Just gave the GMAT...740!!!! :D

[shyaml]

Originally Posted by Confused_Lad

Hi everyone,
I'm a silent observer on this site and just gave my GMAT today. I scored
740 (97%) (49Q, 41V)

I used the following materials for studying :
Official Guide (10th, 11th, and 12th editions)
Manhattan SC
Manhattan Number Properties
Manhattan Word Translation
Princeton Review
Critical Reasoning Bible

Here is how I targeted each sub section of the exam:
QUANT
-going through Manhattan Number Properties to brush up on basic concepts
-came into the exam with decent quant skills so wasn't requiring much work in this

VERBAL
Sentence Correction:
Manhattan SC Guide is the best source. Must go through more than once during preparation. SC was weakness going into exam and used the SC Guide to grasp grammatical correctness that is wanted by the GMAT. It is very important to make a note of all mistakes while doing SC problems and understanding why your incorrect answers are wrong or why the options you eliminated are wrong....reasons other than "it doesn't sound right"
Once you get into the habit of correctly identifying the grammatical flaw, you gain confidence in approaching new and tougher problems.

Critical Reasoning:
I would completely recommend the Critical Reasoning Bible to anyone who wants to do well in the critical reasoning section of the GMAT. The book covers each type of critical reasoning problem in great detail and teaches you to keep important notions regarding arguments in the back of your head while approaching problems. Invaluable resource for critical reasoning.

Reading Comprehension:
My strength in verbal coming into the exam. To improve reading comprehension, i would strongly recommend reading articles online from sites such as nytimes / ft.com/ wsj.com / the economist/ or scientific america. Practice reading topics which you personally find cumbersome(varies from person to person)

practice test scores:
PR1: 650 (Q49, V33)
PR2: 690 (Q50, V36)
PR3: 690 (Q48, V37)
PR4: 720 (Q50, V40)
PR5: 730 (Q50, V41)
MGMAT1: 670 (Q47, V34)
MGMAT2: 710 (Q46, V41)
MGMAT3: 730 (Q50, V39) (with 2,3 pauses in quant)
MGMAT4: 730 (Q50, V40) (with 1 pause in quant)
MGMAT5: 710 (Q47, V40)

GMATPREP1: 750 (Q49, V42)

GMATPREP2: 740 (Q49, V41)

Real Test : 740 (Q49,V41)

as you can see the offical mba.com tests were the most accurate indicators of GMAT readiness. Took both exams a day or two before the actual exam.

I'll be targeting the following schools/programs.....anyone else with similar applications?

LSE: MSc in Finance and MSc in Finance and Economics
Imperial : Msc in Finance
HEC Paris: Msc in Finance
Oxford: Masters in Financial Economics
IE Business School: Msc in Finance
St. Gallen University: MA in Banking and Finance

I'd like to hear from other applicats to these programs or people who'ev been admitted to any of them....i have an undergrad g.p.a of 3.67 and some internship experience in asset management

thanks to all posters on this forum!

First of all Congratulations for getting a very good score on the GMAT test. I am sure you will be able to make it to the school of your choice.

You have mentioned that you have taken 5 Princeton Review online tests and 5 ManhattanGMAT online tests. What is your feedback about these tests, I mean in terms of usefulness & closeness to the actual GMAT tests?

On ManhattanGMAT's site, I did see an option to buy the 6 online tests, but on the Princeton's site, I did not see any option to buy their online tests separately. I would really appreciate your inputs on how to buy these tests.

Thanks

[ocean29]

Congrats dude and good luck.

[Confused_Lad]

Originally Posted by finsisher

first of all my heartiest congratulations for getting such a fantastic score..
wots thy background and y r u only targetting MS programs and not MBA?

thanks!
Im not targeting MBA programs since I don't have any real full time work experience and I doubt I would be able to make it into the top 10. I did some internship for 2 years part time while finishing my undergraduate studies but thats about it. On top of that, I felt specializing in finance would provide me with better tools for my career objective than a more general MBA.

[Confused_Lad]

Originally Posted by shyaml

First of all Congratulations for getting a very good score on the GMAT test. I am sure you will be able to make it to the school of your choice.

You have mentioned that you have taken 5 Princeton Review online tests and 5 ManhattanGMAT online tests. What is your feedback about these tests, I mean in terms of usefulness & closeness to the actual GMAT tests?

On ManhattanGMAT's site, I did see an option to buy the 6 online tests, but on the Princeton's site, I did not see any option to buy their online tests separately. I would really appreciate your inputs on how to buy these tests.

Thanks

Thanks for the wishes.
The manhattan and princeton tests are different in difficulty and scoring pattern. The princeton quant was much more straight forward and without any real challenging problems while the manhattan quant was full of problems that either required a trick to solve or were too computational. The later accounts for that and the scoring is also much more relaxed in the manhttan tests. You can get more than 7 wrong in manhattan and still score a 50 while getting 2 or more wrong in princeton will keep your quant score at 49 or below. The verbal in both can be quite comparable. Overall, manhattan wins when compared with princeton, simply because of its analysis of your practice tests. The explanations provided are excellent and you get to know which areas you need to work on. Princeton leaves more to be desired. You should be able to access either set of online exams by purchasing one of the GMAT preperation books put out by each company.

Good luck on your exam!

[fashionista]

This is one great accomplishment, congratulations!!!! Actually, I'm targeting the exact programs in those exact schools, so would you mind if I sent you a pm? I would like to hear your input on the mentioned programs and some other things. Thanks and good luckkkkkk!!!

[tkt]

o phatte chak ditte ....