going4it

Greatman1234, I didn't purchase an individual book on number properties, but problably wish I did. I would recommend the Kaplan Advanced (or Kaplan 800) to see a few of these really hard ones. Other than that, its just smart practice. Its not the amount of questions you do, but the amount of introspection you put into each one. When are you taking your test?? Good luck! Kalil ps. Canadian PHD, hope your Big G went well. Waiting for your debrief

Greatman1234, I believe that the difficulty level is the same. Since its adaptive, nobody can see that the test is a breeze since the more right problems you get, the harder they are. I improved my verbal through sheer practice and might have neglected my math a bit the second time around. RC is not a smooth sail at first. Especially with long passages that can wear you out. My advice is to do many RC problems from GMAC (OG, Verbal Supplemental, GMATPREP) as it will give you the most effective practice. SC is many peoples pet peeve. Learn to like it. If you could read the manhattan sc guide once a day for a week, I promise you your SC scores will improve substantially. I'll send $50 to you if it doesn't work. I am applying to Wharton, Harvard, MIT in Rd1. Not decided on RD 2 schools All the best man! Remember that in the bigger picture, the GMAT is "necessary but not sufficient" going4it

Everyone has their weaknesses. For some reason I wish I would have learned number properties problems better. I feel that all the material does a good job of explaing the very easy number properties problems, but not really on the hard and unusual ones. Kaplan Premier gives the best theory prep out there in my opinion. Recommended as a good starting point! :tup: Good luck! going4it

Wow! Done and done! [w00t]While I didn’t improve too much on my previous score (690)… I am still very happy. It might not make a world of a difference on my MBA apps, but every inch counts these days with competitive admissions. I have been on this forum for a looong time and feel that it is my duty to provide you all with the most comprehensible and absurdly long debrief possible. The forum is much quieter than before with great contributors TBAY and Clintonn moving on. Thank you for your help guys [clap]! If you want to learn, search the forum for them, they know it all. Here is my story: Preparation Time It seems that the best approach is 1-2 solid months of intense study. I had a 120-hour prep target that allowed me to go through all the books I mention below. I had a 20-hr per week target. Yes, you have to sacrifice some drinking and dating if you want to do well[dance]. Every person has different aptitudes for standardized tests, so you have to make your own schedule. My advice is to book it two months before, and monitor your progress using the Manhattan GMAT CATS. If you are not ready, make sure you change the exam date at least 7 days before ($50). You will lose your entire amount if you postpone after that. Books Kaplan Premier Kaplan Strategies and Practice (Included in Kaplan Premier) GMAC OG 12th Edition GMAC Verbal Supplemental Manhattan SC Guide Kaplan Advanced (New edition of Kaplan 800) Extra Study If you are a GMAT beast and are hungry for more problems :boxing:… You can search for what they call “The Sets” on this forum. They are extra practice questions. There is also the SC 1000, RC 1000, CR 1000 which are 1000 questions and their answers that can also be found online for free. GMAT Practice Tests My opinion- Only do Kaplan CAT’s if you have time. Manhattan GMAT scores are more indicative. Don’t do the GMAT prep before you start preparing. Wait until you are half way into your prep to take the first one and take the second one at the end of your prep. GMAT Prep Course I’m not trying to take business away from Kaplan or Princeton Review, but only take the course if you really need it. Do some self study, take a practice test and then be the judge. My Exam Day You will feel like you are entering a top secret research lab. It is actually pretty cool… they scan fingers, take pictures, and scan palms. You will need to show your ID every time you go in and out of the test room. They even have Cujo, a search dog wondering around (Just kidding). Important – Arrive early! I would recommend 1 hour before your start time so you are the first test taker (Usually 5-10 stations) there. By being first, you will have dibs at choosing the best placed computer station in the room. If you are the first to start the test, you won’t hear scuffling when people finish their exam and won’t be boggled during the crunch in the last 5 min. You will get a hideous yellow scrap paper[banana] with erasable markers. You will hear about this in other posts. It is gridded and hard to write on. Get used to practicing with 5 Legal sized sheets and use a crappy pencil to do your work. The good thing is that if you run out, you can ask for more. The AWA does a great job of waking you up and gets you comfortable with your environment since it’s the first part of the test. Make sure you do exactly what you’ve done prior to the exam day. I vowed to guess if I couldn’t solve a problem after 2:30min. My first quant was ridiculously hard, I took 5 min and likely guessed wrong:wallbash:. It was hard to recover mentally after that :s. My Practice Result Actual GMAT (2008) – 690(45Q, 41V) GMAT Prep 1 – 710 Kaplan Diag Paper – 570 Manhattan GMAT Online CAT 1 – 670 Manhattan GMAT Online CAT 2 – 720 Manhattan GMAT Online CAT 3 – 660 Manhattan GMAT Online CAT 4 – 700 Manhattan GMAT Online CAT 5 – 700 GMAT Prep 2 – 730 (50Q, 38v) Actual GMAT – 700 (44Q, 42v) Other Tips Some great gentleman on this forum recommended the use of flash cards. While this technique might make you feel like you are back in 9th grade, I found it the most helpful for quant. While my actual math score was weaker in the actual, this helped me immensely nonetheless. When you are reviewing your wrong quant answers, create a flashcard explaining the questions and what you did wrong for all the problems you go wrong that were not careless mistakes. This will create a great study tool for the last two weeks of your exam and will be a HUGE confidence booster. Time is key and that has been my biggest challenge in quant. Time yourself on practice questions (2 Min/math and 1:45min/verbal). One technique that helped me pace myself was creating check points for me to determine how fast or slow I was going in the exam. Evaluate how much time you have remaining vs questions completed. Quant: Question 10 – 55 Min Question 20 – 35 Min Question 30 – 15 Min Verbal Question 10 – 58 Min Question 20 – 40 Min Question 30 – 22 Min Question 40 – 4 Min I hid the clock in the exam so I wouldn’t get distracted and only checked after every 10 questions. Focus/Concentration/Confidence are 50% of your performance on the exam. AWA I wouldn’t worry about this until the last week of practice. I found the Critical reasoning preparation helped a lot. I finished my study in the cab on the way to the center. I have attached some compiled AWA suggestions from other forum contributors. I hope this was useful to you guys! I will miss this forum and all of the great people that are on here. The great thing is that a good number of us will run into each other at school! Cheers and Godspeed, Going4it

