740 (q40, V41, 5.0)

**Praso** · 07-29-2008, 11:13 PM

Hi all,

I prepared for 70 days, took my test on 21st july and scored 740 (Q49 V 41).

Thanks a lot to all testmagic users who spend so much time solving problems and explaining solutions.

Special thanks to 800 bob, dynamo, krovidy, v_gmat,spidey and many others whose name i fail to recollect.

Some tips from my experience.

1) Read Ursula's and twinsplitter's blogs. These legendary debriefs provide good insight.

2) Going through kaplan premier or princeton review is a good starting point. But I think one shouldn't waste time working out all the problems present in those books, as those problems do not belong to the 700-800 category.

3) OG11 - Its a must do for all. Religiously workout all the problems. All 3 books.

4) OG10 - Its a "good to see" for those who aim for 700+ scores. Although OG11 already has most questions in OG10, OG10 has several complex questions that do not exist in OG11

5) Kaplan 800 is a good one for Verbal, especially for non native speakers like me. But it's probably not so useful for quants. I would rather suggest that spend that time on trying the quant questions on GMAT sets and on TM.

6) Use Timing Grid to record your mistakes. I used that excel sheet to record all my mistakes and revised using that sheet 2 days before the exam. It was very useful and i felt i must have recorded the tough questions from TM, GMAT sets and other prep materials. Practising RC without the timing sheet dilutes the whole purpose.

7) Bookmark all the nice concepts explained by TM gurus. I started doing this only 3 weeks before the exam when i realized that i din't remember several nice concepts that i once understood and used.

8) Spend atleast 2 hrs a day on TM. It's probably the best way to learn great concepts. For me it took atleast 2 hrs a day to go through all new posts on TM. If i missed out one day, i had to spend 2 hrs on the next day to catchup. This did keep me motivated to learn every day!

9) Dont take long breaks in your preparation schedule. It spoils the momentum and it takes some time to get re-acquinted. Although my preparation took 60-70 days, it actually spanned over 4-5 months because of vacations and business travels.

10) Its probably worth going through all posts by 800_BOB as most of his posts i've seen deal with tough problems.

Imporant materials for verbal : Manhattan SC, Kaplan 800, Spidey notes, OG11 verbal review and more importantly your own notes that you make out of TM and other resources!

Practise Tests:

1) PowerPrep : 710 - 2nd week. After completing Princeton review
2) Manhattan GMAT Test 1 : 670 - 5th week. After completing OG11 and spending 2 weeks on TM.
3) Manhattan GMAT Test 2 : 640 - 6th week
4) Manhattan GMAT Test 3 : 700 - 7th week
5) GMAT Prep 1 : 760 - 8th week. This gave me a lot of confidence as it made be believe that i can even score 760 on D day if its my day!
6) GMAT prep 2 : 720 - 2 days before test. Same number of errors as in test 5, but 2 of the first 10 qsns were wrong in 6th test unlike in 5th one.
That inital mistake makes all the difference!!!!

Manhattan GMAT Tests : Quant problems are really lengthy and compelx as compared with real GMAT. Only 6-7 problems in GMATPrep and Real GMAT were of this standard. But taking these tests and analysing the solutions was really helpful in boosting both quant and verbal scores.
Use time limit of 90 mins for quants if you want these scores to better reflect your gmat scores.
Or use the default 75 minutes if you wish to gain better time management skills.
6 tests come free with Manhattan SC guide which costs 8 pounds and both the book and tests are equally helpful.

D - Day:

Make sure u sleep atleast 8 hrs on the night before. My test was scheduled at 12:45. All i did on D-Day morning was to go through my formuale list and AWA template.

I took it in Holborn, London. I went to test centre 1 hour ahead. The staff were very helpful and friendly. I took bananas, chocolates, redbull and juice with me. I am not a fan of redbull, but i used it once while driving late night. The caffine in it boosted my concentration so much that i felt using it for the second time on D-day. It was probably helpful, atleast psychologically for me

I thought i wrote 2 good essays for awa. It made me happy and kept me confident for quants. (But i ended up with just a 5.0

I started off nicely with quants. I completed 22 questions in first 40 minutes without a single guess! was going great guns. But I ended up guessing last 3-4 questions, as i foolishly spend 10 minutes for 2 complex questions in the middle of the test!
Thats because i've always felt that quants is my strong point and I've never had the heart to skip a single quant question in the middle of the tests. This attitude costed me a bit on D-Day.

