Hi Everyone
I took GMAT on 29th march 2010 and got 570. (M-47, V- 21).
I had issues with math as well as verbal when I started the preparations in November 2009. I have a very bad record with exams. I wanted to score above 700 on GMAT and never wanted to go wrong in choosing an approach. That was the reason I enrolled at a popular coaching center for GMAT and began my prep. In my first diagnostic test I got 420. (M-38, V-11). I realized verbal is the bigger problem. Even institute from where I was taking up the classes, also asked me to give my best to verbal. In nutshell following were the class's recommendations
1. Refer OG only strictly.
2. RC is backbone of the score
3. SC has a least weight.
I have been following it without fail. I concentrated myself primarily on RC and finished the questions from 10th, 11th and 12th OG. With math my problem is that of committing silly mistakes, so I focused on it from the beginning.
For SC there were some set of rules to follow. For CR and RC as well institute taught us some strategies. But I must confess with SC I never internalized the rules conceptually and CR strategy I never used. I solved all the sc questions from 11th and half from 10th. My hit ratio for SC and CR was 70% only.
In mid Feb 2010 I took second diagnostic and got 550. (M 43, V 23) My major issue here was time. RC as expected was very good, SC was worst and CR was better, however for CR I got many questions right which I had solved earlier. I think this is my did my first mistake. I took CR lightly. For SC I contacted my instructor for help. Even she was clueless, but suggested me to apply strategies carefully and imbibe all the rules. For math I guessed I was lacking practice.
During same time, my office work was giving me lot of trouble. and eventually I had end my studies till 12th march. I took a 2 week leave from office to complete the task I had left incomplete. I feel this was my biggest blunder, because my knowledge with CR and SC was half baked.
For next 5 days I slogged like mad and finished 3/4 th of 10 og maths. There was an improvement in accuracy. I did solve SC and CR from 10th OG, but with the same hit ratio.
As I also had to improve my speed, I felt attempting more and more GMAT prep is the only way out. Therefore the entire week before the test was allocated for tests. 29th march was the day of my official GMAT test.
In initial couple of tests almost 70% questions were from og. Still I got scores such as 710,660,710. Maximum wrongs were in SC. (in a day I took two GMAT prep tests).
As I realized it's not reflecting my true score, I chose the latest two GMAT software. Then perhaps it first started reflecting my true level. I got 590, 620,640. (Still, my bad luck, many CRs were repeat from OG. Although I knew it's still not my true score, I assumed I should be able to tackle CR questions on my actual GMAT.)
I got 640 when exam was 4 days due. (M 50 V28), with 10 wrongs is SC. I strongly felt a reconsider my SC preparation. I took Manhattan's SC guide. For next whole day I read it and solve all the SC QUESTIONS from Official Verbal review. My hit ratio on it was quite good but I solved these questions topic wise.
I did give ample time for reviewing my mistakes, for which I took help of this forum as well. Somehow I had a feeling that I have improved in SC. However I guess it could be because of the repetition of the questions on the test. My scores hence were in the range of 670, 700,690. (I knew its not true score, however I felt there is still a probability of getting my questions right. Cause even while solving the repeated questions I did make use of strategies and made sure, with my rules and strategies it's indeed a correct answer)
On test day.
Math, section first 15 questions were easy and I solved them really well, then one really bad DS eat up my mind, I did spend time and in the end skipped it. After it was word problem on percentage, was easy I solved it, but my answer was not matching with any of the answer choice. I was scared; I tried to check, but in vain, I made a wise guess and clicked next. For next question I faced with same issue of not finding the answer choice. I skipped it again. Post this every question was relatively very easy.
Verbal: Initial SCs were easy, and few CRs, which I did not comprehend and therefore had to guess. 1 RC was easy. On my second RC one question took most of my time. 3 RC was a long passage. I spent considerable time. On 26 th question I again got RC, which was a real test of me, I gave most for it, with hardly any confidence of getting a right answer. I think by this time I was out of the test. I had just 8 minutes with me and still had some 13 questions majority being CRs. They were appearing so tough and different that in the end I could not do much.
My RCA
Math: silly mistakes while reading questions.
Verbal: Conceptually not clear on SC and CR. RC need a push.
Please help me devise a plan for my next attempt. What I should refer for CR and SC. May I right about my RCA?
My target GMAT score is 700.
