TestMagic

Nick_AAPL · 05-19-2008, 08:22 AM

I took my GMAT on Saturday night in San Francisco and scored a 690 (Q49/V34). I will write a debrief soon !

scorpion.ks · 05-20-2008, 01:50 AM

Great score. Congrats.

krovvidy · 05-20-2008, 05:34 AM

Congrats ... awaiting your debrief ...

Nick_AAPL · 05-20-2008, 07:14 AM

I will split my entire debrief into 3 simple parts:

1. My Test Preparation
2. GMAT test experience
3. General Strategy

1. My Test Preparation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I believe in focussed preparation with clear cut goals. So I signed up for GMAT and allowed 3 weeks for Prep. The first week wasn't very productive (used to prepare 1-2 hours a day apart from partying almost daily - I can't help myself as I live in a Party house, also there is heavy Peer pressure). But was very serious from 2nd week onwards. I did study consistently for 4-5 hours a day and then used to hang in with my friends late night for relaxation). I used to score 90%+ on SCs w/o preparation, but then my score got lower and lower after studying Manhattan SC and GMAT800. These books are excellent but I think I over analyzed SCs and ended up making mistakes. My strike rate was pretty good in OGs (95%+ on RCs, 90%+ on CRs and around 75-80% on SCs).

After 2 weeks of study, I took 3 Manhattan CATs and 2 GMATPrep and scored:

GMATPrep 1: 710 (Q50, V37)
GMATPrep 2: 710 (Q48, V40)

Manhattan CAT 1/2/3: 640/650/660

I knew that I needed additional practice on SCs considering my lackluster performance. But I believed in working on my mistakes and not repeating them. Although I kept scoring low on SCs (in practice tests), I used to analyze each question on SC, prepared notes and worked on it). Finished Manhattan SC, GMAT800, OGs in 2 weeks !!!

I was doing well on RCs and CRs. So just concentrated on my past mistakes
in these areas, prepared notes and mastered them.

I did think about postponing the test for 2 more weeks but then I thought its better to take the test rather than loose $250 bucks. Also I worked hard on Math to make up for any misses on SCs [tried to get 51]. I never gave up on SCs though, I did everything that I could do in 3 weeks. Well, if I take my GMAT again, I will definitely kill this section Next time including Math !

2. GMAT Test Experience
------------------------------------------------------------------
I took my test at 4:30Pm on a Saturday night. I wanted to sleep well and take my sweet time to get up in the morning (so 4:30Pm was a good time). Reviewed my notes, met my friends in SF, had lunch and finally hit the test center.

I got inside the test center at 4:35pm sharp, finished all the tutorials in 10 sec, entered my top 5 choices of schools and then I started making few headings on the rough sheet (Assumptions, Conclusion, Weakness, Strengthen etc.) before hitting the button to Start "Analyze an Argument". The attendant at the test center quickly came upto me and said this is a violation of GMAT rule...I am not supposed to write anything on the Yellow Sheet until I start the test. She then replaced my work sheet with another one and told me not to repeat it this. [Learning: Don't make this mistake! Even if you are writing headings and not necessarily any information, its against GMAT rules.

This distracted me a little bit initially but then I diverted my attention and focussed on TWA. I wrote about 7 paragraphs on Essay 1 (Analyze an Argument) and 6 paragraphs on Essay 2 (Analysis of an Issue). I organized the essays well with syntactic variety and persuasive examples. I did have time to check the grammer and spellings. Overall, I finished very strong on these essays.

Key: Have your templates ready and practise writing atleast 2 Full Tests (especially GMATPrep: start with Essays, Math and then Verbal). Focussing for 4 hours is not easy. By the time you get to verbal, its exchausting !! - Especially for me as I have a Full time job, I used to prepare for 1-2 hours after work and then take a practice test.

After I was done with "Analysis of an Issue". I raised my hand to take a break. Signed out and was walking to the locker to get a drink, but the lady interrupted and said, "You started the test late, so I would appreciate if you cut down your break time". I thought she was rude to me (the way she said that). I didn't loose my cool, I just said I will try my best and then got near the locker, had some orange juice and got back in under a minute to start my Math section. [Learning: Better go early to the test center and avoid such remarks from other people]

Math section seemed pretty easy to me. I got some tough questions around 8-10 and then around 18-21. Rest of the test was pretty smooth. I was extra cautious on all questions (checked my answer infact 3 times) but still finished the Math section 10 minutes before. Somehow I was at my BEST, maybe because its a REAL test that counts. [Learning: Just keep your pace throughout the test, don't think whether you got a question right?]

I was disappointed after I saw my score on Math at the end (ofcourse verbal too, I will discussion this next).

