (green/blue cover book). Studying the LSAT material made the biggest difference in my verbal performance. Trust me if you can read LSAT reading comprehension and Critical Reasoning (logical reasoning) and actually understand the argument and answer right 70% of the time . . . your verbal on the GMAT rise drastically! I studied for 5 months and focussed mostly on the verbal section (even on a bad day, I could still hit a 75% percentile on the quant). Also I studied for 2-3 hours straight in order to build stamina and consistency.
Come test day, I didn't spend to much time on the AWA (with two '6s' in the past, I think I made my point that I have good writing skills). The quant section seemed much difficult in comparison to the previous tests, and the questions were similar to the OG but the wording was very different. I guess the GMAT is looking to ask similar questions but in different ways. Overall I felt confident about the quant, but I felt my performance was not my best. Then came the Verbal Section, my biggest rival! Luckily all the hard work paid off. I wasn't analyzing my performance, I just took one question at a time and gave it my best. The reading passages were long but very very easy in comparison to the LSAT, critical reasoning was simple (I had one boldface question - no biggie) and sentence correction was a piece of cake (thanks to the ManhattanGMAT).
Final score, 700 (90th Percentile) , Quant (74th Percentile, Verbal (92nd Percentile)!!!
Perhaps my quant could have been better, but regardless . . I beat the GMAT!
Never give up!!!! Trust me, my verbal went from pathetic to Great in matter of few months. Master the skills in sentence correction and study using the LSAT materials.
Let me know if anyone has any questions.
