Just discovered this site, and love it. Thought I'd share my experience with this pesky GMAT.
About 3 months ago I decided that it was time to take the GMAT. I felt like I was losing everything I had learned in undergrad and I just wanted to get it over with.
I spent about a month just answering random GMAT questions I found online (about 1 hour a day). Then I spent a week solving as much of the
OG 11 as I could.
After that I decided to sign up for the exam and give myself a week of intensive study. During this week all I did was take CAT exams and try to understand why I missed the questions I did. The scores were as follows:
GMAT prep 1: 630
Kaplan: 610
Manhattan GMAT: 650
Princeton Review CAT: 630
GMAT prep 2: 700 (day before the exam)
I took one a day for a week (one day off in the middle of the week to recover).
Then came G-day and things started pretty smoothly. I finished the AWA section and I gave myself a couple of minutes to relax and get ready for the "real" stuff. When the Q section started I hit my first bump. I was very nervous and I took 3-4 minutes on the first problem. And after 10 problems I knew I was going too slow. I tried picking up the pace but then the problems seemed way too easy. I thought I had just bombed the Q section, but I told myself to keep going.
In the V section I just hoped for the best. I was scoring anywhere from 28-38 in my practice exams and I didn't really study for SC because I was having such a hard time understanding all the small rules (I grew up in a dual language household so I'm not great with English). I finished the V section as I usually do with about 25-30 minutes to spare (I have the "if it sounds right that must be it" mentality) and filled out the survey. I sat there telling myself I had to accept this score because I didn't want to take this exam again.
I was beyond surprised when I saw the 720. I hadn't scored above 700 in practice and I hadn't discovered this site, so I didn't know that the
Kaplan CAT gives you a terrible score. All in all I am very happy that this test is behind me.
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