D-Day
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Hi PGites
My journey for cracking the MBA entrance scenario began six months back, when I started preparing for CAT I would regularly visit this site and compare my Sim-CAT scores with others to follow my progress But things didnt go off too well for me on D-day My splits were –
Quant – 77 percentile
DI – 92 percentile
Verbal – 99 percentile
Couldnt make it through any of the IIMs, so decided to try my luck at GMAT Decided to take a month to prepare for it and give it my best shot
Just gave GMAT yesterday … And man! Am I relieved its all over! … The worst part about preparing for GMAT was that, unlike CAT, I would know what my score is within minutes of giving the test … And the result of my hard work will either pay off or go down the drain … And in the end, it did pay off! … I got a 760, and the world has just turned a shade of rosy pink! …
I wanted to share my experience with PG … Hopefully it might benefit a few others who are looking to break into the 700s …
What I studied
The Official Guide –
Absolutely essential … Especially for Verbal … I did only the last 100 questions or so for Quant … But solve each and every question in Verbal … And dont simply solve the questions … Understand why or why not …
Kaplan CD –
Tests are OK, though low scoring … Lessons are good for review … Good to practise Quant from here, as the questions are above the OG level … If youre aiming for above 700, get very comfortable with toughies … RCs are very bad! … The lengthy psycho-abstract mumbo-jumbo they give is nowhere near the standard of the actual GMAT … Theyll throw you off …
Princeton –
Verbal is good … especially SC … The rules are very clearly laid out … Too few problems to practice in their Bins, though … Quant isnt that good … AWA explanation was also the best among all the material I referred to …
ARCO –
Didnt observe anything extraordinary here … Just solved all the questions for practice …
What I did not study
Barrons –
Kindly abstain … Words are not enough to describe the Barrons experience …
The tests I took
While giving tests, its very important that you give the whole thing in one sitting, under a controlled environment … The sooner you start giving essays with your tests, the better it is … Get used to the four hour environment … And spend a respectable amount of time analysing your results … Not just the ones you got wrong, but also the ones you got right … Find out if you got them right for the right reasons …
PowerPrep –
The accepted method to start your GMAT prep is with a PP test … People told me that the score you get here is what you will ultimately end up with … I got 730 in the first one and 750 in the second one … Both Quant and Verbal were definitely much more simpler here than most of the questions I encountered in the actual GMAT … But be sure to finish the two tests before you start your OG, as all questions are repeated …
Kaplan –
Like I mentioned, scores are low here … I got 640, 650 and 630 … My accuracy was about 50% in both RC and CR … Just couldnt identify with most of the solutions they gave … Refrain from taking them a week before GMAT if low scores bring you down easily … Very good analysis for results, though …
Princeton –
I wasnt very impressed with the tests they gave on the CD … Well, I did not have a net connection on the computer where I gave my tests, so I could not check my results for the two Princeton CATs I took … So I cant comment on their analysis …
How I studied
Started off with a PP … Then sat down to finish all the Non OG material … Princeton, Arco, Kaplan CD … Took the other PP … Finally sat down with OG during the last week and solved each and every problem systematically …
Here are some strategies I picked up during the course of my prep