A new attempt for me.
I come from a 550 (Q39 V27) and yesterday I scored 620 (Q48 V27).
So bad I was not able to improve my verbal score
I just want to say that I am french so english is definitely not my first language
Just to give a technical feedback on the test itself : I was too slow. I've guessed the last 5 questions both in Q and in V.
2 main information for you guys :
1) I got 48 in Q without any questions concerning combinations/permutations !!!
On my first test, when I scored 550, I've had one combination question and I ended up with a 39 in Q, so it doesn't mean anything. This time I got 2 questions on probabilities but I've really found the test too easy in Maths. I thought I was doing so bad to get such kind of questions... I was very surprised by my score. I thought it would be the contrary, like Q40 and V33...Anyway.
2) I got 1 boldface question but I ended up with 27 in Verbal. So it is doesn't mean at all that if you see a Bf you'll get a great score, even answering correctly to it. Actually I know I've answered correctly to the BF question, I think i was experimental because way too easy for a real BF. Concerning verbal I've lost points in the third RC, I was totally lost and I ran out of time. My timing was awful.
I have doubts about taking again the GMAT, I am not sure I can improve a lot my Verbal skills. We all have limits and I am wondering if I can really get over 30 in the verbal section and reach 650 total score. I am not so sure about it, especially because I spent quite some time working on verbal. However I am obviously happy with my Quant score, 48 is not bad at all.
Moreover my Toefl is 273 so it will help to "compensate"
I don't need to write a very long post concerning my preparation, just use
OG, Gmatclub, some other websites... I don't make any advertising campaign here but I think it's good to know several.
However I've learnt a lot in Gmatclub, with the posts and the challenges. I really appreciate this community because :
1) many 700+ member decided to stay to help others or to share some experience (1st year mba experience with ambassadors for example) which is a strong sign of the great relationship between people here.
2) Linda Abraham + Scott and Omari have helped and advised many people for the "after Gmat", which is as important as the the gmat score.
3) Hjort's work has been unvaluable...I must admit that I am still amazed by the job he has done and the data he has collected for the benefit of all of us. He has brought depth in the forum concerning schools selection. He is a great asset and he never stops posting and posting...
4) The new team has well organized the forum with easy - medium and tough problem. It is easy to progress and to find our weakness. Just follow the gmat club train and it will lead you to some nice score
5) the verbal forum is very active, which is quite different from many other websites mainly based on a great quant score.
6) a key reason : most of the members explain their reason and their choice. This is exactly what people need. Actually many times I've made made a mistake and I've seen people doing the same mistake as me, then I was able to understand other people answers correcting this mistake. And not only just see some posts with "B...C...B....D..." without any explanations
7) All the combinations, permutations and probabilities are explained perfectly in the forum and you can get a full range of problems concerning those specific questions. this subject is well covered.
I will take some time to decide if I go for the GMAT again or not. I'm not sure I can reach 48 again and i am even less sure to be able to reach 30 in verbal so i am going to take my time and think about this...
Thanks to Praetorian, Paul, GMATT73, laxieqv, MA, mandy, NEWKID, carsen, banerjeea_98, AkamaiBrah, christoph, mirhaque and many others that I am omitting now...
Special thanks also to HIMALAYA, ywilfred, venksune and HongHu for their continuous and numerous efforts in explaining the problems, how to solve it, how to find the key...your posts have been so important and so constructive.