MY GMAT experience 640 --> 710 & few tips & RC99

[hardikm]

Hi,

Took my GMAT today morning. I got 710 (Q:50, V:35) and did very well in AWA (Expecting atleast 5+).
My Experience:

My Preparation:

First GMAT: 640 (Q49 V 27)
Was really a bad day as I never received such low score ever in my practice GMAT exams. In most of my exams, my score was hovering around 690-700. However, I guess I was too tired by the time I started verbal. I was bit weak at RC (took too much time to read) and got 3 really difficult RCs in first 20 questions. I was scrambling to finish the paper in the end and I knew in the end I screwed up.

I took a respite of 4 months and restarted preparation just 1 1/2 months ago. I discovered that the problem with my earlier preparation was to focus on already solved problems and retake already taken exams. This technique really tested my memory rather than problem solving ability. I changed my approach completely to solve new problems posted on Beat The GMAT forum and few other forums. This approach helped me a lot to improve my score. Reading discussion on questions helped me to structure my approach to attack the problem. The comments by experts like Ron, Ian, Stacey really helped me to understand my mistakes.

Material Used:
Books: OG 12 & Math and Verbal Workbooks
Manhattan GMAT all books (Really liked Number Properties, Word Problems, Sentence Correction)
Kaplan Verbal Workbook
PowerScore CR Bible (Just browsed through it)

Practice Exams:
6 Manhattan GMAT (gave each exam twice .. 1st 680,690,710,690,730,740 2nd 760, 740, 780, 780, 750,770)
GMAT Prep (gave it four times.. 690,730,770,730)
Kaplan 800 Score (Took only once 660)
Cambridge (680)

GMAT Exam Experience:
I was really tensed as my earlier GMAT score became hindrance to my b-school dream. I really wanted to atleast score 700 and score atleast 70 percentile in verbal. I could not sleep the night before the exam. My exam was scheduled at 8 AM in the morning. So I reached the center in dallas, TX 1/2 hour early. Since I gave GMAT before, I pretty much knew the process. I was the first was to check in and they quickly assigned my station.

AWA: I got the argument question. It was pretty simple argument but the problem was there were not many points that can weaken the argument. I started writing about few assumptions and additional evidence necessary to evaluate the strength of the argument.

The most important thing, GMAT AWA evaluator look for is the structure and grammar (apply what u learnt in SC, avoid passive, use correct parallel form). First paragraph must include the conclusion, premises the argument uses and brief about the points you will discuss in the rest of the essay. Summarize in the end, once you discuss all the points.

Issue topic was also straight-forward. Once again the structure and progressive passage will help you (progressive: build ideas A -> B -> C) and finally double check if you made any grammatical mistakes.

Quant:
I was pretty relaxed after AWA as I did good job in the essays. I relaxed in 8 minutes break between AWA and Quant. I started Quant with first question. I was stumped. First question (Standard Deviation) was really tough. It took me more than 3 minutes to solve the problem. But as I moved on the question became harder and harder. One of the problem, I took more than 5-6 minutes to solve. I moved very quickly with questions. I did not spend too much time in double checking my answers. I finished quant Section before 15 minutes. Overall, math section was pretty manageable. I only had to guess the answer of one of the questions on Set Theory but besides that question all questions were quite similar to Manhattan GMAT Exams / GMAT Prep.

Verbal:
I took a deep breath and just let the clock run out for Quant. So I actually got 15 minutes + 8 minutes of break between two sections

I started with verbal questions. I did alright in beginning. Then Question 4-6 were RC. Since I practiced really difficult RCs before, RCs in GMAT exam was pretty straight-forward. It could be because I might have missed one question in beginning. The difficulty for questions stayed at medium level for me, as I might have made few mistakes. RCs are no where close the RC provided by RC99. (Mebbe you can solve it then u ll feel GMAT RCs pretty easy). CRs were also of the same difficult level as GMATPrep.

In the end, I saw score = 710 (Math 50, Verbal 35). Average score but I was relieved as my score atleast improved by 70 points. Once again, GMAT is really important if your Academics is weak, but if you feel your Acads are strong then GMAT is only qualifying criterion for many schools. I talked with few adCom members from European B Schools (Insead, LBS, IE, HEC) and all of them had the same opinion about the GMAT. They told us that don't sweat too much on GMAT but make sure you atleast get enough to be competitive. Anything about 700 is good, but it is more important to maintain balanced score than getting 700. AdCom wud be happy if you have 48 40 verbal than 50 36.

