TestMagic

shaanrizvi · 2009 October 5th, 04:02 PM

Woah, it may not be as much compared to all the 750s and the likes but I believe I have achieved my target. I'll sum up my preparation strategy but first the score break-up:

Total 720 (94%)
Quantitative 49 (87%)
Verbal 39 (87%)
AWA 6.0 (90%)

I'm happy about the balance as well. 39 in Verbal isn't super but it is alright I guess.

In total, I prepared for about 6 weeks. 3 weeks+1 week break after first attempt+3 weeks. I started preparing around the 2nd week of August, made the first attempt on 2nd September, scored 680 (47Q, 35V), spent a week feeling weird and thinking about whether I should re-take and finally decided to re-take on the 5th of October.

At the beginning of the preparation, I was aiming for around 680-700 and bought Kaplan Verbal, Kaplan 800 and OG Verbal Review. Kaplan Verbal was practically useless but Kaplan 800 and OG Verbal Review were good. My biggest mistake was and is that I didn't buy OG!

I spent some time reviewing Verbal from OG but was more focused on Quant. This was perhaps my second biggest mistake. For some reason, I thought I won't be able to improve so much in Verbal and felt confident (could be due to my practice CAT scores; I never scored less than 39 in them even before the first attempt).

I made the first attempt, scored 680. Initially I thought it was ok but somehow I felt I could do much better. For instance, I knew I could definitely get a few months more than 35 in Verbal. Furthermore, I panicked on Quant. The first question was not that difficult but somehow threw me off the chair. I spent too much time on a couple of questions and even had to guess the last two. Basically, I knew I could do much better. In addition, I had not taken a lot of CATs the first time around. Just the 2 GMATPrep tests and 1 free Manhattan GMAT.

I knew I didn't have to do much for Quant, except for regular practice and timing on the CAT (knowing when to let a question go and approaching every problem systematically). I knew I needed more CAT practice. I knew I needed to work on Verbal. I bought the Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide for multiple reasons: a) I read that it is really good for sentence correction, b) It comes with access to 5 additional CATs, c) Manhattan GMAT's CATs give decent explanation for all the answers you choose and d) Sentence Correction is the easiest to improve. I also bought the Powerscore Critical Reasoning Guide (which helped as well).

After a week of sulking, around the second week of September, I decided to start preparing again. I went through Manhattan GMAT SC and Powerscore critical reasoning and started practicing right away. I wasn't as disciplined in my preparation even during the 6 weeks that I did prepare. Some days I worked more, some days I worked less. A couple of days I didn't work at all. I made a spreadsheet on excel to keep track of my hit rates, types of mistakes and total number of problems solved for every type of question.

In the second phase of my preparation, I practiced a total of 90 reading comprehension, 50 critical reasoning, about 550 SC questions and re-did almost half of the 198 700+ questions. Note: these numbers don't include the questions I did from online forums.

I was already strong in Quant (800 in SAT Math) but zuleron's collection of 198 700+ questions really helped me practice. I did those and GMATPrep and Manhattan GMAT CATs. Kaplan 800 was good too!

Practice CAT Scores:

Before much preparation (Second week of August): GMATPrep 1 - 680 (44Q, 39V)

Later,

GMATPrep 2 - 720 (47Q, 41V)

21st August - Manhattan GMAT CAT 1 - 640 (44Q, 34V)

GMATPrep 2 Reset - 740 (49Q, 41V)

REAL GMAT - 2nd September - 680 (47Q, 35V)

Got these scores in the second preparation phase:

PowerPrep CAT - 730 (49Q, 41V)

15th September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 2 - 700 (44Q, 40V)

23rd September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 3 - 680 (44Q, 38V)
I was sort of annoyed by this score so I decided to take ANOTHER CAT later the same day. a) I thought it would be a good test of my endurance and b) I really believed it could my confidence. So:

23rd September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 4 - 710 (45Q, 41V)

27th September - GMATPrep RESET - 770 (51Q, 44V)

28th September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 5 - 700 (47Q, 39V)

30th September - PowerPrep 2 - 740 (48Q, 42V)

3rd October - Manhattan GMAT CAT 6 - 740 (47Q, 45V)

5th October - REAL GMAT - 720 (49Q, 39V)

I know this is a long post and perhaps 720 isn't special enough to need all these details but I really think this de-brief can help a lot of people. As you can see, my real score was closer to Manhattan GMAT. GMATPrep is really good and people say it is the best predictor of your real GMAT score but the thing with GMATPrep is that you see those questions in so many forums/Official Guide books that even if you don't notice, you've done those questions before! I think this is one of the reasons why Quant stumped me the first time around. I wasn't expecting it to be extremely difficult. Manhattan GMAT prepared me for that. It helped me prepare that "I don't care. If I don't know it, I'll guess and move on without caring about it." strategy!

