dumbguy

tamGmat, Some of the possible explanations I can think of are listed below. 1. You maybe getting into time pressure in the GMAT prep and hence not spending adequate time on SC. SC's are easiest to make up time on by identifying the seemingly right answer at first notice, spending less than 45 sec/question and still get abt 60%+. Think about how your GMAT prep test went to see if time pressure could have caused the lowering of your scores? Maybe the higher hit rate comes with greater time spent per SC and your SC are really suffering because you are trying to make up time in SC for time spent in CR and RC. 2. I had a similar situiation 3 days before the test. The sequence of events were as follows. I followed twin's suggestion. I read through manhattan SC book, page to page and did all the corresponding excercises in OG for each topic. I then did the entire OG SC page to page and had about 90%. This was all about 2 weeks before the exam. BUT there was a flaw. I did NOT dissect each and every question thread bare and figure out why incorrect choices were wrong. I was still going with my "ear" along with the help of the new "theoretical" background. What happened to me was that, over time within 2 weeks or so, my new found theoretical background faded out subconsciously from my mind and the old bad habit of listening to the "ear" creeped backed. That lowered my hit rate back to 60%. I am positive that had I gone through the OG with the structured process in SC I would definitely have 10 or 20 points more. If there is one thing I would redo in my prep again, then that would be it. 3. I then read thro some of the high scorers (Cali boy) and also some great SC explanations given by Bob. One common trait is that they all treate SC almost as a SCIENCE and were able to apply "rules" to rule out all incorrect answer choices. My FLAW was that I learned all I needed to know, but did NOT follow a process of applying it in a structured manner. I had to read thro Manhattan SC again, memorize rules again and again Would look at them every few hours. Manhattan SC splits all the OG question idioms, which is essentially the popular GMAT idioms. I byhearted most of the unfamilar ones. Following a structured process to eliminate would certainly help do it right and FAST! If you need to score 38+ in verbal, you need to know the rules when you are looking at last 2 choices and trying to figure out which one it is. You may already be doing it but just wanted to give you my experience. 4. However, there is only so much you can do if you are a non native speaker. After a point, the return on investment is just not there and you are the best judge of when you reach that point. 5. One interesting note from CTG that I wish I had known earlier was the fact that GMAT prep gives you DIFFERENT questions each time you take it. CTG quoted that he had written atleast 12 exams from GMATPREP. I certainly wish I had known this a few months earlier. If you are NOT strapped for time, you can work on some aspects of SC and then try GMATprep again! Even otherwise I think its a great idea to take 4-5 GMATprep tests. Hope some of this random rambling helps you rather than confuse the heck out of you, in which case just curse me, punt this and move on. I am sure you will do well! :)

Thanks to all for your kind messages. A few things that I would like to share regarding my test prep and test experience Logistics -------- 1. If you are taking the test in a foreign country, you NEED a passport for ID. No amount of arguing is going to get you in with a Drivers License. I personally saw two guys who were sent back without passports. Luckily they were able to get their passports within the next 30-40 minutes and hence actually did give the test. However, it was not an ideal way to start a 4 hour test. No point shouting at the test center folks, they are just messengers. If you cant write the test on the same day, you lose it all ($250) when you re-schedule. 2. The new markers are ok. It takes a few minutes to get used to it. However, all markers are not NEW and so some suck after a while. I had to change markers after the quants section. Nothing to lose sleep over though. 3. 10 mins break after AWA and another 10 mins after quants. I highly recommend taking the break to re-group and re-focus. My test center was in the US. They offered ear plugs as well as noise cancelling headphones, which was pretty slick...though I didnt use either of them :) Test ----- Note: I wont go into any specifics due to the NDA. 1. Nothing special abt AWA. You get what you get. I usually write against an issue but the topic turned out to be something close to heart and I ended up writing "for". However, I wrote altleast 10 essays as part of my test preps. I would recommend something on similar lines. There are some obvious kinks you can work on and improve by practicing a few essays before the exam. It always helps develop your stamina for the verbal which comes almost 3 hours after the test starts. 2a. Quants was definetely harder than power prep. GMAT prep was more close to it. I got stuck in a "wordy sets" question around 20 or so. I realized after 3-4 minutes. I realized that two names used were similar and hence I got my abbreviations wrong. That threw me off...I instinctively guessed and moved on. That probably cost me a 50 in quants since it was early in the game. I finished with 2 minutes to spare, so looking back I could have hashed it out a little longer. With 18 questions to go, I couldnt have known that, so I believe I did the right think. 2b. There was only ONE PC question which was a fairly trivial DS type question. Please keep in mind that I scored only 49 and so you may get harder questions if you are in the 50/51 range. No prob questions. Some basic stats. Mostly number theory, arithmetic and geometry. Nothing stood out as extremely hard, probably because I screwed up question 20 and was receving relatively less hard questions. 3a. Verbal: I would agree with some of the recent posts that SC seems to have gone higher in weightage. I could have sworn that I received atleast 20+ SC yesterday, 4 passages for abt 12-13 questions and hardly 7-8 CR. CR was always my strength and SC my weakness. Considering that way things got skewed in the actual test, I think I am more than pleased with my 40. Again your mileage may vary based on how you are doing in the test and my data may or may not apply to you. 3b. If there is one thing that you takeaway from this briefing ...dont assume equal weightage for each section, and think that your strengths in one section can make up for weaknesses in the other. Try to be the best you can be in all sections. I can easily see myself in 670-680, had I not spent the many hours working on SC and improving from a hit rate of 50 -> 85+ I cant thank enough TM and twin for the excellent resources he suggested for SC. 3c. Nothing special abt CR. I got one bold face...last question with 45 seconds to :) I was happy to see it since it meant that I had done somewhat well, but was pi**ed that it came with 45 seconds to go. Where was that stupid SC that I need now? I guessed and probably got it wrong. 4 passages. Nothing special. One was a little more confusing, rest straightforward. Difficulty matches with OG for both CR and RC. 3d. Was under some time pressure in verbal, the SC's were killing me. Had 10 ques in 10 mins. But I think I was able to retain my composure and do them reasonable justice instead of just guessing. My prep test scores were PP1 720 PP2 740 GmatPRep 1730 GmatPRep 2760 My prep sources were TM, of course OG 11 OG Verbal and Quants review Kaplan premium guide Kaplan 800 Manhattan SC (thanks to Twin) Duration of prep 8 weeks in all. With 1 week vacation 2-3 hours on weekdays, 6-8 hours on weekends I'm actually very glad that I spent all these hours. I know for sure that I didnt come underprepared for the test and hence can sleep well at night with the knowledge that I had given it all. That's very important to me. I know a good day would have landed me at 760, but I am so glad that my work paid off when my nemesis SC reared its ugly head on test day with majority of the questions being SC's. If you have any other general questions let me know. I will be happy to help. Good luck to all! May the force be with you! :)

