Team,
I just took the test this morning (29 May 06) in Frankfurt, Germany and scored a 690 (Q44, V41). Although I was aiming for a 700+ like everyone else on this forum, I'll take my score. After all, it is still 91 percentile and acceptable to all of the top business schools.
First of all, I want to echo what most other people have said:
https://www.gmatclub.com is an incredible resource. I think it is the secret weapon for anyone who wishes to score well. Any success I had on the GMAT, I owe to this forum and its participating members. I’m writing this detailed post in hopes that it helps others who are in the same shoes I just spent the last four months in.
Here are my notes on my preparation/practice test scores/actual test. Hopefully they help. I’ll answer any questions you all may have.
Preparation:
I probably studied much harder than the average person. I studied seriously for about 4 months and spent 1-2 hours per weekday and 8-12 per weekend (Sat and Sun combined). Add that up and that's a lot of hours. I'm a weak standardized test taker, so it was a necessary evil. Rigorous study and hard work were the only ways I was going to get a competitive GMAT score.
I purchased almost every GMAT book available and found both Kaplan and Princeton to be good starting points. Either of the two books will help lay a solid foundation and identify weak areas. Princeton organized their questions according to difficulty level which helped me gauge what my abilities were. Kaplan was just full of hard questions. I used both books, but anyone can get by with just one of them.
Once I had a general idea of what my weaknesses were, I used the
Manhattan GMAT books. In my opinion, these books are essential. I ended up buying 6 of the 7. They really go in-depth and teach you the concepts behind the questions. Additionally, the books give you access to 3 online practice tests. I can't talk enough about how they helped me, so if you're studying for the test, do consider. As I went through the
Manhattan books, I used the Kaplan 800 book (also highly recommended), to really help me test concepts and get me thinking on a "higher" level.
After finishing the
Manhattan books (as I went through those books, I still did practice sets), I transitioned to
the Official Guide. I saved these books for the last 1/3 or 1/4 of my studying. Once I started
the Official Guide, these were the only types of questions I solved (there are subtle differences between
OG questions and non-
OG questions). I did this because I really wanted to develop my pacing and test-taking skills. I found that a large part of doing well was knowing when to cut your losses on a question (ie: blindly guess) and move on. We all want to answer every question correctly, but spending too much time on a question can result in 5 wrong questions later on in the test because you were rushed. Sticking to the
OG really helped me in this respect. There’s no set rule. Knowing when to cut your losses and move on is a skill that you develop only after answering tons of questions. I didn’t really pick this up until my 2-3 weeks before my test today. I guess you can call it a 6th sense.
Once I was about halfway through the
OG books, I really started picking up the pace on practice CAT tests (as you can see below). I really leaned heavily on the Manhattan and Princeton Review tests. The Princeton Review test was particularly notable because I had the option of seeing my score as I was taking the test. This helped me understand the scoring mechanics and really highlighted the importance of getting the first 5-8 questions correct. I saw that my score (give or take a few points) was largly decided in these initial questions.
Of course, I saved the GMAT Prep tests for last. They are as close to the real thing as you can get. My GMAT Prep 2 didn’t go so well, but it was mostly because I worked 15 hours that day and then tried to cram a test in when I got home. I’m sure glad I got the 600 on that test than on the one today
Practice Test Scores:
Here are my practice test scores. As you can see, less than spectacular, and all over the board. Especially GMAT Prep 2. Because there were only two GMATPrep tests, I had to deviate from my
Official Guide rule when taking practice tests.
Kaplan CAT 1 (2 months before): 520
Kaplan CAT 2 (1.5 months before): 570
Kaplan CAT 3 (1 month before): 550
Kaplan CAT 4 (3 weeks before): 550
Manhattan CAT 1 (2.5 weeks before): 580
Manhattan CAT 2 (2 weeks before): 600
GMAT Prep 1 (1 week before): 640
GMAT Prep 1 retake (1 week before): 700
PR CAT 1 (1 week before): 680 (See my notes)
Manhattan CAT 3 (3 days before): 690
GMAT Prep 2 (2 days before): 600 (I was devastated when I saw this)
Practice Set Results:
These are my results from my OG11 practice sets 1-3 weeks before the test today. The list is in chronological order, so the sets near the bottom of each category were most recent (a week ago). Generally, I saved the hardest questions till the end of my preparation. You can use my results to gauge where you're at.
Number of problems / Number WRONG / Average Time per Question
DS:
21 / 4 / 1:56
20 / 4 / 1:22
20 / 9 / 1:50
21 / 5 / 1:55
14 / 5 / 2:22
20 / 0 / 1:00 (easy questions)
20 / 1 / 1:31 (moderate)
20 / 8 / 2:08 (hardest questions)
PS:
40 / 5 / 1:22
21 / 0 / 1:36
20 / 5 / 1:52
39 / 3 / 1:12 (easy questions)
29 / 5 / 2:25 (hardest questions)
21 / 3 / 2:15 (hardest questions)
RC:
20 / 8 / 1:47
22 / 3 / 1:41
21 / 6 / 1:48
15 / 2 / 1:29 (hardest questions)
CR:
20 / 0 / 1:40
20 / 2 / 1:37
20 / 3 / 1:48
20 / 1 / 1:34
10 / 4 / 2:20 (hardest questions)
SC:
40 / 4 / 59â€
close
29 May 2006, 16:56
& thanks a lot for very good post 
