Sunday, July 08, 2007

Kaplan GMAT Test 3 - , Am i still away from my dream?

I am posting after a very long time now.....Anyways, will put a separate post for what all has been going on in my life, this post is just for the test i wrote today - Kaplan GMAT test 3.

After a long time i wrote a full length GMAT test and chose to write Kaplan CD test. I wrote the test 3 since i have already written first two tests.
Since it was very difficult to give test at home ( can't maintain concentration at home for 3 hours) so i went to library to give the test. It was very quiet. In fact, in the beginning i was feeling very sleepy.

Quant started with an easy question, but after that next 11 questions i got were from DS....and after every question there was an increase in the difficulty level. Anyways Quant went fine overall. I believed i had done well and i just thought that i will only get a few DS questions wrong. I finished the Quantitative section with 8 minutes remaining.

Verbal started with a boom, the first question was a SC and it was very very tough. Somehow answered that after 2 minutes, but i was highly unsure. Second question was a CR and again it was dicey and i lost another 3 minutes here. But after that a few questions seemed fine, which made me believe that i have answered first 2 questions wrong.
I decided not to think about what has happened and instead to concentrate in the present question. Overall the verbal question was difficult., and i was feeling short of time in the end. When i was on 30th question only 16 minutes were remaining. I decided to increase my speed but was stuck with a RC on 34. This time i just read the questions first and took a quick scan of the passage and marked the 3 questions very fast. Now i was on Q37 and time remaining was 4 minutes. But now i was going at good speed and finished Verbal with 1.5 minutes remaining.
So i think my speed was satisfactory.

Results:-

660 ( Q- 50, V- 36)

Quant :
Wrong - 3 (Q 24, 31, 35)
The first question i maked wrong was Q-24 . So that was good performance i think:)
Also i marked only 1 DS question wrong (Q 35), rest 2 were of PS. So overall this section went good

Verbal:
Right - 29
Wrong - 12 ( Q - 1,2, 14,15,16, 22, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, 40)

As expected i marked first 2 questions wrong :(:(. This proved to be my nemesis.
But thank god i marked next 12 question right else my score would been very scary.
But again 14,15,16 - 3 consecutive questiions wrong - this again was very bad since consecutive mistakes plummets the score faster. And there were some regular alternat mistakes after Q- 29.
Overall i will say if first 2 questions would not have been wrong, i would have done much much better in this test.

Anyways, right now i know i have to practice a lot in order to achieve my dream score and i need to be regular. Also i plan to give 1 more test and then take the GMAT date. Since there are 3 centres where i can give the test ( SFo, San Jose, Oakland) i think i will be able to get the dates for August easily.

Any comments and suggestions from the fellow bloggers who have already taken the GMAT will really help me and are really welcome.
Ok friends till the next one, cya....


Verbal

9 comments:

Wannabe said...

Whoa! Your quant is really quite something. Especially when you take into account that Kaplan's tests are harder than the GMAT (from what I understand).

Use the Manhattan GMAT sentence correction/verbal books to help you. Guess you just have to internalize the SC.

Anonymous said...

hey, good luck on your gmat? when is your test scheduled? what are your target schools?

gltnforpnshmnt

www.ithinkillgotoboston.com

mbabound08 said...

Sounds like you're pretty ready for the GMAT. 660 on Kaplan is a really high score, considering how ridiculous the questions are and how low the scoring usually is.

Good luck!

BTW there's no parking at the SF location. So, unless you live in the city, it isn't the most convenient location.

Achilles said...

@wannabe
Yeah i think i need more practice in SC, infact whole verbal section. This is the first time i did well in RC. Though i had lowest accuracy in CR in this test. I need to practice some more material in CR and SC.

@anonymous - Thanks for your wishes. I am about to take the date. Will take a date 1 month from now i.e sometime in mid August.

@mbabound08
Thanks for info buddy..yeah i too dont wnat to give it in SFo. Its 35 miles from my home. I am pretty close San Jose center, So that will be my first choice.

One thing about Kaplan scores is that even if you score ok you still dont get confident because of the wierd questions :)

Zephyr said...

Thats a stunning score...I dont think you need to worry at all.

My highest with these ridiculous Kaplan tests has been a 610 :)

For Verbal - I strongly recommend Kaplans Verbal Workbook and Mahattan SC.

Good luck!

Achilles said...

@zephyr
Thanks for the comment. Yeah i already have the Manhattan SC with me now. just started with it. Its really good. Also i was thinking of buying the Kaplan verbal workout, is the quality of questions good in that?

Preet said...

Hi Achilles,

I am done selecting my schools. My main schools are Wharton, Columbia, Duke Fuqua, Chicago, ISB and I have kept NUS and NTU for safety.
I may also apply to Stern, LBS and HKUST in the second round....

How is ur preparation going on. When are u taking it.

Hope u r doing great. All the best and keep in touch.....

Preet said...

Hi Achilles,

Am looking at Finance heavy schools. I wanna get into Sales and Trading. Actually I am not a career switcher. My first job was in to Trading itself and right I am doing Structuring for an Investment Bank. But my passion still lies in Trading because it requires lot of mental strength to be a good trader. Ofcourse thats only my short term goals...
I would want to get in to the MArketing and Sales side as well later on in life.....
I have kept ISB and some Asian schools because Asian markets are picking up. ISB is more of a safety school although compeition for ISB seems to be as tough as it is in Top 5 B Schools. And because the immigration situation in the US is very uncertain, even if we get a job its not necessary one would the work permit (H1B). I know two wharton graduates who got jobs and didnt get H1B. They are currently both posted in Tokyo because of this issue, another girl from Stern who didnt get a job itself because of the same reason.
I hope things get better after 3 years....

All the best for ur gmat. Ur Kaplan scores rock....

Keep in touch....

Shobhit said...

From experience, I can say that 660 on a Kaptest is a great score!!
You're on your way for a 750+ score..