750 Gmat (99%), Q-50(95%), V-41(93%)

[rpms]

Hi Piyush,

Congrats for the great score. Way to go.

You mentioned something about remainder theory in your prep post.

What exactly you mean by theory. May be I am missing something

I look at it as P = q*N + r where 0<= r < N

Thanks

[tictaktoe]

Hi Piyush,

A hearty congrats on your excellent score!

Is it possible for you to give a break-up of your GMAT-prep scores? I understand that the scoring algorithm of GMATprep might not replicate that of the actual GMAT. However, next to PP, thats the best which come closest to, i suppose. And I am quite worried about my score:
GMATprep1: 710
(Q 49 - 12 mistakes out of 37)
(V 39 - 11 mistakes out of 41)

Now, in quant, with 12 mistakes (3 in 1st 10), I dont understand how I could get 49! In your post, you mentioned getting 3 Qs wrong (2 in 1st 10) and receiving 51 in Q. I am not sure whether there are some non-scoring Qs in GMATprep ...

Also, I waste a lot of time on the 'divisibility' kind of problems and sometimes don't get the solution at all (as a last resource, I try puttting in actual values ... but hten this again takes up a lot of time). Do you have any document/link which can explain these concepts clearly? The links you gave for 'modulus' problems were very very helpful (thats another area of low confidence!).

Any advise/suggestion is very welcome ...
Thanks!

I gave GMATPrep twice.
1. 760 - 51,42 ( 3wrong in quant, arnd 6-7 in verbal)
2. 710 - 50, 36 (6 wrng in quant including 5 stupid mistakes, verbal - dnt knw , i dint give it seriously as i was practicing for quant)

GMAT Prep has a higher difficulty level in quant and I had the feeling that the tough questions were randomly distributed but carry no mark. Verbal , as i said before, is that of GMAT/PP level.

Regarding the divisibilty prob, I found plugging the nuumbers strategy most useful. Surely you can solve it by another ways, but it just might consume some more time. I came across KAPLAN WORKSHOP ( Software ) which has some good strategy for Quant section and also how to pick the numbers.

Hi Piysuh,

congradulations on your score. I am a new user to the forum and your post is very helpful.

I have given GMAT in the beginning of the year, with little preparation using Princeton Review. My score was meagre 420 (Q:36 and Verbal 13).

During my practice during my first time I use to score between 550 to 580 with Quant being around 35 - 42 and verbal being around 24 - 30. I did not gave a full test during my practice and that tired me up and performed very poor in the Verbal.

I have started preparing again using OG - 10th edition this time. I have started concentrating on Quant to start with. I have started answering 37 questions with a combination of PS and DS. I made around 3 to 5 errors in the first 10 sets of test and 7 - 10 mistakes during those tests from 11 sets onwards. ( I found now I hitting more harder quesions from end of OG especially DS number properties).

I would like to know, how may mistakes I can make so that my Quant scores stays in the range of 49-51

Also how can I improve my Verbal.

Please help. My target score is 700.

Thanks

I think a lot of work is to be done in both quant and verbal if you wanna reach 700 from 420. To get around 700 you need a quant score of arnd 48-51 and verbal shouldnt be less than 37 .. and its various combinations.. NO one can tell you how many questions you can afford to solve incorrect to get a 49-51 in quant as the step size of first 10-15 questions are more than that later questions. GMAT algorithm works on adaptive difficulty. First 10-15 questions predicts the rough range of your scaled score and the rest questions are used to accurately polish it. Hence, the imporance of first few questions is more than that of later questions. So try to make sure you are getting as many initial questions right as possible. This applies to both quant and verbal.

First of all get a better book than PR for quant. Surely, the real GMAT test questions in quant are somewhat similar to the hardbin questions of OG (last 50-80 questions). To get arnd 49-51 in quant, you should have a hit rate of atleast arnd 90-95% in the hardbin problems of OG. If necessary, join a classroom coaching which will brush up your quant skills.

You can get more insight of how I approached verbal section from my prep de-briefing. everyone has his own way ofapproaching any section, you need to personalize it according to yourself.

Hi Piyush,

Congrats for the great score. Way to go.

You mentioned something about remainder theory in your prep post.

What exactly you mean by theory. May be I am missing something

I look at it as P = q*N + r where 0<= r < N

Thanks

The name says it all
Remainder theory is nothing but the problems involving divisibility, a part of number system.