Resources that I recommend: Official Guide, Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction, Powerscore Critical Reasoning and other Manhattan GMAT guides for e.g. Number Properties etc. (I didn't use these other Manhattan GMAT books because I am good at Quant but I've heard they are really good) Don't forget to surf through forum looking for problems!

In short: Don't give up, practice regularly, do as many CATs as possible (I recommend Manhattan GMAT), keep track of your mistakes and correct them and come up with a GMAT strategy and practice it. For example: Consider this a rule, if in 30 seconds you can't figure out how to approach a problem, skip it and review it later. You have to practice this so that when you get a bad-*** question on the exam, you don't let it stump you! Remember. Even if you get like 10-12 questions wrong in Quant, you can get a decent score.

Signing off, very happy! :P

cubicle · 2009 October 5th, 05:28 PM

Great debrief man, I wish I could have a qa/va balance like u.
And talking of 750+, it's true some of the B-Schools put you against your applicant pool(i.e I-Banking pool, IT Indian Male pool etc) but for most of the top tier B-Schools 700+ is required just for initial shortlisting. Rest depends on thy apps ,which by the quality of thy debrief , I can assume, going to be rocking.

ATB

cubicle.

hispano_phd · 2009 October 5th, 09:03 PM

Congratulations! and success on your apps! I do have a question, given your debrief (and others as well), It is possible to have a good score (650+) within the first GMAT trial? I am concerned because I will not have probably time for a re-take, if I fail. I plan to take the GMAT around Nov 27...

Thanks and IMO you can CELEBRATE because u got 700+!!

shaanrizvi · 2009 October 5th, 10:24 PM

Thanks guys. I don't think I belong to an overcrowded pool of applicants. In fact, I was actually hoping you guys here could comment on that.

I am in the final year of my Bachelors degree at Helsinki School of Economics in Finland (best business school in Finland and one of the best in Scandinavia and Europe). Hence, I am mainly aiming at pre-experience degrees (for e.g. Masters in Management). I come from Pakistan and did my GCE A-Levels from there.

I'm not entirely sure but I think my profile is a bit different. I lived and did high school in Pakistan (Subjects: Economics, Accounting, Mathematics), doing my bachelors in the field of business too from Finland, did an exchange semester in Manchester and a 2 month internship at GlaxoSmithKline in Karachi, Pakistan.

I'll start working on my essays now!

hispano_phd, it is DEFINITELY possible to score 650+ in the first attempt if you are adequately prepared. Firstly, you need to practice and reach a point where you can reach 680-700 in different CATs. Then before you take the GMAT, you should have a systematic strategy in mind for every difficult scenario that you may face in the exam. For e.g. but not limited to: What will you do if you see a question that you just don't know how to do? What will you do if you see a question that you know how to do but you think it will take 3 minutes instead of 2? Will you let it go or do it because you know you can do other questions in less than 2 minutes or understand that there WILL be a few questions that you don't know?

mitzi · 2009 October 6th, 02:01 AM

Congratulations!!!
Thank you for your advice on contingency plan. I haven't though about this before. Great!!!

again kudos for you.

Mitzi

volcharm · 2009 October 6th, 04:45 AM

Congratulations on the great score shaanrizvi. 720 is a great score, I'll be happy if I even come close to that. You mentioned that the quant section was a bit challenging. Can you elaborate on that? For example: 1) What sections were tested/difficult? 2) Were you surprised by the proportion of DS vs PS? Anything else you can remember that was difficult?
Thanks.

abhishek_750 · 2009 October 6th, 04:59 AM

Kudos dude!! 720 is very very good score.!! :-)

samarpan_bschool · 2009 October 6th, 06:13 AM

great debrief . congratulations

santroz · 2009 October 6th, 02:40 PM

Hey.. good show man...kudos..

Cheers..!!!

shaanrizvi · 2009 October 9th, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by volcharm

Congratulations on the great score shaanrizvi. 720 is a great score, I'll be happy if I even come close to that. You mentioned that the quant section was a bit challenging. Can you elaborate on that? For example: 1) What sections were tested/difficult? 2) Were you surprised by the proportion of DS vs PS? Anything else you can remember that was difficult?
Thanks.

volcharm, the Quant section actually felt easy the second time around. I think it "felt" difficult the first time around mostly because I got too comfortable with GMATPrep and hadn't practiced enough to know how to handle really difficult questions confidently. I think what happens is that you usually get so comfortable doing the same type of questions (from GMATPrep) over and over again that when you take the actual test, you find it too difficult.

