I beat the GMAT 700 (Q 50, V 35)

[erjamit]

Hi All,

My G-Day was on 08/20 and I scored 700 (Q 50, V35). I owe my success in GMAT to BTG, the instructors and online members. My post might not be a detailed one but I think there are many post's which can be used as a reference for making a study plan.

I started my preparation around September'2007. Initial phase was getting used to GMAT format, understanding the various parts of GMAT, materials needed, collecting the materials etc...
I studied without any GMAT Date for 1 month and was doing so without any aim. I had to travel to US and Israel for some-time so had to postpone my GMAT plans.

In Apr'08 I finally decided to get serious and took 08/20 as the G-Day. I wanted to have sufficient time to prepare.

I used BTG extensively and my prep plan was similar to Eric's.

I will summarize few things to take care for GMAT:-

1. I won't recommend taking GMATPrep 1 before you start your prep. Use the OG11's diagnostic test to get a feel what GMAT is all about.

2. Give yourself 2 months to prepare each and every topic for GMAT and then take GMATPrep1. This way you will get to know your major areas of weakness.

3. Now concentrate for 1-2 weeks on your areas of weakness.

4. Old GMAT paper tests are truly amazing. I will highly recommend trying a few atleast.

5. GMAT is all about patience, practice, confidence, nerves, time-management, stamina and ability to control emotions. (when you know you are doing right and then it's very important not to be over-confident...or when you are not able to handle questions and now it's very important that you don't lose yourself)

6. Pls keep a note of what silly mistakes you are making and ensure they are not repeated. e.g. my common mistakes would be mis-reading the question, calculation mistakes (81 - 80 = 0, 4*8 = 12...I hope you get it), etc.

7. 1.5-2 months before your G-Day try 1 timed test every weekend. Many are freely available on net. This is to see how you are progressing and how to build stamina for the G-Day. Believe me this is really important, you shouldn't go for G-Day without practice.

8.I refered to this post by mgross for timing. For me timing was always an issue and this approach worked wonders for me.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/i-just-finis ... 15461.html

9. Take GMATPrep2 the weekend before the G-Day. You will get a rough idea how you are performing.

PowerPrep2 Score - 690.

I tried maintaing error-logs but found I couldn't go through them at the end. So it's personal wish to make it or leave it.
But be sure of what mistakes you are making and never to repeat them again.

G-Day experience
Quant was easy and I was really careful not to committ any silly mistakes. I scored 50 in quant which was very good. After quant section was over, I was very concious that now my GMAT score depends on Verbal and I have to be extra cautious. But unfortunately, verbal didn't turned out to be good experience. RC was pretty ok and I am sure of 90% accuracy. CR was also fine. RC and CR were usual questions as per OG's pattern.

The biggest surprise was SC. I had gone through MGMAT SC and OG10 for SC. To my shock I wasn't able to apply any technique be it Subject-Verb agreement, Pronouns, Idioms, Parallelism etc. to almost 12-13 questions. It seemed weired and looked as if the SC is not as per the pattern. I am not at all sure what type of SC question's were being asked. SC led to my downfall, it was my one of the strengths in OG and practice tests. I don't know why the questions were not as per the pattern and it was pretty much frustrating to see many SC questions for which my mind was blank. I didn't knew what to do.

Verbal 35 brought my score down to 700.

I knew I could have scored more and 700 is below my expectation but I am satisfied with my effort and preparation. It's been a long and tiring journey but the next journey has just started and it is going to be even tougher.

I have to thank Stacey, Ron, Eric, aim-wsc, Ian, mgross, Leonard and many others whom I haven;t mentioned but all were critical to my success. I found a good friend i.dreem through BTG and I wish him success for his G-Day.

Thanks
Amit

[Ian Stewart]

Great score, Amit- congratulations!

[erjamit]

Thanks Ian for all the support and guidance. It's nice to have such great people around you.

Amit

[GoMBA]

Hi Amit
Congratulations on a good score.

I wanted to know about the strange SC questions that you got in your GMAT test. Can you please share with us what were these questions like?

Perhaps an heads-up about something new can help us future test givers. Also in case you have any suggestions on the same will be good to hear.

Thanks.

[erjamit]

Hi GoMBA,

It's difficult for me to classify the strange SC questions and as per GMAC policy it's illegal to disclose the GMAT questions.

However, I would share my experience. I had done MGMAT SC and was pretty confident with SC with 80-90% accuracy on OG10. The GMAT SC questions were strange bcoz I couldn't apply any of the SC technique such as S-V agreement, Pronouns, Tense, etc.. that have been mentioned in MGMAT SC to 10-12 SC questions. I don't know what pattern was followed in those questions and I am really stumped bcoz low Verbal score has reduced my score drastically.

Maybe instructors from MGMAT or Kaplan can share their thoughts.

Thanks
Amit

[i.dreem]

thanx amit for the wishes. just 5 days left. i hope to make a mark

[GoMBA]

Thanks Amit. Yeah if the instructors or someone else can shed some light on this it will be great.

[erjamit]

I got 5 in AWA and I am more than satisfied now.
I have dropped the plan for re-taking GMAT.

4-5 months of hard-work has paid off....It's a nice feeling. Can't describe in words.

[gabriel]

Good work. Congratulations.

[erjamit]

Thanks