honda_1951

Hi All, I am so happy to write this. First, Thanks to each and every one of you who have contributed to this forum. Special Thanks to Erin!!! You all are doing a great job here. As my score indicates, I fell a little short of the magical number, but am happy with what I got. My story: I always aimed to get a 700. Not a native speaker and with an average level of efficiency in English, I was committed to ace in the test. For my first attempt, I studied for around one month or so and took the test to score a 600 (45Q, 27V, and AWA 4.5). This made me realize that I really need to put some sincere effort to achieve my goal. Then came the hard work of three months but followed by the debacle. I scored a shameful 610 (49Q, 24V, and AWA 6) in my second attempt, a mere raise of 10 points. As seen, I improved by leaps in Quant and AWA, but in verbal instead of improving my score I rather regressed it. During my preparation for the second attempt, I always thought that I have improved my English skills drastically and as visible from my improvement in AWA, I really did. However, I lost my nerve just before the test and hence the debacle in Verbal. This debacle taught me that I need to keep my spirits high before and during the test. Thats what I did this time. Scheduling a test after a month, I didn't really prepare a lot, just kept visiting some questions in Quant and Verbal with some full length tests and paper based tests. Worked more on SC as I knew I had some scope of improvement there and not much on RC. Took the test today, and you know what, I scored a 690 (50Q, 32V and AWA shd be above 5). The only differnce this time was, I did is kept my self cool. Watched a comedy movie last night to burn the little pressure that had started mounting, went for a walk, tried sleeping well, exercised a little in the morning, listened to one of my favorite songs ... rather sang loudly :-), and finally landed at the test center with all spirits to get rid of this daemon. Believe me, this monster is tamable. All one needs is to keep in mind to not get tamed by the monster, rather keep telling oneself that you can tame it. The test started well, AWA was as usual ok, a template really helps. Then came the Quant, this again was of moderate difficulty. This time, I had all plans of getting done with the Quant in time (I never did that in my earlier tests) and I did it with two minutes to spare. Then came my best friend, the VERBAL, I started telling my self that I can do it. Got reasonably good questions, not very tough SC's, usual CR's, and the deadly RC's. I kept my concentration high and went on with the test. I know I haven't scored very well as many others on this forum but have scored enough to get a resonable score. I got two back to back RC's and that made me feel that I was doing well. The challenge I faced was when I saw the time ticker and realized that I had just 6 minutes left and 8 more questions to go. I have always been bad with verbal timings and have never been able to improve on it. All I said to myself then is "its a 100 metre sprint now" so run. I got to the 40th question with 15 seconds spare, but never realized that I had one more question to go. I always thought that I had reached the last question and let the test end happily. In nutshell, I let one question go unseen. I don't know how much more does an unseen question harm than a wrong guess. Your thoughts please?? Finally, I saw the score and was delighted. Would have been on the seventh moon, had I got one more question right on Verbal, or if unseen questions cost more, then even wild guessing the last question would have got me there. Anyways not regrets. Details about on thing ... RC the KILLER: I was never good at it. I bet guys one can really improve one's chances in Verbal. The first time I picked up Kaplan's guide, it said for RC read actively. As an effort towards it, I sat straight and started reading :-), I didn't even understand what reading active is. Slowly with practice and a forced effort to read more and open, conscious mind, I have been able to walk through RC's much better. So again all I will say is, it is surely and easily doable. Thats all about it! I have read many success stories, such as Hellogmat, tchoko7 (great work done pal!!) and many others, and have got inspired by them, so thought that my story could also be of help to some. Guys you see that 'such as' there :-) My only piece of advice KEEP YOUR SPIRITS HIGH!! YOU CAN DO IT!! Thanks and Regards, -Adi

Hi anandnk, Which link on phrases are you talking about? Can some one please point me to the link? Thanks!

I have some concern regarding the following question - Here (A) implies that there is some defined degree of HAPPINESS and small town people consider themselves no happier than do other town people. Implying that Town A's people consider themselves say 60% happy and other town, say Town B's, people consider themselves 80% happy Whereas (E) says that Town A's people consider themselves not as happy as are people of Town B Can some one explain me which one should be picked?? Thanks in advance!!

