aakfar Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 Just finished mine. Great relief and absolutely overjoyed. After twinsplitter' post, there is no longer a need to provide a preparation strategy and test experience. However, I would provide mine in a bit. At this point, I would like to say that the quant section was much easier than I expected. And yes, there was a parabola question. But didn't take more than 30 seconds to answer. And RC was of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] standard. I got 4 passages in all and each one was fairly easy. Thanks to everyone in this forum. You guys rock!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick045 Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 Great Job!!! Congrats [clap] :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arjmen Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 Congrats!! That's a great score!! Well done![clap] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alakshma Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 CONGRATS!!! Guys we are on a roll. Keep this up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinnSplitter Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 congrats on your great score! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rd_eastbay Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Nice job! What was the parabola question like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obelixous Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Great score. Congrats[clap] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sachin_gmat Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Congrats on your Great Score and good luck with your apps !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priyadarshi Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 fantastic ..the force seems to be with the forum the way scores have been rocked in the past few day.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekender Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Congrats!! That's a great score!! all the best with you applications. i want to know what type of parabola questions did u get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paliwal800 Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Great Score. I have seen some amazing scores in the last couple of weeks. It is a great booster to see the scores and most importantly read through the preperation strategy. Look forward to yours too. All the best. Cheers, Neel :tup: [clap] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aakfar Posted May 17, 2005 Author Share Posted May 17, 2005 I’m back here again after yesterday’s celebration. :tup: It is still hard for me to digest that I scored a 750:grad: . It may not be a big deal for some. But it sure is for me. I have rambled on and on. I haven’t organized this very well. But please go straight to the topics that have interested you. I found TestMagic pretty late in my preparation. Actually, I did find testmagic earlier. But didn’t realize it’s utility until about 2 weeks ago. However, I have used wikigrammar.com extensively, solving every question there and participating as much as possible. GMAT? I have been thinking of taking the GMAT for the last 2 years. I wasn’t sure if it was the right career move for me. I gave myself a year or two just to think about whether MBA is right for me. I didn’t want to get into the herd mentality and do an MBA just ‘coz lot of my friends or colleagues are doing so. I have been part of such a herd mentality once in the past and I almost started my MS until I couldn’t join the program for reasons beyond my control. Thank god for those reasons. Having worked for three years in the industry, I know now that an MS was definitely not what I wanted to do. The beginning… So after nearly two years of thinking, I finally decided that I actually did want to do an MBA. So, in November 2004, I decided that I am going to start preparing for the GMAT. I first went to the library and picked up the 2005 editions of Princeton Review and Kaplan. I read at Amazon reviews that Princeton Review is a good book to start with. So I completed that book in a week. I decided now that I have read a book completely, let me see where I stand. So I took the Princeton Review test from the CD. I scored a 570 and absolutely was shocked at the miserable score. I always use to pride on my verbal and analytical skills. But GMAT is a different ballgame and I had to realize it by facing it. My preparation… A little demoralized, I went on a 5 week long vacation back home to India. I restarted my preparation again in the beginning of February. Thanks to Google, I found some really good online forums like this one. Read the strategies posted by scores of people and formulated mine. I wanted to know where I stood before starting my real preparation. I decided to take a Powerprep test for that. That was another miserable score. I got a 610. I was totally demoralized. I had serious doubts whether I would be able to reach a 700+ score starting from 610. But then I set myself a target of 720. I knew that if I get 720 I’d be happy. 