I took GMAT on 29th march 2010 and got 570. (M-47, V- 21).
I had issues with math as well as verbal when I started the preparations in November 2009. I have a very bad record with exams. I wanted to score above 700 on GMAT and never wanted to go wrong in choosing an approach. That was the reason I enrolled at a popular coaching center for GMAT and began my prep. In my first diagnostic test I got 420. (M-38, V-11). I realized verbal is the bigger problem. Even institute from where I was taking up the classes, also asked me to give my best to verbal. In nutshell following were the class's recommendations
1. Refer OG only strictly.
2. RC is backbone of the score
3. SC has a least weight.
I have been following it without fail. I concentrated myself primarily on RC and finished the questions from 10th, 11th and 12th OG. With math my problem is that of committing silly mistakes, so I focused on it from the beginning.
For SC there were some set of rules to follow. For CR and RC as well institute taught us some strategies. But I must confess with SC I never internalized the rules conceptually and CR strategy I never used. I solved all the sc questions from 11th and half from 10th. My hit ratio for SC and CR was 70% only.
In mid Feb 2010 I took second diagnostic and got 550. (M 43, V 23) My major issue here was time. RC as expected was very good, SC was worst and CR was better, however for CR I got many questions right which I had solved earlier. I think this is my did my first mistake. I took CR lightly. For SC I contacted my instructor for help. Even she was clueless, but suggested me to apply strategies carefully and imbibe all the rules. For math I guessed I was lacking practice.
During same time, my office work was giving me lot of trouble. and eventually I had end my studies till 12th march. I took a 2 week leave from office to complete the task I had left incomplete. I feel this was my biggest blunder, because my knowledge with CR and SC was half baked.
For next 5 days I slogged like mad and finished 3/4 th of 10 og maths. There was an improvement in accuracy. I did solve SC and CR from 10th OG, but with the same hit ratio.
As I also had to improve my speed, I felt attempting more and more GMAT prep is the only way out. Therefore the entire week before the test was allocated for tests. 29th march was the day of my official GMAT test.
In initial couple of tests almost 70% questions were from og. Still I got scores such as 710,660,710. Maximum wrongs were in SC. (in a day I took two GMAT prep tests).
As I realized it's not reflecting my true score, I chose the latest two GMAT software. Then perhaps it first started reflecting my true level. I got 590, 620,640. (Still, my bad luck, many CRs were repeat from OG. Although I knew it's still not my true score, I assumed I should be able to tackle CR questions on my actual GMAT.)
I got 640 when exam was 4 days due. (M 50 V28), with 10 wrongs is SC. I strongly felt a reconsider my SC preparation. I took Manhattan's SC guide. For next whole day I read it and solve all the SC QUESTIONS from Official Verbal review. My hit ratio on it was quite good but I solved these questions topic wise.
I did give ample time for reviewing my mistakes, for which I took help of this forum as well. Somehow I had a feeling that I have improved in SC. However I guess it could be because of the repetition of the questions on the test. My scores hence were in the range of 670, 700,690. (I knew its not true score, however I felt there is still a probability of getting my questions right. Cause even while solving the repeated questions I did make use of strategies and made sure, with my rules and strategies it's indeed a correct answer)
On test day.
Math, section first 15 questions were easy and I solved them really well, then one really bad DS eat up my mind, I did spend time and in the end skipped it. After it was word problem on percentage, was easy I solved it, but my answer was not matching with any of the answer choice. I was scared; I tried to check, but in vain, I made a wise guess and clicked next. For next question I faced with same issue of not finding the answer choice. I skipped it again. Post this every question was relatively very easy.
Verbal: Initial SCs were easy, and few CRs, which I did not comprehend and therefore had to guess. 1 RC was easy. On my second RC one question took most of my time. 3 RC was a long passage. I spent considerable time. On 26 th question I again got RC, which was a real test of me, I gave most for it, with hardly any confidence of getting a right answer. I think by this time I was out of the test. I had just 8 minutes with me and still had some 13 questions majority being CRs. They were appearing so tough and different that in the end I could not do much.
My RCA
Math: silly mistakes while reading questions.
Verbal: Conceptually not clear on SC and CR. RC need a push.
Please help me devise a plan for my next attempt. What I should refer for CR and SC. May I right about my RCA?
My target GMAT score is 700.
. I know the approach for maths. For verbal I am struggling a lot.