I was a bit disappointed after my quant, but motivated myself as i knew a great verbal score can push my total score to even 99%.
I kept my cool and performed satisifactorily in the verbal section.

Atlast, i was satisified to see a 740 pop up on my screen

I had to pack my bags the very same night for a business trip and I couldn't find time to write this. Now i am doing it at midnight, hoping it will be useful atleast for few test takers.

I owe my sincere thanks to all TM users and admins!

Cheers,
Prassath

**ninalabelle007** · 07-30-2008, 01:01 AM

Congrats!!!

Good job on your gmat!!!
I hope i can do as you did and score 740 or above. I just discovered this site about a week ago and I'm excited.

What is the link to Ursula's and twinsplitter's blogs????

Originally Posted by Praso

Hi all,

I prepared for 70 days, took my test on 21st july and scored 740 (Q49 V 41).

Thanks a lot to all testmagic users who spend so much time solving problems and explaining solutions.

Special thanks to 800 bob, dynamo, krovidy, v_gmat,spidey and many others whose name i fail to recollect.

Some tips from my experience.

1) Read Ursula's and twinsplitter's blogs. These legendary debriefs provide good insight.

2) Going through kaplan premier or princeton review is a good starting point. But I think one shouldn't waste time working out all the problems present in those books, as those problems do not belong to the 700-800 category.

3) OG11 - Its a must do for all. Religiously workout all the problems. All 3 books.

4) OG10 - Its a "good to see" for those who aim for 700+ scores. Although OG11 already has most questions in OG10, OG10 has several complex questions that do not exist in OG11

5) Kaplan 800 is a good one for Verbal, especially for non native speakers like me. But it's probably not so useful for quants. I would rather suggest that spend that time on trying the quant questions on GMAT sets and on TM.

6) Use Timing Grid to record your mistakes. I used that excel sheet to record all my mistakes and revised using that sheet 2 days before the exam. It was very useful and i felt i must have recorded the tough questions from TM, GMAT sets and other prep materials. Practising RC without the timing sheet dilutes the whole purpose.

7) Bookmark all the nice concepts explained by TM gurus. I started doing this only 3 weeks before the exam when i realized that i din't remember several nice concepts that i once understood and used.

8) Spend atleast 2 hrs a day on TM. It's probably the best way to learn great concepts. For me it took atleast 2 hrs a day to go through all new posts on TM. If i missed out one day, i had to spend 2 hrs on the next day to catchup. This did keep me motivated to learn every day!

9) Dont take long breaks in your preparation schedule. It spoils the momentum and it takes some time to get re-acquinted. Although my preparation took 60-70 days, it actually spanned over 4-5 months because of vacations and business travels.

10) Its probably worth going through all posts by 800_BOB as most of his posts i've seen deal with tough problems.

Imporant materials for verbal : Manhattan SC, Kaplan 800, Spidey notes, OG11 verbal review and more importantly your own notes that you make out of TM and other resources!

Practise Tests:

1) PowerPrep : 710 - 2nd week. After completing Princeton review
2) Manhattan GMAT Test 1 : 670 - 5th week. After completing OG11 and spending 2 weeks on TM.
3) Manhattan GMAT Test 2 : 640 - 6th week
4) Manhattan GMAT Test 3 : 700 - 7th week
5) GMAT Prep 1 : 760 - 8th week. This gave me a lot of confidence as it made be believe that i can even score 760 on D day if its my day!
6) GMAT prep 2 : 720 - 2 days before test. Same number of errors as in test 5, but 2 of the first 10 qsns were wrong in 6th test unlike in 5th one.
That inital mistake makes all the difference!!!!

Manhattan GMAT Tests : Quant problems are really lengthy and compelx as compared with real GMAT. Only 6-7 problems in GMATPrep and Real GMAT were of this standard. But taking these tests and analysing the solutions was really helpful in boosting both quant and verbal scores.
Use time limit of 90 mins for quants if you want these scores to better reflect your gmat scores.
Or use the default 75 minutes if you wish to gain better time management skills.
6 tests come free with Manhattan SC guide which costs 8 pounds and both the book and tests are equally helpful.