Congrats! I got the same score, 730, with a split of 49-40. Not sure why your score is 730 and NOT 740. Wish you all the best for your future! :tup:

Well just got back from the test center. I am not really sure if I am happy or not, but I am drained for sure and also glad the test is over. I am primarily not happy because by "situation" forces me to apply to specific schools and these schools are either way competitive or easy to get into. Mostly a lurker so far, but it is now payback time for TM and its members in whatever capacity I can help. I did not expect my quants to drop under 50, so that was a little surprsing. BUT on the positive side my verbal crossed 40, and that would not have been possible without TM and the great folks here. Erin: You rock! I dont know what else I can say. Some people do stuff but they never know if it makes a difference to anyone. The stuff you do, makes a difference and you must be proud of that! [clap] Bob: It came to a point where the only posts I read were the ones you had posted your answers on. Thank you Bob! [clap] Thanks to lots of other members who had shared great info: twin, chix, ctg, arjmen, ticktacktoe/piyush. I am sure others I am missing others. Any questions---shoot!

Hello, I am a non-US citizen who will be taking the GMAT on thursday at a US test center. I made the "ritual" visit to the center to familiarize myself with the surroundings. I learned from a really friendly employee at the test center, that a drivers license is NOT VALID ID for the GMAT and a passport is requried. This is probably mentioned in the registration website, but I did not know about it. The usual policy of using drivers license that works from entering bars to planes doesnt work for GMAT. Just a FYI, for others who maybe in a similar boat. Longlive the soul who suggested visting the test center before the actual exam! :)

I agree with your explanation. Thanks for clarifying regarding A1.

Thanks a lot 800Bob for the detailed explanation. I realized that on question 2 1 I had come up with a much more complicated equation that was really necessary. Your explanation greatly helped. Regarding question 1, I had though along the similar lines. The point that threw me off was that n ranged from 2 to 15 (14 elements). A8 was the 7th element. So there were 7 numbers A9-15 and 6 numbers A2-A7. Hence, I wasnt sure that only B will work. Could you please clarify if I am missing something? Thanks again!

Thanks for the responses. For 1: Yep, the test says non zero constant, doesnt say positive integer. For 2: No more data to add. These questions are part of the GMAT prep tests. Its possible that for 1 the Official answer is wrong and 2 is incomplete, but want to see what other think...

Hello, There were a couple of DS questions from GMAT prep that I couldnt quite figure out. Any help is greatly appreciated. Official answers, can be found by scrolling down after the questions. 1. an=an-1+k where K is a non zero constant. 2= a)A1=1 b)A8=10 2. An task force contains only managers and directors. What is ratio directors to employees in task force? 1. Avg of manager's salary is 5000 less than avg of all emp sal 2. Avg of drectors sal is 15000 more than avg of all employee sal . . . . . . . . . . Answers 1.b 2.c