prarabh

Although not a great score to boast of, giving my 2 cents if it helps some other GMAT aspirant in any small way. About Myself Indian Male Age 27, Married. IT Work Ex – little over 5 Years. Working with Indian MNC. Started preparing around 3 months back after registering for Oct 10. The day I registered i started my Blog page - http://givinggmat.blogspot.com/. Primary purpose of the blog was to keep track of progress made, practice test given, weakness, areas to approach etc. Preparation went on and off for the next 2 months averaging 1-2 hrs on a weekday and 5-6 hr on a weekend. In last 1 month, I tried to give a full length test on the every weekend. Initially I tried to update the blog every few days, as the final day came close updated it almost daily. Material Used OG 10, 11 Kaplan Verbal Textbook SC 1000, CR 1000 Forums Test Magic :) Score-Top My Quant is average, had to work on Verbal. Started downloading SC notes from forums( spideys etc) and consolidating them. I like doing CR and confident level was sufficient in RC. Weakness was SC. So decided to attack the main evil first. Difficulties I Faced Initial difficulty was to concentrate or rather sit continuously for a long time period. I would get disinterested within 30 minutes of studying. This changed slowly with time and practice. How to Practice questions Found practice results were better if i did same category of questions together. Say if i did 20 SC question my success rate was somewhat 70-75% but in a full length test it was far less. Did a change and started practicing questions from all topics with a minimum time duration sitting ( not less than an hour). Approach followed was- in a session of 1hr doing( 10 Ps, 10DS, 6 CR, 6 SC and 2 RC passages ) or a longer sitting for 2 hrs with corresponding numbers Right material Going through OG gave a basic idea of type of questions tested in GMAT. I did'nt refer to any other source, once done with OG started doing 1000 series questions. I did around 250 in SC and around 400 in CR (I stopped doing CR 1000 once my success rate was above 95%) In the end SC success rate reached around 75% - 80%. RC did few passages from OG and nothing more. Timing Issue In my non-CAT practice tests, i almost newer encountered timing issues but had problems while giving CAT based test. (Not sure if the confirm and yes buttons takes time or something else :rolleyes: ). I resolved this problems using 2 techniques and around end of prep i was able to finish on time. 1) Used to time my practice - can use a watch or software timer ( just google timer on the net) 2) Tried to stick to a Question/Time schedule. ie i should be at question number 10 when time left is 55 Min, Question 20 when time left is 40 min. Q30 when time left is 20 min and so on. If I lagged I tried to speed myself up. Once done with OG 10, and OG 11 started doing SC 1000 and CR 1000 questions. Learning from mistakes was more important than attempting new questions. I tried to revise previous practice test rather than doing new questions. As mentioned by others GMATPrep gives the best approximation of the actual GMAT. Had 2 versions of GMAT Prep. Using the latest one got 690 in GMATPREP1 (2 days before G-Day) and 710 in GMATPrep2 (1 Day before G Day). Last Few Days before the Exam Took a week off before the exam, but then had to reschedule my exam date due to some official work so free days got shortened by 3 days and test date from 10 Oct to 7th Oct. Did revision of previous questions CR 1000, SC 1000 and started spending more time on Test magic (SC and CR and little on DS). Erin;s and Bob’s post were conceptually good, answers from Phil’57 were always great- to the point with proper explanations. I remember one of my question posts became quite a favorite with good amount of argument and cross-questioning. In all, TM is fun and great deal of learning.:tup: GMAT EXAM Went few days earlier to check the center, always advisable. My appointment was at 1:15, so had a heavy breakfast in morning and took some fruits and water for the test. I cannot think empty stomach, cannot dream writing a test :( . Started with AWA, had done a basic overview how to start and end the AWA section and pretty much wrote around 5 paragraphs ( 4-5 lines each) in the allotted duration of 30 min. It's good to be comfortable with AWA since it sets the ground before the test, a badly attempted AWA might make one tense and may affect the crucial part latter. Will advise – at least 1Practice AWA before the final exam. Took a designated break and went for Quant. Doing good in Quant sets the correct mood for verbal. I think i did Q5 wrong and some others in the initial 10, because i newer encountered any tough question until much later, was able to finish the Quant with almost 7-8 mins to spare. In hindsight i feel i should have gone slower with initial questions. Then came verbal. First 3 were SC, all doable, next was a tough RC followed by few CR's. The RC was small but particularly tough which disturbed my time schedule. I was able to recover with respect to time but missed the last question (randomly marked the answer). Hit the Score Screen i saw 710. Not very happy with the score but somewhat satisfied. I believe concentrated effort with little hard work, patience and regular practice score of 730 + is easily achievable. I might even consider writing it again. I thank Erin for this Forum and everybody who helped me resolve my doubts. All the very best to all aspiring GMAT candidates .

hi, Gave my GMAT today. October 7, 2006. Score 710. ( 94 Percentlile) Always targetted at 720+ .. not very happy with the score. Will soon write a debrief. Cheers Prarabh.

Between B and D, will go with B.

C is correct. A and B, method cannot be compared with equipment.

I think D would have been correct if it was "the quality of engineers are better than those" With the given choices will go with B.

Will go with C. What is the OA?

Will go with C. Parallelism intalling pumps ... digging trenches.

Question is not correct. is it 38 ^(n+3) + 2 ? We cannot have a unique result for this question . It says (38n + 5 )/ 5 , depending on the value of n , remainder can vary n =1 , remainer = 3 n =2, remainder = 1

Number of factors of 3 between 100 and 200. Smallest factor of 3 = 102. Largest factor = 198 . Number of factor = (198 -103)/3 + 1 = 32 + 1 = 33. Answer A

Will go with C. Explained by raksr

Answer D Just solve the relation mentioned. We get x(k-10) = y (20-k) Only the option k =18 satisfies the mentioned conditions ie y > x and both are positive .

Congratulations and Best of Luck for your Apps.

With go with Q1 -- A Q2 -- B ( having in A in E is incorrect.) We need "that" to refer to pollutants. Out of B and D (but introducing is incorrect)

Will go with A. Giving polio vaccine is compared with dietary change.. -- use of AS

Is the only difference between A and D is appliance /appliances ? Will go D. C - awkward construction. A - appliance will show as if spending is done on a single appliance

Will go with E. Agree with Bronx.

E it is.

Will go with E. comparing actions.

Will go with A.

Will go with E. Charles Lindbergh, for his attempt ??

Will go with B.

OA is C

Will go with C, using stmt1 nad stm2 we can derive x = -2

OA is A

Will go with D. What is the OA?