730 (Q49, V39)

[bharadvaj]

Was able to finish Quant with 10 minutes to spare. I wish I had taken more care and utilized my time more wisely instead. Quant was very easy. I would say, it was very similar to GMAT Prep math, in terms of difficulty. No Permutation and Combination questions. Lot of number properties, algebra, statistics & geometry questions.

Regarding verbal, I ended up spending more time on passages than I expected. I knew, being a non native English speaker, RCs were always going to be a challenge for me. So, I planned to skip 1 long RC somewhere in the middle of the section, just to ensure that I finish the whole section on time. But, instead, I found the RCs interesting. So, I kept reading and before I realized, I was left with 10 questions and only 15 minutes. I just narrowed down answers to the last 6 questions to 2 best contenders per question and picked one randomly (best educated guess).

AWA was not difficult at all.

I thought I messed up the verbal and was expecting a score of around 690, with Q50 and V34 or V33, but instead, a 730 score appeared from no where. I believe this is only because of 2 reasons. I must have answered most of the first few questions correctly, and I must have answered a good percentage of 700 level questions correct. Regarding math, I believe I under performed by getting only Q49. I am more of a Q50 or Q51 kind of a guy. I also believe that luck & being in the right mood also play their part for every test taker. They both could make a difference of about +/-30 points easily. Staying composed, as oppose to getting anxious or nervous could itself boost the total score by 30 points.

Regrading practice material............

Real GMAT Verbal Quality - Slightly higher than GMAT Prep and slightly lower than Kaplan CATs. The key feature of real GMAT is that the SCs in Verbal are much lengthier than what the practice tests offer (the difficulty level will be similar to what is described in the above sentence, but length is different). So, it all depends on how we handle it adeptly.

Real GMAT Quant Quality - very similar to GMAT Prep. Much easier than MGMAT CATs

Scoring system - Much liberal than Kaplan CATs(add about 100 points to your Kaplan CAT scores). Similar to MGMAt CATs and GMAT Prep Cats (exception being the fact that on MGMAT CATs the quant section is much harder. So one can add about 40-50 points to the eventual scores on the MGMAT CATs)



Even though I managed 730, I don't feel too thrilled, as I see lot of people on this post achieving similar scores. So, not sure if this is a true achievement.

- My verbal score of V39, which is below V40 concerns me.
- Also of concern is my age, 31 years. Not sure if schools even admit people with this age.
- Nothing outstanding regarding Extra Curricular activities.

But things in my favor are..

- Good undergraduate and graduate performance and GPA.
- Masters in Electrical Engineering from a top 30 school in USA
- Working in the field of Wireless Communications, both design, development, manufacturing and sales
- I am at a Directorial level and manage a division of a small private company.
- Progressed well in my career, displaying plenty of leadership, street smartness and creativity


I plan to apply for Top 5 schools, but not sure how realistic of a goal this is considering my age and score. Please feel free to comment and I hope my debrief is also of some help to potential test takers. I definitely got benefited from this forum. Good luck folks

[GoBlue]

Wow.. Congratulations. 730 is a dream score. You obviously are good at math ( 10 mins left in Quant ). Your verbal score is pretty good too. How many practice CAT's did you take. What were your test scores in GMATPrep, Kaplan, MGMAT and any other CAT's. If you can publish your scores, it would be very helpful.

Now you mentioned, the verbal questions were slightly less tough than Kaplan Verbal and Quant was slightly easier than MGMAT correct ? Are the questions in Kaplan CAT ( Verbal ) similar to those in real test ?

Are you planning for F/T or P/T MBA. Your scores are very competitive even for a F/T MBA but I know for a fact that with your credentials getting in P/T in top 10 program would be a walk in the park. Good luck to you and thanks for the Debrief.

[chieftang]

Great story, great success! Congratulations.

I'm also curious what kind of Quant scores you were getting on the MGMAT.

But again, big time congrats!!

[bharadvaj]

@GoBlue

Thanks for the compliments. I took these cats in the order specified and din't do any retakes...

MGMAT CAT1: 590
MGMAT CAT2: 590
MGMAT CAT3: 620
MGMAT CAT4: 650
MGMAT CAT5: 650
Kaplan CAT1: 580
Kaplan CAT2: 590
Kaplan CAT3: 610
Kaplan CAT4: 610
GMAT Prep CAT1: 690
GMAT Prep CAT2: 690

Verbal in real GMAT is not similar to any CATs. It is different as I explained above. Math is exactly like GMAT Prep Math.

I was planning for an executive MBA at Berkeley or a full time MBA at ISB. Not sure where I stand, but should be clear once I start the process.

[bharadvaj]

@Chieftang: I was scoring around 38-45 for QUANT MGMAT CATs

[chieftang]

@Chieftang: I was scoring around 38-45 for QUANT MGMAT CATs

OK, thanks. A very good datapoint.

To what do you attribute your 40 point increase from GMATPrep to the real GMAT?

PS I'm hoping to apply to the part-time program at Berkeley a year from now. See you there! Oh, and, I'm older than you.

[GoBlue]

Me too. I am a lot older than you (PRONOUN ERROR - Ambiguous) too. I've heard if you have 690+ and a decent profile, you have good chance to get into Berkley P/T. I really keep screwing up in Verbal especially CR. I think I will try out a Grockit CAT to get a better idea of my weakness or maybe MGMAT Quant and Grockit Verbal and use the 800 score calculator to guesstimate the score.

[chieftang]

Ya, I would think the part time programs are much less stringent... they probably just want the money.

[bharadvaj]

@Chieftang: That is a very good question. I think it simply has to do with my personality. I am a kind of guy who always performs slightly below my potential during practice. On the test day though, I usually perform to my true potential. It has more to do with how my brain has been trained over the years. This always happened to me both with academics and sports.

It is different for different people. Some of my friends who performed similar to my performance during practice (acads) or league stages (sports) ended up under performing when it mattered the most (final exam or playoffs).

And some just keep the same performance no matter if it is practice or actual test.

It would be very difficult for a person to alter this behavior of their own brain. One should already know this fact and needs to plan accordingly.

Apart from the reasoning behind it, the 40 point increase I recorded is entirely in verbal. This because my verbal performance depends to a large enough degree on the frame of my mind.

[bharadvaj]

@GoBlue: Thank You and Good Luck to you

[ariz]

Congrats about the great score! And I agree with your theory about performance in different setting. If I am in the right frame of mind, I can do very well in Verbal. Beside SC which requires some knowledge of idiom/grammer, the answer to both RC and CR are all there, we just need to be able to focus and extract the right answer.

Of course, it is easier said than done, being almost 3 hours in the test already and feeling mentally exhausted...

[[email protected]]

Ya, I would think the part time programs are much less stringent... they probably just want the money.

While the part-time programs are less stringent, and might be below par compared to the full time programs at the same institute, they have inherent advantages.

For one, if you join a part-time program, you do not have to leave your current job, and do not have to search for a job at the end of the program - unless you decide to change jobs after completion. Second, you will not forego your income(salary) during the period. Hence, unless you are desperate to leave your current job, I think a part-time program is beneficial in many ways.

In sum...

[bharadvaj]

@ariz, @rai_90 --- Thank you.

[Sudish]

Thank you so much for that debrief!

[del@btg]

@bharadvaj : Your quant experience is quite similar to mine.I took test on 24th Nov.I found quant questions below my expectations and similar to OG level.This makes me wonder if the level was always like this or is it a recent phenomenon???

P.S. :Here's a link to my debreif,in case you are interested :

https://www.beatthegmat.com/730-q50-v38- ... tml#434249