gmat_abc

Rajat, If you don't mind sharing, what is your profile i.e. GMAT, WE, academics etc?

I just received my AWA scores: 5.5. I feel even better now. I live in the Silicon Valley and am aware that 33 is a tad on the old side for pursuing MBA Full Time. Furthermore, I don't plan to switch careers. Now this leaves me with the Part time or ExecMBA option. I have 10 years of WE in High Tech and have been in leadership positions of various sorts and am currently dealing with direct clients of our technology. I am looking at PT in Haas, Santa Clara Univ, and am contemplating whether to apply to EMBA at Wharton West. Another option is to apply to ISB or IIM in India. I am just weighing these options, but am not to keen to act upon them. Actually, I love these schools, but moving back is a huge decision for my family.

Mike, well deserved Congratulations!!! Good luck with your apps. What a way to finish the year!!!!!

Congratulations, awesome score!!!! This is a very well crafted debrief, esp. the focus on the "nuggets of wisdom". I am sure other test-takers will find this encouraging. Good luck with your apps.

Congratulations!!! 710 is a very competetive score. Your may as well invest little more time on the apps when needed.

In a private message, I was asked to provide instances of my silly quant mistakes. Here are three instances: A. After solving the fraction question, I came up with an answer 3/32. My brain translated 3/32 to 4/32 and hence I selected 12.5%, instead of 9.4%. B. Data sufficiency: What is the value of s? 1. s + t = 10 2. 2t - 3s = 2t + 9 I misread the question and thought the question asked for t instead of s. So I chose C. Its evident that the value of s can be found out from 2 alone. C. Actual GMAT Q: In series S = a1, a2, a3...... a[1] = 3, a[2] = 5, and for n > 2 a[n] = a[n-1] * a[n-2] * ... * a[1], if the value of a[r] = t, what is the value of a[r+2]? 1. 4t 2. t^2 3. t^4 4. 8t 5. t^6 I again misread the question. Fortunately, my wrong answer was not in the list, so had to carefully read the question again.... and then realized the mistake On the actual exam, I read the every question cautiously actively looking for traps, except the one mentioned above. HTH

Thank you guys for the wishes. charu_mulye, Besides this forum, the OG was extremely helpful. It turns out that the PP1 and PP2 exams I took in early days of prep were actually GmatPrep1 and GmatPrep2. So, yes, I repeated the gmatprep, but did so many days apart. I didn't remember any questions.

Q51 - 99 percentile V38 - 85 percentile overall - 98 percentile My preparation started around 2 1/2 months back. I have taken a few competitive exams in the past, so I was comfortable with pacing myself. I used to play competetive sports as a teenager and understand importance of performing well on the exam day. Achieving peak performance on the exam day is critical, DO NOT let your practice scores affect your confidence. If you believe, you can!!! As my score would suggest, I have a strong quant background and used this forum very often to sharpen my verbal skills. My strategy was to save the OG material for the last, and hence started with Princeton and then Kaplan. I wanted to be "OG-ready" closer to the exam, as the questions from OG are "real". There is a pattern in the OG questions, so preparing the OG towards the last 3-4 weeks made sense to me. This forum has so much material, I didn't have enough time read. Books: OG11, OG - verbal, Kaplan - Premier Edition, Cracking GMAT PR, Kaplan - verbal, PR - verbal, Manhattan SC guide Forums: TestMagic - what else? SC: In the beginning my hit rate was around 50-60 percent in the sentence correction. I spent most of the first 3-4 weeks preparing for the sentence correction section. I spent most of the last 3-4 weeks reading and understanding the reasoning from OG 11. I really loved the OG11 explanations. Ofcourse, the explanations on this forum are the best. Just before the exam, I could answers atleast 80 questions correct. Manhattan SC guide was another valuable resource. CR: I was able to get most of the questions from OG and PR correct, but not all from Kaplan. I was not too concerned about this section. I went through all the questions and explanation carefully from OG11 and OG - verbal. I didn't have enough time for the 1000 CR. RC: This section was my weakest. I had to improve my reading speed and comprehension. I tried out a few strategies, which failed to help. In parallel, I worked on improving my reading speed by not vocalizing. Here is what worked for me: I skimmed the passage in 15-30 secs and then read the passage carefully, before anwering the questions. The underlying theory is that as you skim the passage the brain absorbs some data and as you read the passage again, the passage looks familiar to the brain, which results in better comprehension. Furthermore, I trained my mind to "think" that the passage was very interesting, ya right :). Improving in the RC section boosted my confidence. Quant: No extensive preparation besides the OG11. Did not solve any MJJs. I used to look at postings on data sufficiency occasionally on this forum. During my practise exams, I realized that I was able to solve the questions correctly, but didn't read the question stem correctly. Sometimes the question, asks for the value of x/2 instead of the x (it must have happened to you, right?). I decided to read the question more carefully. I was more careful in the exam and I corrected atleast 2 answers. Exam day: I decided to stop studying at 11 pm the previous night. Woke up at 8:30 in the morning. Spent only 15 mins looking at the AWA templates. I had a 2pm appointment and I reached the exam center at 1 pm. The lady wouldn't let me take the exam without my passport. I did not expecting the officials to be strict about the passport, but it turned out that they were. If you are not native of the country, please carry your passport along. I wondered whether this is a beginning of a bad day. But calmed myself and drove home to grab my passport. Reached the test center around 1:45. No more surprises. Started the exam at 2 pm. I spent couple of mins to relax my body and mind. The essays helped me ease into the GMAT exam mode. No surprises on the argument and the issue. I was prepared with my templates. Quant: In contrast to others who found the quant section to be tougher, I found it to be at same level as the OG11. I had one tricky question (between Q30-35), but fortunately I had more than enough time left on the clock. The question had a picture of a square containing 9 squares of different sizes. The size of two squares was given, and had to find the size of one of the squares. This was more of a puzzle than a quant question. As I had atleast 20 mins left, I could afford to spend five minutes on this question. I got it correct. Surprisingly, the difficulty of the questions didn't increase, instead, it went south. I was worried that I might have answered some question(s) incorrectly. But, I didn't bother and pressed on and finished the section with 2 mins to spare. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised to see a score of 51. The difficulty of the verbal section was on par with the difficulty of GMAT and PR CATs. Got a boldfaced CR after 30th question. I was confident that I was doing reasonably well. 3 of the 4 RCs were short. I followed my strategy if skimming the passage first and then reading it the "GMAT way". The CRs were not any harder than the ones in GMATPREP. My verbal score was between 35-39, so I was not too worried. My heart was pounding loud, when the scores were being calculated. I could almost hear it. And then ...... 740, almost jumped out of my chair. I was confident that I was prepared for 700, receiving a 740, I needed few secs to realize the fact..... whooo hoooooo!!!! I feel that if I am in a positive frame of mind, things fall into the right place. Thanks Erin, 800bob, clintonn, GMATsept20, JustMe123, charu_mulye, Skarya (forgive me if I miss some names) and the other contributors. Some of the debriefs were very helpful. After reading the debriefs, I was prepared and knew what to expect. I will be around to answer queries. You can find my practice scores at: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/406039-post204.html Good luck to all!!!

