Hello All,
6 weeks after registering for the test, and 5 weeks of buying the book ( I used Kaplan 2008 Premier) and 4 weeks of preparing, I finally took the GMAT today. And although I did not achieve my goal of 750, I am satisfied with the score that I received today. The details are (50Q-95% and 40V-89% overall 97%)
My background is in engineering and I completed my masters of science degree in 2003. And since i had a pretty decent GRE score (also in the 95-96 % range, from 1999) I figured that a score of 750 in the GMAT was achievable.
Immediately after getting to know the test I took a practice exam (Kaplan CAT 1) and was shocked to see a score of only 600. So I searched online on how relevant the scores of kaplan cat were with the actual GMAT. Looking through various webpages, I realized that 600 on a Kaplan Cat test was not that bad. Although I still had to improve a lot.
My strategy was to learn each new Question type from the book. (Kaplan was the only book I used), and I found the method to tackle RC are good (creating a map of the passage etc.). After learning each new topic I took one more CAT. At the end of the test I would analyze which questions I went wrong in. The scores did improve marginally after every question type that I learned. Since I am working full time, I could only devote so much time for this GMAT effort. So I was probably learning 2 Question types a week.
I also found out useful techniques for Data sufficiency from www.prepfortests.com. There was also a lot of useful GMAT material from https://gmat.bellcurves.com/strategy.php. I took some of their free CAT drills. And they helped me a lot.
Last week I solved the 2 GMAT prep tests and the free Manhattan GMAT Cat test, and one Kaplan CAT Test
in the order took the test
GMATPREP1 710 ( this was T-7 days)
Manhattan GMAT 720
Kaplan Cat3 640
GMATPREP2 760 (This was on T-2 days)
The last test gave me a lot of confidence that I was very close to my target score.
I got to know about this forum only in the last week. And by that time I was already done with my preparation of basic techniques. So I did not really want to invest too much time learning new material. Consequently I did not really use any of the resources posted on this forum, but I did go through eric's flashcards in the last couple of days.
Still I got to know a lot of intangibles on this forum. I was really nervous about using the erasable sheets with the wet erase pen. But reading everyone else's experience reassured me. Also while practicing tests I went through a lot of scratch paper. However during the test today I did not even go through half of the sheets. ( I was consciously being a little conservative about using space on it since I did not want to waste my time by asking for a new one). Also the tip about relaxing the day before and getting a good night's sleep was invaluable. I scheduled my practice tests so that I don't have to do any major study/analysis on the day before.
My test experience was great. I went through the essay sections on schedule. 2-3 min to prepare 20-22 minutes to write and 5 mins to proofread. Took a break. And started working the quant section. couple of medium difficulty questions and the difficulty went on increasing. I realised this because I was taking longer to answer each question.
During all my practice tests I always kept the clock on. So i was used to see the clock tick. But after taking so many practice tests (probably 9) I was able to manage time well enough. about 20 questions in the first 38 minutes and the last 21 questions in the remaining time. Still at the end i had to make intelligent guesses on a couple of questions since investing more test time to them would have left me in a precarious position time wise. I chose not to take that risk.
Took a break again. And started working the Verbal section. It went similarly (time wise). about 17 questions in the first 37-38 minutes and the rest in the remaining time. I had to guess on the second last question so that I could make an honest attempt at the last one. I finished the test with 20 sec remaining. One observation that I made was SC were more difficult (long underlined sections, whole sentence underlined numerous times) than my practice tests in GMAT Prep. I never really got the hang of some CR questions but was able to hack through them by elimination strategies anyways. RCs were not a problem. There was a really long RC towards the end but it was in the simplest english possible. So not a problem.
In summary, my strategy, to work through as many CAT tests as possible
worked as expected. I had to choose the best approach (cost-benefit) given the time that I was willing invest for this test. The time-bound practice definitely helped in honing the correct approaches to various questions effectively. Although I am not a native english language speaker, I do have sufficient command over written english, (Spoken is a different matter). Quant never really troubled me much. So the only thing I really concentrated and prepared for was on "Beating the GMAT"
Now I am going to mull what to do with this score. As of now I am not planning to apply to any schools. But hopefully i will have a fighting chance at any school that i would want to attend. Misson Accomplished!
