epony

Amazing score bm!! :tup: As for the score itself, you should keep in mind that all things considered, there is very little statistical difference between any score in the 770-800 range. Since the GMAT CAT is essentially an adaptive exam, it cannot pinpoint scores in either extreme of the over all range (200-800). This is why you'll never hear of anyone scoring under 6 or over 51 in each section, and why you seldom hear of perfect 800 scores and even more rarely hear of scores under 400... Essentially, because the test is adaptive, when an exceptionally gifted individual tackles it, they are bound to answer question that do not fall under the most difficult category. This is why very high scores suffer from a light negative effect, and it explains why you only got a 780. Just for comparison, I scored 45 on the verbal section and it's also considered to be 99 %-ile - just like your 50 score! Anyway, keep in mind that you may have killed the beast, but the road to getting admitted is only just beginning for you... Best of luck! :luck2:

Yeah baby, yeah!! :tup: Whew, there's a load off my mind. To tell you the truth, I didn't study that much, both because I'm already preparing my applications for next year and because I usually do well in this type of exams. Anyway, some background: I started seriously thinking about GMAT about 4 months ago, but I spent the 1st month browsing around websites (mostly TM and the free parts of ST). On the 2nd month I started getting more serious, I went to a local MBA exhibitions and talked to the 3 leading schools in my area. I did 2 evaluation tests, one for the Princeton Review (690) and the other was my first GMATPrep exam (710 q48 v40). Following my GMATPrep1 success, I became somewhat lightheaded, and saw another month pass by before I actually enrolled in a school - given my initial high score, I struck a deal with them to pay less than half price and get all their written materials and free practice exams for free, including support if I'll need it (basically, everything except attending classes). So, I started practicing verbal, preparing my applications and working full time (including 3 week-long business travels that caused me to defer my exam date twice)... It hasn't been easy!! Unfortunately, the GMAT practice was the first thing to go out the window, and eventually, I found myself 1 week from G-day with very little practice actually done. I panicked a bit, but decided not to defer my G-day a 3rd time. Instead, I took 3 days off work and did nothing but practice. What was really beneficial was the fact that the school I enrolled in publishes "Hot Questions" in quant every 2-3 weeks (similar to ST's MJJs I presume...), and I received a fresh batch just 2 days before the exam. I did 2 exams in the 3 days prior to the exam; one was a Cambridge test provided by my G-school, which was rather dated - I got a 690 on this one; the other was the 2nd GMATPrep exam, which I did last night, and got a 720 (q49 v40). I was far from pleased with these scores, as I'd already gotten a 710 on teh 1st GMATPrep 3 months ago! However, I relaxed a bit after a friend of mine who recently took the GMAT himself and got 760, told me that the actual exam is somewhat easier than the GMATPrep exams. I called it a night and went to sleep at about 1am. Probably my best decision in an otherwise flawed prep plan was to schedule my appointment at PearsonVUE to 12:30 (noonish) instead of 8:30 in the morning. This way, I slept for 7.5 hours, went over the AWA tips and tricks (I've only done 4 essays by that time, 2 of each kind), avoided rush hour, bought a chocolate snack and had a wholesome late breakfast at about 11:00. I arrived at the testing facility at about 12:00, and after 15-20 minutes of bureaucracy (and a timely bathroom break following my late breakfast), I was ushered into the testing room. The essays were fairly straightforward; The AOA was based on the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy (i.e. it argued that since two events coincided, they must be linked by causality); The AOI was the second topic in OG11, and discussed energy conservation efforts on national and global levels. I finished writing both essays with 3-4 minutes to spare and used the extra time to review spelling, grammar, style and content (not necessarily in that order). Still, nothing could prepare me for what came next - the actual GMAT was in fact easier that the GMATPrep exams! At first I felt as if something's wrong, but then I decided that my friend was right all along, and began slaying the beast with fervor. Both quant and verbal seemed easier, and I attribute most of my success in quant to those "Hot Q" files my G-school sent me - I didn't see any questions both on these files and on the actual test, but they've definitely steered me in the right direction (a lot of number theory questions involving prime numbers, odd/even numbers, etc.) Verbal was a touch more tricky, and I spent a very long time on the first 10 questions. I wasn't worried, though, because my English skills are quite honed, and I finally finished the exam with 15 minutes to spare. I was able to remain focused throughout the entire exam, despite a brief lapse somewhere in the middle of verbal. Luckily, I was able to recuperate and finish with great score! To sum up, here are my tips to future GMAT slayers: · Don't follow my lead - study long and study hard (2-3 months at least with daily preparation of 2 hours on average)! · Take a class - it would answer your questions, guide you through the exam and most importantly create a time and money commitment that you'd hate to break. · Build your stamina - practice 37/41 question sets with a 75 minute time limit to build stamina and guarantee that you don't find yourself out of time in the actual test. I also did 20 quant question sets and analyzed my performance to improve my quant performance (I had to guess the last 6 quant Qs in my first GMATPrep test, so I knew I had to improve there) · Know the system - the first third (12-15 questions) of each portion of the GMAT has the most influence on your scores! When practice sets as mentioned above, try to allocate 40-50% of your time to the first 15 questions, and still make it under the 75 min. time constraint. · Schedule a late session - I took the test at 12:30 (the alternative was 8:30). I had time to sleep well, load some tips and tricks onto my short-term memory, have a decent meal (and go to the toilets afterwards instead of during the exam) and still make it in time for the test! That's all folks! Best of luck in future ventures! :grad:

