Took gmat yesterday 640 Q49 V28 Need some guidance

[hemanthquartz1]

Hello,

I took gmat yesterday and scored 640 Q49 V28

AWA was very easy.
I would advice those who have difficulty with AWA to buy ARCO_GRE_Answers_to_Real_Essay_Questions (Not GMAT). My friend gave me a used copy. It helped a lot. To be honest I got exactly same topic that was there in that book.
And also for the past two months I have been listening to CSPAN radio channel on my way to work. That helped me a lot too. So I recommend to make it a habit of reading newspapers or listening to news channels.
I don't want to reveal the exact AWA questions but I can give hints. One was on internet usage(not exactly this but something similar) and other was on environmental pollution (again it was similar)

Quant was easier that I expected. I had almost 10-15 minutes left at the end.
Thanks to BTG. I knew my weak points and I focused mainly on those topic like Mean Median and standard deviation, Circles and traingles (sometimes they are tricky), P & C, Probability, and most important are DS problems especially problems that involved absolute values. If I had focused more on the BTG forums, I am sure I would have got the perfect score on Math.

Finally here comes the devil. I took break for 5 minutes before starting English section. I really prayed to make is little easy with English section. But that didn't work
I followed the BTG for verbal section too, mainly Stacey's and Ron's explanations and every one else in the forum.
But I failed miserably.
I couldn't manage time and literally rushed at the end to make sure I attempt all the questions.
I spent lot of time on reading comprehensions.
The books I followed for verbal are Manhattan SC, CR bible, OG 11 &12, and 1000 SC.
I know that stacey and Ron don't recommend 1000 SC but I felt I learned a lot by seeing the replies on the forum for 1000SC questions.

Hello Guru, please give me a strategy to crack the verbal section.
I dedicated so much time on this and I was very disappointed with the verbal part.
I plan to take exam again in 2 months.
One thing that I have not done is make any sort of cards or notes. Do you think doing that would help?

I would be really helpful if you can suggest me ways to improve my verbal section.

Thanks
Hemanth

[secondinnings]

hemanthquartz1,

Have you figured out your weakness in the verbal portion of the exam? (Is it SC / RC / or CR). Most people make dramatic improvements in the SC portion in a short period of time. Improving RC (try taking short notes) & CR (watch out for key words such as 'only', 'at least', 'all', 'none') takes a little more time and sustained practice.

How is the difficulty level of the quant section of the exam as compared to that of the GMAT prep? Any advice?

[skins81]

how did you prepare for Quant? what books did you use?

[hemanthquartz1]

hemanthquartz1,

Have you figured out your weakness in the verbal portion of the exam? (Is it SC / RC / or CR). Most people make dramatic improvements in the SC portion in a short period of time. Improving RC (try taking short notes) & CR (watch out for key words such as 'only', 'at least', 'all', 'none') takes a little more time and sustained practice.

How is the difficulty level of the quant section of the exam as compared to that of the GMAT prep? Any advice?

Hmm to be honest I find all three to be my weakness. CR takes times. So I definitely need more dedication on that.
Believe me before going to exam I was confident of at least 35 in verbal. I did lot of preparation on SC and CR thinking that the time I save on these section can be used for RC. I still don't understand how to improve this.

Coming to Quant part, I felt it easier than GMATPrep. I still remember one question that I saw day before the test date in BTG and it came in the real exam.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/05/ ... 9-may-2010.

I still need some help with Verbal part.

[hemanthquartz1]

how did you prepare for Quant? what books did you use?

OG helps to find out our weakness. I did not follow kaplan or manhattan.

This book helps with word problems and some basic math. But don't dedicated too much of time on this. It is very detail.
I made the mistake of spending too much on time on this book. But it is not worth spending lot of time. Just go through the basic and example problems.

https://books.google.com/books?id=fELsz2 ... on&f=false

And most important of all is following BTG.
For example the link below gives all the problem discussed on the circle in BTG. Similarly you can do for which ever topic you need help like triangles, coordinate geometry etc. I worked on problems unto 10 pages or so. Because most of them will be repetition and also I had less time.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&clie ... =&gs_rfai=

That was all I did for Quant.

