Test Taker

Good luk with ur apps,Kroviddy.

I did not use any flash cards but you can find some on esnips.com Sets can also be found on esnips.com.

Good luk,ConVerbal.

It depends on ur profile.If u r an Indian IT Male,680 would not not help u.

50 in Verbal..wow. Congrats.

You should have taken atleast one GMATPrep test by now.Kaplan is not a true indicator of your performance. You can add 100 points to your Kaplan score.

Sorry to hear this. You shud have looked at the time.Also when taking a break,take the cellphone/stopwatch to track time. Anyway it is over.Relax for a day or 2. When do u plan to attend school? If you are planning for Fall 09,you better take it by Nov 15th so that you would have sufficient time to work on the apps.I know it is difficult to get slots over there.

Well,I just noted the question number on a sheet of paper.Other than that,I noted down few shortcuts discussed on this forum. Unfortunately I'm getting a error when trying to attach it here.

1.Yes. 2.I did some RCs from Verbal guide and OG11 3.I would say it would be similar to GMATPrep.By doing sets,u wud get a chance to work with a variety of problems. 4.I went thru it twice thoroughly(all 300 pages) and twice just glanced thru it(picking up imp points).

Well,OG has questions from all difficulty levels.So more than OG is needed if you want to score good on Quant.I would suggest Sets and TM forums.

Thanks guys for ur wishes. You can find them on esnips.com.Search for 'gmat sets'.

Quant is difficult.Verbal is of comparable level.

It is only 300 pages and worth going.

They have some differences. This is the book I was talking about GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible SKU GMAT-PUB-CRB - PowerScore Store

Absolutely.I spent time on sets and this forum.Just participating in the TM forums shud get u above 48.

I did not notice the size.But they did not irk me either.I got only Evaluate the arg Weaken Strengthen Assumption questions. No BF,no resolve the paradox types. Even the SCs and RCs were not lengthy. I have no idea about LSAT CRs.Instead of going thru LSAT material,I would suggest reading Powerscore CR bible and use those techniques to solve questions in OG. All CR questions can be categorized into around 12 different types and the CR bible does a pretty good job at that.

Thanks guys.

