GMAT 770- M51, V42

Hello everybody, i just finished my Gmat a few hours ago and want to share my experience for the benefit of others who are going to do the test in the future and use these forums.

First of all thanks to GmatClub for this forum, it is a great source of information that is unbiased, and is also wonderful for moral support.

I decided to take the GMAT about 2 months ago after my employer did not give me the raise i had asked for... (everyone needs some kind of motivation). i was intially planning on doing an MBA 2 years from now but chnaged my mind that day. I was out of the country for almost a month after that and when i came back started preparing in earnest... essentially i was aiming for a 3-4 week crash course.

Due to the short time line i had to come up with a strategy that would suite the time line. I decided that my prep would involve only practice tests.

The first book i bought was Barons (I had not found this site at that time.. or i probably never would have..) But i guess it turned out ok in the end. I did the 6 practice tests. (they have no scoring scale.. so all i can say is i was getting about 75-80% of the questions right. Anyway i made it a point to write the essays as well and this definetely helped in building my stamina. Writing 2 essays and 7 sections each test (the old style format of gmat) makes the CAT look short.

I then bought Arco's and the book was great.. all i did was the tests but i did go through the sentence correction problem set. The 3 cd tests and the verbal sections of the paper tests are just the best.

Then i went to Kaplan and did the cats and was feeling down because of the scores. But that is where gmatclub.. helped me out. Overall Kaplan is horrible compared to Arco's but all i wanted was more tests so it was good practice.

Ayyway i did 23 practice tests in about 28 days. 4 tests on the weekends and whenever i had time i tried to plug in 2-3 tests during the week.

Overall it was a short but very intense prep because of my late decision to do the test.

My practice test results are here, but i would advice anyone preparing for the test to not pay much attention to the scores.. except for the PowerPrep score.

My prep scores were-
Barrons- 6 paper tests- 75-80%. These were the first tests i did... gave me a good feel for the question types.

Arco's- 6 paper tests- very good verbal sections, math too easy. 3 cd tests are the closest thing other than PowerPrep to the relal gmat. I wish i had done all 3 cd tests after Kaplan
cd test1- 670
cd test2- 670
cd test3- 730 ( i saved this test for just before the test)

Kaplan- 1 paper, 1 internet (this is basically a paper test) and 4 cd tests. anyway these cd tests are horrible. No one at kaplan put much time into writing or reviewing these questions- poor wording and not representative of the real gmat at all. I did write a review about these 3 books in the review section of the fourm- under arco's
cd test1- 640
cd test2- 700
cd test3- 640
cd test4- 610

Then 2 days before my gmat i did the 2 powerpreps- the first i did with the essay and the second i skipped the essay.
PP1- 730
PP2- 760

ANd today- the real deal-
GMAT- 770 (V51, Q 42)

My gmat experience had nothing spectacular in it. The day before i went to the barber, watched 'kung-fu-hustle' (excellent movie by the way, anyway i read somewhere that comedies make a person more alert than a serious movie) and tried to go to bed early, but could not sleep at all because of nervous energy. Got up early and did the test this morning.

One thing that suprised me a bit was the proctor said that i could not leave the room untill i had completed a section... i finished the math section with 14 minutes to spare but he said i had to finish the section adn take only a 5 minute break.. so i elected to sit in front of the computer screen and stare at my lat question for 14 minutes... and then took my 5 minute break.

5 minutes goes by real fast.. i hardly got a couple of bites of my sandwich and drank some water. I didnt have time to take a leak (i chose to satisfy my stomach instead of my bladder) in between the quant and verbal and i regret that... because i really wanted to go bad towards the end of the verbal.. but held on for dear life. I finished verbal with about 8 minutes to spare.. but i think that was because i was in a hurry to get to the rest-room.