Hi all,

I am so relieved today. I took the GMAT for the second time and scored
720 (94%) - Q 50 (93%) and V 39 (87%)

In my first attempt which was a month ago I scored -
700 (90%) - Q 49 (90%) and V36 (78%)

Yes....you are reading right ! I took GMAT again after scoring a 700 the first time and scored 720 a month later. Some people might think I am crazy to have taken it again. Well, whatever others may think, I did not think I deserved a 78% on verbal on my first attempt. Though I am a non-native english speaker, my verbal has never been that low and I did not want to repent later that I wish I would have retook the exam. So I gave myself exactly a month and retook it. And personally, I feel it was worth it (atleast i hope so).......
Verbal improved from 78% to 87%......and as far as Quant is concerned, seeing that magical 5 in the tens digit of the scaled score (50).......has made my day though I would have been much happier if I had got 730 or above.

I think with a little luck I could have made it to 740....but never mind....I am never never retaking this BEAST again. I don't want to preach the same old routine of books/practice exam/strategies....blah blah. Instead I want to give a couple of generic advices/warnings which I hope will benefit atleast few of you

1) For Sentence correction once you feel you have covered the basics (Manhattan SC book), rather than reading tons and tons of advanced grammar rules, it is strongly recommended that you read and understand atleast 250-400 correct GMAT sentences as to why the sentense is correct. That way you will get accustomed to the GMAC rules of grammar !!!

2) I strongly oppose anyone who mentions that GMAT has not become tougher. GMAT has definitely become tougher. There is no correlation between the sort of quant questions that you see on the exam and those on the GMAT Prep exams. If you are planning to score a high in quant, like me, expect to see a lot of very hard questions. And thats a good thing, because you will see lots of hard questions only if you are doing well.

3) For anxious people like me, a good night sleep the day before the exam is extremely important. If you are in the U.S. try a sleeping pill atleast a month or two before the exam and see how you feel. I strongly recommend taking it because if you dont sleep well, the over anxiety and sleep less ness is going to kill your score.

4) Keep your cool at all times before the exam. Learn when to give up. I randomly guessed an extremely hard question that appeared almost toward the end of the math section. And I think that move was well worth because it gave me enough time to correctly answer the remaining 4 questions. If I had spent time on that hard question, I would have had to randomly guess the last 4 and that would have hurt me a lot. Remember....it is ok to lose some battles in between to win the final war.

5) Listen to others' advices, but finally you are maker of your destiny. If you feel you did not fare to the best of your ability the first time, dont hesitate to retake. But retake within a month or two. Else dont ever retake again !!!! It is complete waste of time, to take GMAT now, wait for another year or two before you retake it. Again, everybody has his/her opinions.

FINALLY..........Manhattan's SC, Number properties, Equalities/Inequalities books are awesome.......for serious people you must buy these books. Side note : nobody paid me to write this last line.

Thanks to all GMAT club members and to bb!!! You are awesome man !

Congratulations sdrandom1 .
You said actual gmat quant is tougher than gmat prep. can it be compared to Kaplan quant test or Manhattan quant test?

Hi ctrlaltdel,

I would more compare it with Manhattan Quant.

Here are couple of things on why I said it is getting difficult -

1) My husband took his GMAT probably 6 years back (and finished his MBA too..thats a different story). And from his experience I can strongly tell you that Quant is way more difficult than what he was familiar with.
2) I would NOT say though that questions are totally unlike what you would see on GMATPREP......its just the twists/tricks that you need to be careful with.
3) Atleast personally when somebody gives me a problem and an unlimited amount of time, then yes sure....GMAT problems are way too easy compared to other great math that I have done in highscool/bachelors. But when you are crunched for time and you encounter a Q50 type question, thats when you realize that huh! after all GMAC loves to challenge you.
4) MOST important of all......I am again reinforcing the last point of my previous post -
"Learn when to give up. You know your capabilities better than any other person. If you for sure know that there is no way I can solve this problem in under 2 or atleast 3.5 minutes, then GUESSSSSSSSSS....MOVE ONNNNNNN". Thats ok to guess and answer the rest of them correctly. It builds up your confidence when you answer the rest correctly...."

Great score. Reading this actually pump me up!