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Yeah i felt like that in the begining...as you get to know the rules in Verbal you get slower...but then after some practice you can pick out mistakes faster...after you see your hit rate get better...start practicing non-stop. I also found that my first choice was usually right...so i kept on telling my self to "pick an answer and go." After i sat for the first test, i timed myself on everything. Got a cheap stopwatch from walgreens...helped alot. I would say get your hit rate up...understand the test, what they are asking, and what answer they want...and then work on timing. That is how my progression turned out.

Your practice test scores were very similar too mine. Looks like you quant scores are good...just keep fresh in quant (like 2-3 days/week), and practice some verbal (the rest of the week). If you dedicate some time to it, you would be surprised how fast you can pick up verbal.

mission possible- I found the sets, on some yahoo group...i don;t remember which one. But if you search the forums you will find alot places they are stored. Live4today- I reccomend Test Prep | Bell Curves - Main. At least try the trial out (no credit card required...no obligation...really straight foreward). Do all the home work problems, and then the CAT quizzes. If you like it then you can sign up. I really thought this site helped me the most. Almost all of my quant work was on done on that sight. There is enough material for at least 2 months of studying. I even did the SC stuff they had, i thought that was good too. Also, make sure you know absolute value backwords and forwards. I know its a simple concept, but those are classic GMAT trick questions.

SGmat...I think Verbal is all about practice. I'm an engineer so i had a natural inclination towards the qaunt side, and i kinda enjoyed doing the problems. This made me neglect the verbal side. Verbal can get frustrating (low hit rates)...so that made me neglect it even more. After i took the first test, i focused verbal. Lots of practice will teach you what the GMAT is looking for. One day it just clicked for me...and my hit rate start going up. For RC and CR i always tried reading too much into the question. I think the GMAT tries to trick you into the question is more complicated than it really is...most of the time the answer is the most direct, simplicest choice. aziznu- I really did not have much of a problem with CR or RC, i had alot problems with SC. I followed the methodology i described above. Read the question, pick the most direct answer and GO.

Practice...and then more Practice. Thats the key to SC...Practice...learn from your mistakes...and then Practice some more. (I sound like Allen Iverson...we talkin about Practice!) Also, do all your practice in timed condition.

Wow!...What a journey. Took the GMAT 1 month ago and got a 650 (45Q, 35V), and just got back from the test center and got a 710 (47Q, 40V) I have been following this forum for quite awhile, but unlike others I really did not use it to help with my studies. I actually used this particular section (I Just Finished my GMAT) of the forum as an inspiration and guidance for strategy. Reading the debriefs in this forum showed me that the GMAT is a test that measures the understanding of concepts, rather than intelligence. I read how people put in countless hours of study, and how they were able to reach the “700” club with perseverance and diligence to obtain a goal. The debriefs showed me that I could reach the 700 echelon if I committed myself to the test like others described in this forum. So for the past 4 months I have done nothing but GMAT related things. Studying at every available moment…flash cards at lunch….eating dinner while walking to starbucks to study…Waking up a half hour early to do some OG questions. I have never committed myself to anything like this before, but after reading what other people were doing to reach their goals; I realized what I needed to do reach my goal. And now I finally got it. I was extremely disappointed after the first test, but I knew it was not reflective of my ability so I booked a new test date as soon as I got back from the test center (taking the test a second time was much easier…from a nerves standpoint). The reason I am writing this is that I want instill the notion that the GMAT can be conquered if you put enough work into it…so good luck to all future test takers. Well onto my debrief: I am just going to write the bullet points of what I did as I think the general study techniques vary for each person: • Started with Kaplan Premier book… good way to start…The practice tests on the DVD are ok…the scores are not representative of your true score (I scored in the mid 500’s on all tests). This book will get you to the 600 level. • Read a post by T-Bay on how bellcurves.com helped him. Signed up for the trial and really like the way the site was structured. It tells you the difficulty level of each question, so you know how well you’re doing. After completing the trial, I signed up for the monthly prescription ($29.95/month). This site really helped with my qaunt score. I felt the questions were very similar to the real thing. I recommend this site to anyone who wants increase their quant score. I found there SC to be ok too. I did every CAT quiz and homework assignment they had. The live help is horrible…but for $30.00/month it’s not a bad deal. • Did most of the questions in the OG and the OG supplementals. These are a must…but I also found them to be too easy and a false representation of the real GMAT difficulty. • The Manhattan SC Guide is truly great…and deserves all the hype it receives. Did all the Manhattan GMAT tests…got in the 600 ranges on the first 4…but got 700s on the last 2. The qaunt is much harder than the real thing…but I think that’s Manhatten’s strategy. If you can grind yourself through their quant section, then it will increase your stamina for the real test. It will also teach you a bunch of fundamentals about the real GMAT questions. Verbal was a good practice. • One thing that helped me the most with qaunt was to make a flash card for every question I got wrong. Nothing upset me more than seeing a question that was similar to a question that I got wrong in the past, and I still did not know how to do it. I ended up with over 200 flash cards in the end. Great way to study on the go: weddings, lunch, airplanes, etc. • I took the GMAT Prep a week before my first test and got a 660 and 690. Saw that even if you missed a few on the verbal section, your score becomes really low. This freaked me out, and in the end hurt me on the real test. • I sat for the first test…3 months of preparation. Whizzed through the quant…thought I did really good. Verbal came…and thinking about my GMAT Prep results…I spent too much time on each question because I was worried about getting a question wrong. This messed up my timing and I had to guess on the last 10 questions. I was truly upset…but I knew my problems were strictly timing. • For the month between the two tests..i focused on Verbal, and did a couple CAT tests on Bell Curves to keep my quant fresh. Did sets 31-40 for Verbal. These are great for practicing timing. I kept telling myself to pick an answer and GO. I kept close tabs on my timing. This paid off, because the second time I took the test I had no timing issues on the Verbal. I finished the verbal section with 30 seconds to spare. The sets are the most reflective of the GMAT difficulty. • I bought the PR book to get some CATs after the first test, but I thought they were too easy…Maybe the Verbal was ok. I still did all of them to practice my timing. And that’s it…the end of my GMAT journey. I’m happy with the results, but it’s kinda bittersweet because I am learning that my undergrad performance is gunna keep out of all the schools I want to go to…oh well. I’m gunna try anyways. Hope this was helpful.

