genius_in_the_gene Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 I did the same mistake and that cost me a lot. I took too much time solving all the problems and at the end I had 7 mins left for 12 problems. Ended up below 40 :-(. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ankitharish Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 Great Job Shoebite.Best of luck with ur apps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoebite Posted October 19, 2008 Author Share Posted October 19, 2008 Shoebite, For the benefit of all.. please share it with us also :) Well.. I'm no expert on RC, nor do I have any substantial advice, but still copy-pasting my reply to kool_sunny here, 'for the benefit of all' :) Please note that I was asked how possibly one can strenghten RC in 2 weeks. My reply- "Now, if only RC is your nemesis, while you're confident of CR and SC, then you might consider trying out the various RC tips and tricks available around. But if all the topics are so-so, then concentrate on SC and CR first. This is because you can always learn to overpower these two topics, while RC is almost always generic.. it usually takes an inherent reading skill which might not be developed overnight. Having said that, it's still upto you to decide how to prepare best. VA was my forte, and reading my passion, so I never did any prep for RC per se.. so can't comment on how much the 1000 RC sets will help. You might wanna consider developing a tactic first and then practise the RC's available on this thread. They'll help building your stamina. And honestly, there are at the most only 4 RC passages in the real test, 2 of which should be short ones. Keeping all this in mind, time your prep. Don't just spend all the next 2 weeks solving the 1000 sets or something, instead try and strengthen your VA on the whole." HTH! Shoebite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoebite Posted October 19, 2008 Author Share Posted October 19, 2008 Great Job Shoebite.Best of luck with ur apps. Thanks a lot! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibelieveican Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 :) thx shoebite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalishah84 Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 Excellent score man. Congratulations. CAn you please suggest any place where I can practice good tough RC. I hear quite often that RC on the GMAT are actually tougher than GMAT Prep and that is where people generally mess up. Also I realy suck at SCs. I got a 700 in first GMAT Prep and out of the 18 errors that I made about 10-11 were in SCs. Any way to improve on that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoebite Posted October 31, 2008 Author Share Posted October 31, 2008 Excellent score man. Congratulations. CAn you please suggest any place where I can practice good tough RC. I hear quite often that RC on the GMAT are actually tougher than GMAT Prep and that is where people generally mess up. Also I realy suck at SCs. I got a 700 in first GMAT Prep and out of the 18 errors that I made about 10-11 were in SCs. Any way to improve on that? Thank you :) About RC practice, I'm not the right person to ask. I'm a passionate reader and never really did anything for RC. But as far as I realized from the 2 GMATs I wrote, there's not much significant difference in the difficulty levels of GPREP RCs and those on the real exam. It's not like you're gonna get an obscenely long RC on the G-day as opposed to what you usually get on mocks. RC practise should be done for stamina and concentration, and if you can get your GPREP ques right, there's no reason why you wouldn't ace this topic on the G-day. Even then, please feel free to ask around. About SC, much can be done if you get your idioms right. I like the Mahattan SC pretty much.. there are lots of nice pointers and a long list of idioms which more than suffices. Of course, you should pracise a lot once your basics are clear. This could be through books, mocks or simply by participating in discussions on the various SC threads here on TM. The last one helped me a lot. Two reasons- one, the questions people post here are from varied sources, so you don't really have to go about hunting them elsewhere. And two, once you put forth your choice alongwith explns(which is a must!) and read others' reasonings, your understanding of the various SC rules gets better and better. Also, there's a lot of material up for grabs here on the forum. Browse and download and take advatange of it if you have enough time. Else try out my suggestions and you'll surely improve. All the best to you! Shoebite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokie Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 shoebite -- thanks so much for your diligence in helping to answer our questions! I have been busy preparing, and haven't had time to write back. Everyone: I take my GMAT a week from Tuesday - any last minute advice? Thanks and Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoebite Posted November 1, 2008 Author Share Posted November 1, 2008 It's my pleasure to be able to help, Hokie! I'd like to give you a few tips that might help you on the G-day. 1) Keep your nerves cool on the test day. Ideally, you should give yours brains a rest the day before the exam. So don't keep cramming formulae etc till the last minute. But yes, you could revise a few things(if you've jotted down some pointers somewhere) on the day before. 2) Do not mismanage time at all on any section. This can affect your scores greatly. 