670 - 46Q 35V Praise God - Thanks to MGMAT/BTG! - The Beat The GMAT Forum

doclkk: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 180; Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 3:46 pm; Thanked: 5 times; Followed by:2 members

670 - 46Q 35V Praise God - Thanks to MGMAT/BTG!

by doclkk » Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:54 pm

There's a lot I want to write.

I first wanna thank this forum for its support and people at my church. Special thanks to Manhattan GMAT and instructor Kim Cabot. It has been an amazing battle but I am finally finished.

I have studied for this test since April. I pretty much gave up my job, gave up my friends and my life for this test. Some of you might be wondering - all that for a 670 - but I still think its worth it.

Here are my practice exams. It's ridiculous.

When I say repeat - I mean repeat that I remembered the answer, the process or both.

3/29 - PR - 32Q / 30V - 490
4/5 - GMAT PREP #1 - 46Q / 30V - 620
4/20 - MGMAT #1 - 34Q / 30V - 530
5/30 MGMAT #3 - 35Q / 26V - 520
6/14MGMAT #4 - 40Q / 22V - 520
6/19 Kaplan 4 - 34Q / 42V - 620
6/21 Kaplan 5 - 36Q / 34V - 590
6/22 GMAT Prep #1 - 42Q / 34V - 620
6/25 GMAT Prep #1 - 43Q / 27V - 580
6/27 GMAT Prep #1 - 44Q / 36V - 650 (3 repeats)
7/13 MGMAT #5 - 42Q 33V - 620
7/17 MGMAT #6 43Q 37V - 660
7/21 MGMAT 1A 46Q 44V - 730 (8 repeats)
7/27 GMAT PRep #2 - 44Q - 32V - 620
7/30 GMAT Prep #2 - 48Q - 37V - 700 (5 repeats)
8/03 GMAT - 39Q - 31V - 590 6.0 AWA

Wanted to kill myself. Pissed at everyone. Upset. Bad attitude. There's rock bottom, 50 feet of crap and then where I was.

I had a call with MGMAT post exam assessment people. The guy told me where I needed to shore up, focus on foundations and don't stress over combinatorics. It was a really great call. He told me I just needed to be careful and that he could see that through the problems we did that I was a very careless person. I agreed.

Spent a month prepping.

9/1 MGMAT 2A - 43Q / 35V - 650
9/2 MGMAT 3A - 47Q / 34V - 670
9/3 MGMAT 4A - 44Q / 37V - 670
9/7 MGMAT 5A - 45Q / 38V - 690 (1 repeat)
9/9 MGMAT 6A - 46Q / 42V - (did Q with partner ... next day did V 1 repeat)

*9/11 GMAT - 46Q / 35V - 670*

ABOUT PREPARATION - LESS IS MORE

My first time around I thought that if I took a million practice tests, then I would get a good score. MGMAT has great wisdom in stating that don't do practice tests as prep. I neglected that advice. The point of a practice test is to benchmark and learn from your mistakes. I learned the hard and tedious way.

After my first 4 months of prepping and getting the 590, I decided to take on a new mode of studying.

I decided to go really deep into questions. I started to send my my friends a few e-mails a day telling them how to do certain questions. I even made a few youtube videos of how to do some more difficult OG questions. I learned how to do algebra correctly as well as overlapping sets.

NEVER GIVE UP - NEVER SURRENDER

AWA - I spent 29 minutes on each. AWA is always whatever. I got up - went to the bathroom and ate some candy. I will tell you this as a fact. During the test, for Q, I was subtracted 24 seconds because I spent too long chewing my candy bar and decided on one last drink of water. What I can tell you is that during Q, I saw some questions that I thought were SOOOO EASY so I thought I was screwed. When I say easy I mean like something to the effect of what is the value of some negative exponent over some other negative exponent. When I saw the question like that I thought to myself that - oh crap. OH CRAP.

The last two questions on Q I randomly guessed because I ran out of time. Needless to say I thought my Q was crap and so I thought I'd have to make up ground during verbal.

My first few verbal questions were ok and then I got to question 10 and I thought to myself, I kinda have to go to the bathroom. Then by question 13 I really had to go to the bathroom. I was contemplating should I go to the bathroom or should I just go. Self pride made me decide against just going. The entire verbal section I was sitting on the edge of my chair and folding my legs. I was seeing some really short underlined portions of SC and I thought to myself that I must be getting killed. I got 3 short passages and 1 long RC passage. I was doing really crappy on time. I was on question 30 and had 14 minutes remaining. It was bad. Plus, I had to really really go to the bathroom. Part of me was thinking that I should just get up and leave and go to the bathroom or just go but I continued on. I saw that I was on question 39 and had 1:30 remaining. I quickly read the critical reasoning and chose something. Then question 40 - quick sentence correction. Question 41 - had 20 seconds left. I didn't want to risk a penalty so I read for 5 seconds and answered with 7 seconds left.