I raised my hand again to take the next break. This time I took my sweet time (about 6-7 minutes) and got back in.

Verbal section started with 2 sentence completions, a CR followed by an RC (4-8 questions). My weak area is SC. I used to score 100% on RCs especially Practise tests on GMATPrep and 90%+ on the CRs. I used to suck on SCs (used to get 4-5 correct out of 14-15 questions on GMATPrep) which used to bring my score down quite a bit.

I was very cautious on my GMAT verbal to start strong. I did start strong but took more time from questions 14-31. I was left with 10 min and 12 questions at the end. I got a 4rth RC on my 32nd question, I knew the rest of the 8 questions (other than 4rth RC) will definitely be 5 SCs and 3 CRs. So I took my usual time to work on the last RC (as its my strength). I should say I messed up in the last 10 min. Although I did get what the author was exactly trying to say in the RC, the questions appeared very tricky and the answers were very close. As time was running pretty fast, I couldn't concentrate well but I believed in myself thinking that I had a consistent performance on RCs and just raced to finish all the RC questions. I had just under 5 minutes and
8 questions now. I got a tough CR (quickly understood the gist of it and chose an answer). Got a string of SC's (I think 3 of them), I tried to do my best on them knowing that its my weak area (I spent lot of time here, I should have just selected the best choice and moved on, instead I tried to read the SC again to get it RIGHT). Finally left with 6 seconds and 2 questions. I randomly selected an answer on the 40th question but then to my bad luck, the screen was stuck for a couple of seconds to give me a final question (those 2 crucial seconds seemed like eons for me). I couldn't answer 41st question, as I ran out of time. This is the main reason for not reaching 700+ score. I might have been penalized 10-20 points for not finishing the test. [I always used to finish practise tests but couldn't on the REAL GMAT, I did have 3 seconds but the screen was stuck on the 40th question for 2 extra seconds after I had answered. So moral story: FINISH THE TEST ! DON'T EVER DO THIS PLEASE, this will bring down your score).

I expected a 710-740 on my REAL GMAT despite not finishing the verbal section. But I ended up with 690. My practise test scores on GMATPrep 1 and 2 were 710. I thought after mastering every mistake, I could only improve my score and get around 740).

Real GMAT score 690 (90%tile): Quant (49)/89%tile - Verbal (34)/70%tile

3. General Strategy:

Books:
----------------

SC - OG11, Verbal OG, Manhattan SC, GMAT800
RC - OG11, Verbal OG, GMAT800 (Its a TERRIFIC book for RC)
CR - OG11, Verbal OG and Manhattan CR
Math - OG11, GMAT800, Manhattan Number Properties

Strategy
-----------------
1. Practice, Practice, Practice on taking full length tests (including essays)
2. Review all mistakes and make notes - Most importantly, understand why the other answer choices were INCORRECT). This strategy will greatly help on SCs and CRs. Someone on TestMagic said, if you master Verbal OGs, you should get 40+ on Verbal. Its 100% TRUE.
3. Regarding Math - Practice tough problems (GMAT800 isn't tough - may be try some Math problems on 9th and 10th grade if you are from Asia). Avoid mistakes; GMAT comes with tricky questions - so be careful!).

scorpion.ks · 05-20-2008, 07:52 AM

Thanks a "LOT" for sharing lessons learnt. Will keep it in mind.

Good luck for your apps.

lurkman · 05-20-2008, 05:12 PM

Nick_AAPL,

Congratulations. I had a similar experience on GMAT. I also scored 690 (Q45, V39) and I also did not finish the test.

My nemesis was the Quant section (reached #35, before I ran out of time). It was embarrassing because Quant is my strength. But I never got the pacing strategy figured out during my prep and I paid the price for not having a strategic guessing strategy worked out, well in advance.

Such a strategy must include an allowance for the time it takes to guess. Guessing involves at least three steps:

(1) Making a guess after eliminating one or two answers (to increase your chances); not just blind guessing

(2) Click on Next

(3) Click on "Confirm your answer"

A good guessing strategy must figure out how long it takes to do these three steps; then, on the test, as you near the end, multiply the number of questions remaining by this Time-Needed-for-Strategic-Guessing and execute the strategy if you have only enough time to guess.

I found out from my GMAT PREP test experience (btw, I also scored 710 on both my GPREPs) that even guessing needs time: I did not finish GPREP1 because I finished only 29 quant questions and had less than a minute remaining. I guessed 6 blindly and ran out of time because there wasn't even enough time to guess the remaining.

So my experience mirrors yours very closely: I had a short prep time (4 weekends and some evening time after work), I had identical scores as yours in both the GPREP tests and my final GMAT, and I did not finish.

