Bliss

Thanks everyone! :) I tried to make the post as detailed as I could, as I always found it nice to read other people's GMAT debriefings. It gave me the courage and confidence that I also could do well on the test. PWB: To answer your question about how I improved my math skills: Algebra has always been my weak point, still is to some degree. ;) I used the following site to improve my algebra, it has elaborate tutorials on the algebra skills you need for GMAT: http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/col_algebra/index.htm Also I needed to brush up on my permutation/combination/probability skills, as I hadn't touched a single probability problem since high school (and I wasn't good at it at that time). I found the following website to be very useful, it covers a lot of math topics you need to know for GMAT in a simple way: http://regentsprep.org/Regents/math/math-a.cfm For the rest I can say: practice a lot of problems, it will help you see the pitfalls that some of them contain quicker during the GMAT. :) During the real thing, the math problems seemed more difficult to me than when I solved PS and DS in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], but I blame that on the pressure of time. It hit me that I encountered a lot more DS questions than PS during the real GMAT, I think about 60% DS and 40% PS.

I took my GMAT today and got a score of 600! I needed 550 to get into the course I'm aiming at, so I'm very happy!!! :D At the moment it just feels so weird that I won't have to study tonight, or, have to touch another GMAT book again. It takes some getting used to, I guess. Preparation: In September last year I started my GMAT orientation. For more then a year now I've wanted to do a master programme once I finished my bachelor's study. To get into that master programme, I needed 550 to get in for sure. It took a lot of effort to get me where I ended today, but the whole bumpy road to a good score (for some 600 may not be good, but I feel wonderful) was definitely worth it! To all who can't take the pressure of studying anymore, or don't see any improvement in their scores, I want to say: don't give up, as you can do it as well!!! I've had times when I was sick and tired of learning in my precious spare time, as well as times when my score would go down instead of up. But I didn't give up! I started preparing for GMAT around the end of November. Before any preparation, I decided to take the first PP test to see where I was at, and I scored a low 400... After that terrible score, which shot my confidence immediately, I bought Kaplan GMAT 2005 with cd, which has helped me tremendously in getting familiar with the format and the best strategies to use during the test. I took the diagnostic test that came with the cd and scored a 550. The study plan was very convenient, immediately focusing on my weakest points at that moment (PS and DS). I worked through the book from beginning to end, as suggested. I did the exercises on the Kaplan cd next to the book. As my math was weak, I decided to buy the Kaplan GRE&GMAT Math Workbook as well somewhere in January. Problems in here were arranged from easy to difficult, which I found pleasant. I worked through the entire book and took the second PP, on which I scored 450. Also I've been a lot on this forum, not actively participating, but browsing around, to see what questions I was likely to encounter on the real GMAT. In the meantime I started taking an ETS paperbased test every weekend and started getting scores of around 570-590, with a high score of 640 inbetween. Around March I found there was still something missing in my preparation: The Official Guide for GMAT Review 10th Edition. I bought it on Ebay and I immediately started practicing the various sections in the book. I haven't completed all the sections in the book, but I started at the end of each section as -so is said- most hard questions can be found there. Without the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], I don't think I could've improved my verbal skills, or be prepared for the math problems you encounter during the real GMAT. Last weeks before the real GMAT arrived and I started practicing practicing practicing, CAT and paperbased tests mostly. I took the following tests: Kaplan CAT 1: 510 (I didn't take the other Kaplan CAT's as I was having problems with the dvd player in my computer, which didn't let me access cd's, although it was in my initial planning to do so) Paperbased tests: 610, 600, 620 Princeton 1: 530 PP 1 (after finishing part of the OG): 510 (Around this test, I noticed that my verbal was getting worse, so I decided to work more on that, doing a lot of CR and SC questions) Princeton 2: 510 One week before GMAT: PP2 - 570 Two days before GMAT: last paperbased test - 660 As I had to travel to