Merci pour vos messages .. in english now ... long post !!
My experience ..
first time taking the GMAT, also first time taking a serious standardized test (besides the TOEFL)
I couldn't get much sleep the last week! It was scary. I went to the boxing gym several times and it really helped me relieve the stress. Also go out with your friends to keep the morale up.
===============================================
AWA:
not my strong point .. went ok thanks to templates.
10 minutes break .. cold water on the face
QUANT
I was so scared and nervous that my brain was functioning at 50%.
Spend 10 minutes on the first two questions because of inertia.
Got some questions right and had to guess some others as I didn't want to run out of time. At the end, felt that question were easier (or maybe I was warmed up), finished just in time.
Break is 10 minutes. cold water on the face. I am outside breathing some fresh air and about to go up when I decided to go to the deli and get a red bull.
VERBAL
started 2 minutes late but didn't worry too much as I was fast usually on practice tests, but tried to keep pace. Then the Red bull started kicking in!! got 4 RCs, many SCs, and some CRs at the end. This part was a breeze thanks to countless practice exams and the RED BULL !!
Finished the test with 3 minutes to spare, the Pearson guy was very surprised; he was like who is this guy who comes late and leaves early
Survey came, didn't fill it. Cancelling the score crossed my mind because I wasn't sure about the math part, but I had the same feeling in my GMATPrep experiences.
- about new difficulty level. If you are prepared properly and see a hard question, don't get rattled .. take it as a positive challenge and don't be discouraged. Think about it as someone saying "I am about to give you a very good grade, let's see if you can get an excellent grade". Remember questions difficulty are the same for everyone !
- I love maths and maths was always my strong point in college. But I just don't get the math format of the GMAT (too fast/tricky for me and I need to warm up), so I never got 50 in my practice exams.
- Also funny fact is I scored poorly on the TOEFL couple months ago and I will need to retake it, my english is awful .. A proof that the GMAT verbal doesn't measure your english ability!!
===============================================
Preparation details:
Took about 4 months, but I wasted time at the beginning with princeton review class.
Most the material out there will help you for a 600+ score. To get into 700's you'll need additional prep. Also always train with material representative of the gmat.
- started with Princeton review classes as I haven't studied anything for 10 years.
Good for scoring in the 500-600s but waste of money if you want to score 700+.
Princeton math review book is not bad for fundamental
-
OG 10-11th edition: good for learning the basics. Did most of it under timed conditions
- LSAT: a must for solving CR. If you can do LSAT CR, you can do GMAT CR
- Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide, SC1000 and reading the forum answers.
- Kaplan 800: some nice difficult math problems in there
- GmatClub: excellent for math and getting alternate answers to a problem will help understand it better.
- GMAT practice test:
Online Princeton tests: waste of time .. Also their online exams can mess up your preparation: got some unecessary difficult probability questions, many SCs where 'being' is correct (I meant it is very rare), some RCs where the premises are repeated in their question.
Kaplan: good to build endurance
GMATPrep: scored 710, 730. the most representative of your score.
Also do the exams under timed condition with the essays. It will build your endurance and the exam will be a breeze.
- Keeping the morale up: read gmatclub and get motivated, exercise, eat well and keep a social life.
Thanks to all gmatclub members (Paul, Honghu and others...), your posts inspired me!
close
Updated on: 31 Jan 2006, 16:53