FYI, my debrief was posted here: http://www.urch.com/forums/just-fini...0-q45-v39.html (GMAT 690, (q45, V39))

If I were to do it again, I would take a few weeks to nail the timing strategy, get comfortable with finishing both sections, before re-taking the test.

Congratulations again.

I feel your pain on missing the 700 mark; it was there for the asking, yet elusive. Such is life.

lurkman

nick_zen · 05-20-2008, 06:15 PM

Congratulation, great score and good debrief.

Nick_AAPL · 05-20-2008, 06:19 PM

Thanks everyone !

Lurkman,

690 should be good enough considering your experience (# of years). I heard from many of my friends who went to top schools that 690 is good enough and it will not break an application. For that matter, GMAT score doesn't carry much weightage unless someone has a very low score. For executive MBA's, many schools pay lot of emphasis on work experience and leadership. Most of the schools like Columbia Univ. may not even ask for a GMAT score (My cousin graduated from Columbia Univ. recently)

However, I learnt that reputed companies like McKinsey, BCG (as I am interested in Mgmt Consulting) do look at GMAT scores for interview selections during placements. So if everyone at the same school had similar GPA's, aspirations, work experiences then GMAT can make a difference during initial interview selections.

So, a high GMAT score has some value not only for admissions but also for other purposes. I depends on the type of MBA program you are looking at and where you want to go after an MBA.

lurkman · 05-20-2008, 07:30 PM

Nick_AAPL,

Thanks for the tip.

I guess if I ever apply to the McKinsey or BCG types, I'll re-take the GMAT and make sure I improve the score! I am almost tempted to do it now, but my wife says she won't allow me to study again for GMAT, just to chase 700 or 750. The logic: 'family time' will be scarce enough once the MBA starts, so time is to be wasted on a need-to-waste basis only.

lurkman

nick_zen · 05-20-2008, 10:59 PM

Yeah, 690 is good score even for top MBA colleges. I know people getting into Columbia Executive MBA with 670 and so in Kellogs.

Experience carries lot of weight.

05-19-2008, 08:22 AM	#1 (permalink)
Nick_AAPL Eager! Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 49	Scored 690 (Q49 & V34) - May 17th, 2008 I took my GMAT on Saturday night in San Francisco and scored a 690 (Q49/V34). I will write a debrief soon !

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05-20-2008, 01:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
scorpion.ks TestMagic Guru-in-Training Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: India Posts: 687	Great score. Congrats.

05-20-2008, 05:34 AM	#3 (permalink)
krovvidy Getting a hang of it ... Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 727	Congrats ... awaiting your debrief ...

