lipisruti

I meant PP, sorry, not [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. If you are finding Paper tests easy I am sure you'll breeze through gmat, so no worries !!

Hi there, I feel you can rely on the paper test scores as they do have a time limit. I feel you can probably get > 700 on GMAT provided you have computer practice in general and don't get stressed. Good luck, Lipi

Hello, subzero, Don't blame yourself, the GMAT verbal qns are real curveballs and every test gives new results .. I have three suggestions : 1. Get Kaplan Verbal (Red) Book and go through the Appendices. Try to use their rules in your own sentences (grade 3 stuff basically) 2. Then try last few qns in [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and spend equal time reading the answers in next five days. 3. If you are a science person, you may benefit from reading a simple magazine like Discover. Try current and back issues if available. Otherwise just go for the current issue of Discover and read the whole of it a couple of times. Esp do the discover mag part last 2 days before test. Don't stress. Hope it helps,

Hello everyone, I want to thank everyone on this forum because all of your posts helped me prepare and get past 700 as I wanted. My practice tests were as follows: PP 1 : 710 PP 2 : 740 Paper test 55 : 710 Paper test 31 : 690 Kaplan 2 : 610 Kaplan 3 : 640 Kaplan 4 : 600 Just the week before the test I started to get a little panicky because my score actually started falling despite my successful practice of last 100 [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] qns from each section, including going thru' the answers. Anyways, I took some folks advice and my intuition for taking a break and actually **did not** take any tests the prior 2 days. Just listened to some favorite light music, watched PBS, C-SPAN, comedy shows 3-4 hrs a day, and did some practice qns. My hubby helped by making a delicious recipe, taking care of routine things, dropping me off at the test center. On test day the AWA went smoothly as I had prepared and practiced a template. I guess the scores will tell. On the issue topic I went with my gut feeling with what I believe before thinking of the actual pros, so it was a bit challenging to come up with the pros later. You may want to figure out the pros and cons first, so that you choose the side with the strongest pros instead. I had practiced for about 1.5 months after work, but both my Math and Verbal were tougher than expected. The closest approximation I would give is the paper tests. PP is a bit too easy and Kaplan way too tough as well as different, esp in Verbal. With the time constraint, none of my Math qns were really easy. I cannot reveal any qns because of the confidentiality agreement, but what I can reinforce from all the other posts is -- don't ignore any topic in your preparation. Make sure you do not only number props but also permutations, arithmetic series, figures inscribed in and around circles, coordinate axes, statistics -- including range and median, speed, work rate, and probability. About Qn 27 or so, my qns got really tough for the time available, and I partly guessed ~ 5 of them. After that they got a little bit easier. Maybe because I got some of the guesses wrong or they were sample qns. Even my first and second qns were not that easy. Overall, I found all qns to be new and difficult. Several were a little tricky but I had done the paper tests so I was on the lookout. I finished ~ 3 min before time. I scored less in Verbal (38) than my normal (41-44). I found many qns to have 2-3 choices that seemed equally good, but not that good. I mean, when you are given an arg you have an idea how best you can counter it but in 80% choices I did not find anything matching my args. Which was different from [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. The passages were not too long (upto 45-50 lines) and easier. But more detail and inference qns than overall intent of writer etc. The sentence correction also had lots of qns where I could have picked any one of 2-3 choices. I finished ~ 2 min before time. Now my language fluency is quite good, so I don't find this score representative. At the end I felt I could get anywhere between 640-670. So it was a really nice surprise to see 720. My Verbal was lower than I thought, but I wanted min 700, and I got it, and I am happy with that even though it makes my score a li'l unbalanced. I am pleased with my 50 Q because I worked hard every minute of the test. Overall I feel it's an endurance test and you just have to keep your eyes open and mind focused for every single qn. Keep yourself going, say to yourself, "I'm gonna get it!" before every qn. Also in many cases you must read all ans choices instead of jumping to conclusions on seeing one you like, because another may be better. This was my first ETS test in the US, so some suggestions based on that: The control room staff seem a bit too relaxed about signing you in and out and giving you papers and pencils that are sharpened, so try to be proactive. You may have to walk out and ask qns rather than raise hand etc because they may not spot you. Also, try putting on the headphones in the AWA itself, so as to get used to them. Although it's a bit uncomfy, I found it helped me by eliminating the keyboard click sounds and door opening / closing etc. I really needed to concentrate and even seeing some movement in the overhead mirror from the corner of my eye seemed to distract and lose me a min or so. Now I go to the next, harder step, of putting together the apps and that's going to be the toughest part as I have no silver bullet (?!). I would be seeking and hoping for your helpful feedback as before. I'm mainly doing this to change my line from IT to Business / IT mgmt and would appreciate any helpfulness. Thanks again, Lipi

Thanks for your response, Yosimite. I did panic, didn't I. Well, I took the GMAT yesterday evening and got a 720 (50 Q, 38 V). I am very relieved. I am posting the details separately.

