I sort of beat the GMAT...advice 700 (Q44, V41)

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I am just seeking some advice from those of you who have applied to top schools or who are getting ready to apply.

I just took the GMAT today for the second time and scored 700 (Q44, V41) and am slightly disappointed because my quant score declined from the first time I took the GMAT last month. My first score was 680 (Q47, V37). I guess I am just a bit mad with my splits this time as the 700 breaks down to 68%ile in quant and 93% in Verbal. I actually feel better about the 680 score because both Quant and Verbal were 80%ile. I am wondering if top finance programs will factor in the fact that I already posted a solid Q47 or if i will be judged by the quant abilities I displayed in the second attempt?

I have no explanation for why my quant score dropped except that I may have missed an early question or two. The first time I took the exam, I guessed on the last four quant questions and still did well, so I cannot underestimate the importance of nailing the early questions. There seemed to be a great deal of variation between the two quant tests. The first one had far more questions on work rates and geometry, while this one was focused heavily on number properties and factors/absolute value in particular which is not one of my strengths. I did focus a lot more of my time on verbal in the month between the tests though.

A bit about myself. I just graduated from a large western state school in honors finance with a 3.8 gpa and am looking to get into banking or some sort of sell side position. I just figured I would take the GMAT while i am still in study mode and am looking at the top 15 schools. If asked on a job application or interview do I put my scores as Q47, V41 or am I going to have to put the 700 scores even though my quant score is lower? I have proven that I am better than my Q44, but will this be overlooked because it is not my most recent score?

I also want to thank all of you on this site who have provided me with so much useful information. Reading other posts encouraged me to retake the test and helped me tremendously in my strategy. Thanks.
Source: — I just Beat The GMAT! |

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by utahjazz8 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:42 am
Anyone out there?

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by DreamYogi » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:30 am
How did you improve your verbal score from 37 to 41? Can you please share your strategy. Thank you.

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by utahjazz8 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:59 am
I would say that the 41 V was much closer to my practice score average than the 37. Basically it came down to timing. For some reason the passages on the first attempt when i got 37 were incredibly long (all three at least 4 paragraphs) and I only had time to guess on the last three problems. On this attempt, the reading was much shorter (two with 3 paragraphs and one with 4) which i found a bit surprising since my score was higher. The GMAT is incredibly variable in terms of the types of questions you get which is somewhat strange since GMAC values score consistency.

The one thing I did do is purchase the Powerscore CR Bible which helped tremendously in my performance on the CR section. I also made flashcards outlining the verbal rules found in MGMAT Sentence Correction Guide. With SC it is not so much about doing the practice questions as it is memorizing the rules. If you simply memorize the rules, you can apply them in every situation.

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by uwhusky » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:05 am
Can you break down some of the SC rules you thought were helpful?

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by utahjazz8 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:24 am
Some important grammar rules:

Parallelism and modifiers are the most common questions
Either/or, neither/nor and knowing where to place them in a sentence
A number vs the number and all collective nouns
Etc.

To be honest there are quite a few rules as I had about 50 cards.

What I did was go through the MGMAT SC guide page by page. It lists right and wrong usages for basically every grammar rule. I wrote down the rule and at least one right and wrong sentence example for each rule. I then just studied these because I felt it would be more important to know the rules and apply them then to just keep repeating practice questions and choosing the answers based on intuition and sound. It is basically like memorizing equations in math. If you know the equations, you can solve almost any problem that is thrown at you. I can guarantee this will be the most helpful thing you can do. Just make the cards and then start reviewing them every day.

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by uwhusky » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:31 am
Cool man, I am happy that I am on the same page as you for my upcoming retake.

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by kunalmmehta » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:12 am
Congratulations... and can you post the SC Flash cards you prepared. It will be good resource for me to improve my SC.

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by utahjazz8 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:20 am
Sorry Kunal, they were handwritten.

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by utahjazz8 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:22 pm
Anyone have an answer to my original question?