I know a 690 for some here is way below what they are looking for, but for me it was way above expectations and I couldn't be happier that this is my score. It is higher than any practice test I've taken to date. I have been struggling heavily with quant and, initialy, could get no higher than 610, 620 when I first started. Thanks to all the posts here on combinations and DS, which were the two hardest topics for me. I can't believe it's all over and I got the score I did.
As for the test, after getting signed in, it started out fine. The two AWA sections were just as expected. Nothing new there. But then the dreaded quant section started. After the first four questions, I though I it was all over. For me, they were really hard, (2 DS and 2 PS), but I kept plugging away. By the end I was sure I had spit the bit and was pretty discouraged. Verbal section was tough - almost ran out of time at the end and the CRs were tough, but after the quant section I wasn't expecting much. When I finally got my score, I was blown away. I know the scaled quant score is low, but I never got above 40 in any of the practice tests so a 41 made me pretty happyc. The verbal score was way above expectations, and I chalk that up to some pretty good guessing on a few hard questions and reading a lot of posts on the boards.
Study summary:
4 months prep
GMATPrep 1 - 620
GMATPrep 2 - 610
Kaplan CAT 1 - 550
Kaplan CAT 2 - 520
Kaplan CAT 3 - 540
Kaplan CAT 4 - 500
Didn't know being done with a test could fee so good. This site really helped, couldn't have done as well I did (for me at least) without it. Now to figure out these applications. . . .
congrats! that is an awesome score! i think the GMAT's are the worse part of b-school apps.. i can't wait to be at that stage too with a satisfactory score