Done with GMAT finally - scored 720/5.5 !

Finally I am done with GMAT. Scored 720, what a relief. Would share my story in brief.

My Profile : Indian IT Male, 6 years Exp.
GMAT booked : 17th June 09. Preparation started the same day.
GMAT taken : 05th August 09.
Preparation time : 50 days.
Score : 720 Q50, V38. (overall 94 %ile) AWA - 5.5

Books and materials referred :
1. OG12.
2. Kaplan Verbal workbook
3. Kaplan Premier 2009
4. Manhattan SC Guide
5. 1000 SC.

Tests taken prior to GMAT (not in chronological order):
1. GMAT Prep1 - taken thrice - : 700 (Q49, V37) , 700 (Q50, V35) , 740 (Q49, V42)
2. GMAT Prep2 - taken twice - : 720 (Q50, V38), 730 (Q49, V40)
3. MGMAT Free test - 670 ( Q48, V33 )
4. MGMAT 1 - 640 - ( Q46, V32 )
5. MGMAT 2 - 680 - ( Q48, V34 )
6. MGMAT 3 - 710 - ( Q51, V36 )
7. MGMAT 4 - 720 - ( Q51, V37 )
8. MGMAT 5 - 710 - ( Q49, V38 )
9. MGMAT 6 - 680 - ( Q49, V34 )
10. Kaplan Test on CD - 1 - 590 (Q48 V28)

Here is a summary of what I have to say about my GMAT experience and advice to others.

1. Regular practice is the key. How many days you take, depends on the individual, but I think one should be in touch always. One month practice, then break, the practice is not the way. You should be in the zone when you are taking the actual GMAT. For this, one has to build a momentum , and carry that to the test.
2. At the time of the test, staying focused is the key. Take a lot of mock tests to make yourself aware of test environment. To gauge time strategies etc..
3. GMATPrep tests are the key to success. You should use them wisely. Retaking them helps, but you should not retake within 2-3 days else there is a repeat of questions and you will get skewed scores. I would suggest one should take the GMATPrep tests atleast 3-4 times. Save GMATPrep 2 for last 5-10 days of your preparation and take this test in absolute test environment with AWA, breaks etc. Try to score as much as in GMATPrep2 and do look at where you went wrong.
4. For any materials other than SC, i dont think you need to go for materials beyond OG. Take the OG seriously, and keep a error log. Revisit OG once completed. For PS/DS I reinstalled GMATPrep quite a lot of time and got a lot of new questions. It is a huge bank !
5. For SC, Manhattan SC Guide is a must. I also referred to the 1000SC series.
6. Kaplan books and tests are a waste of time, in my opinion. Kaplan tests have different styles of questions, esp in Verbal, and sometimes I didn't agree to their CR answers. So i found them useless.
7. For AWA, one must practice writing, and that too in test environment. Sometimes 30 minutes seem very less a time.

A little bit about my profile and goals:
1. Want to go into IT consulting post MBA.
2. Looking for schools strong in entrepreneurship and Consulting.
3. Looking for schools in UK.

waiwai , Congrats. Great score and nice tips in the debrief.

goodluck with the app process. which schools are you considering?

Frankly speaking, haven't thought about that in depth. Will be applying next year, so have some tome to think about that I guess. But here are top 3 in my wish list
1. Judge, Cambridge
2. NUS, Singapore
3. ISB, India

EDIT : Now its november and after some research here is my new list
1. Judge, Cmabridge - applied R1
2. Oxford - R2 - preparing
3. Manchester - R2
4. Cranfield - R1

Reasons for dropping ISB - Do not want to study in India, want a little more diversity, also want to work in UK after MBA.

Great score and great tips! good luck with the apps

Congrats!

Since you prepared only from the OG for quant.. can you share some tips on the same.

I guess quant is your inherent strength.

Yes, quant is my strength.
I would say, concentrate on the OG problems. And the theory chapters given at the start.
Also don't just look at the wrong answers, also look at the right answers, the explanations. Most of the questions are just some form or the other of those only. Also GMATPrep tests are a good source of quant problems, especially DS. Mine through them. Take a screenshot of the ones you find difficult, whether you did them right or wrong. And revisit them later as well.

Congratulations WaiWai - great to see you succeed and get a great score!!!
Really happy for you.

Well done. Congratulations.

Great Score. Congrats.

great score!...thanks for your debrief!

Great score and thanks for tips. Congratulations and good luck in apps!

Congratunation!

I wonder why you should not make a try on US schools?

Good luck with your app.

One reasons is that the immigration issues are a pain in the tail. Schools wants students to come on F1 visa, pay 100,000$ in tuition and then Senators such as Grassley, Durbin and Sanders will sneak in amendments that will prohibit companies from hiring foreign students. Bank of America rescinded offers to 50 such students. What is ironical is F1 students pay Federal and State taxes as Citizens do and folks on other non immigrant visas such as H1B (students eventually become H1B's) pay FICA and MQFE even though there are not any assurances that they will get SS from the US. Unless a country has totalization treaty with US, US will not send the SS contributions to that country.

Ramifications of such short sighted policies will be profound and deeply felt. To worsen the problem, Neither GMAC nor the Students who suffered and possibly will are not raising their voice.

Agreed.

On the contrary, if you have a MBA from top a 20 school or so, Europe welcomes you with open arms. They have an immigration provision for folks to work freely for 5 years or so with that experience. I will send out the souce later.

I guess the only issue with non-US colleges is that the number of non-US world-class bschools is quite low - 3 in UK, 2 in France, 2 in Singapore, 1-2 in Australia, 1 in India. Although SDA Bocconi, IE etc are highly ranked, they seem somewhat unattractive because of language problems.

I am mainly looking for a one year MBA course. And i think the one year courses are minimal in number in the US. Anybody has a ready reckoner for a list of colleges offering a one year course in US ?

Hi waiwai,

Most of the colleges in US have one year courses ( ex : Goizueta )..mostly these courses are designed as shown in following example :

While the first year (2009-2011) students are on their summer internships, the new batch of 1 year(starting in 2010) MBA do a quick crash course of the same stuff that the first year students have done .. and when the first year students come back, the 1 year students join them and all carry on with the second year courses which mostly comprise electives.....
and hence it is expected from 1 year MBA students to have a good understanding of the industry since they directly take on the electives and stuff

please correct me if I am wrong

Emory-goizueta is one of the handful which offers a one year degree. In their section on the one year course, they mention :
<quoted-from-their-site>
The One-Year MBA program is specifically a student who has:
* Earned an undergraduate degree in business or economics – applicants with strong quantitative backgrounds in majors such as engineering or mathematics may also qualify for admission.
* Solid, progressive work experience
* Focused post-MBA goals
* Completed coursework (prior to program start date) which includes: Statistics, Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance and Microeconomics

</quoted-from-their-site>

So chances are minimal for a student without a managerial/business background.

HI! were you working at the time of your prep?

Yes, i was working full time. Got 2-3 hours for daily preparation and then 4-5 hours in weekend.