First of all, thanks to the GMAT club forum, which definitely was a valuable resource in final stages of my preparation. So here is my little contribution to the overall forum's knowledge base.
ResultFirst time.
Score - 710 (q49,v39). (a little side note but from the score tables it seems that in past with this you could get a 720).
Percentiles 92% overall (q85%,v87%).
Test:Quant - after preparing with
MGMAT books and prac tests quant part on actual test seemed pretty easy. Though, fact that i did not get 50 or 51 means i have missed smth. Time wise for the most part of the test i was actually ahead of the scheduled 2 min per question, although this was one of my concerns during practice test i took.
Verbal - this actually seemed tougher than on GMAT official prac tests. And by question #21-25 i was actually about 7 min behind the target time, although in all practice tests verbal was the part where i had time surpluss. If on 2 GMAT prac tests i got almost all RC question correct, then in the real test this was the part i struggled (together with SC of course, but that was expected). I was actually surprised that one of RC questions simply asked to choose the synonym for particular word in the passage, a question that basically tested the knowledge of a particular word (which i did not know) and looked to me more like a SC type question. Overall, I'd say that the actual verbal was probably smth similar to toughest version i encountered in one of six
MGMAT CAT tests.
AWA - topics were easy. However, even though i had practiced last few days and read the AWA-6.0 guide on forum, i still was short of time to proof-read.
My preparation to GMAT:I put in about 2 month of preparation. With last couple of weeks basically training just for GMAT full time.
I did my first GMAT prep test without any prior study in June 2011 and scored 620. Started studying September with some ons and offs.
Read all 5
MGMAT quant books, from verbal only SC and just the basic level (browsed the advanced section 2 days before the exam but that was probably not very efficient). Did OG12 problem solving according the Manhattan directions.
CAT prac tests:After finishing all the books i took GMAT prac test#2 and #1 repeated, as well as Manhatan CAT test #1, where i got 600 and was pretty shocked. However, the reason i scored so badly was that i was extremely slow on quant and even on verbal. Basically was guessing last 5-6 question in quant and verbal.
Thus, i realized i have to put in a significant practice test effort to increase my speed. As a result i did all 6
Manhattan CATs, Knewton and Kaplan free tests and GMAT club quant tests.
Score Q V
620 - Official GMAT prep Test #1 18.06.2011.
700 - 48 38 Official GMAT prep Test #2 31.10.2011.
720 - 49 40 Official GMAT prep Test #1 07.11.2011.
600 - 35 36
Manhattan GMAT prep #1 08.11.2011.
720 - 49 39
Manhattan GMAT prep #2 13.11.2011.
690 - 47 37
Manhattan GMAT prep #3 14.11.2011.
730 - 45 44
Manhattan GMAT prep #4 15.11.2011.
720 - 50 37
Manhattan GMAT prep #5 17.11.2011.
700 - 51 35
Manhattan GMAT prep #6 18.11.2011.
On Knewton i scored 720, Kaplan 760.
Lessons learned:Timing:
Since timing for me was the key problem, i think the decision to make close to 10 full practice tests did pay off.
I also printed a little table for myself where i indicated the target time splits for quant and verbal, e.g. after q6 -65:00 remaining,
q11 55:00, q16,
q21 35:00, q25,
q31 15:00. And i actually drew them also on my plastic sheets during the real test. And they helped to stick to the schedule.
Verbal:
If i had more time before the exam i would have done more of verbal problem solving from gmat club (did none of them) and
OG. I think i a bit underestimated it based on relatively easy (especially RC and CR) examples of GMAT prac tests.
Repeated
MGMAT CAT:
To train my speed i decided to reset the question pool of
MGMAT CAT tests and take #1 one more time, however most of the question were from the previous 6 CATs and this was close to useless.
My background:If anyone interested few bits of background info - male, already 10 years out of an undergraduate school, age 31, have a family with two small kids. I've been an entrepreneur and intrapreneur for most of my career. The reason for taking GMAT is that after a decade in professional life would love to learn something academically, take a year off and think what to do next. Possibly also switch geographically and increase my international network.
The bottom line:Am I satisfied? Well, as i understand from this forum this is OK score that does not disqualifies form applying to any of top b-schools. However, i feel that with a 1 or 2 weeks more effort put in verbal preparation i could have pumped my V up and thus also overall score. Will i retake? Never say never, but most probably not, since i have already stolen lots of time away from my family.