740 (Q51, V39) AWA 4.5 on 12/9

[morpheus1976]

I gave my GMAT on Dec 9th and today I got my score .

This is my third attempt. I got 590 and 610 in my previous attempts were in Jan and Sept of previous months

 

GMAT Preparation

Though from 2003 to now, I was concentrating on other things, GMAT and MBA has also been at the back of my mind and was passively involved with MBA. I identified that reading speed and vocab was one of my core problems. So started reading lots of books - thanks to my train commute to work. I always carried an electronic dictionary to look up words I did not know.

 

The active preparation started in Sept 2007. Decided to not have alcohol during the preparation time to help my brain work better. My preparation phase could be divided into 3 phases.

 

Phase 1:

Started of with the old Kaplan CD and PR book. Took a full length test every weekend. Also bought some new materials - Kaplan 800, Manhattan SC, CR and RC and OG Verbal review.

First month it was all OG verbal, Kaplan CD and PR. I used TestGrid4GMAT.xls and timed all my practice Questions. I was scoring 610-630 in the Kaplan tests. I know Kaplan tests are tough and their scoring algorithm is skewed, but I still liked their challenging RCs and the time pressure-it helped me in the actual test. In PR tests I was scoring between 680-730

I also tried the ProwerPrep, scored 680 and 770, but I have already seen many of the Qns.

Sometime in Oct I gave my first GMATPrep and scored just 660 and also did not do well in Math. The next day, I took a PR test to gain some confidence, but a poor score 680 with a 44 in Math. Couldn't believe it. My Quants has gone rusty.

 

Here comes the second phase. I grounded myself - had to keep the TV remote out of sight. Started spending more time with Math. Every evening, I practiced 40 Math Qns in 75 min and 41 verbal Questions in 75 min and review the results the next morning. This practice helped me with my stamina and timing issues. This went on for 2 week and helped me get back in touch with Math. After a month, I took the 2nd GMATPrep, and got 680. Boy! my preparation is not working. I had to take a couple of drinks to help me digest the result and took a break for 2 days.

 

Now comes the 3rd phase, I decided to take the preparation with some fun and take it less hard on me. GMAT is not be all and end all of MBA or for that matter for my career. I started to believe that I can do what I want to do in my career even without an MBA. This is when I started working on Manhattan tests. Man! their Math is time consuming. After few tests, their verbal became predictable. Kind of got used to their tricks.

My Manhattan test scores ranged from 680 to 770. After the 4th test, I decided a strategy for Math. To guess for any questions that take more than 3 mins to solve if the Qn is in the 12 to 30 range. The strategy worked on my 5th test where I set the time limit for each qn to 3 min. I missed only 3 qns and still ended up scoring a 770 and completed the Math section within 65 mins. During my last 2 week of preparation, I also worked on the Kaplan 800. I loved this book. It is not actually very difficult but it was fun to work with it. I highly recommend this book if you are already in the 600+ range and want to take it to 650+ range.

 

Actual Test

For one week I was watching the date available. I zeroed on 8th Dec morning, but before I could book the date, it was gone and the only one available for the weekend was on 9th evening. I prefer the morning as I am a morning person, but the morning dates available were all too late for the 2nd round app cycle. So booked the appointment on dec 9th evening.

On sat and sun, I was very nervous and exited about the test and wanted to do too many things before the test. But all along I kept myself cool by saying to myself that I am well prepared and if things go wrong, it is not the end of MBA and also I have very good alternative plans. I also wanted to have some fun with GMAT.

I reviewed questions for which I answered incorrectly during practice and the ones which took longer than 3 mins to solve. Prepared a strategy for AWA and reviewed my notes.

Before entering the test center, I just told myself not to screw up with time, otherwise I am good. When I was reading the test agreement, I saw a point that derailed one of my test strategies. I had printout 2 unseen SC and 1 CR to do before starting verbal section to warm up my brain for verbal after the Math or else my brain takes some time for the initial questions and sometimes go wrong (an observation from my practice).

 

The Analysis of the Argument was first, and I gave 5 mins to review the essay, but I ended up changing the format of many sentence that I could not review the last 2 paragraphs. So for the issue I gave some extra time for the review and was able to complete on time. The 10 min break was enough for a restroom visit and a quick frappachino and a cookie.

