beast666

Wow..any top 15 school is great achievement to get into. I think you should be happy about it

I think last two weeks should be spent on taking a couple of tests, revising your concepts, analyzing mistakes and then relaxing on the last day..that's the best thing to do :)

Guys, I have made it to UCLA. Just got an acceptance letter 2 days back so thought that I'd share with you! I'm overjoyed. I'm waiting to hear from LBS, Duke and Chicago but getting an admit from UCLA has been a great relief! :)

I'll be targeting the schools in Europe as I am looking at 1 year MBA programs. LBS, INSEAD, Manchester, HEC,IESE,ESADE are some of the schools I have in mind.

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure that you'll find this forum helpful as you move forward. You have a good amount of time in hand and you wanna make sure that you make the best of the available time. The first step you should take is download the GMATPREP software from www.mba.com and take one test. It'd give you an initial estimate about your ability on the exam. After that, tackle each area separately. You can go through my debrief to see the list of books I used. You must ensure that you really understand the concepts well and not be smug about getting questions correct. For example on sentence correction, you need to ensure that you have a firm mastery of the topics and have done a sufficient number of questions on each of the error types so that you know how to apply the concepts. You may wanna buy Manhattan SC Guide and Aristotle SC Grail. Both the books will really help you tackle SC concepts well. Keep posting your questions/doubts here on the forum and keep participating in the discussions. That will really keep you motivated.

I think Manhattan SC is an excellent book to build your concepts in the Sentence correction section. I would not recommend that you go through 1000SCs because apart from the fact that there are no explanations some of the answers are actually incorrect. In case you find Manhattan too dense you can refer to the Aristotle SC Grail. It explains the concepts very lucidly and also has a 100 question practice set. You can also try practicing questions from the Kaplan Advanced book. Good luck with your prep.

Download the GMATPREP software from http://www.mba.com. It has two tests which closely resemble the actual GMAT. If I were you,I'd probably want to wait for sometime before registering for the GMAT. Once you start preparing for the GMAT, you may realize that one month isn't sufficient to get your target GMAT score. In any case, I think one usually requires around 100 days of preparation to get a good GMAT score.

Going by Quant score, it seems that you wouldn't need to worry much about Quant-that's the good news. The bad news is that 17 is a very bad score on the Verbal section and you'll have to have everything right-right strategy,right schedule and right books. I have just given some tips in another post on how to improve on the Verbal section. Just go through it .You will find it helpful http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat/128742-just-started-preparing-gmat.html In addition to the pointers in the link above ,I'd suggest that you get into the habit of reading. Read newspaper editorials and try to read quality text. That will really help you improve your ability to comprehend complex text. Keep us posted above your progress and let us know if you need any help.

I think the best way to start is to download the GMATPREP software from http://www.mba.com and take a test. That will give you an initial estimate of your competency level .The score will also serve as a reference point from which you'll able to quantify your progress over the next few months. After that, you may wanna start tackling each area. Make sure that you really spend quality time in each area. For example, if you're starting with sentence correction, make sure that you keep CR for sometime at bay. In sentence correction, do a topic say Modifiers, do a sufficient number of questions which test you on Modifiers before moving to the next topic. This will ensure that you have not only learnt theory but have done a good number of questions which test those concepts. Make sure that you get quality books. I'd advise you to stay away from Princeton material . You may wanna buy the best books for each of the areas. For example, for sentence correction ,MGMAT SC Guide and Aristotle SC Grail are the best For CR, you may wanna get Powerscore CR bible . For RC, go through the basic strategies in MGMAT RC Guide and then practice passages from RC99 . For Maths, you may wanna get MGMAT Maths Strategy Guide Make sure that instead of doing as many questions as possible, your focus should be on analyzing each question well so that you actually learn in the process. Feel free to ask if you have any queries and we'd be glad to help you out.