Took my GMAT yesterday.This is my debrief.. 750 (98 percentile) Q50 (94 percentile) V41 (92 percentile) This is my second attempt.I got 630 Q44,V33 in the first attempt on 06/13/08.. My practice test scores GMATPrep 750 Q49 V42 on 07/20/08 720 Q50 V38 on 08/16/08 GMAT Focus 47-51 - 7 mistakes (80% confidence level)(Untimed,took this test in the office) 44-49 - 8 mistakes (80% confidence level) 47-51 - 2 mistakes (80% confidence level) MGMAT 730 Q45 V45 - Many repeats in Verbal. 730 Q46 V44 - Many repeats in verbal. 780 Q51 V45.- Got Will talk more about these test softwares in the test preparation section. Test preparation materials OG10 OG11 Verbal guide Quant guide Manhattan SC Manhattan Number Properties Powerscore CR Bible Sets I do have Kaplan 800 book but did not use it for this attempt. TestMagic forums. Additionally I read Wallstreet journal daily. Changes in my prep strategy 1.Decided to take the test more seriously.GMAT is not fun anymore. 2.For my first attempt,I went thru official test materials many times,to such an extent that by looking at the question,I was able to find the answer.But I found that approach is wrong.So for the second attempt,I started finding out the mistakes in the incorrect answer choices.This was done for the SC and CR sections. 3.Bought the Powerscore CR book. 4.Participated actively in this forum.Made atleast 550 posts in the past 2 months.This contributed a lot to my improvement in SC. 5.Solved sets.This improved both math and verbal skills. Test preparation Verbal: SC - Participated pretty actively in the TM forum.Did OG10 once,verbal guide once and OG11 twice.Sets helped a lot.Also cruised thru MGMAT SC guide once.I would like to take this moment to thank Dominque11 for opening a lot of threads in the verbal section.Every morning immediately after opening my eyes,I made a habit of going thru the SC forum.Until I solved atleast 10 SCs,I did not move from the bed.But one thing I noticed 2 weeks befor my exam was that I was taking more than 2 mins for the SCs.So I started timing the forum also.Opened a SC thread and started the timer.Made sure I answer it in less than 2 mins. CR - Immediately after my first attempt,I bought the Powerscore CR book.I improved a lot because of it.Also participated in the CR section.Work on the CR bible before starting OG.For CR prep,I would strongly suggest getting restricted to official test materials.The reason is you would be able to start thinking on the lines of the test makers.OG10 has around 200,OG11 around 80,sets 30*10=300 and Powerscore's 50.These 600+ questions should be sufficient. RC - Did few from the Verbal guide and some from OG11.Pls do not neglect this section. Quant: Before I start talking about Quant prep,I would like to thank Makumajon for his contributions to this forum.He has a lot of shortcuts/formulae in his armoury.Pls keep track of his posts and keep prodding him for shortcuts.I rate him as one of the best mathematicians on the GMAT forum. Expecting a 50+ in Quant from both Makumajon and Queen09(indeed a Queen of math:)). PS & DS - Went thru Quant guide and OG11 once.Solved sets and participated in math section to some extent.Also made short notes with all shortcuts and formulae floating around on the forum. For the past 2 months immediately after going to office,I used to open the math forum and start working on the problems.Made sure I go thru all the threads on atleast one web page Week before the D-day 1.Went thru SC questions in OG10 and OG11 2.Cruised thru Powerscore CR book 3.Revised Manhattan SC. 4.Went thru math basics/formulae 5.Worked on the AWA template which I found in the AWA section. Day before the D-day 1.Did not study much. 2.Went thru idioms. 3.Did the diagnostic test in OG11. 4.Also remembered Kroviddy's suggestion not to spend more than 2 mins on any math problem.In fact Kroviddy was my inspiration to get 50 in Quant.Thank you Kroviddy. 5.Did some soul-searching.Went to the balcony and told myself in pretty strong terms that if there is anything that is going to stop me from getting atleast 720,it would be be my nevousness on the D-day.So firmly decided to keep my nerves calm during those 3+ hrs. Also told myself that I did all what I can within the available time and that there is nothing more for me to prepare,thereby mentally preparing myself that this is my final attempt.I told that I just need to moderate my tempers and let my brain do its work.Decided to release my tension thru the marker onto the scratch pad.So I pressed the marker pretty hard during the exam. 6.Slept around 11:30PM and decided to wake up at 8AM.Even though,I kept my thermostat at 70,I felt very hot.Maybe dues to tension.So woke up in the middle of night to adjust it.Also I got a wrong phone call :mad:at 4:30.So my sleep got disturbed. Test prep softwares GMATPrep -Arguably the best.Since it is the most discussed one,I will not bore you. MGMAT -Second best after GMATPrep.But Quant is tough.Verbal on par with GMATPrep.You can buy 6 tests for around $25 and can be attempted any number of times.So far so good. However MGMAT has a limited number of questions,around 1200 in its pool.These 1200 contain questions from all difficulty levels.When you achieve 680-700 in the first 4 tests,you exhaust most of the 600-700,700-800 level questions.So when you take the 5th and 6th test,you will get questions from the lower difficulty level,leaving you to see a huge pop in your scores.So keep this in mind when attempting 5th and 6th sets. Now the good news!! When contacted MGMAT,they said they are working on increasing the size of the pool. GMATFocus - I would say GMAC is just minting money from this one.This is available only for Quant right now.Each test costs $25 and has only 25 questions.You are paying $1 for each question only to find that many questions are from sets.I bought 3 tests for $65.But if you want good analyses of you questions,you can buy.The results section is pretty detailed.It will provide a breakdown by topic(Algebra,Arithmetic ops..).My suggestion is not to buy if you do sets. Now about the actual test Just before stepping my foot outside the apt,I told myself "Yes,I need to do it". My appt is at 11AM but I decided to take the test early.Reached the test center by 10:10 and sat before the PC by 10:20AM.Took Redbull,Cashews and Almonds. I was given a scratch pad and 2 markers.Filled out the univs list.I think 10 mins is allocated for going thru the rules and regulations. During my prep for first attempt,whenever I encounterd a SC,I used to write 'ABCDE' on the paper.On encountering a incorrect choice,I used to strike out that alphabet.But this consumed time since I need to write 'ABCDE' for each question.Powerscore CR suggested a new way.It suggested drawing a matrix with columns names A,B,C,D and E.On the left hand side,you put the number of the question.So I drew this matrix during that 10 mins. Started my test AWA - Followed the template.5 paras for each topic.5 lines in each para.Done. Break - Had Redbull and the nuts I brought with me. Now I did my first mistake for the day.Came back late by 31 secs.:( I thought nevermind.I had confidence in my abilty that I would do good and did not press the panic button. Quant - Cruised happily.Did not encounter any resistance.Would compare the difficulty level to that of GMATPrep.Nothing much to talk about. I reached 37th question with more than 2 mins to spare.Then I faulted on the basics.:(I started multiplying 2 numbers (For ex 25*36) only to find that I again need to divide their product by some other number.Never do a mulplication unless that is the final answer.Try to keep numbers in single digits.Also I looked at the clock many times during this Q.The reason is GMAT penalizes you more heavily for not answering a question rather than for answering the question incorrectly.So be careful with the last question. Don't remember getting any probabilty questions. Took the break again but came 2 mins early this time.;) Verbal Started with a SC.Did not panic for most part of this section. SC - I was able to dwell down to 1 choice for most of the questions. CR - Found that during the first 15 questions,all my CRs were 'evaluate the argument' questions.No BF questions through out the exam.Rest were strengthen,weaken and assumption questions. RC - Was unable to manage time effectively for these questions.I felt that SC and CR were my forte,so spent less time on the RC questions in the test.That might have contributed to the low verbal score.Only one RC passage was long. Rest were around 2 paras. Clicked past the survey,and after the final 'Next' button,waited with a deep breath.Score took some time to appear and finally appeared. Was confused.:rolleyes:Not sure whether I should be happy.Came out of the test center and walked to the rail station.In my confusion,I did not check whether I was going to the right platform.Only when I was about to keep my foot on the train did I realize that I'm climbing a train which is going in the opposite direction.Stopped climbing.Luckly no confusion during driving.Came home safe. Closed the door. Told myself "Yes,I did it" but not passiontely. Finally my GMAT saga ended. I would like to wish good luck to all future test takers(Makumajon,Queen09,Retake_GMAT,Bholebaba,Coolaman,itsmyturn,ramiy.Dominique11,manik,rrgmat,Nazar,Queen02,Deeraj and all other wonderful folks who are toiling to get thru this exam. Bottomline: Be Passionate.Practice,Practice and Practice!!! Thank you TestMagic!!

D for me.

He failed to act upon my recommendation. or He failed to act on my recommendation.

A for me.

B for me. Debate over is correct.

In this case,we need to use 'were' to express uncertainity about the conclusion of the deal. Ex - If I were a rich man,I would have married Salma Hayek.:) Here I am not really rich.:(

A for me.

A it is.