For e.g: A number when divided by a divisor leaves a remainder of 24. When twice the original number is divided by the same divisor, the remainder is 11. What is the value of the divisor?

[rpms]

What is your strategy for the divisibility problems ?? Are there any specifc posts that deals with tough questions on divisibility

Lets say the question you posed.

A number when divided by a divisor leaves a remainder of 24. When twice the original number is divided by the same divisor, the remainder is 11. What is the value of the divisor?

My approach will be

y = x*q + 24

2*y = x*(2q) + 48 = x*2q + 37 + 11 => (11 is remainder as per problem)
=> 2*y = [x*2q + 37] + 11
Since 37 is a prime no. There are no common factors between 2q and 37
=> x must be 37 for
2*y = 37 (2q+1) + 11

I have to admit, I took long time to solve this. I won't have that luxury in test.

What is the quick approach.

[vivekmenon83]

HEY TICTAKTOE,
CAN YOU PLZ SEND ME THE LINK WHERE I CAN FIND THE R.C'S OF THE O.G. IN THE PDF FORMAT TO viv83m@rediffmail.com.I CUD NOT FIND IT.
THANKS

[shikki]

excellent de-briefing. Make this sticky

can you pls send the links to soft copy of RC, CR, and SC. I think practicing them on computer rather than on book DOES make sense!

[kindergartenkid]

piyush

when did u take ur PP? before or after doing OG. Also, did you take it twice?

[tictaktoe]

Ok these are the combined links to most of the GMAT resources you can ask for. Hopefully, I will put few more before deleting everything related to GMAT from my comp( it really needs a formating , thanks to all the mess). You will need Winzip and/or Winrar software to use few of these links.


A combined GMAT Study Strategy by Dave, Ursula, GMAT Club and ERIN.
KAPLAN Workshop. Though i aint a fan of their tests, workshop is a gem!
GMATprep software can be downloaded here ; Other link (same page) (My fave)
Powerprep Software
OG : PS & DS (Pdf version)
OG : SC (Looking for GMAT Study Material & advice)
1000 CR
(1000 Sc?)1000 SC
3000 RC
KAPLAN TESTS CD
Spidey's SC Notes ( Yay! The notes' link has been found back)
Sahils' Note
GMAT PLUS Soft Copy
LSAT pdf format ( 22 LSAT pdf files can be downloaded from here)
Hard bin quant from PR
links for permutation/combination problems.
More GMAT resources (reviews on books / software / etc)
Practise questions and grid for time mgmt
standard deviation
critical reasoning-tips&tricks
good grammar lessons at the start for SC, though most of the other part is junk.
subject verb agreement
more on verbal / subject verb etc
one free LSAT test
(Magic Template)Erin’s template for Issue anaylsis.
(Argument Template!)argument template
categorization of OG questions (10th)
Venn Diag
compound interest and mean
Dave blogs’ about everything you need from GMAT to B schools.
number theory problems. If you will explore more, i think it should give you pretty good questions in other section of quant too like inequalities / percentage etc
More number theory

[rpms]

Hi Piyush,

Thanks for your prompt responses

I am following the time tracking sheets posted on http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMAT_Study_Strategy.htm

I am still lagging in time esp. in the verbal section. Verbal averages around 2.10 or 2.20 (doing problems from 1000 series)

Anymore insights on improving time.

[tictaktoe]

piyush

when did u take ur PP? before or after doing OG. Also, did you take it twice?

I started with PR and after its verbal i did OG . Finishing the OG at the start was intentional. Also you will notice in my prep de-briefing that i gave SC the initial time of my study and thn worked on other sections. So by the time i started giving tests, i remembered very few questions.

I gave PP 2 and 3 days before the scheduled test of 27th july. However , as it got washed out and i got new dates, i dint touch it till the last moment. Instead, i went on with GMAT prep that gave me same quality verbal but new questions. Gave around 3-4 GMATprep test till 2 days before 14th sept, my recent test date and thought i 'll just take a look at one PP test. Well it was useless as I knew most of the question. I got 780 but dint report it in my practice tests as it was skewed.

Regarding the soft copy of some material I'v put all the possible links in my previous post of this thread and will try to update it. However, I cant see the edit option in that particular post anymore .

[CatalinaN]

great resources! Thanks a lot piyu