GMAT 730 (Q :50, V:38) in 8 weeks

[bay_area]

Hello everyone,
First of all thanks to all the great posts at this website. I found this website quite useful during my preparation, esp this thread to keep track of my preparation and set my expectation.

I started my preparation in February begining and appeared for my GMAT on 5th April. I scored 730 (Q:50, V:38). Pretty much what I had expected and I am happy with the score. Since I found this thread useful, I have decided to share my experiences with all of you.

GMAT:
Math:
I found that the math section was tougher than what I had expected. I had 2-3 standard deviation questions and one simple combination problem. I noticed that the difficulty of the question peaked somewhere around 15-25 and after 25 and at the tail end of the test, most of questions were simple and some simply ridiculous. I spent a lot of time on the first 25 questions with only 18-20 mins on the last 10-11 questions.

Verbal: I was scoring around 38-44 on my practice tests, so little disappointed at the verbal score, but then I was never great at it anyway. One of the reading comprehensions was quite difficult. Other than that I was never confident on most of the SCs. critical reasoning was ok.

Here are the scores of my practice tests:
Test Math Verbal Total

Kaplan P1 590
Kaplan P2 50 30 650
Kaplan P3 38 35 600
Kaplan P4 44 32 620
Kaplan website 44 42 700 (2-3 days before GMAT)
Princeton P1 620
Princeton P2 43 35 630
Princeton P3 640
Princeton P5 51 40 730
Princeton website 50 40 720
Princeton CD 1 47 39 690
GMAT ETS1 50 35 710
GMAT ETS2 49 42 750

Legend:
Kaplan => kaplan 2002 book
Princeton => Online website course

As you see my practice test scores where all over the place.

Books/Reading material
Math: Kaplan-800
Verbal: Princeton Verbal handbook
Kaplanm, and ofcourse ETS 10th Edition (very useful).

I plateaued out in the last 1-1 1/2 week before my tests. So I dont think there is much point in overpreparing.


Best of luck to all for your GMAT preparations !!!

[ursula]

Nice job, Apoorv!

All that prep really paid off! Your scores confirm once again that PowerPoint is the closest predictor, Kaplan consistently underestimates, and Princeton is all over the place.

I was surprised you had 2-3 standard deviation questions. Did they actually ask you to calculate a standard deviation, or were they more conceptual problems?

I agree with you that there is not much point in overpreparing. I had a similar feeling for the last week or two, because by the time I felt confident enough to schedule my exam, the closest date I could get was about 10 days later than I would have liked. It's a lot like an athlete training for a major competition - you need to time it so you peak at just the right time

[erkki]

Congratulations on a great score!

[jjomalls]

Great score! How did you find the Princeton material? I'm using it and it has gotten considerably harder since last summer/fall....they've really tried to mirror the real deal.

I'd love to see your DS strategy. Taking the test in 2 weeks and could definitely use some final tips/tricks. Thanks.

[bazooka76]

Great score... Congratulations!! You had mentioned that you saw a couple of SD questions,what kind of standard deviation or statistics question did you encounter??

[bay_area]

I found the princeton study material very easy and not much useful. But I used the 2002 edition, so I am not sure about the later versions. The Princeton Online Course (that one of my friend registered for) that I mentioned in my earlier post, is pretty upto date with the material in terms of covering topics like Probability, permutation and combination. Standard Deviation covered there is not good at all. Similarly for Verbal section.

If you are short of time, I would suggest avoid wasting your time on the Princeton study material (though the tests can be used for pacing practice....but dont relie on the scores).

Btw, I didnt mention www.800score.com earlier, but they have 5 tests that I completed and I found the test pretty good. The great thing about those tests is that most of the questions there are new and not something you will see in other study material. This helps during preparations because getting a question during practice tests that you have already seen is quite frustrating.

[thaiva]

Congradt'z on your score..


Best of Luck with the app proccess.