An average show at the main stage

[bblast]

Hey guys, my exam was ok. I faced a couple of power outs with the ups failing, but I had read somewhere that the exam resumes from where the power went out. So I did not panic. To add to this a couple loudspeakers at the basement of my test centre did not help my cause. But I was the only test taker in the room. So I tried to counter the disturbances by reading out loud in the verbal section. I dont think the disturbance affected me much though. I did what I could.

I did well in quant, my target was 47 and I exactly managed that, the questions were fairly ok. I saw tons of DS after getting the first 4-5 questions correct. I had to work harder to get a 47 in the gmat prep. So I was happy with the quant today.


Verbal :
I feel I nailed the first 3 rc passages in my verbal as the topics were pretty much general. 2 passages on biology which was my favourite subject in school so not much problem I faced there. The sc's were tough as expected but I did well. I even saw 2 boldfaces after my 3rd passage around q 27-31 and this is where I lost my way. It had a silly thought- "Pushkal you are doing extremely well and u need to get these correct to make the difference between a verbal 35 and a 40". I pretty much lost my way after this. I would have been better of going the way I was and added couple points to my tally. Wasted more than 6 minutes on these 2 questions and then faced a ridiculous political passage on some laws civil laws being passed from Q33-36 and from there there was no way back. I feel I got most of the questions wrong from 30-40 and then scrambled my way through the finish line. I think my poor finish made the difference between a 680 score and my score.
This aint any debrief but might be a small learning to some people. I dnt think I could have avoided the last 15 minute debacle anyway though. Ended up with a verbal 34.

Score
Q47(79 percentile) V34(68 percentile).
650.

AWA 5.5.


I got a Q47 V31 in my gmat prep 1 for a 650 some 20 days back(feel they should have given me 10-20 points extra today for the 3 point verbal improvement today ). I also got a 730(49/40)(ON a repeat I must mention) last week with a huge verbal score. But I feel its important to write the test well to score high.

I dont think I got any nerves at all, it was pretty much like everyday work after giving 10 cat's in a month. I tried the burn out study method with intense studying (6-8 hours) for around 37 days like we did in our engineering. I would suggest that people will be better off studying in bits for 3-4 months rather as GMAT is not an engineering exam. I am not regretting now as I was aware of these facts, still I gave it a crack due to some personal constraints.


I had, nanyang, rotman, sp jain, cranfield in my list, but all these are in the 670-680 range so i have pretty much failed in my mission.

I was an SAP consultant for over 2 years working with one of the world leaders in the industry and now I am a small scale entrepreneur. Any idea guys, whether these colleges will still consider my application with such a poor score ?

If i have to retake this the exam I cant do it for the next 3 months. So either I forget my MBA plans for this fall or still give a crack at the applications ? (i am getting old though, i would have preferred applying this year.)

Suggestions and questions most welcome.

One more thing, ONLY getting the basics right will not help you score huge at the exam. I have a pretty solid base in SC and quant with huge amounts of work put in for about 30 days. But answering questions and scoring big on gmat will perhaps come with the ability to answer the questions in that particular time frame and in the CAT format.

The quant at the gmat is fun to solve if you can crack the code. Every question seems to be a sort of a small puzzle with which you are not familiar.


Regarding my game plan, I even studied all day at my factory sitting in my office. I even took the cats there with sometimes my employees barging into my chamber at the middle of an RC passage :/. I am still smiling. I will be a part of BTG for many more days to come. This is becoming boring and emotional now. Thanks everyone !!

[rishi raj]

Congratulations,dude! 640 ain't a bad score ,trust me! And given the fact that you're an entrepreneur, your GMAT score shouldn't be much of a hindrance for getting through the schools you've listed. Profile really matters. You're unlike us, the IT junta, who are kinda trying hard to differentiate themselves from each other given our lackluster profiles etc.

Regarding SPJain, are you taking about the GMBA program at SPJain Signapore,Dubai or their 1 year executive MBA program at their Mumbai campus ? Whichever campus it is ,I think that 640 should be good enough. In fact, the average GMAT at the 1 year Executive MBA program at SPJain Mumbai is 640 itself ,if I am not wrong .And for the Dubai/Singapore campuses,it shouldn't be more than 680.
If you're total experience post your Bachelors' is 5+, then Cranfield may be within your range. The average age there is around 31.
Not sure about NUS and Rotman . I know a lot about them but not sure how good would be a 640 for these schools.
Anyway, Congratulations once again! Keep rocking BTG!