No need to try iBT, especially after I've received 300 in the CBT, and even more so now that I'm studying towards the GMAT (4 weeks to go!) If I had to take the iBT, I would have definitely been going for 120, as I really do consider myself a native speaker - people can never guess what country I'm from since I hardly have any trace of non-native accent (in fact, it's kind of a mix between British and American accents, since I had both British and American English teachers, and my wife is in fact British...)

I took the test only once. I've been working in an English speaking environment for 6 years now, and had a very good command of the language even earlier than that. I'm from Israel, and the high school matriculation exam in English here includes (or used to include) a section called "rewrites" - basically, this section would propose a sentence with a grammtical error and one would have to write it in the correct form. I think that my command of English really developed when I tried to crack this "rewrites" section - I simply learned all the English grammar through endless exercises! I studied very little towards the exam - first, I took a free prep test in a local test center, and scored somewhere in the vincinity of 250. The manager there reviewed my test and my essay and colncluded that I don't need a course, just to take a few practice tests and write a few essays. His recommendation was that I concentrate on length in the essay - according to him, ETS test raters grade 30 essays per hour, which means they only spend 2 minutes per essay on average!! Due to time constraints (the date I took the CBT was also the last date to take the CBT in Israel!), I only had a week to study, and ended up settling on a weekend of cramming before the exam I got hold of the Cambridge practice tests and did 4 of them on the weekend before my actual exam. The official PowerPrep software failed to work on my computer, so I had to settle on those 4 exams... Finally, I arrived in the local test center about 45 minutes early, and after 15 minutes of bureaucracy, I started taking the test. I found the actual CBT very similar to the 5 simulations I took during my prep, and used the noise-cancelling earphones provided by the test center to find my comfort zone and get it over with. Eventually, I think my only mistake was to put to much emphasis on writing a relatively long essay, which eventually meant that I only had time to check it only half way... It took exactly 1 month for the scores to arrive, but my 300 score was definitely worth the wait!

It took exactly one month for the official scores to arrive, and my wish was answered - a nice and round 300 :tup: I was very lucky to still be able to take the TOEFL in its now extinct CBT format, and I thank all TM folks for their combined support and effort! I'll still hover around the TWE forum from time to time, but my main target right now is the GMAT, so my apologies if my attendance is less than frequent in the coming 2 months... Good luck to you all - may we all attain that far fetched goal: the best education possible in our area of interest!!!

My advice: get a job, accumulate some work experience, sharpen your business acumen, find a volunteer organization you sympathize with, and apply to a top-10 b-school in about 3 years...

Kong, my advice is not to worry about your GMAT score - a 700 means that the GMAT isn't a concern as far admissions committees are concerned! The only case in which you should contemplate improving on a 700 GMAT score, is when your GPA is very low - In this case, you need to try and maximize your GMAT score in order to prove that your analytical skills are better than the GPA may suggest. Finally, I truly believe that it's the essays, not the GMAT, that offer you the best chance of addressing your weaknesses (if any ;) )...