680-710 would be disappointing but not bad enough for a retake. Anything above 720 is terrific and below 680 would mean a retake. In the next week or so I finished the Kaplan book and started with Kaplan exercises on the CD. I had already bought the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and decided that saving [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] for the last month wouldn’t work for me as I have a long way to go. So I decided that I am going to complete the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] once and I’ll redo it if necessary in the last few weeks. When I started with [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], I think my hit rate was RC (60%), SC (60%) and CR (85%). I was still not used to GMAT English and GMAT passages. I knew that practice is the key and reviewing my mistakes to ensure I don’t repeat it again was another important thing that I needed to do. I maintained an error log for [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. I decided that my primary weaknesses were SC, RC and DS, probably in that order. So I decided that I am going to tame one at a time. I used to spend a whole week concentrating on SC and the next week RC and the following week DS. But during this time, I realized that I needed to be in touch with the other section. If I leave some section completely out, then I struggled to get back in the groove. So I tried to be in touch with other sections as well. Nearly after a month, I could see visible improvements in all three sections that I concentrated. I had a date of 16th May in mind and finally decided that its time to book. I registered about a month and a half before the test. I finished the verbal section of the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] by beginning of April. Second week of May, I decided that its time to start with the practice CATs that I was saving for the last month. I started with Princeton, then Kaplan and finally Powerprep. I did use Peterson. But I was not convinced about the quality of questions. So I didn’t take Peterson that seriously. Books used Princeton Review 2005 Kaplan 2005 Kaplan GRE/GMAT Math workbook Kaplan Verbal workbook Official Guide (9th Edition) Official Guide (10th Edition verbal soft copy) Test scores PR 1 (19-Nov-2004) - 570 PP 1 (12-Feb-2005) - 610 PR 2 (09-Apr-2005) - 700 PR 3 (16-Apr-2005) - 730 Kap 1(17-Apr-2005) - 560 Kap 2(23-Apr-2005) - 690 Kap 3 (24-Apr-2005) - 560 PR 4 (30-Apr-2005) - 690 Kap4 (05-May-2005) - 590 PR 1 (07-May-2005) – 710 PP 1 (12-May-2005) - 780 PP 2 (14-May-2005) - 760 GMAT (16-May-2005) – 750 My Peterson scores were about 670 average. But I didn’t take these seriously Other resources GMAT Club math forum Test Magic forums www.wikigrammar.com forums Spidey’s sentence correction notes Material posted by Praveen_rao7 on GMATClub My thoughts on the resources I recommend every book that I used. Most people would get Kaplan, Princeton and [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. But the Kaplan workbooks are definitely worth buying. You get both these book together for less than $25 and they definitely add value to your GMAT preparation armory. I do not recommend [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] 9th edition. 10th edition is what ought to be used. But I actually had a copy of the 9th edition and with the soft copy of the verbal section of 10th edition available, I decided against buying the 10th edition. But looking back that was a silly thing to do. I should have bought the 10th edition anyway. There has been enough said about the benefit of this forum. Without the forums, I doubt whether I would have even reached 700. The information and resources available here are unbeatable. No classroom training session can match the resources that are available here. And with the best of minds sharing and discussing, what more do you need. G-Day preparation and the test The day before the test, I drove down to the test center to see where exactly it is. Incidentally it happened to be a block away from my best friend’s place. So I was really familiar with the area. I went to Target and bought all the snacks that I need. That was two twix bars, a bottle or Orange juice and a can of energy drink. I scheduled my test for a Monday so I can relax in the weekend. I decided against extensive practice the day before. In fact I just chilled out both on Saturday and Sunday. Other than a powerprep on Saturday, didn’t do anything significant. I went through Spidey’s notes. Went over the Math review in Kaplan and prepared my essay template. The only time I wrote the essay was during my last powerprep. My writing skills are not that bad. I was quite confident that with a decent template, I shouldn’t have a problem scoring a 5.0. My exam was at 8 am and I knew that I needed to wake up two hours before to do everything in a relaxed manner. So in the last three days, I made sure that I sleep early and rise early. So the day before the test, I slept at 10 pm. No problems sleeping. I had totally convinced myself that I was prepared. And told myself that it doesn’t matter. It’s after all a test. If I screw up I can retake again. I think this is one part that really pulled me through. A good night’s sleep keeps the mind fresh in the morning. I woke up on G-day and took a long shower. Got ready and went over the essay templates. Packed my snack pack and headed for the test center. Adrenaline pumping….but no nerves. The test center, at first seemed a little too bright for my comfort. For some reason, I was expecting something darker. But no big deal. I picked up my scratch paper and headed for my system. Before clicking on start, I wrote the template for both issue and argument on the scratch paper. Only after I completed that, that I started my test. I had to select the colleges to send the the scores to. I selected the first one and clicked next. Only then I realized that I actually needed to select all four before clicking next. But it was no big deal, after the test I wrote the other four on a piece of paper and gave it to the administrator there. First I had to do analysis of an issue. It was not the best of topics. I couldn’t think of too many points. But I had a couple of real life examples that suited the topic. So I completed that with a minute to spare. Analysis of argument was quite easy and there were several obvious assumptions. I aced that with 3-4 minutes to spare. I thought no point re-reviewing it. So clicked that and took a break. Had a finger of my twix bar and completed my orange juice. Went back in about 6 minutes. The test had not started as some others have told here. Only after you click ok does the test restart. So I clicked and got into my real test. It started off with fairly easy problems. I