Just got back from the test center not too long ago. I first took the GMAT last year and scored a 610. I wasnt really surprised by the score given I didnt really prepare well for the quant side, but actually spent a serious amount of time studying this time since around the beginning of the summer. I basically lost my entire summer preparing for this test, forgoing the things I love to do outside like cycling and rowing and was instead couped up in my flat studying. I guess it paid off, just not as much as I'd hoped it would.
I re-read all the
MGMAT guides, did all the questions in the
OG, and bought the
GMAT club tests to practice with. I did well in undergrad and have always been good at math, but for some reason really struggle with the GMAT style. To say I hate this test would be a complete understatement. For the rest of my life I will be rooting for the GRE to overtake GMAT in usage just so I can see the wizards at GMAC defeated, the way they try and get everyone who takes this test to be.
During the real test, I actually thought math was going really well as I could follow the logic on most of the problems. I think the difficulty was at par with GMATprep but then again maybe I was lucky, i didnt see a single question on probability or mixtures, two areas I didnt bother studying for because I knew it would be an uphill battle. Verbal, for some reason, felt like the most miserable thing possible. I was convinced I was at around a V20 because most of the stuff was ridiculously worded and incoherent, but that was probably because i got the first few right and it started throwing nonsense at me (i'm a native english speaker but I dont think this is fair to non native speakers, if anyone spoke english in the way the gmat tests they would be slapped).
I had an interesting reaction when I saw my score, almost completely neutral. Any higher and I would've been ecstatic, any lower and I would've been really upset. Long story short, I hate this test and am not sure I want to put myself through this hell just to get above the 700 mark. I'm applying to the toughest schools in the world but I'm going to have to assume they take my whole package into account. Round 2 is only 2 months away and I just cant see this being a worthwhile endeavor. That being said my math is abysmal and in the 60th percentile Curious to hear the club's thoughts on the matter, and want to thank everyone for the help so far. If i can help in any way (obviously not with quant!) let me know.
-Ken