club700 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Hi everybody, I got the GMAT on the 6th of May and scored 700 (Q50 V34). I know 700 is not the perfect score, but I’m really happy to be a 700 club member. It’s satisfying for me. First of all, Shukur to Allah for giving me patience and strength… I want to send my special thanx to: -Testmagicians and Erin for creating such a great forum... -Serdar Ozsoy. You may know him as Prawler. Serdar helped me so much during the preperation period. He told me really useful strategies and gave me so much material. -Adhamjon Turdiev: Adham also told me really useful strategies and mailed me so many prep materials. -All of my friends for the emotional support. -My family (mom, dad, and my dear brother) for supporting me about every single decision I made and giving me strength in the hardest times. Okey! The Oscar speech is end J Now I’ll tell about my prep experience and the test experience. PREPERATION: I decided to take the GMAT in December 2006… But it took too long to start a preperation period… I started my preparation in November 2007… Starting is much more harder than sustaining… Math: I’ve never been weak in Math… Even in my first diagnostic test I scored 49 in Math… So I’m not a very appropriate person to give advice about Math… I’ll tell you my ideas about some prep materials… 1. OG10 / OG11 / OG Math: OG math materials are useful for start, but they are not representative of real GMAT Math… Og Math Questions are easier than real GMAT Math questions. 2. MGMAT Math: I solved MGMAT CAT exams… Math section in the exams was really hard… But math questions are useful… You learn so much from your mistakes. Verbal: In my first diagnostic test, I faced a verbal Tsunami… My verbal score was a disaster… I scored in the low 20s… Don’t remember the exact number… Moreover, don’t wanna remember J… I realized that I have too much to do… - OGs: I solved OG10, OG11 and OG Verbal… OG material is a must… RC and SC questions in the Ogs are really representative… Crs are a bit easier. - 1000 series questions: I did about half of the Scs and CRs and all of the RCs (Just GMAT part)… I advise you to solve 1000 series questions in timed conditions… They are good for practice… The more you solve the faster you get. - Kaplan higher Score: A good book for Verbal… Although many people say that the questions are too hard to be representative, the book is good for practice. - Kaplan800 Guide: If you wanna score >700 you should study the book… RC is too hard… SC is also hard but it’s informative, especially for the test takers who wanna touch 700 barrier. - Powerscore LSAT LR: A really really perfect material to improve CR… I read the book… I don’t wanna mean that the book is a magical pill, but if you read the book really carefully, you will be able to improve your CR accuracy significantly. - Kaplan LSAT RC&CR Material with explanations: I solved almost all of the questions from LSAT Material in the last month… I advise you to solve the questions in timed conditions… LSAT material really improves reading… If you are a test taker like me (I’m a non-native speaker, coming from non-English based education and weak in RC) LSAT really works. - PAPER TESTS: Really good and representative material… - SETS: If you wanna touch 700 barrier, you must study at least some of the sets with Archangel’s explanations… Although there are some wrong answers, sets improve timing and accuracy… I just did the verbal part, so I have no idea about the Q part… I can say that in verbal part there are really representative questions… Solve the tests in timed conditions… MY PREP TEST RESULTS: KAPLAN TESTS: Kaplan CD CATs 590, 600,600 (V was between 30-35) In the middle of my studies… On-line test: 670 (Q44 V41) 3 weeks before GMAT… Something went wrong with Math MGMAT TESTS: -NON ADAPTIVE TESTS: Test-1: 720 (Q46 V 43) Test-2: 690 (Q45 V39) -ADAPTIVE TESTS: Test-1: 710 (Q49 V37) Test-2: 710 (Q51 V36) Test-3: 740 (Q50 V41) Test-4: 740 (Q50 V41) Test-5: 770 (Q51 V45) Test-6: 770 (Q51 V45) 800score TESTS: Just did the verbal part: V 42, 43 (in the last month)… GMATprep: Test-1: 710 (Q50 V36) Test-2: 720 (Q50 V38) Test-1: 750 (Q50 V42) (about 6 questions in the verbal were similar to the previous test) Test-2: 780 (Q51 V46) (about 8-10 questions in the verbal were similar to the previous test) I think the most representative material for GMAT is GMATprep tests… The second best material is MGMAT Cats… Kaplan material is never ever close to real GMAT, but it’s good for practice… 800score tests’ verbal section isn’t representative, but if you wanna practise in timed conditions, you can solve some tests… The real test experience: Well, I know after you saw my prep test scores you think that I deserve a better score… Maybe I do, but I’m really satisfyed with my score… At least I’m able to touch 700 barrier… It’s good to be in the 700 club… Before the test day, I had some problems about work and I had to leave my job… This demoralized me so much… I’m currently jobless… L Moreover, because I got too excited, I couldn’t sleep before the test day… I was able to sleep only for 3 hours… It was not the best night for me… When