Yes you can do it! My situation is similar to yours. I was scoring 48-49 in Q and 30-31 in V. On test day, I scored Q45 and V40 and ended up with a 690. I don't know if I can repeat it, but Im planning on retaking. Good luck! Going4it

Hey Guys, It may seem like i'm new to this forum, but I have actually been around since the Fall. I have found this forum to be inspirational so I will put in my two cents. I am happy (and a bit boggled about my score) despite not reaching the 700 Club. I studied for about 3 months in total (roughly 120 hours) for both exams. I focused on the OG, MGMAT SC guide and some of clinton's notes. My exam scores were GMAT Prep 1- 670 GMAT Prep 2- 700 Actual Gmat 1 - 640 (Q47, V30) GMAT Prep 1 (Forgot Questions) - 710 MGMAT Online (Free) - 650 GMAT Prep 2 (Forgot Questions) - 690 Actual Gmat 2 - 690 (Q45, V40). I could talk about the exam room and why I didn't hit the 700 mark, but I know its all been said before on this forum. I have seen people worried about wether 720 is too low. I got a message for you: Im happy with my 690. This should be the same for those who score even in the lower 600s. The Gmat is all about the MBA and sometimes people forget that. I am college senior who changed programs and delayed a year. I got a 640 in the fall and still applied to HBS. Suprisingly, I got invited to an interview! I didn't get in eventually for whatever reason. Nonetheless, the entire package is what matters. I invite all of you to check out admissions411 - Business school admission stats, interview and waitlist results, and MBA application info (411). Look at the amount of peope with 780s who get rejected! Its a whole lot of them! People with 670, 680 get in! Im not saying a higher Gmat isn't better, but its definitely not everything. Programs like HBS focus on leadership. Don't dare complain if you got a 700. Don't retake! Spend that time starting your own charity or company! Lead a team! Run for president of your of your district. Venture out and make change! That is what business is all about. MBA programs will look at you BUSINESS potential. I have read many posts and its sad to say goodbye. Study smart, not hard! Understand what you get wrong and adapt your studies to fit your abilities. Dont forget!! The Gmat alone will not get you in!! Cheers and Godspeed! -Going 4 It

Just got back. I got some split feelings becase I was going for the 700. Im not too discouraged because I am confident in the other aspects of my application. Can this score HURT me at a top school??? Will debrief soon.....................

Very Niiice. Im taking my GMAT tommorow and am using this template since I havent dedicated much time to AWA. Thanks

Congrats man! Im doing the exam this friday. Thanks for the tips

I know you have heard this many time: CONGRATS! You pulled off a SICK verbal score and you are a non-native english speaker. This gives hope to the stronger quant ppl.

Thanks. Its all about interpreting the question

go D go

Its important to keep an eye out for the key words. I thought of D at first. It is clearly b

its just a matter of getting the hang of it with permutations and combinations. im almost getting there.

something like this cannot be answered in 2 minutes unless you know the trick

thanks

Thanks for that website (Reflections Vol20, No3, Aug 95) on permutations and combinations. I was weak in theat area, but now i feel very comfortable!

OG11+GMATSETS21-31+SC1000+GMATPREP = Success

SETS are obviously one very important component of any good GMAT testtaker's strategy. I have been on this forum for a while and have only found the sets on gmatnetwork. The one on the yahoo group are only based on CR. I know there are some outhere that have the 41 questions sets. I think its scoretop and requires some membership. Can anyone get them for free?

Manhattan SC Guide is THE BEST! get it on esnips.com

Practice the "hard" questions on the OG11. They get harder toward the end.

Gmat network only has the CR sets. How about the full verbal ones??

Ive been on this forum for a while. But for some reason I have "The CR Sets" on Gmatnetwork but dont know where to get the real ones. Scoretop? A anyways. Aham, good shot at the 700. Im going for that too but am scoring in that same range in gmatpreps. Where you nervous?

Congrats Ackerman! You killed it! I just wanted to know if you used any of the sets for CR. Did you do all the og questions? How about in terms of study hours. How many did you do in that final month? Thanks for your input

Anyone here applied RD1 or RD2 this fall? Share your results!