[Ramit88]

i agree with rishi raj...
n how many prob and combination ques came in ur exam.. and was the level of verbal in real exam same to the level of verbal in gmat prep??

[bblast]

Thanks Rishi, I got 650(not 640 ), 47/34. (Dont u think people usually get 660 with this split ((, And ya my work ex is around 3 years in all,

I 'll definitely give a crack at R3 in some of these colleges which I mentioned. Rotman even entertains 610, i read somewhere. I even have strong recos, will give it a go, have a couple months in hand. And ya I did pretty ok for a 40 day prep . thanks to :
OG12 (covered twice)
mgmat guides(5 quant+ sc)
kaplan 800 qant
og 10 verbal (excellent)
sahil's notes, BTG flash card MGMAT flashcards
U name em..... I licked them all up in a month
I even put a printout of sahil's notes in my washroom on my magazine holder:/. no men's health/newspaper early morning since a month :mrgreen:


@Ramit, no P&C's probability i was pretty good at it. tons of small puzzling questions which can be solved by brains and without methods,
I cant disclose them but you should get what i am saying. The point is very correctly made that blindly studying for qant wont help much, u just gotta develop the knack for solving gmat maths.

i found the verbal pretty similar to gmat prep, the rc passages can be tricky, but i was lucky, my first 3 passages were friendly, but almost 15-16 questions in all in RC :/, the last passage and its 4 questions killed me

[prachich1987]

I had, nanyang, rotman, sp jain, cranfield in my list, but all these are in the 670-680 range so i have pretty much failed in my mission.

The range is 670-680.But it's not that everyone enters with such scores
It's an average score
With a strong application packet you can definitely enter one of these
Have faith in yourself !!!

[bblast]

I had, nanyang, rotman, sp jain, cranfield in my list, but all these are in the 670-680 range so i have pretty much failed in my mission.

The range is 670-680.But it's not that everyone enters with such scores
It's an average score
With a strong application packet you can definitely enter one of these
Have faith in yourself !!!

thanks prachich, you have to do much better than me, keep going, take plenty gmat preps and get used to the 75 minute brawl sessions. The extraneous noise today by a couple loudspeakers in my test centre actually got the better out of me in verbal today, I was alone in the test room and was reading the RC and CR's loud to counter the effect of the nuisance. I think this helped(however i think i did mess a couple of CR's coz of the bloody speakers-i curse them to hell-some baba giving his pravachan), Donno if gmat is gonna catch hold of me for yelling in the centre later . and dnt be nervous, the start of the test is very smooth, i think the quant q 1-5 were much better and friendly than the gmat prep Q's.

[Night reader]

congratulations Kumar! While I was wasting my time, last two days, with one of crappy GMAT providers you actually did what you have been preparing for. I have to notice that pairing your GMAT exam score with your engineering profile should help you overcome many hindrances which non-engineering grads face. Be a good writer of admission essay (SoP). As an old writer of many essays I could friendly help you out - just send me the plain list of your ideas.

good luck.

[Ramit88]

thanx..m giving my exam on 28 jan..little nervous.. scored 650 in gmat prep.. ..i think i too gonna end up with 650..lol
i have heard that in quant atleast 2-3 ques come from OG with diff name and figures...is it so..?
and dude u were all alone in test centre??.. m from delhi n gonna give ma exam in delhi centre only..did u also guve ur exam in delhi centre

[AIM GMAT]

I was looking forward to read your post , I too agree 650 ain't bad , i know you were aiming at 700 but u have a really good profile , work ex + entrepreneur experience .

I score within 640s - 700 in practice tests , but never did break the barrier of the super "7" . I hope to do it , god knows when , i m simply stuck.

Best luck with your applications .

[bblast]

congratulations Kumar! While I was wasting my time, last two days, with one of crappy GMAT providers you actually did what you have been preparing for. I have to notice that pairing your GMAT exam score with your engineering profile should help you overcome many hindrances which non-engineering grads face. Be a good writer of admission essay (SoP). As an old writer of many essays I could friendly help you out - just send me the plain list of your ideas.

good luck.

sure night reader, i will do that for you, thanks a lot,
Ya i think what I achieved what I prepared for : a below 650 score would have been a bad show and cracking under pressure, but I think I justified my preparation, all is well, I'll work on the essays, will be here with you people at BTG, I aint going anywhere, I find this site better than facebook. and gmat math and English wnt harm you any day. Its good learning even for a non aspirant, not like the crappy engineering maths sucking the life out of you.