Hi there, csoul, Your post really helped me. I took three days off from work which I otherwise wouldn't have, because it really helped calm my nerves and be prepared mentally. I also did last 100 qns from [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] from each of the sections in the week before taking the test. Like your experience, I also found Math tougher than whatever I had seen elsewhere except maybe the paper tests. Same for verbal too .. everywhere else I had seen qns where one choice stood out but this wasn't the case with actual verbal. There were invariably 2-3 choices that seemed equally good. Finally I got 50 (Q) and 38 (V). The Verbal was lower than my usual (41-44). But overall I am satisfied, and do not plan to retake. I also found it helped to prepare a practiced template for AWA just so that it does not thruw you off at the start. Lipi

Yes I believe it would help you to increase your score if you are planning for top schools.

Hi there, I also would suggest that you take a couple of paper tests rather than rely on [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] scores completely, if you've already done [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. But I would add about 20 points to your paper score for the equivalent computer adaptive test. I scored 710 and 690 on paper tests while 720 on GMAT. I had also done some [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] qns when I took PP. On PP I scored 710 and 740. Good luck, Lipi

Hello Erin, Please advise soon ..!! My GMAT is on Monday. I just did Kaplan test 4 and got only 600. I need min 700. I want your feedback whether I should postpone. Earlier I did Kaplan 2 and Kaplan 3 and got 610, 640 resp. I also did Ppreps and got 700s on them but I remembered some qns from [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] there. I am in a quandry. I have no more unbiased representative tests to try left. I tried one paper test too. However, I found that it's a totally diff format (7 sections instead of 4) and also the sample qns simply stated "NOT SCORED" instead of giving the qns, so it skewed my timing and I cannot consider my score accurate (I got 710). Please advise as soon as possible. If you can suggest annother representative test that I can use, please point me to it as soon as possible. Your early response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Lipi

Hello Everyone, I am writing this out of complete frustration over the Essay Insight product that I purchased from mba.com/gmac.com 2 days ago. I wrote and submitted 2 essays online but never got any grades back UP UNTIL NOW. Contrast this with their claim that they send results in 30 seconds. I called a multitude of misleading phone numbers given by customer service and emailed tech support multiple times, but got back no help and completely inane responses such as, what is Essay Insight?, Is this a McGraw Hill Product, Did you receive the PowerPrep CD, Just Wait and See, and finally The Product did not Receive the Essays you sent it, can you Login and Resubmit?. Which of course I cannot, because I wrote the essays inline and did not save them elsewhere. In the meantime my essayinsight.com account has all buttons disabled so I cannot do anything anyway. In any case I don't want to retry submitting and go through the wild goose chase harrassment from one phone number to another again, this close to the exam. My advice -- stay away from this JUNK called essayinsight. Disappointed, Lipi

The issue of whether the growth of mass media is good or bad for intellectual curiosity is a controversial one. Opponents of mass media growth claim that too much mass media leads to a dumbing down of our society. Proponents say that increased availability of information and entertainment stimulates the mind. However, in the final analysis, I believe that the growth of mass media adds to our intellect and creativity. The first reason for my belief is that the larger availability of information gives us choices and the trigger to evaluate these choices. For example, if we were not aware of different sources of energy and their pros and cons today, we would not have the ability to evaluate the benefits of hydrogen cell cars over gasoline. Having this information enables us not only to make the appropriate choice of cars in our personal lives but also drive national policy and funding of research as intelligent citizens. The increased availability of information increases our decision making ability. It also facilitates new ideas about how to combine various products and services existing in the marketplace to create new and efficient composites. The B-to-B model, for example, is the product of this very explosion of mass media information availability. The second reason for my belief is that increase in mass media entertainment opens our eyes to new cultures and new ways of thinking, leading us to be more tolerant and less afraid of different cultures, ultimately leading us to a higher level of emotional intelligence. Not only that, it also leads us to be more intelligent in unexpected situations of crisis. The humane and calm response of the people of New York to the Sep 11 attacks can at least partly be attributed to their enormous exposure to cross-cultural entertainment and culture. It is also evident in the works of fusion musicians like the Colonial Cousins of India, that unhindered availability of entertainment from a multitude of sources has led to an explosion in creativity in arenas where it could not have, in the absence of the knowledge and familiarity with these arts. Because of all these reasons, I therefore believe that the growth of mass media leads us to be a more intelligent people and fosters our creative instincts, rather than suppressing these qualities.