didn’t need more than a minute to solve my first 7 questions, even after multiple reviews. I thought the level of difficulty would go up significantly after the first 2-3. But although it did, I wasn’t yet into the tough ones. Then came question 8 - DS. It was not a very difficult question per se. The difficulty of the question didn’t lie in the concept that it tested, but was in visualizing the question. It was a geometry question about two squares. It basically explained the figure in words. And I was unable to make the words into a figure. Spent nearly 3 minutes on it….helpless. Then I thought, the question must be wrong or probably is one of those questions that don’t count. I was in half a mind to click and go to next question:rolleyes: . Thank god, I didn’t do that. Nearly after 4 minutes, I was finally able to visualize the figure. Once I did that, it didn’t take more than 30 seconds to answer it. Phew…..that was a close call. There were a couple of DS questions that needed me to work each of option on paper to get the trick. That’s it. None too hard. There was no question on probability and one straight forward question on combinations. I got a mean/median question towards the end that was quite easy again. I got one question on parabola. Just as Kaplan math workbook had said, parabola question are quite straight forward. I was given different parabola on the x-y axis and had to identify which figure corresponded to the given question. Didn’t take more than 30 seconds to answer. I finished the section with 7 minutes to spare. Overall, I think the math section was far easier than what has been mentioned in these forums. Definitely was not harder than [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] math. If it is of any interest, I scored 50 on Q on each of Powerprep in the last week before my test. I then took the break. Gulped down the energy drink….and got back in 6 mnts again. The verbal started off with 3 relatively simple SC. Then I got a CR which was ok. 2 back to back RC. I was a little weary thinking bout RC as a lotta ppl mentioned that RCs are harder than [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] standard. Again I have to disagree here. I thought the RCs were of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] standard again. I got 4 RCs in all. One on women’s issue, another science. Don’t recall the other two. But again none of those were difficult. I think that I did best in RC among the three. I screwed up a bit on my timing. There were two SC questions and one CR question that I got stuck on that ate up much of my time. For the last 15 questions, I had 18 mnts. So had to rush in the end. I guess that explains my relatively lower score. I score 40+ on Verbal on an average to above average day. I think I had a below average day on verbal and an average day on quants. The Q51 was not because I had an excellent day, but because I think the Q itself was much easier than most practice tests (barring Powerprep). I would like to every single member of the forums who participated. All you guys are fantastic.:tup: If any of you guys have any questions, please feel free to shoot. There is no such thing as a silly question. That should be the motto of this forum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aakfar Posted May 17, 2005 Author Share Posted May 17, 2005 Nice job! What was the parabola question like? Parabola question was very simple. The question gave an equation of a parabola and 5 parabola figures as options. Each parabola was drawn on a x-y co-ordinate scale. All you need to do is replace simple values for x and y in equation and compare it with the choices. I tried with x=0, that narrowed me down to two options and with y=0, I found the right option. We tend to get over excited about some math questions. P, P and C especially. Let's not add parabola to that. The GMAT tests very basic forms of probability and P&C. Same is the case with parabola. You dont need to know parabola equation to solve these problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoot Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 Congrats aakfar!!!! Good improvement.. Good luck with your apps!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aakfar Posted May 17, 2005 Author Share Posted May 17, 2005 aakar, Could you tell me how did you improved your RC. What kind practise you did to improve that. Thanks, scoot. Scoot, My RC strategy was unlike what was suggested by Kaplan and Princeton. Browsing through the passages to get the gist didn't work for me. Active reading and understanding what was written was much more important for me. When I read the passage I tried to imagine that this really interested me. Every passage was a source of information to me. I paused for 2 seconds after I read the first paragraph. Just to make sure that I understood what I read. I didn't want to go through the motions. Although I didn't take notes, that might not be a bad idea just to be sure that you know what you are reading. When I reached the questions, I tried to be in a position that atleast for 3 out of 5 questions, I don't have to go back and browse thru the passage to find the answer. Science topics with a lot of biological terms freaked me out initially. But skipping the jargons and understanding the base helped me. I used a couple of sites to practice reading science passages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anandha Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 I’m back here again after yesterday’s celebration. :tup: It is still hard for me to digest that I scored a 750:grad: . It may not be a big deal for some. But it sure is for me. That was a joke right?:) Congratulations on such AMAZING SCORE. Your hard work paid. May I know how did you crack DS & SC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvard Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 Congrats aakfar !! Have you installed power prep in Windows XP ? I think the powerprep software doesn't support Windows XP. Do you have any idea about this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aakfar Posted May 18, 2005 Author Share Posted May 18, 2005 Congrats aakfar !! Have you installed power prep in Windows XP ? I think the powerprep software doesn't support Windows XP. Do you have any idea about this ? I used powerprep on Windows XP. I have the Windows XP home edition and I didn't have any problems using it. Powerprep uses a different screen resolution and it automatically changes the screen, the moment you run it. And once you quit the software, the resolution is back to your original one. But no. I didn't have any problems using Powerprep on Windows XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunil4gmat Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 HI , Congrats for a well deserved score.