Hello David...i have been reviewing some of the advice you have given other people on this forum, and I think its great that you are doing this. I was hoping you could give me some feedback on my profile. Here it is: -2.65 Overall GPA from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Graduated in Industrial Engineering -I have three Fs all in Calculus courses -710 GMAT (47Q, 40V) -Started career with a startup company (still with the company). Took job in Ardmore, OK to help build, commision, and operate a developemental plant. Became leader in construction and operations of plant. -Was moved to Dallas, TX to help design another facility. Became lead engineer for material handling systems. -Promoted to lead and kickoff international office in India. Have spent the last year traveling to India getting the office up and running. -Five years of experience overall. -Now I want to get my MBA! I am a US citizen. I have a miserable transcript from my undergrad. I was wondering if i was still game at the top twenty colleges? I know top 5 is out of the question...but do you think i have a chance at UT-Austin or Georgetown? I really want to go to school this year, so i have no time for an alternate transcript. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Responding to the public’s fascination with-and sometimes undue alarm over possible threats from asteroids, a scale developed by astronomers rates the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet may collide with Earth. A. a scale developed by astronomers rates the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet may B. a scale that astronomers have developed rates how likely it is for a particular asteroid or comet to C. astronomers have developed a scale to rate how likely a particular asteroid or comet will be to D. astronomers have developed a scale for rating the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet will E. astronomers have developed a scale that rates the likelihood of a particular asteroid or comet that may. OA: I chose was torn between the D and E. E keep the true meaning of the sentence with "may". Please explain your answer....thanks for your help.

Responding to the public’s fascination with-and sometimes undue alarm over possible threats from asteroids, a scale developed by astronomers rates the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet may collide with Earth. A. a scale developed by astronomers rates the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet may B. a scale that astronomers have developed rates how likely it is for a particular asteroid or comet to C. astronomers have developed a scale to rate how likely a particular asteroid or comet will be to D. astronomers have developed a scale for rating the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet will E. astronomers have developed a scale that rates the likelihood of a particular asteroid or comet that may. OA: I chose was torn between the D and E. E keep the true meaning of the sentence with "may". Please explain your answer....thanks for your help.

Studying the fruit fly, a household nuisance but a time-honored experimental subject, has enabled the secrets of how embryos develop to begin to be unraveled by scientists. A. Studying the fruit fly, a household nuisance but a time-honored experimental subject, has enabled the secrets of how embryos develop to begin to be unraveled by scientists. B. By the study of the fruit fly, a household nuisance and also a time honored experimental subject, it was possible for the secrets of how embryos develo0p to begin to be unraveled by scientists. C. By studying a household nuisance but a time-honored experimental subject, the fruit fly enabled scientists to begin to unravel the secrets of how embryos develop. D. By studying the fruit fly, a household nuisance and also a time-honored experimental subject, the secrets of how embryos develop are beginning to be unraveled by scientists. E. The study of the fruit fly, a household nuisance but a time-honored experimental subject, has enabled scientists to begin to unravel the secrets of how embryos develop. OA: Please give explanation for answer. Thanks for the help.

Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the earth would warm and by how much, but climatologists have indicated all along that the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess. A. the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess B. the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people C. those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects D. extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people E. extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people OA: Please give explanation of answer...thanks for the help.

Tom Bradley was mayor of Los Angeles from 1973 to 1993, an era when the city had transformed from a collection of suburban neighborhoods to the second-largest city in the United States. A. an era when the city had transformed. B. An era during which the city was transformed. C. An era that transformed it. D. During which era the city transformed. E. During which the city was transformed. OA:

Together two people can work 10 times faster than the slower person can work alone. How many times faster does the faster person work alone than the slower one? (A) 4.5 times faster (B) 5 times faster © 9 times faster (D) 10 times faster (E) 11 times faster OA: C Can someone please explain? Thanks.

Yeah my bad. OA = D Sorry for the confusion. (i posted it late in the night) I orginally picked E.

I understand the the reason "A" is correct...but when i took the test "and that" at the end of the answer put me off. Sounds wordy...does not feel clear and concise. Answer E corrected this for me. Does anyone else get caught with the same type of mistake? how do you get past your gut feeling.