In my humble opinion, your age and lack of post-grad experience will greatly hinder your chances of getting admitted to most of the schools on your shortlist (specifically, Wharton, MIT, Harvard and CMU). If you're serious about an MBA, and you understand the advantages of receiving such a degree from a top-10 school, then I suggest that you refrain from applying for the Fall 2007 induction and invest the next 2 years in in gaining some meaningful, full time, post-grad work experience. Having full time post-grad work experience doesn't only improve your chances of getting admitted by a top-10 b-school, it may also present you with other directions to explore. I know several people who started off talking about an MBA (and they were extremely qualified, too!) who eventually decided to focus on their career, family life, hobbies, etc. You're still young, and there's a very good reason why the average age of an MBA student is closer to 30 than to 20 - life and work experience carry a significant weight with them when deciding between MBA applicants. In the end, the school chooses you just as much as you choose the school, and most schools are extremely interested in candidates who can contribute to the rest of the class from their personal history, be it professional or otherwise. Right now I'm afraid that you best fit the most dreaded b-school statistic: you're very likely to become one of those applicants with a 750+ GMAT score who schools love to tell everyone they didn't accept! Remember, the GMAT is only one factor when considering your application, and many will agree it's not even the most important one! You still have to prove that you've got leadership potential, that you can contribute to the rest of the class and, most importantly, that you have a very good fit with the school you're applying to. Please understand that this post isn't a critique of yourself as a person or even as an MBA candidate - it's just that I've seen cases similar to yours (one of my best friends got dinged from Wharton and Columbia at the age of 25 due to lack of substantial post-grad professional and extra-curricular experience), and I truly believe that if you're serious about an MBA, you'll realize for yourself that the road is long, and the better you're prepared, the better your chances of reaching your goals (and don't forget that an MBA is not a goal in itself, it's just a means to an end!) Whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck, and truly hope that you enjoy life to the fullest and fully realize your potential!

The Elements of Style is a book written almost 100 years ago (in 1918) by a Cornell professor called William Strunk. E.B. White was a student of Strunk's, and he revised the book in the 1950s. According to White, the original book was a "forty-three-page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English". To this day, The Elements of Style, or "Strunk & White", is considered a must-read book for English students, and is on many required reading lists in American high schools and colleges. The book originally illustrated 8 elementary rules of usage, 10 elementary principles of composition and "a few matters of form". For more information about the book, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style. For the full text, go to: http://orwell.ru/library/others/style/index.htm A quick overview of the most important rules: Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas. Place a comma before 'and' or 'but' introducing an independent clause. Do not join independent clauses by a comma. Do not break sentences in two. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject. Divide words at line-ends, in accordance with their formation and pronunciation. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning. Use the active voice. Put statements in positive form. Omit needless words. Avoid a succession of loose sentences. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form. Keep related words together. In summaries, keep to one tense. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.

Rocky, if you followed my advice you'd find that while you may lose complexity and spelling mistakes, and gain clarity and style.

