bala977

Guys, just curious. When I took GRE around 10 years back, it was all paper based and it used to be for 2400.I am just curious about the state of affairs now What is considered an average score now a days? If you are from India, how much does an average IITian/BITSisan/NITian score? What is the desirable score/gpa combo for top schools like Berkeley and MIT? What is the desirable score for schools in the next rung like ASU or Iowa state? Reply when you have the time

Power Prep1 (two weeks after starting prep, before OG) - 650 GMAT Prep1 (midway during OG) - 710 Kap 1 - 640 PR 1 - 640 Kap 2 - 570 Kap 3 - 620 Kap 4 - 560 PR 2 - 640 PR 3 - 630 Kaplan Online - 720 PR 4 - 610 GMAT Prep 2 - 720: Q49, V40 (after OG) - 2 days before Power Prep 2 - 760: Q51, V41 (after OG) - The day before ACTUAL TEST - 720: Q49, V39

http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37287

Great score - so Anderson beckons? or is it Haas?

1. In the exam, while writing the second Essay (Analysis of Issue), say I complete it in 15 mins. (Assuming its kinda proper with least spelling mistakes ). Now, I want to relax and strech out my self ( I know theres a mandatory 5 min break) . So, is it possible for me to just write the essay, leave it as it is on the screen.. [basically, I do not confirm the same ] and go out of the exam room? Will the essay I have written automatically be saved and submitted once the stipulated time is over? I wrote my GMAT yesterday and can speak from that experience. The answer is - NO IDEA. I think you are discussing a hypothetical question though - i'd advise you to be more practical. I honestly dont believe one can finish an essay in 15 minutes. But just in case you somehow manage to do it, I dont think the system will automatically submit it 2. Do we get seperate sheets of the "Scrap" paper for each of the three sections? (AWA, Quant, Verbal)? I got a 8 page scratch paper from the test administrator. When I was finishing up the 7th page - I raised my hand up and the admin gave me another 8 page set. 3. Do we get extra "scrap" paper if we want? - check answer to question 2 - 4. How many "scrap" pages do we usually get? - check answer to question 2 - 5. In the verbal/ quant, how should we best use the scrap paper? Like, do I divide the pages in approx 40 sections, one for each question? or something like? Please suggest me some innovative way... :-) You are bothering with trivial and inconsequential issues. Who cares how one uses the scratch paper? Do what is best for you. A scratch is a scratch - use it whichever way you want Its just my curiosity... Hoping some positive and prompt replies to relieve me :-) Again, a big "Thank you" and "All the Best !" to all ! Thank you. Best Regards, Monil C

Acknowledgments: Tictactoe, Arjmen, PPGmat, Chix, Reactor, Erin + everyone else who pitched in with their $.02 in tm.

SC I also prepared GRE style flash cards with all the idioms & formulas to remember. It was an exhaustive list, taken from Spidey's notes + Princeton review etc. But I just got ONE idiom SC though - a "just as .... so too"! So I am disappointed. But this list of idioms gave me confidence - so you may want to do it.

Preparation Princeton Review Verbal workout Kaplan GRE/GMAT Math workout Princeton Review GMAT 2006 edition Kaplan GMAT 2006 edition Finally, OG Started in the first week of August Practice test scores Power Prep1 (two weeks after starting prep, before OG) - 650 GMAT Prep1 (midway during OG) - 710 Kap 1 - 640 PR 1 - 640 Kap 2 - 570 Kap 3 - 620 Kap 4 - 560 PR 2 - 640 PR 3 - 630 Kaplan Online - 720 PR 4 - 610 GMAT Prep 2 - 720: Q49, V40 (after OG) - 2 days before Power Prep 2 - 760: Q51, V41 (after OG) - The day before ACTUAL TEST - 720: Q49, V39

