GMAT Attempt 2 : 770 Q50 V44 IR 8

[aditya.u.shetty]

Hi All,

I took the GMAT for the second time today, my previous score(Test Date:3rd Feb 2014) is 680 (q49 v34 ir7 awa6)

Background : Computer Engineer from India. 3-4 months of prep scattered across Dec'13 - Jun'14. Had joined Princeton review in 2011 but didn't really attend. Non native with strong quant background and proficient in written and spoken english.


Just wanted to share a few things that might help prospective test takers.

1. I found the Manhattan material extremely useful. Especially the books on verbal (SC,RC,CR). I was extremely bad at SC and the rules and explanations in the Manhattan material were extremely useful. Having debated through college life I was fairly comfortable with CR - but I found the Least Extreme Negation technique particularly useful to pick between close answer choices. On RC again, I found the technique to pick out the 'Main Purpose' of a passage extremely useful especially because I used to find that question annoyingly vague and almost every choice would seem to fit. The structured approach in the RC book really helped me get over those.

2. However, I found the Manhattan Tests very non representative of my true ability and a lot harder than the Official GMAT Prep tests.


My GMAT Prep Scores : 710 & 750(one day before the actual GMAT)
Manhattan : 640 - 690 (Avg : 680)

I would still recommend taking the tests extremely seriously especially because the explanation provided for each question is fantastic and was one of my major sources for improvement.

I would however suggest that you don't take your score on this test too seriously, at least that's how it turned out for me.

Additional Sources:
Veritas Prep SC (Part 1- Part 4) videos on Youtube were extremely useful
The Magoosh Blog was helpful for certain specific issues


The way I improved my verbal score by 10 points was by reading in detail the solution to EVERY question, not just the ones I got wrong.I tried to leave nothing to chance, especially on SC. I looked up minute differences between things like, the use of 'because' vs 'caused by', the correct and incorrect usage of 'that', the correct usage of 'which'. A very simple way to get this is by simply typing these questions as wordy as they might seem, directly into the google search bar, there usually are blogs that have the answers.

Having said that, I want to thank all the people who posted on this and other blogs. I have found answers, inspiration and comfort here.

Wish everyone all the best with their GMAT. Please feel free to ask any more questions about prep/approach etc.