3) Take advatange of the optional breaks. Even if you don't need to use them, do go out for 5 mins, give yourself pep talk, take a bite/drink if needed, and most importantly, appear for the next section as if you're starting the test anew. On my 2nd exam also, I'd kinda screwed up my quant. But I took the break to shake myself outta the negativity, and did well on VA. 4) Do not take more than 2 mocks during this last week. Preferably, take GPREP as the last one. 5) If there's any topic still left in which you feel unconfident, spare a few hours to work on that. But avoid trying to assimilate too much new info during this week. 6) Remain calm and composed from now till you get out of the test centre finally. Remember, it's just a test at the end of the day. I hope more people will pitch in with their helpful pointers as well. I wish you all the best, and am looking fwd to reading your debrief soon :) Shoebite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibelieveican Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 just one thing.. Believe that you will do well because you are what you believe :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalishah84 Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 wow...great advice from shoebite...thanks a lot shoebite for answering our questions in such a great manner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokie Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 THANKS shoebite! This is great advice, and I have looked at it a few times already in my email to reassure me that I am doing the right things. I really appreciate your responsiveness and thoughtfulness. I have been trying to listen to shoebite's advice not to study too much new material. I took the Kaplan practice test at the center (690), and that helped with logistics for the big day. I also timed myself while completing 40 of the med-hard questions in the OG quant section last night, and it killed my confidence a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokie Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Shoebite -- wanted to let you know, I took the GMAT yesterday and I scored 700. Not exactly the barrier-breaker I wanted, but completely sufficient. In any case, I had a really rocky quant section, and your advice to stay calm kept running in my head. Many thanks, and good luck to you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibelieveican Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Hokie.. that is great.. congrats.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoebite Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 Shoebite -- wanted to let you know, I took the GMAT yesterday and I scored 700. Not exactly the barrier-breaker I wanted, but completely sufficient. In any case, I had a really rocky quant section, and your advice to stay calm kept running in my head. Many thanks, and good luck to you!! Hey congrats! 700 is as good as 720, cuz you've reached that elusive 7--mark :) I think you have a very cool score, so just try to cash in on it now. In fact, lemme know if you're apping this year(guess that'll be for R2 only). I'm kinda clueless on the apping thing right now, so will be needing all the help I can gather here! Post your debrief man. Congrats once again and all the best! Shoebite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaTum Posted November 15, 2008 Share Posted November 15, 2008 It's my pleasure to be able to help, Hokie! I'd like to give you a few tips that might help you on the G-day. 1) Keep your nerves cool on the test day. Ideally, you should give yours brains a rest the day before the exam. So don't keep cramming formulae etc till the last minute. But yes, you could revise a few things(if you've jotted down some pointers somewhere) on the day before. 2) Do not mismanage time at all on any section. This can affect your scores greatly. 3) Take advatange of the optional breaks. Even if you don't need to use them, do go out for 5 mins, give yourself pep talk, take a bite/drink if needed, and most importantly, appear for the next section as if you're starting the test anew. On my 2nd exam also, I'd kinda screwed up my quant. But I took the break to shake myself outta the negativity, and did well on VA. 4) Do not take more than 2 mocks during this last week. Preferably, take GPREP as the last one. 5) If there's any topic still left in which you feel unconfident, spare a few hours to work on that. But avoid trying to assimilate too much new info during this week. 6) Remain calm and composed from now till you get out of the test centre finally. Remember, it's just a test at the end of the day. I hope more people will pitch in with their helpful pointers as well. I wish you all the best, and am looking fwd to reading your debrief soon :) Shoebite. This is great advice indeed. I will keep it in my mind when I take the GMAT next time. Thanks very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrak mrakov Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Shoebite, thanks for all your advices, they all are really valuable and sharing your experience has inspired me. I took my real GMAT last week and I was really disappointed to see 600 pionts (QA49, VA23). My GMAT Prep pratice tests had been 670 and 680. And it was great surprise to see only 600. Obviously something get wrong with the verbal part. But now after reading all this I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am realy motivated to have GMAT again. This time I hope much more successfully. Thanks again for the topic and wish you success in applying for the propgrams you wish. And I wish success to all of you too, who read this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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