I woke up in the morning I was still too excited… I didn’t drink tea or coffee, because caffein can increase stress… I just drank warm milk and couldn’t eat anything…. My exam was at 13:30… I drank some fruit juice before the exam and again a glass of warm milk to feel relaxed and ate a piece of cake… I drove to the test center, parked my car to somewhere far from the test center and walked there for about 10 minutes on the sunny Istanbul day… People were really friendly in the test center… I finished the procedures and sat on an empty seat... AWA: Awa is the easiest part… It was cool. I finished both the essays well in time. Quant: The Quant started with easy questions… I had an exponent question at first… I controlled first ten questions twice before clicking the “next” button… As the Quant part progressed the questions started to get harder… I had to guess two of the questions, because I had no idea about the solution… Moreover, I got two permutation-combination questions between 25th and 30th questions… Had no probability questions… I had a question about diagonals… I think it was something like this “how many diagonals does an octagon have…” This was one of the questions I had to guess… I also had a question about parallelogram. It was “In th xy plane there are 3 points… How many paralellograms can be drawen with the 3 vertices of the parallelogram are on the points…” Something like this the points were written in the question, but I don’t remember them… I think I got so much DS questions in quant… I guess about half may be more than half of the questions were DS… I remember that DS questions started in about the 7th question and I got no PS questions until about the 15th question… then a PS appeared (it was a word problem about average speed) and then again a series of DS questions started… I usually solve DS questions faster than PS questions but in the exam things changed… I got too slow in the DS questions… It’s may be related to stress or the questions were really hard… Verbal: After a 10-minute break I came back to my seat and the verbal started… I never felt myself confident during the whole verbal part… My heart was beating too fast, I was exteremely excited… V started with a SC and another SC appeared, after that a “cause-effect” CR came, and I got another CR… Although the questions were easy and I was able to do all of them with a great confidence my heart was still beating… I don’t know why, I wasn’t able to get calm… After the first 4 questions a RC came up… It was short and the questions were easy… Until the 20s everything was okey… I got one more short RC and some SCs and CRs… In the early 20s I got a killer RC… It was about manufacturing strategies and their relationship about profits, an economy passage… It was both too long and the questions were detail questions… I lost about 10 mins for 3 questions… After that RC, things changed… When I arrived to the 30th question, I was left with 16 mins for 12 questions and I was sure that I’ll have another RC… Can you imagine my situation???… I was already very excited, wasn’t able to get calm and faced with the time limit… I got 2 BFs in the 30s… I don’t know how I did the last 12 questions… I had to guess last 2 questions and finished the test… Then started to pray… When I saw my score I was really happy to touch the 700 barrier… It’s good to be a 700club member… Lessons learned: - If you are an excited person do not take red bull or anything includes cafein… For people who aren’t overexcited it may work… It’s useful to wake you up, but if you have problems with exams, like me, stay away from caffein… It only worsens the situation… - Be patient… Patience is the most important thing during the study period… Don’t be demoralized when you see you couldn’t improve your score after a long period of study… Be stubborn and go on your study plan… - Practise, Practise, Practise… For both the Math and the Verbal part, Practise s the only key… - Even after a hard study period you may take the GMAT and still score below your expectations… Don’t let this demoralize… Don’t forgret what Nietzsche says: “THAT WHICH DOESN’T KILL ME, ONLY MAKES ME STRONGER” So, see this as an opportunity to take a higher score, not as a lose… - Do not take the test until you feel yourself ready… - Try to be calm and confident… Stress can ruin everything… I wish luck to all of you… I hope you’ll all score enough to be in your dream schools… Love from Turkey, Ozge… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krovvidy Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 Thanks for the nice & detailed debrief Ozge ... congrats ... good luck with your apps ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gugandra Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 Hey, congratulations with a great score! Also, thank you for your wonderful debrief. What's next? What schools are you planning to apply? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmater-1 Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 Congrats Ozge, i have sent you admissions link on gtalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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