swadeep

Hi Buddy, When I gave the GMAT there was no GMATPrep. We only had the Powerprep tests. I guess the GMATPrep was released along with the OG 11th edition (which happened only a few weeks ago). Compared to the Powerprep quant questions, the GMAT quant questions were definitely tougher. Not by much though. I havent seen the GMATPrep but from what I have heard this is more in line with the actual level of difficulty of the GMAT.

Hi Alok, I did not go through any grammar books. I was pretty confident about CR. My only worry was SC and RC. For SC I used the following resources 1) http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMAT_Study_Strategy.htm 2) Spidey SC notes (u can find how to get them by looking at my previsous reply on this thread) 3) OC SC (twice) 4) Sentencecorrection.com For RC I used only the OG and did lots of general reading. Apart from these resources I used Kaplan and Princeton Review books / cd's. Always remember GMAT verbal is not about knowing english grammar. Its about knowing the GMAT grammar !! So concentrate more on GMAT specific verbal resources. And spend time on the analysis of your mistakes. There is a lot to learn from that. Hope this helps. All the best !

Hey Santiago, If you are applying only next year then I strongly recommend you retaking the GMAT (especially since u have scored 730 + on both the ets tests). As far as I know there is no one factor (like GMAT) which weighs more in an application. As long as one is in the middle 80% of the GMAT and GPA range of the school he/she has a very good chance of making it. And 710 falls within the 80% range of all the schools (including the top 5). Having said this, if you are in a strong applicant pool (Indian IT Male or One with a Financial backgtound) then you need to have a relatively high GMAT score. Otherwise 710 is a very competitive score.

Hey Santiago, 700+ is a very good score for any school. Concentrate on your essays and recco letters. Another good thing about your score is that you have got over 80% in both the sections. So I dont see any reason for you to retake the exam when the R1 deadline is just a couple of months away !

stuti, I have mailed you the OG soft copy and a few paper tests. I think one month is good enough time to prepare for the GMAT. So just calm down and nail the exam ! abymecanical and 60sec, thanks for all the wishes BTW I got my TOFEL scores today ... I scored 293 :D ... Now I can sit and write the essays... And then hope for the best !

thanks for the wishes Karmaholic prestidigator, There are two aspects to the test. Learning and then practicing. Learning is almost the same for all. But if you have already taken a standardized test (like GRE, CAT etc) recently then you start with an edge when it comes to practicing. You would need about 2-3 months if you are working full time else if u can spend 8-10 hours daily then about a months time should be enough to crack the GMAT. However if this is the first time that you are taking a standardised test then you will have to spend more time preparing for GMAT.

hi prestidigator, i didnt use 1000SC for my preparation. You seem to be quite frantic in your approach of getting this 1000SC file. Saw the same request copy pasted at many places ! Anyways hope u have got what you wanted. TM is the best resource for all your GMAT needs.

you can also check out the bweekonline.com.

Powerprep is as tough/easy as the GMAT. In my case I got the same score for my Powerprep test and my GMAT test ! Also go through this thread to find out how similar the powerprep scores have been to the actual GMAT scores. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6453 All the best with your preparation

Congrats Priyadarshini [clap] I remember reading many of your posts in the SC forum. And based on that I can understand your disappointment with the score you got, especially in Verbal. But as you said GMAT is only a means to an end and not an end in itself. Also you seem to have a terrifica background so 710 should be good enuf to get you into a top 10 b-school. All the best for your apps.

Quite a few people have asked me about the Spidey SC notes. I am tired of replying to all of them. So thought will post this in my thread itself. Modified from the thread http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31454&page=2&pp=10 1) Goto www.gmail.com 2) For Username use: chadsworth 3) For Password use: gmatspidey1 4) Once you are in the account, there is an email sitting in the 'inbox'. It is entitled Spidey Notes and the email is from "Swadeep Patil" , thats me :) 5) Open the email and download spideys_gmat_notes.pdf I dont know where these great notes vanished. I searched for the link on TwinSplitter's thread as well. These notes seem to have been wiped off TM !!! Erin, any idea where the notes are ??

Thanks for the wishes snowwhite.... and I am praying I get a 6 for my essays... I managed only 4.5 for my GMAT AWA :( Merijung, I am looking at a career in strategy consulting. As an engineer I need to build a strong foundation in finance as that is one field where we engineers are not exposed to. In terms of my target schools I do not have the final list but broadly speaking I am looking among the top 15 schools which are strong in consulting and finance. I am also talking to some current students to check my realistic chances of making it into these schools. I also have a preference for public schools as there are more opportunities to get some kind of aid at these schools compared to private colleges. gp1974, I wouldnt take tests in the last 3-4 days before my GMAT. I would revise my notes and maybe prepare for AWA. I am very overconfident as a person so I took a Kaplan CAT (scored 610) a week before my GMAT. This ensured that I dont slack for the GMAT ! But usually with most people lack of confidence is one major stumbling block during the GMAT. If that is the case with you then I reccomend taking some easy tests a week before the GAMT to boost your confidence. Maybe you can take PR CAT 4. That one is an easy test. Then you also have the 2 PP tests which are also relatively easy. I havent taken the ARCO tests so cannot rate those. If you ask me to compare PP with Kaplan I would go with PP as it is comparable to a degree to the GMAT. Kaplan is way too tough. But taking the Kaplan test will prepare you well as far as the test taking experience goes. Kaplan tests will ensure that you learn to stick to the time (you will never be able to do those Kaplan 41 verbal questions in 75 minutes).