Actual GMAT – 740 (Q51, V38) ARCO's - 650 (Q 44, V 34). Old book from a public library. PP1 - 660 (Q 48, V 32) PP2 - 700 (Q50, V35) Kap diag test - 600 (Q 49, V 25) Kap CAT1 - 630 (Q 50, V 31) Kap CAT2 - 570 (Q44, V 27) Kap CAT3 - 610 (Q41, V33) PR CAT1 - 650 (Q47, V34) PR CAT2 - 660 (Q48, V34). PR CAT3 - 670 (Q44, V39). 44 with only 3 incorrect????. PR CAT4 - 660 (Q45 - 5 incorrect, V37 - 12 incorrect) 2 days before the GMAT GMATPREP 1 - 710, (Q51 - 7 incorrect, V 36 - 12 incorrect) Day before the GMAT GMATPREP 2 - 740 (Q50 - 8 incorrect, V40 - 11 incorrect) Kaplan (CATs from the CD): Overall, I agree with most people that the Kaplan exams are much more difficult. PR (online CATs): I found the scoring algorithm for Quant to be random. In CAT2: I turned the score tracker feature on. I was at 50 in Q and PR’s answer to one question (around 30th) was incorrect. After that question I answered the rest correctly. My Q should have been >= 50. In CAT 3: I scored a 44 with only 3 Qs incorrect (Q8, 13, 32).

Congratulations!!! This is a very good score. All the best for the apps. BTW, which schools are you applying to?

Congratulations!!!! Good luck with your apps.

B is the OA. I selected D as well :( Here is the explanation: The first phrase states the conclusion of Antonio’s argument. The second phrase is a premise of Beatrice’s argument, showing that there are other factors than the division of property to consider. The correct answer is B.

Here is the OA 1. A 2. B

Skarya, You definitely deserve better, but 680 is not a bad score either. From your responses, its easy to tell how methodical your reasoning is. I am sure other aspects of your application will win you the well deserved admission. Good luck with your apps!!!

Since John Locke acknowledged authorship of his political works only in a codicil to his will, the period during which the Second Treatise on Government was written has been established through a close analysis of Locke's reported activities near the time of publication; however, because no original manuscript has been found, what is much more difficult to determine are the personal reason Locke wrote the Treatise, the changes he might have made to his first version, and the extent to which the published version coheres with Locke's intentions. A. has been established through a close analysis of Locke's reported activities near the time of publication; however, because no original manuscript has been found, what is much more difficult to determine are B. has been established through a close analysis of Locke's reported activities near the time of publication; however, because no original manuscript has been found, what is much more difficult to determine is Please help me understand why the other option is incorrect?