 

My strategy with quants was to always have the clock show more than 2*# of questions left and if any question is taking more than 3 min, guess and move on. The 2nd question in quants took more than 3 min as I did not understand the long word problem, but since it was 2nd question, I was not ready to guess. Got it right after 4 min. I was able to come back to my strategy by the 10th question. For most of the questions I was telling that I will not fall for this trap. There was a simple trap in every other question. During my practice I had fallen into all of those traps, so now I could avoid it. By 30th question I was feeling that I did not receive many difficult questions and was feeling that qns were around 45-48 range and may be I made mistakes in the initial qns. Anyway I did not want to judge the question. Completed the quants with 5 mins to spare.

 

The break was similar to the previous one - restroom visit, another bottle of cold caffeine and another cookie. And I was telling myself that I have already scored 51 in quants and the fun game is going to begin now with verbal.

 

My strategy was to take all points that is mine and give points that the question author deserves, stick to the timing strategy of 8 qns for each quarter (15 mins) except for the third quarter, where I will do 9 qns. And also not spend too much time for the long RC passage.. Only strategy that failed was the warm-up before verbal. But did not have much trouble, got a easy SC to start with. I just started scoring and took the lead, never let GMAT score more than me. For most CR and for more than half of the SC, I was very sure that I was right. For few SCs, I gave the points to GMAT, when I was not able to choose between 2. Surprisingly, the RCs (my weakest link) were easy too. And I was well within my time strategy. Of all the tests I have taken during practice, the actual test was the one where I had the least time pressure. When there was 1 min to spare, I gave a point to GMAT and clicked next.

 

After the test I was sure I have crossed 45 in Quants and 35 in Verbal and thats a min 650, so decided to report score. Then flashes 740. What I could not believe was the 51 in Quants and was a bit disappointed with the Verbal as I was wanted more than 40. The same total with a 49, 42 split would have been better, anyway I will take it.

 

 

Today I received my AWA score. Got 4.5

 

 

 

I used testmagic forum heavily during my preparation. I thank everyone who have posted on the forum.

 

 

Tips for GMATters.

1. Customize your study plan for you

2. Have your own notes and if possible avoid other's notes. I went crazy when I was going through other's notes. Understanding the context of the notes was tough

3. Time management is the key. I understood this from different debriefs.

4. Attitude towards the test is important. Have an attitude that works for you.

5. Stamina. Build ur stamina for 4 hrs.

[sgmat]

Congratulations for that awesome score....Please tell us more about the books and materials that you followed in order to achieve this big score......Thanks and Cheers!

 

-amit

[Roland]

Hi, can you please tell me how do I scale my scores.I got 5 wrong in Math and 10 in verbal on a practice MGMAT test.Thanks!

[kannn]

Congrats for the great score. Can you please explain more abt ur timing strategy. One of my major problem is timing (sply in quants).

 

"My strategy with quants was to always have the clock show more than 2*# of questions left and if any question is taking more than 3 min, guess and move on." What did u mean by this?

 

I get engrossed into some questions and some where I screw up the timing.

Can you elaborate more abt ur strategy pls?

[morpheus1976]

Congratulations for that awesome score....Please tell us more about the books and materials that you followed in order to achieve this big score......Thanks and Cheers!

 

-amit

 

Kaplan book and CD 2003 edition

PR book and CD. 2004 edition

OG 10

The above from my previous preparation

 

New material I got

OG verbal

Manhattan SC, CR and RC

Kaplan 800

Manhattan test are very useful in analyzing the difficult of the question.

Tried few sets and gave it up as there were no official explanations

[morpheus1976]

Congrats for the great score. Can you please explain more abt ur timing strategy. One of my major problem is timing (sply in quants).

 

"My strategy with quants was to always have the clock show more than 2*# of questions left and if any question is taking more than 3 min, guess and move on." What did u mean by this?

 

I get engrossed into some questions and some where I screw up the timing.

Can you elaborate more abt ur strategy pls?

 

I also had the problem of getting engrossed in the question. In one of the test I took 14 min to solve a simple problem. Then I made a strategy not to spend more than 3 min on math question. I tried this with one manhattan test by specifying a max time as 3 min. I could not complete 3 problems with this timing. But I avoided the 3 min strategy for first 15 and last 10 questions.

[winjeemat]

Great Score. Specifically in Math.

 

Will you pl share breakup of previous scores.

 

Best of Luck for apps.

[kannn]

Thanks Morpheus

[sgmat]

Thanks Morpheus for those invaluable suggestions.....Good luck!