[clap] Originally Posted by Harvard Congrats aakfar !! Have you installed power prep in Windows XP ? I think the powerprep software doesn't support Windows XP. Do you have any idea about this ? Hi Harvard, PowerPrep is compatible with Win XP even with SP2. May be too many background programs are running in your machine which is stopping you from using this CD . Go to Start -> Run -> Type MSCONFIG and hit enter In the MSCONFIG window, go to startup tab and seee the number of programs running. You can uncheck all those which wre your applications like, yahoo messenger, MSN, etc etc. you need to restart the computer after this and then try the PowerPrep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aakfar Posted May 18, 2005 Author Share Posted May 18, 2005 That was a joke right?:) Congratulations on such AMAZING SCORE. Your hard work paid. May I know how did you crack DS & SC? I knew I was decent at math. It was just getting used to the pattern of DS that needed to be done. This was one type of question, I had never done before in school or in any other test. So kinda struggled in the beginning.:yuck: My overall math strategy was to solve as many questions on the forums as possible. In the last three weeks before the test I made a schedule. One day was for Math forum and the next day was for wikigrammar forum. I followed this pattern until the weekend before my test. That definitely helped. Initially, when I started with DS, I realized that most of my mistakes I made were because I fell into the trap of the question. The information in (2) would be sufficient, but because I read (1) first, I would assume that both are needed. So I decided to go one at a time. To force this harder, I covered the options that I'm not reading, with my hand. First I covered the options and read the question. Then read the first option, having the second one covered. If the first one answered the question, I would put a check mark on my scratch pad, else a cross mark. Then covered the first option and read the second. Again a check mark or a cross on my scratch paper. If both didn't answer, I read both options as a single question. This strategy, although seemingly silly, definitely helped improve my DS skills. After a while, I didn't need to cover the options with hand. I knew how to read a DS question carefully. As for SC, there is nothing like [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. When I first did [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], I just reviewed the questions that I did incorrectly. It's only in the last month I realized that I needed to review even the questions I got right. So I did 50% of the SC questions on the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] once again. It's very important to read every word of the explainations that [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] provides. Apart from that Spidey's notes and Erin's explainations are fantastic. :tup: SC was one area where I saw huge improvements. I read Spidey's notes whenever I needed to get away from doing practice questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 Congrats on your great score friend!!![clap] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hemi61 Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Congratulations! Great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunil4gmat Posted May 29, 2005 Share Posted May 29, 2005 Scoot, My RC strategy was unlike what was suggested by Kaplan and Princeton. Browsing through the passages to get the gist didn't work for me. Active reading and understanding what was written was much more important for me. When I read the passage I tried to imagine that this really interested me. Every passage was a source of information to me. I paused for 2 seconds after I read the first paragraph. Just to make sure that I understood what I read. I didn't want to go through the motions. Although I didn't take notes, that might not be a bad idea just to be sure that you know what you are reading. When I reached the questions, I tried to be in a position that atleast for 3 out of 5 questions, I don't have to go back and browse thru the passage to find the answer. Science topics with a lot of biological terms freaked me out initially. But skipping the jargons and understanding the base helped me. I used a couple of sites to practice reading science passages. Hi aakfar, Can you pls let us know the sites for improving the RC skills for science passages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viveknath Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 Indeed Great and really encouraging for new beginners like me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aakfar Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 Hi aakfar, Can you pls let us know the sites for improving the RC skills for science passages. One I used to go thru science passages was http://www.scientificamerican.com/ The length of articles on this site is roughly the size of GMAT RCs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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