I thank every one for the support and posting new questions that really helped me a lot.

Good Luck to all MBA Aspirants.

H

[sivaelectric]

Awesome score and great debrief

[galaxian]

Congs Hardik for good score

When you said you practiced really hard RCs, could you plz tell what source did you use for them.

[hardikm]

RC Guide:

1. Devised a strategy on how to attack RC Question. I am sure you must have read it many times before but the best way I figured was to read the complete paragraph if its small (say 25-30 lines) hardly takes few minutes and then solve the problem. If its long paragraph, read first para to get idea and read the rest to get clear picture what passage has to say. Again in long passage, read question first to know what you are searching for. In answer choices, each and every word should clearly represent / paraphrase answer. Its standard GMAT trick to generalize/ specialize (Reduces focus too much or increase focus of the answer) answer choices

2. Figure out your weakness. My weakness was sociology, legal issues paragraphs. I found business passage, science passages easy to read and understand. I guess its personal experience that makes you more comfortable with certain type of text. I practised a lot of sociology, legal issue, labor vs management, woman issues etc paragraphs.

3. I used multiple sources, RC 99, Beat The GMAT forum, Manhattan GMAT Forum etc.

Hope it helps.
H

[GMATMadeEasy]

RC Guide:

2. Figure out your weakness. My weakness was sociology, legal issues paragraphs. I found business passage, science passages easy to read and understand. I guess its personal experience that makes you more comfortable with certain type of text. I practised a lot of sociology, legal issue, labor vs management, woman issues etc paragraphs.

Hope it helps.
H

Congrats. I can imagine this should be a big relief. Could you suggest from where did you practice social science passages? I have almost the same challenge area . RC99 is not at all representative of GMAT in any sense.

[hardikm]

Yes, it is not merely one source you can follow to handle the passage. I told you to refer to RC99 because some para are much harder than you will see in GMAT. If you can handle them, then surely GMAT passage will look pretty easy to you.

Also use Beat The GMAT forum optimally. Lot of people have posted quite a few passages.

Hope it helps.

[Frankenstein]

Hi,
Congrats mate. Good luck with your apps.

[cans]

Congrats....
Have you got links for RC passages based on Science topics??

[smackmartine]

Great Score. Good luck for your application process!

[hardikm]

Thanks everyone.
@Cans: I did not follow single source for my RC prep. I could easily understand Science / Business paragraphs so it was not a huge challenge for me. However, I used Kaplan GMAT Workbook, Manhattan GMAT prep, Beat The GMAT questions, Manhattan GMAT Exams and few RC99 para (To develop the strategy in case I get really difficult passage.) Hope it helps. Also by looking at the amount of time you are putting in for preparing GMAT, you will surely beat it spectacularly.

[cans]

Thanks everyone.
@Cans: I did not follow single source for my RC prep. I could easily understand Science / Business paragraphs so it was not a huge challenge for me. However, I used Kaplan GMAT Workbook, Manhattan GMAT prep, Beat The GMAT questions, Manhattan GMAT Exams and few RC99 para (To develop the strategy in case I get really difficult passage.) Hope it helps. Also by looking at the amount of time you are putting in for preparing GMAT, you will surely beat it spectacularly.

Thanks a lot

[kvitkod]

hardikm, first of all, my congratulation!

could you share RC99 texts (I do not know this source) and your tips re AWA (if you have)

thanks

[hardikm]

RC99 is not an official source and actual GMAT questions are no where close to RC99. However, if you have plenty of time and just want to practice questions then u can use it and mebbe familiarize with really hard topics.

If you need sample AWA I wrote I will email you few in you Personal Message.

Not able to find doc on my computer. Once I find it, I will post it on forums.

[kvitkod]

thank you.
please mail me [email protected]

[bhavesh_09]

Yes, it is not merely one source you can follow to handle the passage. I told you to refer to RC99 because some para are much harder than you will see in GMAT. If you can handle them, then surely GMAT passage will look pretty easy to you.

Also use Beat The GMAT forum optimally. Lot of people have posted quite a few passages.

Hope it helps.

Hi Hardik,

Really nice debrief. I am also using RC99 for RC. may I know what was your hit ratio(success rate) in easy, medium and hard level RCs?