6 weeks after registering for the test, and 5 weeks of buying the book ( I used Kaplan 2008 Premier) and 4 weeks of preparing, I finally took the GMAT today. And although I did not achieve my goal of 750, I am satisfied with the score that I received today. The details are (50Q-95% and 40V-89% overall 97%)
My background is in engineering and I completed my masters of science degree in 2003. And since i had a pretty decent GRE score (also in the 95-96 % range, from 1999) I figured that a score of 750 in the GMAT was achievable.
Immediately after getting to know the test I took a practice exam (Kaplan CAT 1) and was shocked to see a score of only 600. So I searched online on how relevant the scores of kaplan cat were with the actual GMAT. Looking through various webpages, I realized that 600 on a Kaplan Cat test was not that bad. Although I still had to improve a lot.
My strategy was to learn each new Question type from the book. (Kaplan was the only book I used), and I found the method to tackle RC are good (creating a map of the passage etc.). After learning each new topic I took one more CAT. At the end of the test I would analyze which questions I went wrong in. The scores did improve marginally after every question type that I learned. Since I am working full time, I could only devote so much time for this GMAT effort. So I was probably learning 2 Question types a week.
I also found out useful techniques for Data sufficiency from www.prepfortests.com. There was also a lot of useful GMAT material from https://gmat.bellcurves.com/strategy.php. I took some of their free CAT drills. And they helped me a lot.
Last week I solved the 2 GMAT prep tests and the free Manhattan GMAT Cat test, and one Kaplan CAT Test
in the order took the test
GMATPREP1 710 ( this was T-7 days)
Manhattan GMAT 720
Kaplan Cat3 640
GMATPREP2 760 (This was on T-2 days)
The last test gave me a lot of confidence that I was very close to my target score.
I got to know about this forum only in the last week. And by that time I was already done with my preparation of basic techniques. So I did not really want to invest too much time learning new material. Consequently I did not really use any of the resources posted on this forum, but I did go through eric's flashcards in the last couple of days.
Still I got to know a lot of intangibles on this forum. I was really nervous about using the erasable sheets with the wet erase pen. But reading everyone else's experience reassured me. Also while practicing tests I went through a lot of scratch paper. However during the test today I did not even go through half of the sheets. ( I was consciously being a little conservative about using space on it since I did not want to waste my time by asking for a new one). Also the tip about relaxing the day before and getting a good night's sleep was invaluable. I scheduled my practice tests so that I don't have to do any major study/analysis on the day before.
My test experience was great. I went through the essay sections on schedule. 2-3 min to prepare 20-22 minutes to write and 5 mins to proofread. Took a break. And started working the quant section. couple of medium difficulty questions and the difficulty went on increasing. I realised this because I was taking longer to answer each question.
During all my practice tests I always kept the clock on. So i was used to see the clock tick. But after taking so many practice tests (probably 9) I was able to manage time well enough. about 20 questions in the first 38 minutes and the last 21 questions in the remaining time. Still at the end i had to make intelligent guesses on a couple of questions since investing more test time to them would have left me in a precarious position time wise. I chose not to take that risk.
Took a break again. And started working the Verbal section. It went similarly (time wise). about 17 questions in the first 37-38 minutes and the rest in the remaining time. I had to guess on the second last question so that I could make an honest attempt at the last one. I finished the test with 20 sec remaining. One observation that I made was SC were more difficult (long underlined sections, whole sentence underlined numerous times) than my practice tests in GMAT Prep. I never really got the hang of some CR questions but was able to hack through them by elimination strategies anyways. RCs were not a problem. There was a really long RC towards the end but it was in the simplest english possible. So not a problem.
In summary, my strategy, to work through as many CAT tests as possible
worked as expected. I had to choose the best approach (cost-benefit) given the time that I was willing invest for this test. The time-bound practice definitely helped in honing the correct approaches to various questions effectively. Although I am not a native english language speaker, I do have sufficient command over written english, (Spoken is a different matter). Quant never really troubled me much. So the only thing I really concentrated and prepared for was on "Beating the GMAT"
Now I am going to mull what to do with this score. As of now I am not planning to apply to any schools. But hopefully i will have a fighting chance at any school that i would want to attend. Misson Accomplished!