Just wanted to update you guys that I took my TOFEL today. Listening - 28 Reading - 30 Writing/Structure - 13-30 Total = 237 - 293 If you prepare for the SC and RC sections for the GMAT, TOFEL becomes a lot easier ! The only feedback I have here is that it makes a lot of sense to do your GMAT first and then the TOFEL . That way at least one exam will be a cakewalk :)

Great idea grey ! Catch all of ya tomorrow

All the best rsdighe ... go and get a cracking score !!!

sspati, I went through some of the questions and this is what i feel. The SC questions looked similar in difficulty to the ones I got in GMAT. However the CR questions you sent seemed to be a bit on the tougher side. I did not go trough the RC questions. Sorry for that.

rsdighe, dont get me wrong. I was only suggesting some options for him in the coming couple of years. That too if he is serious about top 10 schools. I did not assume that he would be uninterested to do community service. Neither did I assume that he is not gonna take the GMAT again ! Except for the GPA all the other admission criterion can be worked upon (since he has 2 more years to go). I made an observation based on my research on the profiles of the students at the top schools. I have been talking to many students of late. And I just shared something that I found. If the fact that peoeple with low GMAT score but excellent community service have made it to top 10 schools bothers you then I cant help it ! I guess you assumed that all of us out here have an aversion for community service. You also assumed that if we do community service its only for beefing up the application. I dont think you can make such a generalisation, especially in this forum.

Congrats... great score [clap]

Mandeep, this is not to offend you but I have to be a bit blunt here. The average score of all the top 10 universities is over 710. So u can safely assume that around 70%-80% of the students in the top 10 universities have scored over 690 !! But this also means that there are 20%-30% of the people who make it to top 10 schools with GMAT score of But having said this I must also add that GMAT is only one of the 7 criterion for admission. If you have an outstanding GPA, you can probably offset the relatively low GMAT score. But if your GPA is also on the lower side (say less than 3.4) then I guess you will have to either lower your expectations or retake the GMAT and score over 720. I have been looking at the profiles of students in the top 10 schools and have found that the people who have relatively low GMAT scores / GPA have made it because they came up with a very strong application. As you mentioned that you have 2 more years before you apply, what you can probably do is to think seriously about working for a non-profit organization (full time) for at least one year. Something like this will ensure that you make it into the top 10 with 690 GMAT. You have a lot of time to think about the various options available. And I must appreciate that you are thinking about an MBA two years in advance. That is really good ! So be focussed, look at the options available and you should make it to top 10.

jgr ... thats an amazing score [clap] But I must also add that you might have lost an opportunity to score a perfect 800 !!! I do not remember anyone getting over 750 in any of the Kaplan tests and the fact that you got 770 definitely shows that you had it in you to get 800 or at least a 790. But 770 is a fantastic score too. All the best with your apps. And as I have said in other places, do join the BWeek forum. Its an excellent resource for preparing your apps, just like Testmagic is an excellent resource to prepare for the GMAT !

Kashbun, I bought the Kaplan book and CD from India. Its cheap there. So if you are in India you can also probably do that else if you are in US then I suggest you look at your nearby public library. The libraries in US usually have a pretty good collection of books and CD's. sspati, I got 42 (96%) in Verbal so I can safely assume that I have got questions from the tough bin as well. Each of those 41 questions that came for the GMAT seemed familiar. There were no surprises at all. If you do the OG Verbal well, you can safely assume that you will do the GMAT Verbal well too. But the thing is that most people are not able to perform to their best of abilities in standardised test taking conditions. When you are taking OG sitting at home you are in comfortable surroundings and have nothing to loose. But when you are taking the GMAT there are lot of things at stake ! So my suggestion is that if you are doing good in OG Verbal work on improving your concentration levels and other aspects of the test else if you are not doing good in OG Verbal I strongly recommend you do some extra studies to improve your weak areas. Regarding the similarity of the questions in the custom test to the real GMAT I will need some time to go through them before I reply. I have been busy with my apps of late. So give me a couple of days and I will defintely let you know of my views. And let me also take this opportunity to tell you guys that GMAT is only part of the application process. So plan your test dates accordingly. Do keep at least 4-5 months aside for preparing your apps.

Talking abt apps. The essay questions for a few universities (Chicago, Columbia and Wharton) have come out. I did some research on finding some good forums (similar to this one :) ) and came across BWeek online. In case you guys dindt knw abt the BWeek forum please find the link belowhttp://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/start/

Virendra theindiangmat I dont think u guys read Erin's post. This guy/girl appears to be making a fake story. Let him/her come out in the open, post a reply and then lets start asking for the materials. Even I saw the same post at 2 other forums. And another thing about this guy/girl is that he does not reply to any of the questions in the threads. He just writes this story. Still cant make out what is he actually upto ?? But lets not jump to conclusions. Let him clarify whts happening.

I have not yet received my official scores. So I called up the ETC guys to check what happening and also asked them for my essay scores. I got only 4.5 (Was expecting at least 5). But I will take a 4.5 with 760 rather than (not instead of ;)) a 5.5 with 720 or so ..

Rahul - Go to MBA.com and find all the official information about the GMAT. The type of questions and the difficulty level and al. For preparation most of the TMians use OG, Kaplan and Princeton Review. These 3 sources should be sufficient. Also look out for great resources in TM. Things like spidey's SC notes then the study strategies of variouos ppl etc. This should help you gauge yourself. First take a diagnostic test (maybe kaplan) then compare your diagnostic score with the rest of the TMians to get to knw where you stand. Then you can decide on the date of the exam ans start preparing with a timetable.