05-20-2008, 07:14 AM	#4 (permalink)
Nick_AAPL Eager! Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 49	I will split my entire debrief into 3 simple parts: 1. My Test Preparation 2. GMAT test experience 3. General Strategy 1. My Test Preparation ----------------------------------------------------------------- I believe in focussed preparation with clear cut goals. So I signed up for GMAT and allowed 3 weeks for Prep. The first week wasn't very productive (used to prepare 1-2 hours a day apart from partying almost daily - I can't help myself as I live in a Party house, also there is heavy Peer pressure). But was very serious from 2nd week onwards. I did study consistently for 4-5 hours a day and then used to hang in with my friends late night for relaxation). I used to score 90%+ on SCs w/o preparation, but then my score got lower and lower after studying Manhattan SC and GMAT800. These books are excellent but I think I over analyzed SCs and ended up making mistakes. My strike rate was pretty good in OGs (95%+ on RCs, 90%+ on CRs and around 75-80% on SCs). After 2 weeks of study, I took 3 Manhattan CATs and 2 GMATPrep and scored: GMATPrep 1: 710 (Q50, V37) GMATPrep 2: 710 (Q48, V40) Manhattan CAT 1/2/3: 640/650/660 I knew that I needed additional practice on SCs considering my lackluster performance. But I believed in working on my mistakes and not repeating them. Although I kept scoring low on SCs (in practice tests), I used to analyze each question on SC, prepared notes and worked on it). Finished Manhattan SC, GMAT800, OGs in 2 weeks !!! I was doing well on RCs and CRs. So just concentrated on my past mistakes in these areas, prepared notes and mastered them. I did think about postponing the test for 2 more weeks but then I thought its better to take the test rather than loose $250 bucks. Also I worked hard on Math to make up for any misses on SCs [tried to get 51]. I never gave up on SCs though, I did everything that I could do in 3 weeks. Well, if I take my GMAT again, I will definitely kill this section Next time including Math ! 2. GMAT Test Experience ------------------------------------------------------------------ I took my test at 4:30Pm on a Saturday night. I wanted to sleep well and take my sweet time to get up in the morning (so 4:30Pm was a good time). Reviewed my notes, met my friends in SF, had lunch and finally hit the test center. I got inside the test center at 4:35pm sharp, finished all the tutorials in 10 sec, entered my top 5 choices of schools and then I started making few headings on the rough sheet (Assumptions, Conclusion, Weakness, Strengthen etc.) before hitting the button to Start "Analyze an Argument". The attendant at the test center quickly came upto me and said this is a violation of GMAT rule...I am not supposed to write anything on the Yellow Sheet until I start the test. She then replaced my work sheet with another one and told me not to repeat it this. [Learning: Don't make this mistake! Even if you are writing headings and not necessarily any information, its against GMAT rules. This distracted me a little bit initially but then I diverted my attention and focussed on TWA. I wrote about 7 paragraphs on Essay 1 (Analyze an Argument) and 6 paragraphs on Essay 2 (Analysis of an Issue). I organized the essays well with syntactic variety and persuasive examples. I did have time to check the grammer and spellings. Overall, I finished very strong on these essays. Key: Have your templates ready and practise writing atleast 2 Full Tests (especially GMATPrep: start with Essays, Math and then Verbal). Focussing for 4 hours is not easy. By the time you get to verbal, its exchausting !! - Especially for me as I have a Full time job, I used to prepare for 1-2 hours after work and then take a practice test. After I was done with "Analysis of an Issue". I raised my hand to take a break. Signed out and was walking to the locker to get a drink, but the lady interrupted and said, "You started the test late, so I would appreciate if you cut down your break time". I thought she was rude to me (the way she said that). I didn't loose my cool, I just said I will try my best and then got near the locker, had some orange juice and got back in under a minute to start my Math section. [Learning: Better go early to the test center and avoid such remarks from other people] Math section seemed pretty easy to me. I got some tough questions around 8-10 and then around 18-21. Rest of the test was pretty smooth. I was extra cautious on all questions (checked my answer infact 3 times) but still finished the Math section 10 minutes before. Somehow I was at my BEST, maybe because its a REAL test that counts. [Learning: Just keep your pace throughout the test, don't think whether you got a question right?] I was disappointed after I saw my score on Math at the end (ofcourse verbal too, I will discussion this next). I raised my hand again to take the next break. This time I took my sweet time (about 6-7 minutes) and got back in. Verbal section started with 2 sentence completions, a CR followed by an RC (4-8 questions). My weak area is SC. I used to score 100% on RCs especially Practise tests on GMATPrep and 90%+ on the CRs. I used to suck on SCs (used to get 4-5 correct out of 14-15 questions on GMATPrep) which used to bring my score down quite a bit. I was very cautious on my GMAT verbal to start strong. I did start strong but took more time from questions 14-31. I was left with 10 min and 12 questions at the end. I got a 4rth RC on my 32nd question, I knew the rest of the 8 questions (other than 4rth RC) will definitely be 5 SCs and 3 CRs. So I took my usual time to work on the last RC (as its my strength). I should say I messed up in the last 10 min. Although I did get what the author was exactly trying to say in the RC, the questions appeared very tricky and the answers were very close. As time was running pretty fast, I couldn't concentrate well but I believed in myself thinking that I had a consistent performance on RCs and just raced to finish all the RC questions. I had just under 5 minutes and 8 questions now. I got a tough CR (quickly understood the gist of it and chose an answer). Got a string of SC's (I think 3 of them), I tried to do my best on them knowing that its my weak area (I spent lot of time here, I should have just selected the best choice and moved on, instead I tried to read the SC again to get it RIGHT). Finally left with 6 seconds and 2 questions. I randomly selected an answer on the 40th question but then to my bad luck, the screen was stuck for a couple of seconds to give me a final question (those 2 crucial seconds seemed like eons for me). I couldn't answer 41st question, as I ran out of time. This is the main reason for not reaching 700+ score. I might have been penalized 10-20 points for not finishing the test. [I always used to finish practise tests but couldn't on the REAL GMAT, I did have 3 seconds but the screen was stuck on the 40th question for 2 extra seconds after I had answered. So moral story: FINISH THE TEST ! DON'T EVER DO THIS PLEASE, this will bring down your score). I expected a 710-740 on my REAL GMAT despite not finishing the verbal section. But I ended up with 690. My practise test scores on GMATPrep 1 and 2 were 710. I thought after mastering every mistake, I could only improve my score and get around 740). Real GMAT score 690 (90%tile): Quant (49)/89%tile - Verbal (34)/70%tile 3. General Strategy: Books: ---------------- SC - OG11, Verbal OG, Manhattan SC, GMAT800 RC - OG11, Verbal OG, GMAT800 (Its a TERRIFIC book for RC) CR - OG11, Verbal OG and Manhattan CR Math - OG11, GMAT800, Manhattan Number Properties Strategy ----------------- 1. Practice, Practice, Practice on taking full length tests (including essays) 2. Review all mistakes and make notes - Most importantly, understand why the other answer choices were INCORRECT). This strategy will greatly help on SCs and CRs. Someone on TestMagic said, if you master Verbal OGs, you should get 40+ on Verbal. Its 100% TRUE. 3. Regarding Math - Practice tough problems (GMAT800 isn't tough - may be try some Math problems on 9th and 10th grade if you are from Asia). Avoid mistakes; GMAT comes with tricky questions - so be careful!).