2009 October 5th, 04:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
shaanrizvi 680 to 750. HELP! Join Date: May 2006 Location: Helsinki Posts: 123	720 - 49Q, 39V - October 2009 Woah, it may not be as much compared to all the 750s and the likes but I believe I have achieved my target. I'll sum up my preparation strategy but first the score break-up: Total 720 (94%) Quantitative 49 (87%) Verbal 39 (87%) AWA 6.0 (90%) I'm happy about the balance as well. 39 in Verbal isn't super but it is alright I guess. In total, I prepared for about 6 weeks. 3 weeks+1 week break after first attempt+3 weeks. I started preparing around the 2nd week of August, made the first attempt on 2nd September, scored 680 (47Q, 35V), spent a week feeling weird and thinking about whether I should re-take and finally decided to re-take on the 5th of October. At the beginning of the preparation, I was aiming for around 680-700 and bought Kaplan Verbal, Kaplan 800 and OG Verbal Review. Kaplan Verbal was practically useless but Kaplan 800 and OG Verbal Review were good. My biggest mistake was and is that I didn't buy OG! I spent some time reviewing Verbal from OG but was more focused on Quant. This was perhaps my second biggest mistake. For some reason, I thought I won't be able to improve so much in Verbal and felt confident (could be due to my practice CAT scores; I never scored less than 39 in them even before the first attempt). I made the first attempt, scored 680. Initially I thought it was ok but somehow I felt I could do much better. For instance, I knew I could definitely get a few months more than 35 in Verbal. Furthermore, I panicked on Quant. The first question was not that difficult but somehow threw me off the chair. I spent too much time on a couple of questions and even had to guess the last two. Basically, I knew I could do much better. In addition, I had not taken a lot of CATs the first time around. Just the 2 GMATPrep tests and 1 free Manhattan GMAT. I knew I didn't have to do much for Quant, except for regular practice and timing on the CAT (knowing when to let a question go and approaching every problem systematically). I knew I needed more CAT practice. I knew I needed to work on Verbal. I bought the Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide for multiple reasons: a) I read that it is really good for sentence correction, b) It comes with access to 5 additional CATs, c) Manhattan GMAT's CATs give decent explanation for all the answers you choose and d) Sentence Correction is the easiest to improve. I also bought the Powerscore Critical Reasoning Guide (which helped as well). After a week of sulking, around the second week of September, I decided to start preparing again. I went through Manhattan GMAT SC and Powerscore critical reasoning and started practicing right away. I wasn't as disciplined in my preparation even during the 6 weeks that I did prepare. Some days I worked more, some days I worked less. A couple of days I didn't work at all. I made a spreadsheet on excel to keep track of my hit rates, types of mistakes and total number of problems solved for every type of question. In the second phase of my preparation, I practiced a total of 90 reading comprehension, 50 critical reasoning, about 550 SC questions and re-did almost half of the 198 700+ questions. Note: these numbers don't include the questions I did from online forums. I was already strong in Quant (800 in SAT Math) but zuleron's collection of 198 700+ questions really helped me practice. I did those and GMATPrep and Manhattan GMAT CATs. Kaplan 800 was good too! Practice CAT Scores: Before much preparation (Second week of August): GMATPrep 1 - 680 (44Q, 39V) Later, GMATPrep 2 - 720 (47Q, 41V) 21st August - Manhattan GMAT CAT 1 - 640 (44Q, 34V) GMATPrep 2 Reset - 740 (49Q, 41V) REAL GMAT - 2nd September - 680 (47Q, 35V) Got these scores in the second preparation phase: PowerPrep CAT - 730 (49Q, 41V) 15th September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 2 - 700 (44Q, 40V) 23rd September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 3 - 680 (44Q, 38V) I was sort of annoyed by this score so I decided to take ANOTHER CAT later the same day. a) I thought it would be a good test of my endurance and b) I really believed it could my confidence. So: 23rd September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 4 - 710 (45Q, 41V) 27th September - GMATPrep RESET - 770 (51Q, 44V) 28th September - Manhattan GMAT CAT 5 - 700 (47Q, 39V) 30th September - PowerPrep 2 - 740 (48Q, 42V) 3rd October - Manhattan GMAT CAT 6 - 740 (47Q, 45V) 5th October - REAL GMAT - 720 (49Q, 39V) I know this is a long post and perhaps 720 isn't special enough to need all these details but I really think this de-brief can help a lot of people. As you can see, my real score was closer to Manhattan GMAT. GMATPrep is really good and people say it is the best predictor of your real GMAT score but the thing with GMATPrep is that you see those questions in so many forums/Official Guide books that even if you don't notice, you've done those questions before! I think this is one of the reasons why Quant stumped me the first time around. I wasn't expecting it to be extremely difficult. Manhattan GMAT prepared me for that. It helped me prepare that "I don't care. If I don't know it, I'll guess and move on without caring about it." strategy! Resources that I recommend: Official Guide, Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction, Powerscore Critical Reasoning and other Manhattan GMAT guides for e.g. Number Properties etc. (I didn't use these other Manhattan GMAT books because I am good at Quant but I've heard they are really good) Don't forget to surf through forum looking for problems! In short: Don't give up, practice regularly, do as many CATs as possible (I recommend Manhattan GMAT), keep track of your mistakes and correct them and come up with a GMAT strategy and practice it. For example: Consider this a rule, if in 30 seconds you can't figure out how to approach a problem, skip it and review it later. You have to practice this so that when you get a bad-*** question on the exam, you don't let it stump you! Remember. Even if you get like 10-12 questions wrong in Quant, you can get a decent score. Signing off, very happy! :P Last edited by shaanrizvi : 2009 October 9th at 11:27 AM.

