goal760

Congrats ! Good to see u r happy with ur score. However, make sure ur b-school is OK with ur quant (7%) score. Most b-schools have min score for Quant (b-schools are quant intensive as well) even if ur overall score is fine for ur b-school. Best of luck !

Hi David , I was wondering if you could evaluate my chances of admission in top 10 MBA programs in the US. Profile: Target session: Fall '06 (Full-time) Age : 30 yr old male Citizenship: Indian (Might become US permanent resident by the time I apply) GMAT : 760 (99 %) (Q - 51, V - 41) (2nd attempt) 710 (94 %) (Q-50, V-35) (first attempt) MS in Engineering : The Ohio State University (Overall GPA: 3.25, Major GPA: 3.54) - Studied on full research scholarship; Published papers and applied for a patent. BS in Engineering : IIT - Roorkee (One of the best undergrad institutes in India: Equivalent GPA should be ~ 3.8) Work Exp: Moved away from my engg studies and joined the IT. 5 + yrs exp in IT ( in the USA ) with focus in Supply Chain Mgmt and Warehouse Management Systems. Started from Jr. Software Engineer then promoted to Software Engineer and now working as Sr. Software Engg. My current role involves mentoring and guiding junior engineers during software development lifecycle and various project management responsibilities. Community Service: Was a volunteer in National Social Services back in India during my undergrad study. Trying to get into some community forum now. Other Activities: I was the editor-in-chief in my undergrad newsletter. For fun -- play tennis, swim, rollerbade, iceskate, chess etc. Recommendations: Will be able to get good recos from my former boss and from an ex-colleague. However, getting a reco from my present boss is not possible for obvious reasons. Why MBA ? My short term goal is to move in the e-commerce and information tech management world after MBA and in the long term start my own info-services company. I wud appreciate your feedback on the following: 1) My chances in top 10 MBA programs. I am only focusing on top 10-15 schools based on BW rankings. 2) Advise on some specific top 10 schools that I should target and some "safety" schools. 3) Should I apply in Round 1 or Round 2 ? 4) Any particular action(s) I should take in next 3-4 mos to fill any holes I might have in my app. 5) Should I await applying for Fall '07 instead of Fall '06 and try to beef up my community service exp or anything else ? Regards

u can get it from http://manhattangmat.com/StoreItemShow.cfm?ItemID=18

BF CR means "Bold Faced Critical Reasoning" . Here u will have two parts of the psg boldfaced and the ques will ask u what roles the two parts play in the CR.:)

