sharma Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 (edited) Hi all, I took my GMAT on 1st of this month. Got my AWA score today. Here is the detailed score: Quantitive 49 86% Verbal 42 95% Total 750 98% AWA 5.5/6.0 77% Test Experience This was first attempt. So I was little apprehensive about the notepads provided for use during the exam. Didn't have any issues with it and everything about the test went on smoothly. Took both the optional breaks. Preparation I had prepared for the entrance tests for admissions to Indian MBA program. These exams present a higher degree of difficulty level in Quant and therefore studying for GMAT (Quant section) was made relatively easier. I started preparing for GMAT about two months before the exam date. But actual preparation started when I booked the slot (about 1 month before the test). I started the preparation by attempting the GMATPrep test. It turned out to be tougher than I had expected. While I made a lot of mistakes and was pretty disturbed by the difficulty level, I scored a decent 710. Q49, V38. {This is the reason why my final GMAT score wasn't that exciting to me. I hardly made an improvement of 40 points after studying for almost two months.} I started with OG12.Completed the quant section, RCs and CRs. I wanted to go through the Manhattan SC book before attempting that section from OG. I got the ManhattanGMAT SC book and started understanding the theory. This is a must-read for any non-native test-taker. Helped me clear a lot of concepts. So much so that eventually I skipped the SC section of OG as I was scoring the most in this section in different tests. That brings me to the practice tests. MGMAT 1 9/14/2010 Q47, V39 - 700: Found it very difficult. Got 15 questions wrong in each section. On analyzing the test I realized that most of them were wrong due to silly mistakes. That gave me some consolation that I could improve on this. MGMAT 2 9/18/2010 Q46, V38 - 690: Same learnings as above. I also kept in mind that these test must be slightly more diffcult than the actual GMAT. Decided to take a test from some other agency to check this. Veritas FreeGMAT 9/20/2010 Q51, V44 - 730: Now this test was too easy and I was sure this does not reflect the actual difficulty level. But I thought the score was accurate as that Q/V breakup would have given 770 on GMAT. MGMAT 3 9/22/2010 Q48, V36 - 690: Many mistakes in Critical Reasoning. Had no option but to go on studying. GMATPrep 1 (retake) 9/24/2010 Q50, V44 - 770: Though some questions were repeated, this score did help to give a boost to the spirits. MGMAT 4 9/28/2010 Q49, V41 - 730: Three days before the actual exam. Some sign of improvements in scores. MGMAT 5 9/29/2010 Q50, V41 - 740: After learning a lot of new things from the previous four MGmats, tests were now appearing easier. MGMAT 6 9/30/2010 Q51, V45 - 780: Now this was surprising. Almost the easiest test I had ever seen. Could clearly see that there was something wrong with Manhattan Test program. I saw the details and realized that they have a limited pool of questions to be used over six CATs. This has questions belonging to different difficulty levels - 500-600, 600-700, 700-800 etc. As I had consistently scored around 700, most of my questions from the 500-600 level were unused and most of those in the higher pools were exhausted. Therefore, the last test had a majority of questions from 500-600 pool, giving a dream score of 780. How I'd have loved to see that on the final day. Anyways. This left me no time to attempt the GmatPrep2. Also, I did not want to be over-confident before entering the exam hall. So happily avoided GMATPrep2. For the last 3-4 tests, I started attempting the AWA questions too. I was having trouble concentrating during the Verbal section of the tests and the only way to get over it was to practice attempting many tests with the actual timelines. Attempting AWA thus helped a lot. Strategies from this forum and OG12 helped a lot in getting 5.5 in AWA. ----------------------- Just a few words about the books. OG12 - a great beginning point for your preparation. You just cannot miss this. Manhattan SC - First few chapters of the book are excellent. But reading it from the first page to the last won't help. I would advise people to start with the Idioms chapters as soon as possible. So there are two starting points - Chap 1 and Chap 9 (idioms). The chapters on advanced strategies are good and help bring a lot of clarity. But don't get bogged down if you don't enjoy reading all those details of English grammer - terms like Command Subjuntive, apposative, complex gerunds may be scary but understand the logic and SC will become very easy for you. ----------------------- Have spoken a lot. Will rest. Edited October 10, 2010 by sharma Typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashutoshcabm Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 (edited) Good work Edited October 7, 2010 by ashutoshcabm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
void Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 thnx varun......MGMAT illustration was good, m gonna start my MGMATs today..... do u think MGMATs were close to GMAT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharma Posted October 10, 2010 Author Share Posted October 10, 2010 thnx varun......MGMAT illustration was good, m gonna start my MGMATs today..... do u think MGMATs were close to GMAT? Hi, MGMATs were slightly more difficult than actual GMATs. I guess the reason is the same as I mentioned above (for MGMAT 6). But by attempting slightly more difficult questions, you prepare yourself well enough to attempt the actual GMAT questions with ease. So it definitely helped a lot. Regards, Sharma (not varun) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadian phd Posted October 11, 2010 Share Posted October 11, 2010 Excellent score Sharma! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatman1234 Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Sharma ji one quick question.... I started reading MGMAT SC guide but after reading first few pages I got bored and thought this is not for me. the reason might be I havnt studied grammer in my school days and I cant understand whatall written there....:( What should I do?? continue studying the book or look out for some option?? please help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharma Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'd say persist with the book for a few more pages. If you don't feel comfortable, may be you'll need to study the grammar concepts in further detail. Or you may try attempting the SC section of OG. Check if attempting problems helps you understand the underlying concepts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharma13 Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 hi i am appearing for GMAT in just about under a month, i went through lot of forums, as a result i am too much confused and totally clueless about the strategy or the books to be followed. can u please let me know about the Books to be followed Tests that should be given if you do have any other notes etc. can you please share them with me. my quant is decent as i am an engineer and prepared for CAT(IIMs one). I live in delhi and would really like to have a word with you. can you please pass me ur number. i really wud appreciate the effort if you decide to help me out.. thanx in advamnce :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hswaspirant Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Excellent score. Your MGMAT practice test scores went up and up consistently. No wonder you achieved a 750 on the actual test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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