700 GMAT --3rd attempt

[tester2]

So I took the GMAT in November 2007, got a 530 and chalked it up to a fluke due to the fact that I had been scoring much higher on practice tests of all kinds, at least in the mid 600s. Studied for a month and retook it and got a 680. I was much more satisfied and hoped that I could apply to top schools like Yale and CBS with this score. My breakdown was 42Q/40V. The math percentile was 66% which isn't great, but i just couldn't finish the problems quickly enough. I found that I could figure them out when reviewing them after I took a practice test but not finish them in 2 minutes each.

In any case, I ended up NOT getting accepted to any of the top schools I applied to, so I decided to wait and apply early this fall for next year. It was tough but I hope I made the right choice. This time I took a 7 month break and started studying in earnest at the end of July, mostly going through the Official Guide, doing the GMAT Prep software, and surprisingly helpful Princeton Review Math Workout. I concentrated on math since it was the most difficult for me, and the last two weeks I mixed in SC and CR in my studies.

Well the day came and I felt nervous because I didn't want all that time I spent waiting for an improved score to go to waste. The math was hard but manageable although I did have to guess on a handful of questions that were just too involved to work through. The verbal was simpler but had some difficult questions especially in SC and RC. In the end all I saw was a 7 at the start of my score so I was happy. Ended with a 43Q (68%)/42V (95%) for a 700 (90%). I am just satisfied that I did not regress.

I wish I could have improved more in the math to be over 75% since B-schools really think that's important, and CBS told me that was one of the things that they saw as a flaw. In any case, I am hoping the better score and applying early (in the next month) will help my chances as I reapply.

Thanks to the various people who helped with answering questions that undoubtedly aided in my improvement. Best wishes to everyone, and I hope I will never have to read this forum for problems again, no offense!

[buji]

hey Congrats ! i can see you are very consistent in verbal .can u pls share what did you do in verbal ..

[effective_factor]

congrats dude nice work

[crazy4gmat]

Congrats and All the best.

[tester2]

Buji, I can't explain why I do better on verbal other than I was an English major and read alot. I wager that most people do best in reading comprehension because most of the time it is a matter of finding the answer in the passage, and the most difficult part of that is that the passages are ridiculously boring. I barely studied RC.

I bet for people who are non-native speakers, which seems to be the case with at least a substantial percentage of testers, the sentence corrections are most difficult because they test minor errors that may not be apparent to the ear. Even native speakers have trouble with SC because our English has been so distorted for grammatically correct that you can't trust your ear. The Official Guide book is great for SC because it gives you the technical verbal terms of why an answer choice is wrong or right. After a while, you start parsing the sentences quickly, and if you get it down to two, you usually start to hone your brain to find the one error between the two that lets you choose the right answer. The 3/2 split, ie noticing that usually there are 2 answers that start the same versus the other 3, is also helpful in eliminating.

For CR, I just did a ton of Official Guide problems, and got the Official Guide to the Verbal section. It has great explanations why the answer is correct. Often you can eliminate answers depending on what type of argument the question is, based on the choice being out of scope, strengthen/weakening, mistaking a sample for the whole, or mistaking a causal relationship.

Most people do better on the math section and then hit the verbal section with trepidation. But I was the opposite. I was so happy to finish the math and forget about it that I threw myself into the verbal just wanting to finish it all. I was pumped for it and didn't dwell on whether I got a good score on math because it was too late for that.

Hope this helps. I know i'm generalizing.

[DMoney]

Awesome job, dude... Very inspiring... Better luck this time around.

[buji]

Thanks Buddy ! yes it will help ...Congrats once again .