05-20-2008, 07:52 AM	#5 (permalink)
scorpion.ks TestMagic Guru-in-Training Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: India Posts: 687	Thanks a "LOT" for sharing lessons learnt. Will keep it in mind. Good luck for your apps.

05-20-2008, 05:12 PM	#6 (permalink)
lurkman Eager! Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 93	Nick_AAPL, Congratulations. I had a similar experience on GMAT. I also scored 690 (Q45, V39) and I also did not finish the test. My nemesis was the Quant section (reached #35, before I ran out of time). It was embarrassing because Quant is my strength. But I never got the pacing strategy figured out during my prep and I paid the price for not having a strategic guessing strategy worked out, well in advance. Such a strategy must include an allowance for the time it takes to guess. Guessing involves at least three steps: (1) Making a guess after eliminating one or two answers (to increase your chances); not just blind guessing (2) Click on Next (3) Click on "Confirm your answer" A good guessing strategy must figure out how long it takes to do these three steps; then, on the test, as you near the end, multiply the number of questions remaining by this Time-Needed-for-Strategic-Guessing and execute the strategy if you have only enough time to guess. I found out from my GMAT PREP test experience (btw, I also scored 710 on both my GPREPs) that even guessing needs time: I did not finish GPREP1 because I finished only 29 quant questions and had less than a minute remaining. I guessed 6 blindly and ran out of time because there wasn't even enough time to guess the remaining. So my experience mirrors yours very closely: I had a short prep time (4 weekends and some evening time after work), I had identical scores as yours in both the GPREP tests and my final GMAT, and I did not finish. FYI, my debrief was posted here: http://www.urch.com/forums/just-fini...0-q45-v39.html (GMAT 690, (q45, V39)) If I were to do it again, I would take a few weeks to nail the timing strategy, get comfortable with finishing both sections, before re-taking the test. Congratulations again. I feel your pain on missing the 700 mark; it was there for the asking, yet elusive. Such is life. lurkman

05-20-2008, 06:15 PM	#7 (permalink)
nick_zen Within my grasp! Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 118	Congratulation, great score and good debrief.

05-20-2008, 06:19 PM	#8 (permalink)
Nick_AAPL Eager! Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 49	Thanks everyone ! Lurkman, 690 should be good enough considering your experience (# of years). I heard from many of my friends who went to top schools that 690 is good enough and it will not break an application. For that matter, GMAT score doesn't carry much weightage unless someone has a very low score. For executive MBA's, many schools pay lot of emphasis on work experience and leadership. Most of the schools like Columbia Univ. may not even ask for a GMAT score (My cousin graduated from Columbia Univ. recently) However, I learnt that reputed companies like McKinsey, BCG (as I am interested in Mgmt Consulting) do look at GMAT scores for interview selections during placements. So if everyone at the same school had similar GPA's, aspirations, work experiences then GMAT can make a difference during initial interview selections. So, a high GMAT score has some value not only for admissions but also for other purposes. I depends on the type of MBA program you are looking at and where you want to go after an MBA.

05-20-2008, 07:30 PM	#9 (permalink)
lurkman Eager! Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 93	Nick_AAPL, Thanks for the tip. I guess if I ever apply to the McKinsey or BCG types, I'll re-take the GMAT and make sure I improve the score! I am almost tempted to do it now, but my wife says she won't allow me to study again for GMAT, just to chase 700 or 750. The logic: 'family time' will be scarce enough once the MBA starts, so time is to be wasted on a need-to-waste basis only. lurkman

05-20-2008, 10:59 PM	#10 (permalink)
nick_zen Within my grasp! Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 118	Yeah, 690 is good score even for top MBA colleges. I know people getting into Columbia Executive MBA with 670 and so in Kellogs. Experience carries lot of weight.

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