Brian_Lugo Posted November 3, 2007 Share Posted November 3, 2007 First, I would like to thank my family in supporting me in each and every step of my long preparation for GMAT. Next, I would like to thank God for introducing me to Scoretop and Testmagic (including wonderful people on both forums J) and various other preparation resources, and for helping me persevere and stay focused. I also want to thank the creators of Scoretop and Testmagic for providing valuable resource to MBA aspirants!! I took my GMAT on November 2nd, 2007 and here is my debrief: I am not sure how much helpful this debrief will be, however, I felt morally obligated to write this debrief, and I also want to seek help from people who have come back from a situation like mine or any other people who can help me achieve a score above 700. Phase I: I started my GMAT preparation haphazardly last year. I have been out of college for 12 years now, and although I am an engineer, my math skills were rusty. I started brushing my Q with a book from India by M. Tyra. It was not until this January that I formalized my study plan and set a strategy. After reading several debriefs, I came to conclusion that Powerprep and GMAT Prep scores before reading OG reflect closely the final GMAT score. So, my strategy was to score 700 in these tests. I started my preparation with SC1000, CR1000, and RC3000. I decided to skip the GMAT questions from these sources because they contain OG questions. I solved SC1000 completely but not others. Then I took Kaplan and Princeton tests from their 2005-2006CDs. I scored in high 500s in Kaplan and mid-high 600s in Princeton. Surprisingly, my scores kept plummeting after each exam. I was absolutely preplexed, yet I did not want to give up. I decided to return to the 1000 material and practice more, and I became more determined to attempt these exams again and score in 700s. I read Powerscore CR bible to help me with CR. My next exams were going to be Powerprep and GMATPrep, and hence my criterion for attempting them was good score in Kaplan and Princeton. I know lot of people do not like Kaplan, but I found Kaplan challenging. I attempted K&P once more and managed to reach into 700s, though few questions were repeat questions, however, by then I had forgotten majority of them. Phase II: Next came Powerprep1, and I scored 730 (Q49-V41), and GMATPrep1: 700 (Q50-V35). This boosted my confidence tremendously. After this, I went through OG10/OG11 and SETS1-23, and attempted GMATPrep2. I scored 760 (Q49, V44), however, a lot of questions were from OG, so I took the score with a grain of salt. Phase III: I saved the second Powerprep for a week before the exam. In the meantime, I took Scoretop VIP membership and solved August, September, and October questions. At this time I also solved the rest of the SETS – 24-31. I solved Manhattan SC during this time. Each exam I took was under timed conditions. I used the GMAT excel grid when solving SETS and OG under timed conditions. Finally, I scored 750 (Q51-V39) in the Powerprep2, a week before the actual exam. My accuracy rates for OG and SETS are: DS PS RC CR SC OG 10 90% 93% 78% 82% 85% OG 11 90% 94% 85% 90% 88% (several Qs from OG 10) SETS 87% 90% 76% 75% 88% I have not compiled my accuracy rate in Scoretop VIP questions, however it was definitely lower than above rates in Quant by 10-15%, though Verbal rate was similar to above rates. As you may have noticed, I kept a detailed log through out my preparation. I revisited most of my errors, but towards the end I could not as I was short of time, and also in the end I was feeling slightly burned out. Let’s talk about the actual GMAT experience: I went to the exam confidently and positively. Q started with a weird tough question. I spent 5 minutes and ended up guessing incorrectly. Next several questions were easy. I encountered some medium-hard questions after the 20th Q. I spent a lot of time in silly calculations. However, I managed to complete the section in time. I knew I was not going to get a 51. Nevertheless, I was sure I would score 49-50. My attitude throughout the exam was positive, I did not let any question bring down my attitude. Most of the preparation materials that I used were sufficient for tackling the Quant. Although I won’t go into details of the exam, I saw a lot of absolute value, algebra, and percentage questions. I did not encounter any probability questions. OG and VIP were helpful in my Quant preparation. The verbal started with easy SC, or maybe I think it was easy J. In verbal, I never felt I was going wrong, except in few CR (evaluate questions). The test kept giving me very easy RCs. I suspected something was wrong, but I didn’t let my suspicion take over me. Though RC was my weakness, I was confident of my answers in RCs. I kept longing to see a bold-face CR J, but never encountered one. I knew I had screwed up in Verbal, though I didn’t how badly. I completed the section in time. I was shocked and devastated to see the final score of 620!! The only thing I can think I screwed up in Verbal is: I did not spend extra effort in verifying my SC answers. I have a weird way of solving SCs. I read the sentence till and including the underlined portion, then I glance at all the answers and try to plugin the most correct answer, sometimes even without reading the whole sentence. I was aware of this slothful approach, and I was not supposed to use it, however I did so. Can some one please help? I have exhausted all the preparation material. I definitely feel like taking the test again. I feel I have been robbed badly. Last 6-9 months all I did was: Work full time, Study, Eat, and Sleep. I have neglected every thing – my chores, my family, my social life, etc. I have life changing event coming up next month: I am having a baby boy. So, I don’t know how much time I am going to be able to devote to studying. At the same time, I feel that I have the momentum and that before I start forgetting stuff, I better take the exam. Currently, I cannot let go of scoring badly. Yet, my biggest problem and worry for my next attempt is: I do not know where I went wrong this time. All I know is I sucked in Verbal – either in SC or CR or both and I did well in my weak area – RC. I seek help from you. Can any one who has gone through a similar situation and come back, OR some one who can analyze my situation accurately, please help me with my next attempt? I wish you all good luck and I hope you don’t end up where I have ended up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgmat Posted November 3, 2007 Share Posted November 3, 2007 I would say u just need to mentally prepare for the next shot...as u r already thru with ur first shot n u knw where u have to concentrate...Just keep on revising the concepts from OG and GMAT prep n ofcourse ur error log...n book a date after a month...n just hit it hard this time...Best of luck....cheers!!! amit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v-rap Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Hi Brian Can you please tell how VIP membership of scoretop helped ? in case of quant and verbal. I think you might need to practice verbal. Use Manhattan SC and practice them,it gives good approach. Other than that I think you have exhaustively done your prep. You should be in pretty good shape. Another thing is what are you aiming for ? IIM or ISB or top 10 business schools in US. I think 620 might be good enough for some of the schools, you may want to check that. Well depends again where you want to pursue your MBA. thanks V- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rs123 Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 I think 620 is too low compared to the statistics you have mentioned, you must give it a second shot. Try the 1000 docs. Please provide some info on vip membership and questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azumahprince Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Hi, for verbal I think you should try "Sentence Correction Bible" from Powerscore. I am using it right now and I am definitely seeing changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian_Lugo Posted November 4, 2007 Author Share Posted November 4, 2007 Thanks all for responding to my post. VIP membership at Scoretop costs $30.00 a month. Scoretop provides practice questions in Quant and Verbal. So, once you are done with the OG and PowerPreps/GMATPreps, you can enrol in the VIP membership to get more practice questions for the days leading to the exam. Think of the membership as the final practice sprint before the marathon. Do not expect to see real exam questions, but do expect quality questions. Regarding my next attempt, I am contemplating it, though I am not sure when I will take the exam. I also need to have a different strategy for verbal this time, and I am not sure what else to do besides reading more material, understading concepts, and practing more questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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