The issue of changing educational, political, and business philosophies is a controvertial one. One the one hand, it is claimed to be a reflection of the human tendency to get bored of the status quo and change things. On the other hand, it could the result of the human desire to evolve ever better models of society and governance. However, in the final analysis I believe that our changing philosophies are a reflection of our desire to improve ourselves and not an inherent fickleness. One reason for my belief is that our philosophies can be found to have changed in response to our changing physical environment. For example, when man was in the early stages of civilization he needed to satisfy his basic need for food and shelter. This led to a system where the stronger male population primarily hunted for food while the female population concentrated on nurturing the yound. Today we don't have the same situation, not because we were bored of that system, but because we have food available in plenty and our desired have moved to the next level of ensuring the long-term supply of food and shelter instead. Another reason for my belief is that philosophies change in response to the hidden negatives that we find by experience rather than because we no longer find them interesting. For example, in India up until the beginning of the 19th century, students in schools were expected to revere their teachers and accept what they taught rather than question. The limitation of this model came out when we found that our creativity was not being brought out as compared to other cultures where questioning was allowed. This caused the Indian education system to change. Perhaps the most important reason is that the goal of balance between the individual and society needs is a tough one and the changing philosophies we observe in the fields of business and politics are a reflection of that difficulty. Whenever people with different cultures and philosophies co-mingle, they are observe mutual differences and come up with new ideas that are a combination, albeit an imperfect one, of the two cultures. As globalization has increased over time, philosophies have inevitably changed. Because of all these reasons, I therefore believe that, our changing philosophies in important areas of society and life are a reflection of our rational desire to achieve better models of balance and fulfillment in response to our changing environment and level of progress, and not a result of any irrational fickleness of human nature.

The Chair of Omega University's music dept argues in his memo that Omega can improve its finantial status by increasing its enrollment targets for the current year based on the anecdotal evidence that group music therapy appears to benefit mental health patients and music therapy jobs increased last year. However, in drawing this conclusion, the memo makes several assumptions that are not substantiated by supporting evidence. First, the memo assumes that the increase in music therapy jobs last year is part of a long term trend of increasing jobs in the area of music therapy rather than a one-time increase during a particular year because of specific reasons such as a special study that may have been conducted last year. Furthermore, the memo assumes that the jobs that were created last year are long term career jobs which would be sought after by graduating students rather than undesirable temporary one-time opportunities. Second, the memo assumes that Omega music therapy graduates would easily be able to find the jobs they want. However, he does so without evaluating the comparing the of graduating music therapy students in the country with the number of available jobs. If the demand is less than the supply, and Omega's music therapy program is highly rated, this assumption would not hold true. Perhaps most important, the memo assumes that increasing enrollment targets at Omega will generate the required revenues because more students will enroll at the current cost level. But there is no evidence to indicate that there are more students interested in pursuing a program in music therapy at the current cost of doing so. Increasing targets alone will not result in increased revenues if students are not interested or cannot afford the costs. Thus, the argument has several caveats. The argument could be strengthened if it were shown that the job increase in music therapy area is part of a larger long-term projected increase in job opportunities in the music therapy field, that there is a high demand for Omega music therapy graduates for jobs in the industry, and that there is increased interest among students in pursuing music therapy at Omega at the current cost level. However, in the absence of such supporting evidence, the argument, as it stands, is flawed and weak. In conclusion, I do not find the argument convincing because it confuses chrnonology with causation, and relies upon a number of assumptions which it does not validate with supporting evidence.

The study argues that businesses should sponsor only highly rated programs similar to high quality Non-Commercial TV programs, in order to achieve maximum advertising success, based on the anecdotal evidence that such programs have been found to be highly rated in quality by viewers. In drawing this conclusion, the study makes a number of assumptions that are not substantiated by supporting evidence. First, the study assumes that high quality programs similar to Non-Commercial TV programs will attract a larger viewership than the current highly popular Commercial TV programs. However, there is no evidence to show that viewers of Non-Commercial TV programs would be interested in the same programs on Commercial TV or that existing viewers of Commercial TV programs would like the new high quality programs equally. Second, the study assumes that cost of sponsoring high quality programs would be the same or lower than the cost of sponsoring the existing programs, while the revenues in the former case would be higher than the latter case, leading to a higher net advertising success. But there is no evidence to indicate that costs would in fact remain the same or lower. Perhaps most important, the study assumes that the programs proposed to be sponsored would continue to be rated as high quality even if advertisements are put in between. No evidence is provided to indicate the parameters of what constitutes the parameters of a high quality program. If one of the parameters is absence of ads, then this strategy will not succeed. Thus, the argument has several caveats. The argument could be strengthened if it were shown that viewers of Non-Commercial TV high quality programs are interested in watching similar programs on Commercial TV with intervening ads, the current viewers of highly popular Commercial TV programs are equally interested in watching these high quality programs, and that the cost of sponsoring the new programs versus the gain in ad success would be greater than the current ad success margins. In the absence of such supporting evidence, the argument as it stands is flawed and weak. In conclusion, I find the argument unconvincing because it relies upon a number of underlying assumptions which it fails to validate using supporting evidence.

Hi there, I am planning to take the test in the near future and from people's comments I have got the impression that [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] is good to do as much as you can. If you are losing interest perhaps making a plan of say doing 50 qns a day from [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] from the remaining qns would help. Maybe the week after 18th would be better than next week itself. Good luck, Lipi