To be honest - the entire test felt foreign in that the questions didn't seem similar to OG, MGMAT, GMAT prep at all.

While I was filling out the survey I was about to burst. 50 minutes of having to go to the bathroom and then I clicked next all the way through informational questions. Finally, it asks if I want to report score.

I thought to myself - F MY LIFE. THIS SUCKS. I will tell you that I honestly thought that I got a 550. I felt worse than I did during my first test of 590 and I had to go to the bathroom for 75% of verbal. I clicked report scores and then my screen showed a 670. At first I didn't believe it. It didn't make sense. I blinked a few times to make sure it was real. I'm a dude and I don't cry and I kid you not that tears started coming out of my eyes. I clicked next on the last box and proctor saw me - eyes and mouth wide open, stuttering and in awe.

The proctor asked me "I can assume that you did well. I looked at him probably with the biggest grin I've ever given and told him yea."

ANYONE CAN DO IT!

See - the point is that I don't think I'm a particularly smart guy especially when it comes to standardized tests. I got a 1260 and crappy scores on on my SAT II's in high school besides US history. I don't do well on standardized tests but I think I'm a good student in that I really like to learn especially and am interested in a wide variety of things. I do not know how to cram and I am very forgetful. I have a lot of blond moments. I didn't know what the word hedge was when I was in Honors English. I prepped for the LSATs for a little bit and chose consulting instead of law school.

670 puts me within the 80% column at most of the schools I'm applying, albeit lower end, but still in there.

The point is that I think everyone can do well on this exam. When I say everyone can do well on this exam I really think so. 95% of the stuff that I studied this past 3 weeks were not on the exam. At this point, I'm still thinking that there must have been some computing error with the 670 especially the 46. I'm not exactly a humble guy so when I say I don't understand the 46 - it means I really don't understand how on earth I got a 46 in context of the test.

Believe in yourself and in God. Have support of your friends. Last night I went to my young adult fellowship and a lot of people prayed for me. It helped me. Whatever helps you and gives you confidence is what you need. Having confidence is probably the most important part of the test.

DETAILS

Food between sections Stacey Koprince in an article says eat a candy bar in between sections. During my last test I ate grapes between each section. I ate an almond snickers between AWA and Q and a banana between Q and V. I also had a gatorade and bottled water as well as sour skittles. Somehow I think the sugar is supposed to help but that's not backed scientifically.

I went to the restroom after Q and I will had to go to the restroom during V. I guess I have a really small bladder so even if you don't have to go to the restroom between sections - just go.

The Night before.

The night before the test, I just watched some of the office and episodes of entourage. I took a nap during the day. Try to do whatever it is to relax yourself as much as possible. I'm a really jittery person so eating a good meal helps and see some friends.

ALL IT TAKES ARE THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

After writing this, I think I remember seeing a work question and then some really easy data sufficiency questions. I do really well on work questions. Data sufficiency were the time savers for me because I was able to eliminate AD or BCE very quickly.

NEVER CANCEL YOUR SCORE

I knew I wasn't gonna cancel my score but part of me wanted to. It was just an awful exam I thought.

The GMAT is an awful exam. It ruined many aspects of my life (career, friends, relationships etc) but to finally be finished with this exam makes me really happy.

A BIT OF LUCK

I don't know - but I honestly think it boils down to a lot of luck. If you're lucky and prepare - you can do well on this exam. It doesn't take a genius. To get a 770 it probably does but to get a 670 it does not - just hard work, support and faith.

So that's about it. Please let me know if you have questions or comments. I am more than happy to recount anything I did that I thought helped or if you just want to chat.

Good luck to everyone else taking the exam.

- To the good life!

Doclkk

Schools I'm applying to:

UCLA
USC
UT Austin
Northwestern
Columbia

Quote

Between the first and second time I did a couple of things:

1. Went through middle to middle higher level questions of OG. Previously I just learned how to do the hard questions but realized that my base needed brushing up.

2. Really read through parts of sentence correction that I was having trouble with.

3. I sent my friends daily e-mails explaining how to do miscellaneous MGMAT and OG questions as well as made youtube videos. Essentially I went really deep into questions.

4. I studied at home and realized that I don't study that well at starbucks because I'm easily distracted.

5. Really thought about the question while and after I did it. Made sure that I was remembering that type of question.

6. Studied all the way up to the day before and reviewed concepts.

7. During the test during the second time around, I ate a candy bar and a banana. The first time around I just had grapes.