After a hectic day y'day I am back. Please know that some of the views expressed here are mine only, so they might or might not work for you. Beware that this is a big post and I am not going to edit it, so plz forgive me if u come across any typos, dangling modifiers and pronoun problems. ;) My profile: Undergrad (BS: Engineering): IIT - Roorkee Grad (MS): Ohio State University Working in IT for past 5+ yrs. My first attempt: Resources Used: 1. Kaplan 2005 (CD) ---- Good CATs but verbal not representative. However, good for building mental toughness. Good practice sets. 2. Princeton Review 2005 ---- Math avg, but verbal not at all representative (too easy). Moreover CATs have some questions repeated. Also CD has a bug where if you don't start the verbal section immediately after Quant, the test ends. 3. Kap Verbal + Math workbooks --- good as refresher 4. Official Guide (10th edition) ---- The BEST 5. KAP 800 (2005-06)---- Only good for CRs. RCs, SCs, DSs, PSs are not that difficult. Overall doesn't bring much to the table. My journey for GMAT started sometime in Nov' 04 when I realized that it is time that I evaluate my career progress. Soon I realized that my next step should be to get an MBA. So I started looking around for resources, did some research, joined forums etc. However, I didn't study at all till Jan ' 05. By Jan I had acquired all the resources I needed. Believe me guys when I started my prep I didn't even remember how to calculate LCM, HCF etc. After my first attempt, I realized that my prep time, which went on for 4 months, was way too long. Trust me guys, it is more important to make a focused, short (2 months) effort rather than a prolonged one. I realize now that I was losing interest in GMAT as more and more time passed. I was not as excited as I was during the start of my prep. However, I was getting good score in practice tests so I was feeling confident. My scores were (sorted by date): PP1 : 720 (Q - 48, V - 40) (Before touching OG) PP2 : 730 (Q - 48, V - 41) (Before touching OG) Kap 1: 630 (Q - 50, V - 31) Kap 2: 640 (Q - 50, V - 33) Kap 3: 700 (Q - 50, V - 38) Kap 4: 640 (Q - 50, V - 33) Kap (paper test on the back of the book) - 770 (Q - 50, V - 49) PR 1: 740 ( Q - 51, V - 42) PR 2 : 760 ( Q - 51, V - 44) PR 3 : 760 ( Q - 51, V - 44) PR 4 : 700 ( Q - 45, V - 42) (not sure why Math score was low even with 3 mistakes) ETS paper tests (1-6) : 760 - 800 ( lil skewed as all paper tests have same RCs as OG ) PP2 (retake) - 800 (skewed as I took it after OG) GmatClub Challenges : 50% (first one when I didn't know much). Then consistently 90-99 % (including archives). OG hit rate (first attempt) : PS - 96 % DS - 97% SC - 88% CR - 90% RC - 90% ( all questions timed and done under two minutes. In one sitting I did 40-60 questions) My first attempt was not optimum. I was not convinced that I did my best specially in verbal. Lot of ppl suggested not to bother with a retake but I cudn't convince myself. Just after few days of my first attempt I took a date again, giving myself max of 30 days after a 2 week break in between. Following are the mistakes I made in my first attempt and adjustments I made during my second attempt. External Factors: 1. After scoring well in practice tests, my expectations had gone up. I was under pressure to perform in the test. That attitude proved to be counterproductive. In second attempt I convinced myself that I already have a good score, so I didn't really care if I screw this one up. I was able to maintain a gr8 attitude this time until the nite before, when I cudn't sleep all nite (again !). I guess that's me ! :) 2. Last time I didn't visit the center before taking an appointment. When I went there on the exam day I didn't like the center. It was way too overcrowded for me. Overall env did not suit me. This time I changed the test center and I loved it. Believe me the kind of test center u choose plays an important role in you mental state going into an exam like GMAT. 3.My place doesn't have test centers, they are around 75 mins away. In my first attempt, I decided to take a hotel near the center instead of driving on the test day. That was a mistake. I was not comfortable with the hotel and cudn't sleep all nite. This time I decided to drive to the center. This gave me a greater control of the env as I was in my home nite before the exam. 4. In first attempt I took an 8:30 am - 12:30 pm timeslot. That was a mistake as I don't work well in morning hours. This time I changed it to 2-6 pm. Preparation mistakes: 1. Way too long a prep (4 months). I dragged it without any reason. This time I devoted only 30 days with two weeks focus on SCs and after that doing mix of CR, RC, SC (20 questions each) on a regular basis. I didn't do much on Maths this time other than taking the Challenges in gmatclub. A focused approach of 2 - 3 months will serve you much better than a longwinded prep. 2. I was good in CR and RC, but in last 1 month of prep, I totally ignored CR and RC and focused just on SCs. By the time the real test came, I was lil out of touch from both these areas. This time I created a schedule where I was supposed to do 20 CR and 20 RC questions everyday, no matter what else I was supposed to do. This time I used one LSAT book "Next 10 LSAT test" for CRs and RCs (Thx to TwinnSplitter the recommendation). 3. As you all know that verbal is a separate beast. You have to be very careful on how u utilize verbal section of any forum. Unlike math, where you can prove something wrong, verbal section can contain lot of ambiguities specially in SC. During my first attempt I made a mistake here on going after each and every question on SCs and overanalyzing each OA. Many questions in forums are ambiguous and they do not represent what ETS will test you on. I went on a tangent and started learning real grammar instead of focusing on OG. I saw my hit rate going down in SCs and I was getting really frustrated at times. I know, this has been said a lot of times but OG is the ONLY and the BEST resource you have. I wud recommend you to not take each SC and its expl in forums too seriously. Unless the material is from ETS you simply can't trust it. You will find, however, that some ppl will come up with an explanation to even a weird SC and if you take these expl seriously u will be jeopardising ur SC prep. Unfortunately no material other than OG comes even close to what verbal is really abt in GMAT. PR, Kap they are all the same. They all have poorly researched questions and even poorer explanations. And trust me guys you don't have to learn every detail abt phrases, clauses etc. I still don't know much of grammar and I didn't need to. ETS tests only on certain concepts and patterns and once u learn to recognize them u r golden. I see many ppl going nuts on shredding a sentence apart and in process getting more confused than ever. I personally feel that analyzing SCs after a certain point is counterproductive. 