590
Q40,V31
Since I'm going to start utilizing the information shared here by all the other members I think it'd only be fair that I share my horror story. Hopefully writing this will get the bad taste out of my mouth and springboard me into the 720+ range.
In trying to meet an early decision application deadline I scheduled the exam for today. I gave myself about 2 months to study but didn't utilize the time fully. My preparation level actually felt worse than when I took CFA 2 this year.
Used two guides:
Kaplan Premier (2010 ed) - Went through the whole book.
OG 12 guide - Did all the quant but left most of the verbal stuff unfinished.
I honestly didn't have much trouble with the verbal questions in either book but clearly something didn't stick when it came down to crunch time. As I'll mention below, being all consumed with the quant section probably hurt me in preparing for the verbal.
As far as practice tests I only used the GMAC software. I maybe made 4 or 5 attempts but only finished once. The quant section was the biggest bugaboo as I always had to scramble to finish but kept running out of time. Same thing nearly happened on the real exam today! I was feeling really good but realized with 5 mins left I had about 7 questions to go. >_<. Time management has been a real weakness for me. I'm so motivated to get the right answer that I ignore the clock.
Anyway, back to the drawing board. Have to buy some new materials since I scribbled answers in all my current books.
Looking forward to contributing what I can and hopefully sharing a success story in the future.