I saw you post regarding the GMAT provider, I dont think it was worth a buy. Anyways do take your money back. I mean how can the test be such a crap as u described it !!

[bblast]

thanx..m giving my exam on 28 jan..little nervous.. scored 650 in gmat prep.. ..i think i too gonna end up with 650..lol
i have heard that in quant atleast 2-3 ques come from OG with diff name and figures...is it so..?
and dude u were all alone in test centre??.. m from delhi n gonna give ma exam in delhi centre only..did u also guve ur exam in delhi centre

ramit, i gave the test in ranchi, I have set up a small business here last year so moved here from Mumbai. there are hardly any gmat takers in this city. i also have a base set up at mumbai nd Delhi, but i preferred taking the test from here just for the fact that I would be alone at the test centre. Trust me, it backfired. u already read about the power cut noise etc//You know what the bloody invigilator did ? he wiped my used AWA pad with a wet cloth and gave it back to me in the verbal section. When I used the marker on it, the ink started blotting and spreading, i had to wipe all pages with my shirt. It was ridiculous. Anyways, i am not gonna put any blames on such factors as my focus was only on my questions. Your centre in Delhi will most probly be in Greater kailash, trust me you wnt be alone there. thats a busy test centre.

and ya you will never see a question and say to urself in the gmat : "AHA I KNOW THIS, I'VE SOLVED THIS BEFORE". No OG paraphrased questions at all

Just to boost ur score, give the gmat prep repeats once before 28th Jan (only Q and V). I scored big on the repeats(well over 700) and actually went very confident into the test.(however i could not score big actually). But i knew I would not score less than 650 in the worst case. You can still manage 680-700 on the real test even if u score 650 on the gmat prep. Trust me, go for it.

[bblast]

I was looking forward to read your post , I too agree 650 ain't bad , i know you were aiming at 700 but u have a really good profile , work ex + entrepreneur experience .

I score within 640s - 700 in practice tests , but never did break the barrier of the super "7" . I hope to do it , god knows when , i m simply stuck.

Best luck with your applications .[/quote

thanks.
A quick tip, try nailing the RC's to raise your score substantially in verbal : remember the GOLDEN lines :

1>nailing the first RC is solid gold Q 6,7,8 maybe 9.
2>CR's on gmat are ok. SC's are slightly trickier. You never get questions like the easy one's in the 1000 sc docs
3>more than 10 mistakes in verbal especially with 2-2 mistakes in strings means hasta la vista baby, give gmat again(V<35).


I guess I fell at the 3rd point towards the end of my test today.

[Ramit88]

thanks for reply.. its motivating indeed
n yes delhi center is near Gk..n that pad incident is really ridiculous

[AIM GMAT]

Thanks a lot bblast for the wonderful tips .

I have also observed that basically verbal makes the difference in the score especially RC , i m doing bad at RC 50% hit ratio [normally screw most of the tests in last RC] and CR 57% hit ratio [Although i m fine at CR while solving at the forum or while offline practice, dnt know what makes me fumble at test]. Any tips to improve verbal , i also have almost brushed max books in the market .Your insight into this would be helpful . The Standard Deviation should be minimum to achieve the super 7.

I have an engineering b/g , so u will understand my situation with Quant .

[fitzgerald23]

Sorry you didnt get that 700, but a 650 is not an average score for the GMAT. I think that its a very solid score and there is nothing to be ashamed about especially with a quant score of 47. When I took my GMAT I made a similar timing mistake in quant. I was more or less cruising along and decided I had extra time to devote to the last 5 questions to really try to up the score. I ended up using up almost all the time on two of them (neither of which I think I got correct) and then having to rush on the last 3. If I had kept my wits about me I never would have been in that position. Luckily it was only 3 questions and 1 of them, while somewhat difficult, was a type I had gotten very good at quickly solving.


I took a quick glance at your schools and I doubt 20-30 points is a dealbreaker with any of those choices as long as you put together a solid application. Rotmans average is right about 650 so you are pretty much right on the number for them Depending on what the deadlines are for the programs you can always apply now and sit for the GMAT a second time if you feel that it will help your chances that much more. My guess is after going through the actual experience you will better budget your time on the next go around and probably get right around that 700 you wanted.