4. Make sure u don't neglect ur prep schedule during ur studies and optimally use the forums. 5. Just took 2 tests with AWA in my first attempt. I was exhausted by the time I reached verbal. That was a mistake. This time I took 3 tests all with AWAs. I took following 3 tests just for maintaining the the stamina. I wud recommend taking AWAs everytime. a) Cambridge Test 1 : 670-690 (worthless ! ) b) UpstartRaising # 1 and # 2 : 650 and 690 (Good quant, poor verbal) 6. Make sure you don't get happy by doing the same questions and getting a good strike rate. Do not repeat the same resources, other than OG SC. Always challenge urself by doing new questions. Remember all the questions in the test will be brand new. Preparation recommendations: SC: This was the biggest nemesis in my prep. In my second attempt, my SC prep was totally focused on just OG and MGMAT SC strategy guide (Thx to Twinn for this recommendation, it is an awesome guide). I wud highly recommend this guide for SC and believe me it can do wonders for you. This guide goes through the ONLY aspects that u need to know and categorizes each OG problem. Again focus on these two books for SC and put the rest of the mumbo-jumbo aside. CR: Just practice. Use OG and LSAT. Participate in the forums for CR discussions. Again stay away from ambiguous ques. RC: Again not too much to say here. Use OG and LSAT. Put urself on author shoes and try to think as he/she does. PS/DS: Use OG and above all use Challenges. I used GMATClub Challenges extensively for practice. After u have learned all the concepts in Math u need to get good practice of tricks and that where Challenges come in handy. I started with a 50% score in my first challenge, when I didn't know much. Eventually I was consistently getting 90-99 % (including the archives I took). Attitude: Last but not least "attitude". You can do all the prep in the world for yrs but if u don't have the rite attitude u can't perform to the best of ur abilities. As u see I put lot of pressure on myself during first time around and didn't do best to my abilities. What will separate u from getting a good score and an avg one is how u r feeling on the test day. Take the day before the test off and relax, watch movie, go out. Remain calm throughout the test and don't just give up on a question just because it looks hard. Remember a question u r giving up now might be the ques which can keep u from getting ur dream score. Optimize ur timing on ques. I know all these r very subjective and need practice. Test Experience: AWA: I didn't pay too much attention to AWA and wrote whatever I cud. Noone bothers with AWAs so don't break ur head over it. Get a template of some kind and use it in the exam. Energy saved here is better spent on sections that really matter. I had 5 mins left on Issue section and 12 mins in argument. I took 5 min rest to focus on what was coming and then clicked proceed. Took 5-10 min break. Ate a cookie, a twix candy bar and some water. Last time I had a Red Bull and Power bar, I didn't like either of them. So make sure u eat something u like during the breaks. Good chocolate can give u an immediate mood uplift. Quant: Settled down, put the keyboard lil away and made a bigger workspace for myself. Started off nice and throughout the section, I felt that quant was very easy (OG level) except 1 or 2 hard questions. Surpisingly didn't get any Probability or permutation + combination question. Got lil worried abt that, but stopped thinking abt it. Lot of word problem questions. Got stuck in one problem where my ans was not matching, was tempted to guess and move on, but decided against it and reread the ques, only to realize that I was reading the ques wrong. Finished the section just in time. Took the break, ate a cookie and chocolate, washed my face and talked to myself in the mirror reminding myself that next is make or break section, so take one question at a time. Chit-chatted with the proctor while having water and went back with new set of pencils and scratch papers. Verbal: First 3 questions were SC, then CR (tough one, not sure if I got it rite), then RC (80 liner - tough), then SC, then RC again (45 liner - tough). Then it was a combination of SCs and CRs. Got my next two RCs in middle of the section and one towards the end (last one was again 85 liner and tough RC). Was getting worried as till the 37 question I hadn't seen a BF CR. I was specially worried as I didn't see a BF CR in my last attempt and didn't score that well in verbal. I was overjoyed to see BF CR as my 38 ques. Last 3 were CR and SCs. There was lil disturbance in the room, so lost focus towards the end of section but no complains. I was very confident that I cracked each and every SC in the test and that made me happy. Needless to say that SCs tests multiple concepts, but I take it as a good thing because then the correct OA doesn't rely on u knowing the rite idiom. I have seen that all the wrong choices have multiple errors and ETS can't take a risk by giving the OA just based on an idiom. Therefore, do not get perturbed u can't crack the SCs where only 1 or 2 words are underlined, as u will not see those kind in the real test. Real SC questions have almost 2/3 of the sentence underlined and take that as a good thing as u will be able to see the errors from multiple angles. CRs were tough as choices were too close for comfort. RCs were tough as well with tough questions and long psgs. As u see SC being my nemesis I was surprised that I did better in SCs compared with RCs and CRs. Clicked through the survey, having my fingers crossed. Looked at the score, cudn't believe my eyes. This has been my dream score. Pumped my fist few times and got out of the room. Gathered my printout and was literally dancing on my way out of the center. My wife, who was waiting for me outside, was overjoyed and immediately knew that I did it. I can't thank her enuf for putting up with me all through my prep for past few months. At times she had to go through boring weekends and holidays just because I was "studying". Altho I thoroughly enjoyed the prep but I am glad that this GMAT is over. Infact, this shud be my last standardized test for life. Now off to app process ! I guess I will stop now. This was way too long a write up. Hope it helps ! Will be happy to ans any queries u mite have.