D - Day:

Make sure u sleep atleast 8 hrs on the night before. My test was scheduled at 12:45. All i did on D-Day morning was to go through my formuale list and AWA template.

I took it in Holborn, London. I went to test centre 1 hour ahead. The staff were very helpful and friendly. I took bananas, chocolates, redbull and juice with me. I am not a fan of redbull, but i used it once while driving late night. The caffine in it boosted my concentration so much that i felt using it for the second time on D-day. It was probably helpful, atleast psychologically for me

I thought i wrote 2 good essays for awa. It made me happy and kept me confident for quants. (But i ended up with just a 5.0

I started off nicely with quants. I completed 22 questions in first 40 minutes without a single guess! was going great guns. But I ended up guessing last 3-4 questions, as i foolishly spend 10 minutes for 2 complex questions in the middle of the test!
Thats because i've always felt that quants is my strong point and I've never had the heart to skip a single quant question in the middle of the tests. This attitude costed me a bit on D-Day.

I was a bit disappointed after my quant, but motivated myself as i knew a great verbal score can push my total score to even 99%.
I kept my cool and performed satisifactorily in the verbal section.

Atlast, i was satisified to see a 740 pop up on my screen

I had to pack my bags the very same night for a business trip and I couldn't find time to write this. Now i am doing it at midnight, hoping it will be useful atleast for few test takers.

I owe my sincere thanks to all TM users and admins!

Cheers,
Prassath

**ninalabelle007** · 07-30-2008, 01:01 AM

Congrats!!!

Good job on your gmat!!!
I hope i can do as you did and score 740 or above. I just discovered this site about a week ago and I'm excited.

What is the link to Ursula's and twinsplitter's blogs????

Originally Posted by Praso

Hi all,

I prepared for 70 days, took my test on 21st july and scored 740 (Q49 V 41).

Thanks a lot to all testmagic users who spend so much time solving problems and explaining solutions.

Special thanks to 800 bob, dynamo, krovidy, v_gmat,spidey and many others whose name i fail to recollect.

Some tips from my experience.

1) Read Ursula's and twinsplitter's blogs. These legendary debriefs provide good insight.

2) Going through kaplan premier or princeton review is a good starting point. But I think one shouldn't waste time working out all the problems present in those books, as those problems do not belong to the 700-800 category.

3) OG11 - Its a must do for all. Religiously workout all the problems. All 3 books.

4) OG10 - Its a "good to see" for those who aim for 700+ scores. Although OG11 already has most questions in OG10, OG10 has several complex questions that do not exist in OG11

5) Kaplan 800 is a good one for Verbal, especially for non native speakers like me. But it's probably not so useful for quants. I would rather suggest that spend that time on trying the quant questions on GMAT sets and on TM.

6) Use Timing Grid to record your mistakes. I used that excel sheet to record all my mistakes and revised using that sheet 2 days before the exam. It was very useful and i felt i must have recorded the tough questions from TM, GMAT sets and other prep materials. Practising RC without the timing sheet dilutes the whole purpose.

7) Bookmark all the nice concepts explained by TM gurus. I started doing this only 3 weeks before the exam when i realized that i din't remember several nice concepts that i once understood and used.

8) Spend atleast 2 hrs a day on TM. It's probably the best way to learn great concepts. For me it took atleast 2 hrs a day to go through all new posts on TM. If i missed out one day, i had to spend 2 hrs on the next day to catchup. This did keep me motivated to learn every day!

9) Dont take long breaks in your preparation schedule. It spoils the momentum and it takes some time to get re-acquinted. Although my preparation took 60-70 days, it actually spanned over 4-5 months because of vacations and business travels.

10) Its probably worth going through all posts by 800_BOB as most of his posts i've seen deal with tough problems.

Imporant materials for verbal : Manhattan SC, Kaplan 800, Spidey notes, OG11 verbal review and more importantly your own notes that you make out of TM and other resources!