8. I wasn't just more careful - I told myself that every question has a trick and a lot of questions are just worded very trick-ily and making sure I understand the small points of what the question is asking. This is super important and much easier said than done.

9. Better luck. I don't know how the scoring algorithm works whatsoever. It's extremely different than MGMAT's scoring algorithm. I think what the test boils down to is a lot of luck. If you're lucky and well prepared you'll do fine. If you're unlucky and ok prepared, then its tough. Again, this time around I "felt" like my score was worse than last time around and therefore was flabbergasted when I got my score.

As for overlapping sets - the MGMAT word translations book really takes it home. Essentially MGMAT shores up your math. If you know everything from MGMAT math you should be fine. The MGMAT WT book carefully lays out how to do overlapping sets. Read it a few times and make sure you understand them. Then do a few of the MGMAT book sample problems.

sudi760mba wrote:Congratulations!

1) what did you differently between the first time and second time you took the gmat? resources? OG? etc
Where you just more careful on the mgmat's?

2) What were your resources on overlapping sets? I still have trouble with them?

Thanks.

quote="doclkk"]There's a lot I want to write.

I first wanna thank this forum for its support and people at my church. Special thanks to Manhattan GMAT and instructor Kim Cabot. It has been an amazing battle but I am finally finished.

I have studied for this test since April. I pretty much gave up my job, gave up my friends and my life for this test. Some of you might be wondering - all that for a 670 - but I still think its worth it.

Here are my practice exams. It's ridiculous.

When I say repeat - I mean repeat that I remembered the answer, the process or both.

3/29 - PR - 32Q / 30V - 490
4/5 - GMAT PREP #1 - 46Q / 30V - 620
4/20 - MGMAT #1 - 34Q / 30V - 530
5/30 MGMAT #3 - 35Q / 26V - 520
6/14MGMAT #4 - 40Q / 22V - 520
6/19 Kaplan 4 - 34Q / 42V - 620
6/21 Kaplan 5 - 36Q / 34V - 590
6/22 GMAT Prep #1 - 42Q / 34V - 620
6/25 GMAT Prep #1 - 43Q / 27V - 580
6/27 GMAT Prep #1 - 44Q / 36V - 650 (3 repeats)
7/13 MGMAT #5 - 42Q 33V - 620
7/17 MGMAT #6 43Q 37V - 660
7/21 MGMAT 1A 46Q 44V - 730 (8 repeats)
7/27 GMAT PRep #2 - 44Q - 32V - 620
7/30 GMAT Prep #2 - 48Q - 37V - 700 (5 repeats)
8/03 GMAT - 39Q - 31V - 590 6.0 AWA

Wanted to kill myself. Pissed at everyone. Upset. Bad attitude. There's rock bottom, 50 feet of crap and then where I was.

I had a call with MGMAT post exam assessment people. The guy told me where I needed to shore up, focus on foundations and don't stress over combinatorics. It was a really great call. He told me I just needed to be careful and that he could see that through the problems we did that I was a very careless person. I agreed.

Spent a month prepping.

9/1 MGMAT 2A - 43Q / 35V - 650
9/2 MGMAT 3A - 47Q / 34V - 670
9/3 MGMAT 4A - 44Q / 37V - 670
9/7 MGMAT 5A - 45Q / 38V - 690 (1 repeat)
9/9 MGMAT 6A - 46Q / 42V - (did Q with partner ... next day did V 1 repeat)

*9/11 GMAT - 46Q / 35V - 670*

ABOUT PREPARATION - LESS IS MORE

My first time around I thought that if I took a million practice tests, then I would get a good score. MGMAT has great wisdom in stating that don't do practice tests as prep. I neglected that advice. The point of a practice test is to benchmark and learn from your mistakes. I learned the hard and tedious way.

After my first 4 months of prepping and getting the 590, I decided to take on a new mode of studying.

I decided to go really deep into questions. I started to send my my friends a few e-mails a day telling them how to do certain questions. I even made a few youtube videos of how to do some more difficult OG questions. I learned how to do algebra correctly as well as overlapping sets.

NEVER GIVE UP - NEVER SURRENDER

AWA - I spent 29 minutes on each. AWA is always whatever. I got up - went to the bathroom and ate some candy. I will tell you this as a fact. During the test, for Q, I was subtracted 24 seconds because I spent too long chewing my candy bar and decided on one last drink of water. What I can tell you is that during Q, I saw some questions that I thought were SOOOO EASY so I thought I was screwed. When I say easy I mean like something to the effect of what is the value of some negative exponent over some other negative exponent. When I saw the question like that I thought to myself that - oh crap. OH CRAP.

The last two questions on Q I randomly guessed because I ran out of time. Needless to say I thought my Q was crap and so I thought I'd have to make up ground during verbal.