[nikhilkatira]

hemanthquartz1,


Coming to Quant part, I felt it easier than GMATPrep. I still remember one question that I saw day before the test date in BTG and it came in the real exam.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/05/ ... 9-may-2010.

So you mean to say you got exactly the same question ?

[hemanthquartz1]

hemanthquartz1,


Coming to Quant part, I felt it easier than GMATPrep. I still remember one question that I saw day before the test date in BTG and it came in the real exam.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/05/ ... 9-may-2010.

So you mean to say you got exactly the same question ?

Yes exactly the same question.

[indiantiger]

hemanthquartz1,

-What were your score in the practice tests?
-Did you gave practice tests with AWA?

[hemanthquartz1]

hemanthquartz1,

-What were your score in the practice tests?
-Did you gave practice tests with AWA?

GMATprep 1 - 650
GMATprep 2 - 660

But in the practice tests I scored at least 35 in verbal. And I was expecting the same in real test.

I did not practice AWA in the GMATprep. But I am sure that wasn't the reason for my poor performance in verbal.
Actually after AWA and Math section I was as energetic as I was at beginning of test as I felt good about my performance in awa and quant sections. But something went wrong. Right from question 1 in verbal I was under pressure.

[nikhilkatira]

hemanthquartz1,

-What were your score in the practice tests?
-Did you gave practice tests with AWA?

GMATprep 1 - 650
GMATprep 2 - 660

But in the practice tests I scored at least 35 in verbal. And I was expecting the same in real test.

I did not practice AWA in the GMATprep. But I am sure that wasn't the reason for my poor performance in verbal.
Actually after AWA and Math section I was as energetic as I was at beginning of test as I felt good about my performance in awa and quant sections. But something went wrong. Right from question 1 in verbal I was under pressure.

Please share your scaled scores gmat prep tests..

[arpita@gurome]

hemanthquartz1,

-What were your score in the practice tests?
-Did you gave practice tests with AWA?

GMATprep 1 - 650
GMATprep 2 - 660

But in the practice tests I scored at least 35 in verbal. And I was expecting the same in real test.

I did not practice AWA in the GMATprep. But I am sure that wasn't the reason for my poor performance in verbal.
Actually after AWA and Math section I was as energetic as I was at beginning of test as I felt good about my performance in awa and quant sections. But something went wrong. Right from question 1 in verbal I was under pressure.

Hi Hemanth,

Your actual test score and the GMAT test prep scores are more or less in the same range. What it tells us is that it was not your nerves or any other extraneous reasons that affected your scores.

Here is what I suggest:
GMAT tests you on about 8 categories of questions in SC - Subject-Verb Agreement, Pronoun Error, Modifier Error, Parallelism, Verb Form, Idioms, Diction, Rhetorical Construction. Go back to the practice tests and figure out which one of these you find the toughest to solve and spend some extra time analyzing these. The best way to solve an SC question is to be able to spot the error in the question stem itself. A little bit of practice can help you get there.

I do not have any special advice for CR. Reading the question stem before reading the CR passage helps. However for RC, it is essential that you pick up the central idea and the supporting ideas of the passage while you are reading the passage. Make mental notes on the same. Do not get caught with minor details. As you read the first paragraph, try to anticipate what the author is going to talk about in the subsequent paragraphs. This approach may not be possible in a passage that is too technical in nature; however it works very well in passages such as the one on the "Great Migration". (OG 12 qstns 134-139)

All the best for your GMAT prep.

[indiantiger]

I agree with Arpita. Your score on the GMAT is in the same range as your practice score.

One thing I would suggest is not to get dishearten. Take a break from GMAT and then come back to the books. Create a plan and attack your weaknesses.

All I can say is that GMAT won the first round and you should be ready to give "GMAT" the beating in the second one.