Hi dkpbus, While choosing five digit number from 10 digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) with repetition not allowed. Shouldn't the Total 5-d number that can be formed be = 9 * 9C4 and not 9 * 10C4 because you have already selected one digit (namely the first digit) and hence are left with 9 digits. Similarily, No. of 4-Digit should be = 9 * 9C3 and not 9 * 10C3 Therefore, Ratio = 9*9C4/9*9C3 = 3:2 Please correct me if I am overlooking some basics. -Adi

Hi, None of my classmates has/have got the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] yet. What do we use for None + noun + verb model ?? I read it somewhere that - None + countable noun --> Plural Verb None + un-countable noun --> Singular Verb Is this model correct ?? Please help!! Also which one is correct - Neither of my friends is/are coming for the party Please help. Thanks!

Can someone explain the usage of 'in' and 'at' When do we say ... Their office is in California. and when do we say ... Their office is at California. Please help!!!

Hi, I am confused with the hypothetical and general usage of "if" Now which of the following sentence is correct - A. If she was there, I didn't see her. B. If she were there, I didn't see her. I know A is correct, but why not B??? Can someone clarify on the correct usage of "if" with were and otherwise? Thanks!!

Erin, The link you have provided only has the first set of papers. Can you/someone provide the link to the Second set of GMAT test papers. Thanks!!

cybernike, Thank you so much for the great explaination. This makes it crystal clear. Thanks!!!

quote: Originally posted by honda_1951 cybernike ... you have great clarity with Prob ... Perm ... and Combi ... probs ... I have a doubt: How many distinct 12 letter words can we form from the word 'TRANSMISSION'? Please help ... quote: Reply by cybernike Could you please open a new thread? Because this thread is getting longer and longer. I will definitely try to help. However, I am going to work, if no one has helped before I come back home, I will give you the answer. Here are some hints. You have 12 letters in "TRANSMISSION": Step 1: Choose 3 positions for the S's out of 12 places Step 2: Choose 2 positions for the I's out of 9 places Step 3: Choose 2 positions for the N's out of 7 places Step 4: Choose 1 positions for the T out of 5 places........etc Thanks for the reply cybernike! Here I go, please let me know if I miss something ... I know that if the word is MISS, then distinct words formed from it are = (Total ways with repititions) / (Possible repitition by the same letter) = 4! / 2! = 6 ways On similar terms: Total ways of arranging 12 letters = 12! Repitition caused by 3 S = 3! Repitition caused by 2 I = 2! Repitition caused by 2 N = 2! Therefore, Distinct ways = Total with repitition / Repititions = 12! / ( 3! 2! 2!) = 19958400 ways Please let me know if the answer/method is correct. Anyways, can you please explain the approach to tackle this problem Thanks!!

cybernike ... you have great clarity with Prob ... Perm ... and Combi ... probs ... I have a doubt: How many distinct 12 letter words can we form from the word 'TRANSMISSION'? Please help ...

Congrats for the great score!! Your thoughts and insight of GMAT is gonna be of great help to all of us GMAT aspirants. 710 and this background, which includes a stint of starting an enterprise and getting acquired, WOW!! I feel any good b-school would crave to get an application like your's :-) I have a question: You said that you were able to gauge what ETS was trying to test ... right? With that you said you were able to figure out the correct usage of 'like' and 'as'. This one question has been haunting me since long. Can you throw some light on the correct usage of 'like' and 'as'. Also, can you post more of such things that you figured out. So in case any of us have missed some we can add them to our review list. Thanks and good luck!!

I am at blr too. and would like to join you guys. Where can I reach you?

Congrats for the great scrore. I need a clarification: DDD.net is downdowndown.net, right? It's a non-english site, how did you access it? Also, are the answers to all the questions on DDD available.

Hi All, I had used [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], Kaplan Material, PR Verbal Workout, and Barron for my first attempt where I scored 600 in Feb '03. I am targetting at a score of 700+. I have again started my preps, have taken the PP tests with 730 and 740 and now am solving the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. I plan to schedule my test in Aug end. Re-doing the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] is not making me feel confident because for most of the questions I feel as if I have a clue to the answer. I was thinking if there are some other resources on the net or on paper which I can use to achieve my goal of 700+ Anyone else facing the same or have faced the same?? Also, people who have appeared more than once ... what are your thoughts. Does re-doing the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] help. What other materials should I refer to? How is downdown? Please help ... Thanks in advance.