My first few verbal questions were ok and then I got to question 10 and I thought to myself, I kinda have to go to the bathroom. Then by question 13 I really had to go to the bathroom. I was contemplating should I go to the bathroom or should I just go. Self pride made me decide against just going. The entire verbal section I was sitting on the edge of my chair and folding my legs. I was seeing some really short underlined portions of SC and I thought to myself that I must be getting k!IIed. I got 3 short passages and 1 long RC passage. I was doing really crappy on time. I was on question 30 and had 14 minutes remaining. It was bad. Plus, I had to really really go to the bathroom. Part of me was thinking that I should just get up and leave and go to the bathroom or just go but I continued on. I saw that I was on question 39 and had 1:30 remaining. I quickly read the critical reasoning and chose something. Then question 40 - quick sentence correction. Question 41 - had 20 seconds left. I didn't want to risk a penalty so I read for 5 seconds and answered with 7 seconds left.

To be honest - the entire test felt foreign in that the questions didn't seem similar to OG, MGMAT, GMAT prep at all.

While I was filling out the survey I was about to burst. 50 minutes of having to go to the bathroom and then I clicked next all the way through informational questions. Finally, it asks if I want to report score.

I thought to myself - F MY LIFE. THIS SUCKS. I will tell you that I honestly thought that I got a 550. I felt worse than I did during my first test of 590 and I had to go to the bathroom for 75% of verbal. I clicked report scores and then my screen showed a 670. At first I didn't believe it. It didn't make sense. I blinked a few times to make sure it was real. I'm a dude and I don't cry and I kid you not that tears started coming out of my eyes. I clicked next on the last box and proctor saw me - eyes and mouth wide open, stuttering and in awe.

The proctor asked me "I can assume that you did well. I looked at him probably with the biggest grin I've ever given and told him yea."

ANYONE CAN DO IT!

See - the point is that I don't think I'm a particularly smart guy especially when it comes to standardized tests. I got a 1260 and crappy scores on on my SAT II's in high school besides US history. I don't do well on standardized tests but I think I'm a good student in that I really like to learn especially and am interested in a wide variety of things. I do not know how to cram and I am very forgetful. I have a lot of blond moments. I didn't know what the word hedge was when I was in Honors English. I prepped for the LSATs for a little bit and chose consulting instead of law school.

670 puts me within the 80% column at most of the schools I'm applying, albeit lower end, but still in there.

The point is that I think everyone can do well on this exam. When I say everyone can do well on this exam I really think so. 95% of the stuff that I studied this past 3 weeks were not on the exam. At this point, I'm still thinking that there must have been some computing error with the 670 especially the 46. I'm not exactly a humble guy so when I say I don't understand the 46 - it means I really don't understand how on earth I got a 46 in context of the test.

Believe in yourself and in God. Have support of your friends. Last night I went to my young adult fellowship and a lot of people prayed for me. It helped me. Whatever helps you and gives you confidence is what you need. Having confidence is probably the most important part of the test.

DETAILS

Food between sections Stacey Koprince in an article says eat a candy bar in between sections. During my last test I ate grapes between each section. I ate an almond snickers between AWA and Q and a banana between Q and V. I also had a gatorade and bottled water as well as sour skittles. Somehow I think the sugar is supposed to help but that's not backed scientifically.

I went to the restroom after Q and I will had to go to the restroom during V. I guess I have a really small bladder so even if you don't have to go to the restroom between sections - just go.

The Night before.

The night before the test, I just watched some of the office and episodes of entourage. I took a nap during the day. Try to do whatever it is to relax yourself as much as possible. I'm a really jittery person so eating a good meal helps and see some friends.

ALL IT TAKES ARE THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

After writing this, I think I remember seeing a work question and then some really easy data sufficiency questions. I do really well on work questions. Data sufficiency were the time savers for me because I was able to eliminate AD or BCE very quickly.

NEVER CANCEL YOUR SCORE

I knew I wasn't gonna cancel my score but part of me wanted to. It was just an awful exam I thought.

The GMAT is an awful exam. It ruined many aspects of my life (career, friends, relationships etc) but to finally be finished with this exam makes me really happy.

A BIT OF LUCK

I don't know - but I honestly think it boils down to a lot of luck. If you're lucky and prepare - you can do well on this exam. It doesn't take a genius. To get a 770 it probably does but to get a 670 it does not - just hard work, support and faith.

So that's about it. Please let me know if you have questions or comments. I am more than happy to recount anything I did that I thought helped or if you just want to chat.

Good luck to everyone else taking the exam.

- To the good life!

Doclkk

Schools I'm applying to:

UCLA
USC
UT Austin
Northwestern
Columbia

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