A 720 - 50Q 36V attempt no 2

[sat_gen1982]

Hi,

Though I have not been an active participant in this forum, I have used this site for lots of doubts. Infact one of d main reasons that I didnt actively participate much was that most of questions have already been discussed time and again. So one word of advise for further GMATers, search this site for any doubts that you may have. Chances are that they would have already been discussed here. What given the size of the strength and the genius of its specialists, I am sure you are not the first one. Trust me. This in turn can save valuable time if you are in a time crunch like I was. Hmmm.. or was it as I was, heck who cares anyways.

In terms of my prep, really nothing special that has not already been discussed before by not to mention much more capable people. Last time I ended up with a 660 abt a year ago. So was fairly satisfied with my progress. My splits were 50 Q and 36 V , which brings me to the million dollar question. Is my verbal good enough espeically given that I belong to the most famous or rather infamous IIM pool (Indian IT Male for the dummies) and that I am aiming at the Top 20 US schools this year. Also, having consistently scored 40-41 in all my preps in verbal made it doubly dissapointing. So am in a dilemma even after what many would consider a good score. Need any help and advise from folks here as to what you think.

Thanks a ton !!!,
As usual TestMagic rocks,

Regards,
Sat.

P.S - I will personally kill anyone who finds flaws in my debrief

Guess I should have posted more :-) This thingi doesnt let me post any emoticons

[tg_Maverick]

Congrats Sat! Any tips for verbal you would like to share, though you are not satisfied with the V score.

[sat_gen1982]

@tg_maverick

Thank you for your kind words. Looks like atleast one person felt this is not a bad score.

Hmmm.. Ok my prep tips. Me being an engineer et all, I would like to keep it logical and short if its ok with you.
1) There's no escaping the fact that GMAT has gotten tough, both Quant and Verbal. So the best way to deal with it is.. you guessed right become tougher..
LSAT is one way. I did solve quite a few LSAT papers under the same strict timing conditions which sets you up pretty nicely. initaillay, I struggled but gradually I got the hang of it and once I started recognizing answer types, it became a lot easier.
It is absolutely must for anyone with timing issues in verbal, like me, to get this pattern right. You should be able to eliminate 2-3 wrong answer in abt 15-20 secs no matter how tough/confusing the question is, by recognising the wrong answer types.

2) I think this falls under common sense but since I didnt follow it would like to warn future repeat takers as well. Anybody taking the test again pls ensure that you dont postpone by more than 3 months, lest you want to begin all over again, as I had to.

All said and done OG is pretty representative of the question types and for most part the level of the questions as well. and ofcourse the ETS paper tests were of great help as well.
all the regualr material
OG 10 OG 11 OG 12, OG 11 verbal review
Manhattan GMAT SC
critical reasoning bible
Manhattan GMAT tests
Kaplan
PR
1000 series
all same stuff dude..
There's only so much standard material available

BTW my prep this time was limited to 3 weeks FTE ( full time effort) - alas all of it into verbal . ok its going to take some time to get me to stop sulking over my verbal disaster.

[tg_Maverick]

Sat, your's is a good score.

Otherwise thanks for the tips. Actually am also retaking. I gave in August mid and screwed up badly. I also have only 2-3 weeks with me from now. Doing OG 12 for a week now and about to finish. Will be starting with Verbal review and tests side by side. SC,critical reasoning, reading comprehension all need thorough practice.

Let me know if there are more tips for verbal for me.