My Background: I am 30 years old, Indian, California resident, a software developer by profession, working in a top 3 movie production studio. Scheduling of test: I decided to take GMAT in July and fixed the date - July 30th to be exact. Let me quote TicTakToe here - "While a very late test date would rob you off the HEAT of the moment and one starts feeling kind of saturated during the long wait to the test date, a test date too early would leave less time for you to work on your potential weaknesses". In my world, work tends to expand with time, so I decided to give about 2.5 months prep time and fixed October 17th as the G-day. Days leading to the test: I have taken many competitive tests before - from TOEFL, GRE to MCSD etc. So I was not nervous. Although I am not a morning person, I scheduled my exam for 8am because the mind'd be fresh in the morning. I am a firm believer in giving as many tests as possible - therefore I took the Friday off, used Friday, Saturday and Sunday to acclimatise myself by giving complete practice tests (starting at 8am). I also went for a long walk yesterday evening. So although I was anxious, the early morning routine + walk gave me a good night's sleep. G-DAY: I had taken everyone's advise and scoped the place out on Saturday. So reached the center without any worries by 7:15. They let everyone in by 7:30. Competed the formalities and was ready to take the test by 7:45. AWA (dedicated to TicTakToe and his wonderful template) Analysis of issue came first. It was about razing old buildings to facilitate new development. I was fully prepared with a customized version of TTT's template, so it was a breeze. I was able to write around 6 good sized paragraphs. Analysis of Argument came next. It was about relationship between extra hours and productivity. Again, used the template to get in 5 good sized paragraphs. I then took the break. I was feeling good because the day had started off on a decent note. I think I will definitely get 5 or more in AWA. Went to loo - drank a red bull - came back to my computer right on time. QUANT Then came the Quant. In practice tests, I usually aim to complete 6 questions in 15 minutes, 13 in 30 minutes, 21 in 45 minutes, 26 in 55 minutes, 31 in 65 minutes and the rest. First 6-8 questions were a breeze. I was in Q9 after 11 minutes - I then slowed down to make sure I dont commit any mistakes. But questions 10-12 took me close to 20 minutes. Realized i was wasting time trying to solve the DS questions to get the value of "x". So after 30 minutes, I had completed only 13 questions. The "toughness factor" of questions seemed to increase from 8-9 on and stayed pretty much there until 21-22. It then got down to medium questions. I was surprised to see really easy ones like "|-a| * (-b) + |-c|". This led me to believe that my scoring was going south The "toughness factor" remained in "easy to medium" range from 25 on. Completed quant with 1 minute to spare Other tidbits - I got just one very very simple combination question (the notes in TM are much much more than enough). No probability whatsover. Also got a very very basic Standard Deviation question. I thought the "tough ones" I got were mostly geometry. If you are prepping, make sure you understand how to calculate the distance from one corner of a room to another corner to determine shortest, longest distances etc. (There is an OG problem and I have seen it in TM too) Difficulty level - Somewhere between PowerPrep and GMATPrep VERBAL The following are my observations about the verbal section. In the days leading to the practice test, I found that I usually commit 60% of my mistakes in SC, around 30% in RC and 10% in CR. I have the following to say about the actual test Started of with 4-5 SCs. Then got couple of CRs. On the 9th, I got a medium RC Sentence Correction was a "B that ends in H". For some reason, I thought I received tons and tons of them. I received more SCs than one usually gets in practice tests Critical reasoning, which I hoped would save me in verbal, was tough too. I was demoralized by the time I got to first RC (q9). Only one assumption question in CR though. Quite a few inferences RC's were a breeze. I found all 4 of them interesting. No biology nonsense - but pretty interesting ones about sand dunes etc. I am confident that I got almost all of them right. 75% into the section, I still hadnt seen any bold face variety, so I thought I was doing really really bad in verbal. The constant flow of SCs didnt boost my confidence either. I imagined that the examination engine had somehow realized that I was a sitting duck in SCs, so kept throwing more at me! Finally bumped into one of them (bold face) at the very end. Finished with 1 minute to spare in the end Difficulty level - RC = medium, CR = Powerprep/Gmatprep, SC = Kaplan/1000 SC. ========================================================= Let me quote TTT again - "The most important things during the test is NOT TO PANIC. Stay calm n cool even if you are stuck somewhere. If you can manage that , its not very difficult to crack". This is true 100%. I honestly didnt think I would score 650 when verbal was in progress!

Ok all - I am done with this thing. Happy with the score! Check out http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37287

:tup: Ok, just got back from 4 hours of torture. But in the end, I was happy to see the result Q - 49 - 90 percentile V - 39 - 89 percentile Overall - 720 - 96 percentile I will debrief later today

Thanks, made 760 in my PowerPrep2 test. The countdown has started....

Ok ..... I am almost there. Just two days away from G-day. By this time on Monday, I would know the results ..... am psyched. Anyways, here is the official record of my practice test scores Power Prep1 (way back) - 650 GMAT Prep1 (1.5 months back) - 710 Kap 1 - 640 PR 1 - 640 Kap 2 - 570 Kap 3 - 620 Kap 4 - 560 PR 2 - 640 PR 3 - 630 Kaplan Online - 720 ! (this has lifted my spirits now) PR 4 - 610 GMAT Prep 2 - 720: Q49, V40 (given today, after OG) I am planning to take Power prep2 tomorrow. Does anyone have any other last minute tips? gotchas? Just FYI, if you are an Indian taking the test in US, you still need to carry your passport !

On his drive to work, Leo listens to one of the three stations A, B or C. He first tunes into A - if A is playing a song he likes it, he listens to it. Else he turns to B - if B is playing a song he likes, he listens. Else he turns to station C. If C is not playing a song he likes, he turns off the radio. For each station, the probabiltyis 0.30 that at any given moment, the station is playing a song Leo likes. On this drive to work, what is the probability that Leo will hear a song he likes? 0.027 0.090 0.417 0.657 0.900 Can someone explain this problem? OK, I can derive it from the answer. The probability that ALL three stations are playing a song that LEO does not like = 0.7 * 0.7 * 0.7 = .343 = So the OA is 1-.343 = .657.

If X is less than zero (X -X -1 1 X square root of X ======================================================= My question: - I think both -X and X are answers because Consider X = -5 -X = -(-5) = 5 |X| = 5 So, square root of -X * |X| = square root of 5 * 5 = square root of 25 ====> X= +5 or X= -5 Do you agree? *