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hellraiser1899 · 2003 October 23rd, 10:33 PM

Well, it's all over. Man, am I glad. I am very happy with a 730. I was a bit dissapointed in my 44Q, cause I was scoring in the 46-48 range on the practice tests, but then again, my 47 in verbal was alot higher than usual.

My impressions and advice: the quant section is MUCH tougher than the practice tests I took. I took both PP tests and three ETS paper tests. The actual quant I faced was incomparable. I dont know if ETS is making the quant more rigourous, but it was tough. Lot's of weird questions. I honestly straight up guessed on four or five questions. Be real familiar with factors, exponents and percentage problems. I only got one permutation problem. Princeton Review can be misleading, they lead one to believe the quant questions are straight forward. They arent. For practice, concentrate on the last 100 problems in the Official Guide.

The verbal section seemed really easy. I got lucky on the reading comprehension, my longest passage was only 65 lines. I am real good at critical reasoning, and luckily that's what the bulk of my difficult verbal questions were.

DONT CANCEL YOUR SCORE. I honestly thought I had got about a 650. When I saw 730 I was shocked. All my practice tests had been anywhere from 710 to 750, but I was still surprised. I think it's because on the CAT GMAT you are bound to get many more questions wrong than on paper or PP tests. The CAT adapts to your ability level, so it follows that if you are scoring high you will see high level questions and get a few more wrong than you are used to. Well, that's it, and I sure do hope the Arizona Wildcats win a NCAA championship this year.

duncan · 2003 October 24th, 03:54 AM

nice work! great score... I'm sure you're glad it's over. Hopefully I'll be in the same spot in a week and a half. How tough were the DS questions? I've been working on the last few sets of DS in the Official Guide and they're killing me (especially inequalities). I haven't even been able to complete them in the allotted time. Any suggestions on how to deal with this before the exam?

hellraiser1899 · 2003 October 24th, 04:34 AM

Duncan- the data sufficiency questions were real tough. In fact, the SECOND question on the quant had me stumped for a bit. You would think the second question would be easy. I found the questions similar to the caliber of the last 100 or so Official Guide questions. I also hate those number property ds questions. The key to DS is to not get involved in calculating. That is what eats up time. Right when you recognize what info is necessary, click and move on. Also, if a question is eating up more than 3 minutes, guess and move on. I cant stress how important it is to not let pride get in the way of guessing. I thought I had absolutely bombed the math section, but I still got a decent 44 because I recognized when I was over my head. Dont get stubborn and spend 5 minutes on a single question. What I did notice though, is the verbal score is what really boosts your overall score. I am happy I got similar scores because I have read B-schools like GMAT scores that aren't too one sided.

duncan · 2003 October 24th, 04:12 PM

thanks for the advice... just hope all goes smoothly on my test day. I guess it's just a matter of swallowing my pride like you said, and being willing to move on after making an educated guess. How was your timing on the PP quant? On PP1 (haven't taken 2 yet) I remembered seeing around 3 of the problems from work in the Official Guide, but it was mostly new material to me. I ended up rushing through the last 4 just to get SOME answers selected. Turns out I got a 47Q, but at the time I thought it was going to be around 40. I suppose it's just one more piece of evidence that supports the theory that you should trust yourself and not cancel scores on exam day.

thaiva · 2003 October 25th, 02:31 AM

Hey hellraiser1899,

Congradt's on your score...

What uni's are you planning to apply to?

good luck ducan for your test right behind you,

Tim

hellraiser1899 · 2003 October 29th, 05:40 AM

Thaiva: I just graduated from U. of Arizona with an Economics degree. I need some work experience (2 years or so) before I apply. But a 730 on the GMAT should help out.

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2003 October 23rd, 10:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
hellraiser1899 I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 22	Well, it's all over. Man, am I glad. I am very happy with a 730. I was a bit dissapointed in my 44Q, cause I was scoring in the 46-48 range on the practice tests, but then again, my 47 in verbal was alot higher than usual. My impressions and advice: the quant section is MUCH tougher than the practice tests I took. I took both PP tests and three ETS paper tests. The actual quant I faced was incomparable. I dont know if ETS is making the quant more rigourous, but it was tough. Lot's of weird questions. I honestly straight up guessed on four or five questions. Be real familiar with factors, exponents and percentage problems. I only got one permutation problem. Princeton Review can be misleading, they lead one to believe the quant questions are straight forward. They arent. For practice, concentrate on the last 100 problems in the Official Guide. The verbal section seemed really easy. I got lucky on the reading comprehension, my longest passage was only 65 lines. I am real good at critical reasoning, and luckily that's what the bulk of my difficult verbal questions were. DONT CANCEL YOUR SCORE. I honestly thought I had got about a 650. When I saw 730 I was shocked. All my practice tests had been anywhere from 710 to 750, but I was still surprised. I think it's because on the CAT GMAT you are bound to get many more questions wrong than on paper or PP tests. The CAT adapts to your ability level, so it follows that if you are scoring high you will see high level questions and get a few more wrong than you are used to. Well, that's it, and I sure do hope the Arizona Wildcats win a NCAA championship this year.

2003 October 24th, 03:54 AM	#2 (permalink)
duncan I JUST got here. Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 23	nice work! great score... I'm sure you're glad it's over. Hopefully I'll be in the same spot in a week and a half. How tough were the DS questions? I've been working on the last few sets of DS in the Official Guide and they're killing me (especially inequalities). I haven't even been able to complete them in the allotted time. Any suggestions on how to deal with this before the exam?

2003 October 24th, 04:34 AM	#3 (permalink)
hellraiser1899 I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 22	Duncan- the data sufficiency questions were real tough. In fact, the SECOND question on the quant had me stumped for a bit. You would think the second question would be easy. I found the questions similar to the caliber of the last 100 or so Official Guide questions. I also hate those number property ds questions. The key to DS is to not get involved in calculating. That is what eats up time. Right when you recognize what info is necessary, click and move on. Also, if a question is eating up more than 3 minutes, guess and move on. I cant stress how important it is to not let pride get in the way of guessing. I thought I had absolutely bombed the math section, but I still got a decent 44 because I recognized when I was over my head. Dont get stubborn and spend 5 minutes on a single question. What I did notice though, is the verbal score is what really boosts your overall score. I am happy I got similar scores because I have read B-schools like GMAT scores that aren't too one sided.

2003 October 24th, 04:12 PM	#4 (permalink)
duncan I JUST got here. Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 23	thanks for the advice... just hope all goes smoothly on my test day. I guess it's just a matter of swallowing my pride like you said, and being willing to move on after making an educated guess. How was your timing on the PP quant? On PP1 (haven't taken 2 yet) I remembered seeing around 3 of the problems from work in the Official Guide, but it was mostly new material to me. I ended up rushing through the last 4 just to get SOME answers selected. Turns out I got a 47Q, but at the time I thought it was going to be around 40. I suppose it's just one more piece of evidence that supports the theory that you should trust yourself and not cancel scores on exam day.

2003 October 25th, 02:31 AM	#5 (permalink)
thaiva TM Guru-in-Training Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: New Zealand Posts: 761	Hey hellraiser1899, Congradt's on your score... What uni's are you planning to apply to? good luck ducan for your test right behind you, Tim

2003 October 29th, 05:40 AM	#6 (permalink)
hellraiser1899 I JUST got here. Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 22	Thaiva: I just graduated from U. of Arizona with an Economics degree. I need some work experience (2 years or so) before I apply. But a 730 on the GMAT should help out.

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