Well, you seem to have a reasonable target and I think that if you adopt the right strategy,you should be able to achieve a 650+ The first solution I think is to get the right books. You seem to have used only the Kaplan books. Let me tell you Kaplan books are not good enough. Getting the right books is probably the first and one of the most important steps in achieving your target GMAT score. You may wanna go through my post and see which book I did I refer. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-gmat/126755-770-q-50-v-45-satisfied.html The second step is to have a concrete strategy in place. You should approach all the questions in the right way. You need to make sure that you have definite strategies for each of the different section and for each topic . I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to get your desired score if you study the right way.

Thanks! I think that the GMATPREP tests are quite to an extent representative of the actual GMAT. I found the Verbal section to be a tad difficult than the ones in the GMATPREP software especially the Sentence Correction questions were quite close and you really needed the ability to eliminate one option and then select the other. However,I think that since I was performing well on the test, most of the questions I was getting were from the 700+ category and hence I found some of them a little challenging.

I think Reading comprehension is an area which is more about practice than about strategies. Firstly, one has to become comfortable enough with reading various topics. I strongly recommend reading The Economist and The New Yorker . They contain some really fabulous articles on myriad topics. After that you can work on implementing the strategies!

Thanks pal. Someone on another forum who had got a very high score on the GMAT had recommended RC 99 to me. Its by some company called Aristotle Prep. It has 99 passages graded into 3 difficulty levels. The best thing is that each passage has only 3-4 questions unlike the OG and they are pretty good representative of the GMAT. Their SC Grail book is also very useful btw. Here are the links to the books. EDIT BY MODERATOR RC99 SC Grail Good luck with ur prep.

Hi all Took the GMAT today and scored a 770. Am very excited about my score though it still hasn't sunk in yet :) Reached the test center 45 mins early and they started me off with the test 30 mins before my allotted time since a system was free. Settled nicely into the AWA which went like a breeze. Took a comfort break then and started with Quant. Was a little nervous in the initial few questions but then settled into a rhythm. Had an energy bar in the next break and started with verbal. Finished the section 10 mins early and clicked on Report scores. Was overjoyed to see a 770 on the screen:D A few things to note: 1. This site is great. If you are on this forum you are already ahead of the game. 2. Math on actually GMAT is much easier than Manhattan tests and of the same level as Kaplan. I got 2 questions from Perm. & Comb./Prob. 3. Verbal is inline with the practice materials and there were no surprises 5. You have to go in very confident that you can score very high. The GMAT is a big test of your temperament 6. Like others have said what you do on the day prior to the test day does not matter as long as you come in relaxed. Practice test scores Spent the last 3 weeks before the GMAT just taking practice tests. Kaplan Test 1 - 720 Kaplan Test 2 - 760 Princeton Free test - 740 Veritas Free Test - 770 MGMAT Test 1 - 740 MGMAT Test 2 - 760 MGMAT Test 3 - 780 MGMAT Test 4 - 770 GMAT Prep 1 - 770 GMAT Prep 2 - 760 GMAT Prep 1 (Retake) - 780 GMAT Prep 2 (Retake) - 780 Practice material used Used the following for both quant and verbal - OGs 10,11,12 - OG Verbal & Quant review 2nd edition - Kaplan Advanced Additionally used the following material for verbal: SC - MGMAT SC Guide - The best book for SC as is universally acknowledged by all - Aristotle Sentence Correction Grail - Found this very useful for SC, specially for revising the concepts and what works on the GMAT and what doesn't. It is like a smaller version of MGMAT SC Guide with an idiom list that is actually better than Manhattan's.. CR - Powerscore CR Bible - again the best book unanimously - Manhattan CR Strategy Guide - manhattan has really nice content in all areas - Some LSAT practice tests RC - Manhattan RC Strategy Guide - RC99 (set of 99 passages across 3 difficulty levels) : Helped improve my comprehension skill as I become familiar with passages from several areas. The passages and questions are very representative of the GMAT. I was always depending on Verbal as my stronger area so worked very hard on improving the same. If anyone has any specific questions I would love to answer the same. Have been around on this site but never really posted much. Cheers!

Congrats,my magic! 700 is a good score. Wish you all the best with your applications. My GMAT is scheduled for the coming Saturday.Hopefully, I'll be able to get a good score.