Hi to one and all!!..
I had written my GMAT on November 9,2010.
Location: Chennai, India
Jul 2010 - November 2010
I am working in a company outside my home country, my company deals with environment solutions and i work in the renewable energy division (SOLAR, WIND....)... i am 23 years old and not married (obviously)....so i spent a lot of time dealing with office stuff, i preprared for GMAT on the weekends, and on the nights after work.
This was my schedule:
Everyday: about 20 SC's, 20 CR's & 1 AWA
Weekends: 40 SC's, 40 CR's & 2 AWA's
This schedule went from Jul 2010 - Sep 2010
From Sep 2010
Everyday: 20 SC's, 20 CR's & 75 Quant
Weekends: 20 SC's, 20 CR's & 200 Quant
This schedule was from Sep 2010 - Nov 2010
To be frank, i was not keeping up with this schedule, but it made me study nonetheless....i was able to do the SC's & CR's properly. I did only about 30-40 quant per day including the weekends.
My ADVISE: please keep a schedule, dont worry abt whether you follow it or not. It will subconsciously motivate you to study. it will create a guilty feeling within you if you dont keep up....which will ultimately make you study more....so always maintain a schedule according to your work timings and other distractions and try to keep up with it.. DONT BE CRUEL ON YOURSELF...
the hype on GMAT is because of the competition, not because of the difficulty...the test is easy...u just have to get your head in the proper place and concentrate on it...many ppl would suggest studying for 6 hrs or 8 hrs per day, i am not one of them....i would suggest to get a good solid head start....say 6 months before exam and study 2 hrs every weekday and 4 hrs every weekend.....(DILIGENTLY)...this is more than enough...
Stopping with the advise and moving on.....
THE GMAT EXAM
As usual with all competitive exams, i had spent a lot of time the night before looking at key concepts and working on my AWA strategies. I also worked on a sample test paper (TIMED)
November 9,2010
I got up early (exam was scheduled at 9:00 AM).....got ready and reached the test center by 7:45 AM, was not that nervous..since i had prepared well for the exam...went inside the test center.. did all the usual pre-exam stuff (screening, passport, fingerprint etc...), started the exam by 9:05 AM, started with the AWA section....
AWA SECTION:
For the AWA, i had actually prepared from
OG and i had also looked into the GMAT Write Application which gave you a fair assumption of your true score. i suggest this software to everyone as it is a good tool to asess your performance (Really)
I spent 2 mins in jotting down points and examples for my AWA, 26 mins in writing the entire thing and the last 2 mins in checking for any grammatical or spelling errors. This was my strategy for both the AWA's and the first thing i did when i looked at the issue and the argument was EXAMPLES: giving good enough examples to support or negate the given topics.
AWA SCORE: 6.0
Preparation Time: Aug 2010 - Sep 2010
Materials:
OG 12, GMAT Write
VERBAL SECTION:
Verbal had always been my weak-point. I have always struggled in verbal...which brings us down to my verbal in GMAT.. i had actually concentrated all of the 6 months that i prepared on Verbal, practising CR's & SC's. I Spent a lot of time on
MGMAT SC and believe me it helped, even though i didnt get a good enough verbal score, the SC still helped mea lot, i would have got much lesser if it werent for the
MGMAT tutorials.....coming back to the exam... i spent a good quality of time on each section analysing each and every word in the question before commiting to an answer, i spent all of my alloted time and i finished verbal at the lat minute.
VERBAL: 35
Preparation Time: Jul 2010 - November 2010
MAterials:
MGMAT, 1000SC, 1000CR,
OG 12th Edition.
Note: the
OG 12th edition & 1000 series are repetitive with many questions in the 1000 series taken from the
OG.
QUANTITATIVE SECTION:
I was not worried much about quant.. it was one of my strong points.....i spent lesser time than verbal in quant during the preparation phase. i had worked out all the questions in the difficult series of the
GMATClub tests and even tried out some of the normal ones...during the exam...i just analysed the later questions as they were coming to ascertain their difficulty. This would give you a fair interpretation as to whether your previous answer was right or wrong(Adaptive Difficulty!!)...i finished this section 5 minutes before the allotted time.
QUANTITATIVE SECTION: 50
Preparation Time: Sep 2010 - November 2010
Materials:
GMAT Club Tests,
OG 12
My final score was 700. I dont know if i am happy, but i am satisfied. i feel that i shd have done better in verbal...i was always pessimistic about my verbal abilities, but my hardwork did pay off...i have a 700 in my belt..and a 6.0 in my AWA..i am concentrating on my Apps now....hope that goes well..
I would like to thank GMAT Club for giving me good insight and also providing me with a variety of tests and strategies, without which i would not have achieved the 700..Thanks GUYS!!...U all are awesome!!..
TO ALL THE FUTURE GMAT TEST TAKERS: All the best!!...Hope all the test takers do well..
Regards,
RUROKEN