I just Beat The GMAT!

hi Guys.. I am done with gmat.. scored a 740(q50, v40), awa 6.0 . I am thankful to this great site.. I have been a member of this site for more than a year. Being a non-native speaker, I really cannot tell you how I was in Verbal when I started my gmat prep. I have learnt a lot during my preparation. It would be great if I can be of some help to you guys. Thanks once again for making this site such a wonderful place of sharing ideas.

Congrats !! That's really an awesome score What's your strategy for verbal ?

Hi Ankur,

Congrats, I am also a non-native speaker and got a very low in my 1st MGMAT CAT test. Please let me know what books you studied for verbal. I am using MGMAT SC,RC and CR. But I feel the content is too overwhelming. With a full time job, 2kids at home, I feel the MGMAT guides would take me an eternity to finish. What study guides did you use and pls explain your strategy.

Thanks,
Bharath S

Thanks sam2304 and bharathS.. I understand that verbal is the biggest challenge for non-native speakers. However, the verbal tested on the gmat can be learned. GMAT tests only certain concepts.
To start with, SC has a very high scope of improvement. I did MGMAT SC guide. It has got, probably, all the grammar rules that are tested on the gmat.you should complete this book 3-4 times. Believe me, you will be able to extract something new, everytime you revise this book. But one serious piece of advice: please allow yourself sometime so that these SC Concepts get absorbed in your mind. By the time u have covered all your verbal theories, these concepts should become secondary in nature for you. The SC errors will be evident, most of the time, automatically.

CR
Initially, I thought that there's some kind of logic for every possible CR question. But, it is not so. Relying on formal logics for solving CR questions is very dangerous. Instead, focus on getting the right meaning of the argument. Prephase it. Then come up with your answer. This might take you to the right answer in majority of the cases. However, there are certain logical flaws that can be relied upon such as CAUSE and EFFECT, causality, and wrong interpretation of statistics etc. Do as many problems as you can. But again, this is the biggest discovery in my entire GMAT preparation. No other testprep company's CR is close to GMAT CR. GMAT employs very clear logic that is understandable. Their CR questions do not confuse the reader. So rely on OG-12, OG VERBAL, and GMATPREP Tests for the actual thing.

RC:
Do not get into the passage. You have to figure out the structure of the passage. However, while reading, you should make note of what-things-appear-where in the passage. Figure out the logic of the RC. Atlast, you should be able to tell 'what and why is the author saying this'.. Many RC questions can be answered based on your understanding of the logic of the RC. Just following this may result in great improvement. I must tell you that I did not read wallstreet journal or economic times. I am neither a voracious reader. I think that RC is really about getting the meaning and the logic of the passage.

Hope this helps.

Excellent score congrats !!
few questions:

What were your breakup scores in the mocks that you gave ?
and how did you manage the last week before actual gmat?
What did you do for AWA ? you scored a perfect 6 there.

Thanks ngufo06. These are my mock scores:
april 11: kaplan CAT 1 540 (q51, v24)
19/12/11: mgmat cat1 730 (q48, v41) --> untimed
26/12/11: master gmat(d)700-720 (q49-50, v38-40)
02/01/12: Kaplan diagnostic 700 (q51, v36)
06/01/12: Knewton Diagnostic 720 (q47, v42)
11/01/12: MGMAT CAT2 680(Q48, V34)
11/01/12: MGMAT CAT3 700(Q45, V40)
21/02/12: Kaplan CAT2 620(Q50, V30)
01/03/12: GMAT PREP1 750(Q48, v45)
09/03/12: MGMAT CAT4 730(Q48, V42)
12/03/12: Knewton CAT4 770(q51, v44)
16/03/12: Knewton CAT5 720(q49, v38)
17/03/12: MGMAT CAT5 700(Q45, v40)
18/03/12: GMAT PREP2 750(Q50, V40)
19/03/12: GMAT PREP1(REPEAT) 780(Q48, V47)
21/03/12: Real GMAT 740(q50, v40)

no test other than GMAT PREP is close to the actual thing. So, please do not rely on the scores of other source's cats. Do them for practicing concepts and improving timings.

AWA: I was really scared of this thing. I could not spend much time on this. I saw the template by chineseburned. I think that worked for me. Most important thing to know is that: A Grader rates the awa essays. One should use a good logical essay structure and put as many keywords as possible. These keywords decide the flow of the essay. Also, write as many words as possible, preferably more than 500. For example:
1)Find two or three flaws in the evidences
2)What are the assumptions, and why are these assumptions not sound
3)How the argument is weak
4)How can it be strengthened
5)Cite atleast 1 example.
6)Conclusion

Probably these things worked out for me.

Hi sbharath,
When do you plan to take the exam

being non-native speakers(m an indian), we tend to focus less on the GMAT Quant section. During my preparation, I noted that this attitude was not allowing me to cross the Q48 on most of the CATS. My advice is that One should focus on this section too. Certain time management skills are needed to be put in place. Otherwise one may end up getting Q48 or less despite having all conceptual knowledge. You should have 'time left' vs 'questions' chart. This really helps.

It's great to read a story that you can relate to, and hopefully emulate! Congrats on the great score!