another part of the country for taking GMAT, and stay overnight in a hotel the day before, the day before the actual test I did nothing but review some formulas and make a couple of questions to stay 'in shape'. GMAT D-Day, April 22nd 2005 After a not so good night's sleep due to several different factors (i.e. a friend sending me an sms to wish me good luck at 12.30 AM when I was sound asleep and a noisy neighbor in the hotel), I woke up with bright sunlight shining in my eyes. I felt nervous, yet confident that I was going to do well on the test. I wasn't very hungry, but forced myself to eat something to gain energy for the four hour GMAT marathon. The test center was only a five minute walk from my hotel, and I arrived there 8.20 AM. Filled in test formalities, and waited. There were some people ahead of me who could start earlier. I was called in at 9 AM, the time I was supposed to start. The essays I hadn't practiced so far, but I'm usually pretty good with these so I didn't expect any problems here. I do want to say a big thank you to Sybersport for his wonderful AWA notes! :tup: I started with Analysis of an Argument. The argument was full of flaws, so I could easily fill five paragraphs with text (including introduction and conclusion). :) Next was Analysis of an Issue; I had no inspiration whatsoever regarding the topic I was supposed to write about. With about ten minutes left I had a mere two paragraphs. In the last five minutes my essay started to get its final shape and I was able to write a great closing sentence in the last minute or so. After that I took a short break. I went to the bathroom, ate a piece of Twix and drank some water before returning to my workstation. The Quantative section started off with a couple of easy questions, including a DS geometry question. Then, around question four, I got stuck on a ratio question (the only one I encountered during the test). Made an educated guess on that one, and around #8 I encountered a combination problem that I solved without any problems. Somewhere in the middle I started to freak out, as all the questions I got seemed impossible to solve and I was behind on my timing schedule. I had to guess a couple of times, as I didn't want to run out of time in the end. I tried to remain calm, and focus on the questions. I got a probability question again, a very easy one that took me less then a minute to solve. I also encountered a couple of percentage questions and one DS where a Venn diagram came in handy. I can't recall getting work problems. At the end of the Quantative section I got yet another probability question, which was good to solve as well, but containing a nasty trick. By the time I was finished with the quant section (just in time) I thought I had screwed up my test. Questions were of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] difficulty, and I found them different from Kaplan math. I took a much needed break and tried to keep my calm by drinking water and staring outside the window of the testing center for a couple of minutes. Then the verbal section of the test started with a couple of sentence correction questions, followed by a boldface CR question. I encountered two of them during the test (one in the end as well). In total I think I had four RC, one of which was about 65 long. The other ones were between 45 en 55. With verbal questions I always find it hard to tell whether or not I'm doing a good job. I found it a pity that I encountered only one CR which asked me how to weaken the argument (as I'm good at them). A lot of assumption and strenghten questions there. Also in the verbal section I found it hard to keep my pace; when practicing at home I didnt find it difficult, but at the testing center I had six questions to go in the last six minutes of the test... I finished 22 seconds before time was up. I do recall a couple of questions, but I signed a confidentiality agreement so I cannot share them with you.. Just want to say don't worry too much about the perm/comb questions. ;) Level of these kind of questions here at Testmagic is higher. Finally the test was over. It struck me that time flew by so quickly; four hours are over in a flash!! :) Filled in a survey and then I decided to report my scores and I saw a 600!!! I couldn't believe it!! I walked out with a big grin on my face (couldn't help it) and I felt great! Dead tired now, but great. Overall: Questions were of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] difficulty. I found the RC passages and questions to be easier, with less tricks to fall into and more questions that allowed you to "look up" the answer in the passage. Don't fret during the test if you think that you screwed up; you may have a great score! Don't give up, keep practicing and you'll be fine! Good luck everyone! You can do it! :tup:

