Sunday, July 24, 2005

Update on GMAT preparations

Work and GMAT are about the only things running in my life right now so here is an update on one of them.

I have been doing reasonably well in quant section but faltering on the verbal.

Here are the results of some practice tests that I have taken until today.

Test Descrp. Quant Verbal Total
Powerprep-1 (SS)47, 31 V (SS)31,22 650
Kaplan Diag. 18/26 22/28 650
Kaplan Paper 34 27 660
Kaplan CAt-1 24 21 560
Crack GMAT-1 33 24 640
Crack GMAT-2 31 23 630

I did write a test today morning and got 710, so I am thrilled about it.
Powerprep-2 SS49 SS37 710

I am pretty confident about my quant skills and feel certain to achieve 95%ile or higher. Though, Kaplan Cat-1 score is cause of concern as I thought I did fine that time too.
Seeing the trend, I have been focusing on my verbal and in course of my studies I realized that English grammar or at least the GMAT grammar is based on set of well defined rules. Until now I used to think that it goes more on how correct it sounds (I learnt that those are called idiomatic) with some rules here and there. So what one needs to do is to understand these rules and remember them while reading the sentences. This helps answer question easily. However ETS is clever enough to disguise and complicate the sentences so that you find it difficult to identify these mistakes. Some Practice should help here.

I did learn from friends that they were also getting similar scores in practice tests and ended up scoring lot more in actual GMAT. However I cannot take this for granted.

Okay, time to go for a swim and then back to GMAT preps...

10 Comments:

Anonymous said...

You're headed in the right direction, Anand... don't lose focus... like you said "don't take this for granted."

Just continue to persevere...

Dave for MBA said...

Looking good. Proud of you man.

divinemissN said...

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Anonymous said...

Don't want to burst you bubble. This is more of an FYI - I took 4 took PowerPrep CAT's (2 on CD and 2 free Summer ones) and got a range from 660- 710. When I took the real deal on Thursday i got a 560 :( so depressing.

Anand said...

All,
Thanks for theencouragement
and anonymous thats what i am gaurding against and hence i did mention that i can't assume or take it for granted.

PowerYogi said...

good luck, Anand. Practice always makes perfect, and you have the right attitude. I best I did on any Kaplan test was like a 650 or 660 but scored much higher on the real one. that's not saying anything, except maybe that the key is to keep at it and not let the test scores bog you down.

MBABlogger said...

Dont worry too much abt what can go wrong.. try to focus on improving ur verbal skills.. And hey why not make up on the areas u think u get wrong in quants.. I am sure it must be just careless mistakes.. take the quants score a bit higher too.. It can be of grt help..
And Best of luck ..

Kiran said...

hey nice scores.. more focus and u will go right ahead. SHOOOOOOOOOOOT

MBABlogger said...

how is it going anand.. long time no updates :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Anand,

My name is Vi and i'm workin' for an MNC in India.I am plannin' to take my GMAT this year.But beofore that i just wanna ask you what is the plus in takin' the exam in the months of june or july and why not if we take durin' other periods of time?

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