My G-Day 750 (Q 50, V 40)

[sooraj_j]

First of all, thank you all for all the help and especially to Erin for all those explanations in Sentence Correction. This group has been of great help to me.

Background - I am an IT consultant working in Pittsburgh, PA and have 5 years of experience in the industry. I did my major in Computer Science.

Preparation - I started thinking about giving the GMAT about 6 months back. But, it was not until some 2 months back that I started serious preparation for it. I studied for about 2 hours a day on week days and for about 3-4 hours on weekends. The materials I used were Official Guide, Kaplan, ARCO and a lot of internet
resources. Initially, I considered Quant simple and Verbal tough, especially SCs. Critical reasoning was a breeze relative to SC(For some stats, I made only 7 mistakes in the critical reasoning section in Official Guide, but around 40-45 in SC). reading comprehension was a pain in the *** initially, but later on I came to enjoy the stuff. Always, had in mind "Here
comes a passage from which I am going to learn something new". That helped.
I took a lot of full-length tests. 15 to be exact - diagnostic test not counted.

The scores:
Kaplan - 650, 650, 640
Princeton - 740, 740, 710, 730
ARCO(Cambridge) - took 5 tests ranged from 690 - 740 (This software gave me a score range at the end of each test and I didn't find their scoring to be good enough)
3 Recently released GMAT Paper Tests - 720, 710, 760

The final test I took before the actual one gave me 760 and that helped my confidence.

On G-Day - Morning rush hour traffic caused some delay, but I managed to reach on time.
Essays topics were familiar. I had taken a look at those topics( Final pages of Official Guide lists them all) earlier. I hope I did well in the essays.

Quant was very easy. There were some probability questions (4-5) and some permutation and combination. None on std. deviation. I had ample time before completing the test (about 5-6 minutes). Verbal was tougher than anticipated. All the SC questions were long. It took some time to read all the options.
Usually, I make up for lost time during SCs, not so this time. critical reasoning, my strong point proved to be a bit uncomfortable. Atleast for 3 questions, there were 2 options on which I could not decide. reading comprehension was the easiest(can't believe I am saying this, 2 months back I would have dropped my jaw). 4 RCs, ranging between 45 and 60 lines.

Finally, completed the test and was releived to see the score.

Suggestions - Official Guide without doubt is the best resource. Try to go through the SC explanations completely. You will slowly but surely make improvements. The next best resources, I felt, are this group and TestMagic(for Sentence Corrections alone). PR, ARCO etc. helps at best in providing software for you to take tests in a controlled environment. There is nothing that they can provide that you won't find in Official Guide or over the internet. Use web resources well. There are lots and it takes time and patience to filter the useful ones.

I hope this description was useful.

Wish you all the very best and may you all attain your personal goals.

Sooraj

[mikey]

Congratulations on an awesome score Sooraj, I am assuming you have a strong math background since you are in computer science. How did you find the math on the O.G as compared to the math on the actual gmat, are they similar?

[sranju]

Congrats on the great score, Sooraj......I wonder if the verbal scaled score u have mentioned is the same as the actual one....With a total score of 750, u shud have got a better scaled score...unless of course, there is change in the scoring pattern.
Did u manage to reach the last quest in verbal....or u guessed on the last few?? I have a feeling that SC in Official Guide is a shade easier than the one in actual exam....or rather, they are shorter than the ones in exam....do u share my opinion?...did u find critical reasoning tougher than that given in Official Guide...what was the time break up u used for the verbal section??...here is wishing u all the best in yr future endeavours
Shailendra

[anxioussoul]

Sooraj, thats an AMAZING SCORE !!!

quick question, how helpful were the 3 Recently released GMAT exams ?

Do you think they are worth the $50 spent on them ?

[sooraj_j]

Mikey, I found the questions in Quant not very different from those in Official Guide. The geometry questions were a bit more tough than Official Guide and the percentage of probability questions higher.

Shailendra, these are my scaled scores. Now that you mention it looks unusual, it does to me too when I compare the other scores listed here. My perception of scaled score is that it depends a lot on the first few questions, while the raw score depends more on your total number of correct answers. It is possible that my attempts on the first few questions were not successful. I usually take some time to warm up to verbal questions. As for timing, I was able to complete all the questions in verbal too. I had 3 minutes left at the end.

Anxioussoul, I bought only 3(14, 31 and 55) of the paper-based GMAT tests. All the questions from 14 and 31 are from Official Guide. 55 has a set of new questions. To me, it was not worth $25. Probably, I would have paid $10.

[sranju]

Thanx Sooraj for yr prompt reply......Can u por favor, El Señor tell me yr Quant scaled scores in Kaplan tests....did u find the Quant in actual exam, tougher or at par with Quant in Kaplan.....U introduced a new thought on the way scaled score is calculated....most humbly and respectfully would appreciate, if u can give the 'premise' for that 'conclusion' (-:

[sooraj_j]

My scaled scores in Kaplan Quant were 47-49 range.
In the real test, the quant was a bit less tough than Kaplan. Again, I didn't find much of a difference in many quant tests. However, verbal in Kaplan is far tougher than the real one, especially the RCs. The RCs in Kaplan are sometimes incomprehensible.

On scaled scores...those are just my thoughts. I have seen this remark made in many places that your first few questions more or less determine your scaled score. If you have the new GMAT Paper-based tests, the method of scoring is described there. However, I am not sure whether such a method still holds, because it was for paper tests and not CBTs.

[sranju]

Thanx a lot Sooraj for yr reply....I like yr attitude towards reading comprehension...U mention u took five Arco tests....Did u face any repetition of questions?...I have the CD that comes with the book...When I tried taking the second test, I encountered many questions that came in the fi test....can u suggest how to avoid that.
U seem to be among the few who got 4-5 questions in Probability....did u find them at par with those given in Official Guide....what most humbly and respectfully would u say for Perm and Comb??
Thanx

[sushilksood]

Is this Kaplan 1000/500 question bank or the CD?

[vlee]

congrats sooraj....

guyz, just wondering izzit possible to do "ok" without any preparation? i din know that this GMAT is so tough and i've just registered for it.... it will be in like 3-4 days, and i dun have any time to study for it....

i really need some advice here, shd i just go for it or shd i change the test date? thanks