Practise Tests:

1) PowerPrep : 710 - 2nd week. After completing Princeton review
2) Manhattan GMAT Test 1 : 670 - 5th week. After completing OG11 and spending 2 weeks on TM.
3) Manhattan GMAT Test 2 : 640 - 6th week
4) Manhattan GMAT Test 3 : 700 - 7th week
5) GMAT Prep 1 : 760 - 8th week. This gave me a lot of confidence as it made be believe that i can even score 760 on D day if its my day!
6) GMAT prep 2 : 720 - 2 days before test. Same number of errors as in test 5, but 2 of the first 10 qsns were wrong in 6th test unlike in 5th one.
That inital mistake makes all the difference!!!!

Manhattan GMAT Tests : Quant problems are really lengthy and compelx as compared with real GMAT. Only 6-7 problems in GMATPrep and Real GMAT were of this standard. But taking these tests and analysing the solutions was really helpful in boosting both quant and verbal scores.
Use time limit of 90 mins for quants if you want these scores to better reflect your gmat scores.
Or use the default 75 minutes if you wish to gain better time management skills.
6 tests come free with Manhattan SC guide which costs 8 pounds and both the book and tests are equally helpful.

D - Day:

Make sure u sleep atleast 8 hrs on the night before. My test was scheduled at 12:45. All i did on D-Day morning was to go through my formuale list and AWA template.

I took it in Holborn, London. I went to test centre 1 hour ahead. The staff were very helpful and friendly. I took bananas, chocolates, redbull and juice with me. I am not a fan of redbull, but i used it once while driving late night. The caffine in it boosted my concentration so much that i felt using it for the second time on D-day. It was probably helpful, atleast psychologically for me

I thought i wrote 2 good essays for awa. It made me happy and kept me confident for quants. (But i ended up with just a 5.0

I started off nicely with quants. I completed 22 questions in first 40 minutes without a single guess! was going great guns. But I ended up guessing last 3-4 questions, as i foolishly spend 10 minutes for 2 complex questions in the middle of the test!
Thats because i've always felt that quants is my strong point and I've never had the heart to skip a single quant question in the middle of the tests. This attitude costed me a bit on D-Day.

I was a bit disappointed after my quant, but motivated myself as i knew a great verbal score can push my total score to even 99%.
I kept my cool and performed satisifactorily in the verbal section.

Atlast, i was satisified to see a 740 pop up on my screen

I had to pack my bags the very same night for a business trip and I couldn't find time to write this. Now i am doing it at midnight, hoping it will be useful atleast for few test takers.

I owe my sincere thanks to all TM users and admins!

Cheers,
Prassath

**MCapri** · 07-30-2008, 04:24 AM

Congrats!!Great score!!

**Retake_GMAT** · 07-30-2008, 04:37 AM

Congrats Praso

**gmatnov12** · 07-31-2008, 01:02 AM

Congrats !!! Is there a typo on the quant 40 ?

**nitya34** · 07-31-2008, 03:07 AM

it must be Q50

**Praso** · 07-31-2008, 09:05 AM

thanks guys!

Quants is 49.. a typo

Here are links to Ursula's and twin splitter's blogs.
Beat The GMAT!: Ursula's Debriefing
Beat The GMAT!: Debriefing from a guy who scored a 790

hi myst_Ari,
all the kind of questions you mentioned here do appear on gmat.
When you are aiming a score above 700, it really doenst matter how many such questions appear.
One such question in the first 6-7 can change your score drastically!
Same is with probablity questions. those who do not need above 700 can probably skip spending a great deal on time learning probablity.

But i feel people who aim higher cannot afford skipping any question type that appears on OGs...

**Gmater-1** · 07-31-2008, 06:28 PM

"Bookmark all the nice concepts explained by TM gurus. I started doing this only 3 weeks before the exam when i realized that i din't remember several nice concepts that i once understood and used"

Congrats !! Would you mind to share your TM notes

**Praso** · 07-31-2008, 08:11 PM

Hi Gmater,
i definitely don't mind sharing it. I am on travel now.. will do so once i get back home...

But i am not sure how relevant it would be to you. What was complex to me might be easy for u and vice versa. I just book marked the questions i found tough and interesting. i'll share it anyway.