Friends, I finally redeemed myself, still can't believe it. This was my 2nd attempt (in first one, almost a month back, I got 710 : Q-50, V-35 ). It feels gr8. I have ton of things to share with u guys. Planning to write a biggie after I am lil rested (no sleep all last nite :( ). Special thx to TwinSplitter :) for his advise and to Erin for TM! . [bounce] [w00t] [banana]

In an 8-hour working day (Including pause time), a machine can finish 65 projects, 50 of which are 5-minute items, 15 of which are 15-minutes items. What is the probability that, in anytime of the day, the machine is working on the 15-minutes items? NO OA, let's discuss.

OA is "D", BUT Here is my confusion.....we r talking abt rising of land values, so I think the rise of the land value in X shud be compared with rise of the land values in Y i.e The land values in most parts of X rose as fast as the land values in Y did .....that way shudn't "E" be the rite ans ? Erin, 800Bob, anyone ?

1. Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so fast, and in some parts even faster than what they did outside the pinelands. (A) so fast, and in some parts even faster than what they did (B) so fast, and in some parts even faster than, those © as fast, and in some parts even faster than, those (D) as fast as, and in some parts even faster than, those (E) as fast as, and in some parts even faster than what they did What r we comparing ? Land Values or the Rise of Land Values ? I sometimes get confused on what is being compared in a sentence, any good tips on how to identify that ? 800Bob or any other experts ?

Anyone please .....:(

Does anyone has any idea how realistic MGMAT CATs and their scores are ? It gives out a range and no concrete score. I got 670-690, not sure what that translates to in the real deal. Anyone has any idea how to translate this range (670-690) for the real deal ? Thanks

Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail, the failure rate for businesses in the Amish community hovers around 5 percent. A. Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail B. Unlike mainstream American businesses, in which the failure rate is more than half C. Unlike mainstream American businesses, where more than half of them fail D. While the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is more than half E. While more than half of mainstream American businesses fail

Galileo did not invent the telescope, but on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, he quickly built his own device from an organ pipe and spectacle lenses. A. Galileo did not invent the telescope, but on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, he B. Galileo had not invented the telescope, but when he heard, in 1609, of such an optical instrument having been made, C. Galileo, even though he had not invented the telescope, on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, he D. Even though Galileo did not invent the telescope, on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, E. Even though Galileo did not invent the telescope, but when he heard, 1609, of such an optical instrument being made, he

I see but in Erin's second post in that thread, he is saying we need a conjunction to join two sentences. However, here in "A", we don't have two sentences. The latter part "many of them..." doesn't have a finite verb and can't be treated as a compete sentence. So not sure what Erin said applies actually. We need Erin here for this:hmm:

OA is "A" Is this correct ? If the plural "green fields" can logically do the work i.e. "surround", shouldn't "that" refer to the nearest noun i.e. "green fields" then ? I think that's why the OA is "A". Inputs ?