just-do-it

Thanks All. Yes this was my first time. There's lot of information out here. I just practiced from these two books page by page. Finished each section and concentrated on my weakness. Speaking to a computer was little difficult initially. But start practicing all the questions in the book with a recorder and analyze for improvement.

I am happy that finally its over. Here's my score. Reading 28 Listening 29 Speaking 28 Writing 29 Total 114 Preparation material: 1) TOEFL iBT ( with CD) 2) Kaplan ibT ( with CD) Prep Time: 1 month Approach was to finish Kaplan book first as they have very tough reading material and then give all the test diligently. I also paid $45 and bought an official ibT test online and gave the test before registering for the test. ~just did it.

Many Thanks for the wishes. Sorry for the long delay. I have been on a much deserved vacation with my family. Here's my story: _________________ After my first GMAT experience 540 Q48, V19 it was very clear that I had serious problem with Verbal. But the question was how I prepare for it. I started daily reading debriefs at test magic from June. Believe me, this was the page I would visit daily and read about other test takers experiences. Each experience was so unique that it is necessary to customize for anyone to adopt. Most of the times I would be intimidated by 700+++ scores debrief and these guys are amazing. They make the test look like a cakewalk. So I gathered all the tidbits and started making a list on how I am going to approach this test. Many of the debrief are very good and they have details on how to prepare for each of the GMAT sections. I will try not to repeat those and would like to put most of the FAQs I faced during my preparation mostly on what to do and how to do. Giving Full length testsGMAT consists of 3 sections and whenever I gave only Quant and Verbal section, I was able to focus till the end of test but when I started writing 2 essays then by the time I am in 10th question of Verbal my mind would go blank. I had given only 2-3 full length tests before my first attempt and I gave almost 10-12 full length tests. Start giving full length tests only. Identifying your strong and weak areaThe first GMAT Prep test I gave without any preparation was a good insight to where I needed to work. I score 550 ( Q47, don’t remember the verbal breakup). But the whole 2 months I prepared for GMAT 1st attempt was only Maths. I was preparing Verbal half-heartedly and thought I can manage to get 650 in test. To my little surprise I scored 540 Q48, V19 on my first attempt. So I never managed to improve verbal since I never worked on verbal. I was strong in Quant since I always use to like Maths and I can solve any problem even if you wake me at 3am. Introspection of my Quant ability helped me to find out how I became strong in Maths. To be strong in any area you need to: Love the subject Have considerable Knowledge in the area Internalize the topics and with practice you move to a level where you become confident about the subject.For Quant I was almost always sure that I got the question right. With time and practice anyone can reach this state. From my AWA ( 51 percentile) and Verbal score ( 17 percentile) it was evident that I am seriously weak in GMAT English since I don’t have a penchant for reading ( I rarely read any news article other than Science or Business) I don’t have good hold of English Language GrammarFor my second attempt I decided only to improve my verbal ability and quant was anyway part of full length tests. GMAT Quality MaterialThis was one more problem I had when I started preparing and I ended up in downloading anything available on the net. Basically I was working haphazardly without a plan. So the first thing I did was to delete all material I had gathered. I started looking for book which would explain how GMAT wants us to think when they make the questions. I got my hands on Kaplan 800 , Kaplan Premier 2007 GMAT book and OG10. I already had OG11 and GMAT Prep. Improving Verbal AbilityFirst thing was to change attitude and start loving English in general. I started reading local newspapers end to end and it has been a wonderful experience. I found that it was so hard to read politics and history articles as it required lot of concentration for me but slowly I was able to digest what the author wants to say. This was the perfect preparation for GMAT RC. Also GMAT English is inclined to American English so I read daily editorials on NYTimes. These editorials are perfect to start your day as the content, language and long compound sentences are the closest I can relate to GMAT. It also helped me in building English vocabulary. I installed dictionary on my PC and I proactively started learning words meanings which I never bothered before to learn. After spending 1 month doing the above exercise I found a tremendous change in my attitude and comprehension ability. Then I moved to Manhattan SC Guide. I finished this very religiously page by page and made notes for later references. This is an excellent guide to English Grammar and I really fell in love with the English language. Gaining confidence and conditioning mind for the testAs you progress in the preparation there will be lot of things you need to take care. These variables affect you study and pull you down from your target. You need to overcome all the parameters which can affect your preparation. Here are some examples from my preparation: Family commitments: I talked to my family and explained that I will not be available full time. This was great since after this I got so much support from my family and I could just focus on my Job and GMAT. Where are you Starting from: Most of the test takers may have taken several entrance tests like IIT-JEE,CAT,GRE,etc. Now GMAT was the first test ever I have taken apart from regular college text book exams. So you need to keep this in mind while reading other test takers debrief. Exam like preparation: After I finished my verbal preparation I started taking up 41 questions assorted from CR,RC,SC and try to finish them in one sitting. Change in Attitude: I use to give up most of the time in RC and this would affect my thinking ability. I started telling myself that you need to shoot one question at a time and don’t worry about the previous questions you answered or what is the level of questions I am getting. Just focus on the current question and give your best. Don’t worry that you didn’t get a bold face or you are getting 5 SCs continuously. Increasing Stamina: Last 2 months before my test, I started giving religiously full length tests with AWA. Here again just remember that none of the full length tests are actually going to reflect GMAT standard. Just try to work on time management and learn from your wrong answers if you didn’t learn some concepts. Review of your work: This is the most important thing one should do. I started spending equal time after giving test to break up the number of questions I got right and wrong in PS,DS,SC,RC and CR. Also it matters that all the mistakes you do should be evenly distributed. So you need to monitor how many questions you got wrong in 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-41. I wish you all the best in your GMAT Preparation and Application Process. I will be now working on researching business schools and will apply next year. ~ Just Did It.

Hi Everyone, I want to thank testmagic forum and all the people who encouraged me to try taking the test again. Ofcourse 660 is not a good score compared to the score reported everyday in testmagic. I am happy that I was able to improve my score from 540 ( 51 percentile) to 660 ( 84 percentile ). Last but not the least I want to thank my family for supporting me in every possible way to finish GMAT. You can read my previous experience here http://www.www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-gmat/69942-540-q48-v19.html

Many congratulations. Thanks for sharing your test experience. Very good debrief.

First of all congratulations. Very good debrief.

Many congratulations Prawler. You did it.

Congrats. 680 is good score and it can be very good depending on your profile.

Congratulations!

Chin Up Samir. I think you definitely know now is to work on your timings. More full length practice tests should do wonder. Try it out.

You can try 1000 questions set for verbal.

Dont get disheartened. Try 1000 questions for more practice and give one more shot at GMAT. all the best

Congrats whitelight. Can you pls share more details about your second preparation. I got 540 in my first attempt and i have 2 more months for my second attempt. I am now getting 640-660 in practice test. I have given GMAT PRep tests atleast 5 times but the verbal questions repeats and that push my score way off of real scores. Please shed some light.. Thanks

One more point, the questions in SETS are definitely of GMAT Prep difficulty and this is the closest you can get on web. For Maths, you can give Manhattan GMAT CATs.

Gave SET 25 today Math 14 incorrect Verbal 21 incorrect