GMAT 730 (96%), Q50(93%), V38(83%)

[abhishek.jindal007]

So Finally the D-day came and gone.
I wrote my GMAT on 10/11/2009 and scored 730 (96%) -- Q50(93%) , V38(83%) :-D
And all the credit goes to stacey's & Ron's wonderful explanations. U guys are simply awesome!!

This was my second attempt at GMAT, in the first I scored 660(83%).

There are other forums for GMAT but the best thing about MGMAT is that here the explanations by Ron/Stacey are to the point, I mean there is no doubt left after Stacey/Ron has replied to the thread.

I Also used MGMAT practice tests. MGMAT tests are tough but the analysis at the end of the test is very good, the average diffulty of questions you got right/wrong is very important. Initially i used to think that my SC is week but then i realized looking at the score report that the average difficulty of questions i got wrong was less for CR & RC and then focussed on CR & RC. Also the categorisation of every question by level of difficulty let me know where I'm lacking.
The most important point about GMAT is that if you are not getting 600-700 level questions right u'll not reach the 700-800 level, hence there is no use of practicing the toughest questions if u are not getting the easier questions right.

I used OG 11, OG 12, MGMAT SC & MGMAT Practice Tests this time i didn't used GMAT prep as most of the questions are repeats from OG.

[alyssapremji]

Thanks for sharing. I am in a similar situation as you were, I am planning on retaking the test soon as I initially scored a 680. Could you be more specific as to what you did differently in your study approach in order to improve 70 points? How much time did you give yourself to study between the two exams?

Thanks

[abhishek.jindal007]

This time i was more focussed on finding mistakes and correcting them.
I used Powerscore CR bible <a very good book for CR if u have time plz do it> this time, this book has categorised the different CR question types and how to attack them.
I made a habit to search the questions which i got wrong on different forums (gmatclub.com beathegmat.com but i always searched first on MGMAT forum as here the instructors answered the questions while on others forums people like you and me speculate the answers which leads to confusion sometimes), few times i even searched the question which i got right just to chk whether i used the right logic.
To increase my reading speed i started reading Daily newspaper and if i got time i used to read the most boring articles (most of the times u'll find the most boring passage u can ever imagine staring at u on ur GMAT exam) on nytimes.com scientificamerican.com econimist newyorker.com etc. Also developed a habit of skimming the text so that i can search the text in passage for specific questions in minimum time.

For quant this time as well as the last time i didnt practice permutations/combinations and probability as i was very week in these topics so instead of wasting any time i left them as my other quant topics were pretty strong.

MY last attempt was on 1 july 09 i.e. apprx 4 mnths back but this time i didn't get much time to study as was very bzy in office, still tried to spare atlst 1 hr daily. Do not take a major break(more than a week) in between your prep thats wat i learned from my last attempt. If not more then atlst 5-10 questions daily!

At the end of my preparation I started using GMAT timer (gmatclub.com) so as to keep a track of time esp. for RC passages (u shud not take more than 3.5 min to read a passage)

And as everyone has said and everyone knows OG is the godmother of all the material so do it thoroughly atleast for SC.

The bottom line is that the number of questions you do doesn't matter but the quality of questions which u did and how much u learned from ur mistakes is the only thing that matters.

Please PM me if u want to ask anythng else :-)
Best of luck for ur prep!!

[sd]

Abhishek,

Can you please recheck your percentiles.....scored actually more than you verbal...but got an overall score of 720. If you dont believe me...see my post just prior to your post..

I took the GMAT on Nov 11....
Here are my scores

720 (94%)
Q50 (93%)
V39 (87%)

As you can my Quant is exact same as yours....verbal is actually 1 scaled point more than yours, but yet my final score is only 720 less than your score of 730.

Please can you recheck your printed score paper that you recieve when you come out of your exam day......otherwise this is going to kill me through out today....I can't stop thinking....how is this possible?

[abhishek.jindal007]

Abhishek,

Can you please recheck your percentiles.....scored actually more than you verbal...but got an overall score of 720. If you dont believe me...see my post just prior to your post..

I took the GMAT on Nov 11....
Here are my scores

720 (94%)
Q50 (93%)
V39 (87%)

As you can my Quant is exact same as yours....verbal is actually 1 scaled point more than yours, but yet my final score is only 720 less than your score of 730.

Please can you recheck your printed score paper that you recieve when you come out of your exam day......otherwise this is going to kill me through out today....I can't stop thinking....how is this possible?

Hi sd
When i was posting the first post even i was confused but checked on other forums and people have scored exactly the same in Q & V and made it to 730...
Few links below and if u search u can find even more :-

http://greschool.com/2009/10/21/i-just-beat-the-gmat-730-q-50-v38/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/730-q-50-v38-t47009.html
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/gmat-and-related-discussions/18120-gmat-730-q50-v38-2.html
http://www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-gmat/125040-730-gmat-q50-v38-awa-5-5-retake.html
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/retake-the-gmat-730-q50-v38-t7314.html

Also Just Chk this link
http://gmatclub.com/forum/700-clubbers-add-your-name-to-the-list-64636.html?view-post=472946#p472946

kman 710 50 38

This guy Kman has exactly the same split up but he scored 710...
Other ppl have also observed the same thing about GMAT scoring (search on other forums)...May be for 51 u need many more answers correct then those for 50 (as a score of 50.5 is not possible), so instead of giving 99% in Quants GMAT awards u by raising ur total score. Because in GMAT 1 number in QV doesnt correspond to 1 correct answer as the difficulty of every question is different( remember these are scaled scores).
These are all my thoughts and ii dont know if i'm thinking in the right direction!