To summarize my critique, I suggest you pay special attention to the following: - It's best to run a spell checker and better indent and space your essay. As Erin posted in the guidelines to the TWE forum, an indent of 5 spaces at the beginning of each space is recommended. I, personally, also prefer to leave a blank space between paragraphs to improve readability. See below for a comparison between the essay as you've written it, and the way it "should" be spaced (I usually use use both indentation and line spacing, but each on its own is also sufficient): - Review punctuation regulations, especially in regard to spacing. - Shorten your sentences - in English, shorter is considered better! - Review capitalization rules: always capitalize "I" when it stands on its own, and always capitalize the first letter in a sentence. - I suggest you avoid even the simplest "word shortcuts", e.g. "won't", "I'm", "aren't" etc. using the longer version of these expressions (e.g. "will not", "I am", "are not", etc.) adds formality to your essay and eliminates the chances of omitting apostrophes. - Read English newspapers and magazines, such as: Wall Street Journal, Herald Tribune, Time, etc. I believe that drawing from these resources will significantly improve your writing style (I suspect that you've been reading much more complex academic materials rather than everyday writings, which is why you strive to write in such a complicated and eventually cumbersome manner. All I can say is that I've suffered from the same problem, and only started simplifying my essays after I realized that this style of writing is eventually more harmful than beneficial!) Final grade for this essay: 2.5/3.0 - While it's evident that your command of the written word is impressive for a non-native English speaker, you suffer from many basic drawbacks that seriously harm your writing. Appendix: The effect of indentation and spacing on the readability of an essay ORIGINAL A comparison when made between my way of living with my parents can be gauged in terms of several parameters some of which are professional,cultural, religious , humanitarian , social and psychological [ etc]. A break-up of my view under the rubric of the mentioned parameters will elaborate the actual living standards of mine when compared against my parents. when it comes to professional way of living I ought to be more ambitous and more career oriented than my parents and when it comes to cultural portfolio our parents take the lead, for them retaining the inherited culture and its bequest is the most important. Relious way of living is equal for both of us as my parents always worshipped and prayed to god ,i am a sheer fundamentalist with a great tolerence towards other religions too. social values and manners tend be more or less same for these being wholly of inherited in nature . coming to humanitarian portfolio i think that my parents are more gullible than me , for i seldom believes in someone`s words and for tha sam reason i do confess that i refrain myself in donations that seems to be somewhat deceiving.lastly, when my lifestyle is compared in psychological terms the views are obvious , i rather every son/daughter lives in a much more stressed milieu and pressurized environment, the reason being competition and of course our ambitions rather these stresses are incresed exponentially with the every generation. To conclude , me as well as my parents have thrived in the environment and society which suited well to both of us. my lifestyle will be idiosyncratic in my parents era and so does the inverse law also hold good. It cant be judged which one is "better", coz the they lived well with the people of their time and so do I. if their ways can be termed as "obsolete" by us..my ways can be called "ridiculous" by them. I wont adopt their ways and they wont relinquish theirs. INDENTED & SPACED A comparison when made between my way of living with my parents can be gauged in terms of several parameters some of which are professional,cultural, religious , humanitarian , social and psychological [ etc]. A break-up of my view under the rubric of the mentioned parameters will elaborate the actual living standards of mine when compared against my parents. when it comes to professional way of living I ought to be more ambitous and more career oriented than my parents and when it comes to cultural portfolio our parents take the lead, for them retaining the inherited culture and its bequest is the most important. Relious way of living is equal for both of us as my parents always worshipped and prayed to god ,i am a sheer fundamentalist with a great tolerence towards other religions too. social values and manners tend be more or less same for these being wholly of inherited in nature . coming to humanitarian portfolio i think that my parents are more gullible than me , for i seldom believes in someone`s words and for tha sam reason i do confess that i refrain myself in donations that seems to be somewhat deceiving. lastly, when my lifestyle is compared in psychological terms the views are obvious , i rather every son/daughter lives in a much more stressed milieu and pressurized environment, the reason being competition and of course our ambitions rather these stresses are incresed exponentially with the every generation. To conclude , me as well as my parents have thrived in the environment and society which suited well to both of us. my lifestyle will be idiosyncratic in my parents era and so does the inverse law also hold good. It cant be judged which one is "better", coz the they lived well with the people of their time and so do I. if their ways can be termed as "obsolete" by us..my ways can be called "ridiculous" by them. I wont adopt their ways and they wont relinquish theirs.

Basically, all colleges (and I do mean all of them) will gladly embrace a 740 candidate, but as you so eloquently put it, it doesn't help that you're from the very large Indian IT pool... An application, however usually consists of 3 equally important elements: Analytical Skills - how good are you with applying mathematical, statistical and logical models to actual business scenarios (assessed mainly via your GMAT and 1st degree GPA) Managerial Potential - what are your chances of becoming a manager and a leader (assessed mainly via your referees' remarks and CV) Personal Impact - how good is your "fit" with the specific school, and how can you contribute from own experiences to the entire class (assessed mainly via your essays)So, as you can see, the GMAT is but a small portion of the sum of your b-school application (with your score, I would estimate its relative weight as approx. 25% of the overall application, but that also depends on your GPA and TOEFL). I'd hazard a guess that it would be your essays that may eventually tip the odds in your favor - focus on this crucial part of the application in order to separate yourself from the Indian IT mob. ;) Anyway, congratulations! you've passed an important hurdle in the race for top-notch business education; but be advised - the road is long and challenging!

Is anyone familiar with the French language tests (TCF and/or TEF)? I'm looking into taking either TCF or TEF and I wanted to know which is better/worse, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sometimes you can't make it on your own - is there a prep school in your area that specializes in verbal?

It's definitely possible, I suggest you read Eric's blog: http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com/ for some guidance. Other GMAT study guides: Dave's - http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMAT_Study_Strategy.htm Mark Rice's - http://www.markrice.com/gmat/ Ursula's (760) - http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com/2005/08/ursulas-debriefing.html TwinnSplitter (790) - http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com/2005/08/debriefing-from-guy-who-scored-790.html You can also find a lot of other GMAT experience reviews and study guides scattered throughout these online GMAT forums: Test Magic - http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat/ Beat The GMAT - http://www.beatthegmat.com/ ScoreTop - http://www.scoretop.com/ PaGaLGuY - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/ Good Luck!