2009 October 5th, 05:28 PM	#2 (permalink)
cubicle TestMagic Guru-in-Training Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 873	Great debrief man, I wish I could have a qa/va balance like u. And talking of 750+, it's true some of the B-Schools put you against your applicant pool(i.e I-Banking pool, IT Indian Male pool etc) but for most of the top tier B-Schools 700+ is required just for initial shortlisting. Rest depends on thy apps ,which by the quality of thy debrief , I can assume, going to be rocking. ATB cubicle. _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ rhymes with luck *chaNd saanse khareedne ke liye/roz thoDi si zindagi bechi*

2009 October 6th, 06:13 AM	#8 (permalink)
samarpan_bschool Within my grasp! Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 332	great debrief . congratulations _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ Failure is not an Option

2009 October 6th, 02:40 PM	#9 (permalink)
santroz This is it !!! Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 364	Hey.. good show man...kudos.. Cheers..!!! _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ The game is not over..until I win it..

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

2009 October 5th, 09:03 PM	#3 (permalink)
hispano_phd Eager! Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Puerto Rico Posts: 45	Congratulations! and success on your apps! I do have a question, given your debrief (and others as well), It is possible to have a good score (650+) within the first GMAT trial? I am concerned because I will not have probably time for a re-take, if I fail. I plan to take the GMAT around Nov 27... Thanks and IMO you can CELEBRATE because u got 700+!!

2009 October 5th, 10:24 PM	#4 (permalink)
shaanrizvi 680 to 750. HELP! Join Date: May 2006 Location: Helsinki Posts: 123	Thanks guys. I don't think I belong to an overcrowded pool of applicants. In fact, I was actually hoping you guys here could comment on that. I am in the final year of my Bachelors degree at Helsinki School of Economics in Finland (best business school in Finland and one of the best in Scandinavia and Europe). Hence, I am mainly aiming at pre-experience degrees (for e.g. Masters in Management). I come from Pakistan and did my GCE A-Levels from there. I'm not entirely sure but I think my profile is a bit different. I lived and did high school in Pakistan (Subjects: Economics, Accounting, Mathematics), doing my bachelors in the field of business too from Finland, did an exchange semester in Manchester and a 2 month internship at GlaxoSmithKline in Karachi, Pakistan. I'll start working on my essays now! hispano_phd, it is DEFINITELY possible to score 650+ in the first attempt if you are adequately prepared. Firstly, you need to practice and reach a point where you can reach 680-700 in different CATs. Then before you take the GMAT, you should have a systematic strategy in mind for every difficult scenario that you may face in the exam. For e.g. but not limited to: What will you do if you see a question that you just don't know how to do? What will you do if you see a question that you know how to do but you think it will take 3 minutes instead of 2? Will you let it go or do it because you know you can do other questions in less than 2 minutes or understand that there WILL be a few questions that you don't know?

2009 October 6th, 02:01 AM	#5 (permalink)
mitzi Push it to the limit! Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Tampa, FL USA Posts: 2,600	Congratulations!!! Thank you for your advice on contingency plan. I haven't though about this before. Great!!! again kudos for you. Mitzi

2009 October 6th, 04:45 AM	#6 (permalink)
volcharm I JUST got here. Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 16	Congratulations on the great score shaanrizvi. 720 is a great score, I'll be happy if I even come close to that. You mentioned that the quant section was a bit challenging. Can you elaborate on that? For example: 1) What sections were tested/difficult? 2) Were you surprised by the proportion of DS vs PS? Anything else you can remember that was difficult? Thanks.

2009 October 6th, 04:59 AM	#7 (permalink)
abhishek_750 I JUST got here. Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: New Delhi Posts: 22	Kudos dude!! 720 is very very good score.!! :-)

TestMagic

Free GMAT, GRE, SAT Test, TOEFL practice tests