I think I've encountered this question before either in a Kaplan book or in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], and there's a piece of information missing. As for now, when the prime number 13 is divided by 12, it has a remainder of 1. Although, using prime number 17, we get a remainder of 5.

I took this problem from a combinations lesson, and it isn't clear to me how the combinations are computed. The problem is as follows: From a class consisting of 12 computer science majors, 10 mathematics majors, and 9 statistics majors, a committee of 4 computer science majors, 4 mathematics majors, and 3 statistics majors is to be formed. How many distinct committees are there?

[clap] Congratulations, comp_bos!!! What a great score!! Reading your post gave me the confidence to go and crack some GMAT this Friday! :) At least it assured me of quant a bit, and verbal as well (i'm not a native speaker, and currently getting about a 28 in verbal) Good luck with your applications!

Hi Effective Factor, I don't know if I will be of much help, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm in the same but, with only one week to go before I have to take GMAT... I scored 400 and 490 for my first practice tests (Powerprep), before any preparation. Then I began using the Kaplan book plus cd, and scored a 550 on my diagnostic test. As math is my weak point, I also bought the Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook, which came in very helpful to me to get a grip on the basics. Besides that, I also started using [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and doing practice tests, mostly paper based. Scoring in the 590-640 range on those tests. Still have two more to go. Took the first Kaplan test on cd and scored a 510 on that one. Last week I decided to take PP1 again to see if I scored well and all I got was a lousy 510. My hunch is that, just like you, I rushed through the questions, making (probably) stupid mistakes. Then I took Princeton test 2 and scored 530. And you know what's weird on these tests? I usually score lower in quant then in verbal, and since the last two weeks it's reversed! I don't know what the reason is for this change. I practiced quant more, as I find it difficult, but I certainly didn't neglect verbal... Paper test I finished yesterday gave me another 600 score and PP2 I took today gave me a 570 score. Tomorrow I'm giving Kaplan CAT a go again, if my dvd player won't hang itself.. Wish I could be of any help for you, but certainly don't think that you can't even achieve 600! I know it's hard to keep the faith with "lower" scores, but confidence as well as staying cool during the exam (or so I've read) are important to get a good score. Be confident that you will succeed!

Thanks! It's all clear to me now. As you can tell, I'm not very good at simplifying equations ;) My big problem is making a start at simplifying and usually something goes wrong there...

How to approach this problem? I can't seem to figure this one out. :hmm: If (4a/6)*(1/7)*(4)*(3/2a)*(7)*(x) = 1, then x= A. 1/4 B. 1/2 C. 2 D. 7 E. 8

1. B 2. B 3. E 4. D

Can you please explain how you came to that answer?

Congratulations, Maideneer!!! All the best for your applications! :) ~Bliss~

Thanks guys, I know how to do it now! :tup:

What is the units digit of (13)^4 (17)^2 (29)^3 ? A. 9 B. 7 C. 5 D. 3 E. 1 How can one solve this problem without losing much time? It took me forever to solve! Is there a trick to find the units digit?

I ran the Kaplan 2005 cd smoothly for a couple of months, but now it happens every time that the cd "hangs" itself when I'm in the middle of practising questions or reviewing math or verbal material. This is really frustrating, as I'm in the last weeks of my GMAT preparation and ready to take the Kaplan practice CAT's. :mad: I don't know if my cd-rom player is having a problem reading or if it's the software.... Do you know if there is any way to use the Kaplan cd without actually having to put the cd in the player? I've tried making an image of the cd, but it keeps asking me to put the cd in my cd rom drive. Any help is appreciated.

I bought the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] on Ebay last Sunday and received it yesterday (I was surprised by the fast shipping as I ordered it overseas). :)

I'm studying Information Management (professional education) and almost definitely graduating in July. :) At the moment I'm working at a Facility Management department at a hospital, doing my final internship there for 20 weeks. I want to enter a one year master course in university which requires taking the GMAT and getting a satisfactory score of 550. :) My goal is to get more though, but we'll see. :)

I think it's A, too.

Thank you comp_bos! The tables above 12 give me most trouble, so I'm going to study them again. :) It'll surely increase the speed I solve the problems!

This may be a silly question, but how do you guys divide large numbers in a short amount of time? Such as 1,080,000/12 in this case. Are there any tricks for this, as it usually costs me a lot of time?

I got the same answer, C. It took me about five minutes to solve though... I used the same approach as Greycellz. Is there a shorter way to solve this problem?

These links really helped me out: they cover the basics of permutations and combinations, plus there are a lot of other math basics on that site as well. http://regentsprep.org/Regents/math/math-topic.cfm?TopicCode=permut http://regentsprep.org/Regents/math/math-topic.cfm?TopicCode=combin I'm terrible in math, and still in the middle of going through everything that is on the site, and so far it really helps me out in understanding all the math concepts covered on the GMAT. Good luck :tup:

Hmm... have to study some more then. I scored only a 400 (without practice) and 490 on Powerprep, while I've been studying for a couple of months now almost every night... While I got 550 (the score I'm trying to achieve to get into the school I prefer) when taking a Kaplan CAT, and from what I've heard Kaplan is harder then Powerprep?? Little confused here... :hmm:

Hello Mohican, You can find the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] here: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15976&highlight=Official+Guide+GMAT+Review :)

Yes, GmatGnat is right. I'm sorry, Mohican, I should've been more clear. :)

How can statement I be sufficient if one doesn't know the total amount donated? According the strange structure of the sentence of statement I, I think you forgot to add the amount needed to be able to calculate n. In that case, statement I would be sufficient and the answer would be D. "The first n people donated ??? of the total amount donated" Statement II alone is sufficient, as from the total amount of $120,000 the number of people n can be derived: 120,000/500 = 240 people.