730 (q49, V40)

[vinme]

alrite.. heres my debrief

I started preparing for gmat around a month back, but since ive already preaperd for cat, gmat appeared quite easy. How wrong was i!

all i did was OG10 & OG11 and ofcourse manhattan sentecnce correction guide. I gave my first Gmat prep before starting my prepration and got a 710, after finishing my OGs i gave the second Gmatprep and got .. another 710!!. I shud have guessed my actual score then and there itself. Anyway moving on..
i took the date and went for it, the test procedure is the epitome of professionalism (even in India!!). They will not allow you to take anything inside, no chains no rings, papers, pens, wrist watches, they provide everything, at my centre a couple a guys were made to remove their sacred threads as well!! (Damn they looked upset)

They provide you with ear plugs, now that is very very important, ask for an ear plug, it takes your concentration to a whole new level.
Maths was comparable to Official Guide, but having said that, you should get your act together if you havent prepared for cat, do redo and revise all the topics from any material (TIME, IMS anything, but do IT!).

One thing that you should not worry about is how well you are doing, just take one question at a time, forget the usual gyaan fundas like first 5 questions are important or anything of that sort, believe me its a whole lotta BS. concentrate on watever question is present at that very moment on your screen. As someone rightly said here.. you can easily get 8-9 questions wrong and yet get around 49, but to get more than that, you have to be really agile, and more importantly get thy maths fundamentals right..down to the root levels, and beyond.

after taking the optional break, around 4th question in VA was an RC about God knows wat!! i could not make head tail or even an iota outta it, now this is the exact moment where my troubles began, after completing my RC i was shot in the face by some amazingly wierd CRs and SCs, for the next five questions or so.
having no idea that CRs of such kind can even exist, and im usually gud at CR's my mood was ruined, my temprament broken in N number of pieces. I started evalutaing my performance and for some reason i kept on thinking watever i was marking was definitely wrong.

I made this utterly stupid mistake.. learn from my experience.. NEVER evaluate yourself DURING the exam. ill say it again, just think of the current question on your screen nothing more than that, WHY i say that.. ill shortly reveal.
so.. after two more horrendous RCs, the questions from around 35 were quite easy and i was ever sure thats because of my wrong answers in the previous questions.

Finally by the time VA ended, i was ready to choke myself but since I was not allowed to do that in the hall, i decided to postpone it till i get out of the centre. I clicked on Get scores and after filling the questionairre, there popped my score - 730!!

20 points more than i thought i would get, and 20 points less than what i thought a miracle would take me to. An average academic performer that ive always been, with no spectacular achievements in sports, debates, essays or ANYTHING else for that matter (the cherry on the pie being 3 yrs "IT experience"!!!) to write in my CV ) , i was hoping a 750 would atleast make up somewhat for my mediocrity, but that didnt happen for the sole reason that i thought my VA was going bad bad... pathetic, which certainly now i know was not! Had i concentrated more without worrying about some stupid RC i bovine mastication have scored much more.

Lets see whats next in store for me.

kinda very long debrief, so ill stop now.
All the best people.. do gud : )

[somu]

Great score Vinme !!! No average performer can get this score !!
And best of luck for the next big step of your life -Applications!

[krovvidy]

Don't be cross with yourself ... it's nothing unusual that many applicants with IT background feel that their profile is mediocre.

If you do a retrospection of your career, you'll probably find some unique points to bank on ... And the bottom-line is: if you are very clear as to why you need an MBA now, you'll certainly do a good job with your applications ...

BTW, congrats on your feat in GMAT ... it's a very good score ... now apply with confidence ... you'll certainly fare better than what you think ...

Good luck ...

[sandy1306]

HI Vinme,
Congratulations for a fabulous score.
thanks for the debrief
and all the best for the app. process ahead.

Did you take any other practice tests other than GMATprep.if yes, can you please share the scores with us??

[vinme]

Hey sandy.. as a matter of fact no i did not..
i had read quite a few negative reviews on Kaplan so there was no point in giving them. about the rest.. one thing that i was sure of was the fact that Gmatprep are a true reflection of your actual Gmat, so i gave one before my preprn and the second one a week before i took the test. I found no reason to give a dozen more tests!

One point i would like to make is - donot fret on doing N number of questions or full length tests for that matter, instead try analysing every question that you do and make a note of the errors if any, soon youll start to see a pattern in those errors, there will be a couple of areas which will come up as thy achilles heel, so try working on them!!
take help from frends..or guys over here.

Theres nothing in Gmat that cant be beaten : ))

[micky2100]

is it necessary to prepare for the QA from CAT materials like IMS,TIME.....

[adi_800]

Grt score...Best Of Luck For The aplications...

[diehard800]

HEy thats a damn good score ........i mean to beat the averages of all the good schools ......except the home grown ....IIMA

IIMA with the average of 728. .. stands the highest in world......but i hav heard the quality of the people there is no good.......

whatever it is uuuu hav def secured a good score by any standard...

[cubicle]

What I see from your debrief is that you have an aptitude for writing pieces which will contain infos yet never taken so seriosly. I think if this acumen is intrinsic then, your essays gonna stand out.
ATB and I will die any day to get a 730!!!,

believe me at least in US there is little diff between 710-740 range.

[vinme]

micky2100 - Micky no.. actually its quite the other way round.
If uve already done maths from Time, IMS et al.. itll help.
wat d hell.. do it from them.. it may also end up helping u in CAT!!


adi_800 - Thanks Adi!! to you too..



diehard800 - Thanks Diehard.. well a couple of points first.. the score of GMAt is only valid for the PGPEX course of IIMA.. for that u gotta have atleast 5 Yrs (or is it 7 :-?) of workex and an age >27 yrs.. im 23 : |
(well there this another thng too in which for their flagship PGDBM course it is considered but for that you have to provide proofs of not being able to give CAT the year before..) and ye well its got the creme de la creme of India so i think quality of people over there if not exceeding Harvard then is at least jus a notch less (then theres this urban legend of getting thru IIMA is tuffer than making it thru Harvard.. personally i believe it to be a load of BS but anyway stats say so !! )


cubicle - hey.. ye i thought so too. Actually i had this extremely positive view of myself regarding the writing part infact somewhere deep dpwn i felt damn... im good!!

then came ..my score of AWA
D

You dont have to work like hell to get a 730+.. it aint rocket science
jus ensure not to make it any bigger of a monster than it actually is!

all the best !