I took the GMAT last Friday (12/18), and all I can say is that I am really happy that it's over. I'm looking forward to having some time to myself now.
My scores:760 (99th percentile)
Q49 (87th percentile)
V44 (97th percentile)
AWA 6.0 (90th percentile)
My background:I attended a top 5 engineering university and majored in Chemical Engineering. I also minored in Philosophy. My engineering background gave me strong practical math skills and my philosophy background made analyzing arguments in the CR section go much more smoothly. One piece of advice I'd give to future test takers is this: nobody is great at every section of the GMAT. It's all about maximizing your strengths and making up for your weaknesses.
Previous scores10/20 Kaplan 670 (Q44 V 42)
10/31
MGMAT 680 (Q46 V37)
11/20 Kaplan 740 (Q46 V54)
10/21 GMAT Prep 740 (??)
11/24
MGMAT 690 (Q44 V39)
11/28 GMAT Prep 750 (Q49 V42)
12/5 GMAT Prep 750 (Q49 V 42)
12/14 GMAT Prep 710 (??)
I used the old version of the GMAT Prep software for the last two tests. I ran into problems that I recognized, but none that I could remember what the answer was without going over them again.
MGMAT and Kaplan approximate test questions as best they can, but there's nothing like real test questions.
MGAT's exams were a lot tougher than the actual gmat and Kaplan's questions were easier, but their scoring algorithm was really rough.
My last exam I took after a 12+ hr day at work. While it was lower than my previous scores, it was still good to have a baseline score. Knowing what my lowest score I could get would be really helped my confidence.
PreparationI started preparation on 10/17, two months before test day. This ended up being the perfect amount of time for me - enough to cover all the major bases
I started my prep using the
OG and Kaplan, but quickly found that Kaplan wasn't right for me. If you find yourself getting easy questions wrong or are struggling with how to take the test, then Kaplan is a good resource. It became clear to me early on that Kaplan's questions weren't matching the difficulty of the ones that I was going to see on the GMAT, so I moved onto
MGMAT.
I used the number properties book from
MGMAT along with the
OG for most of my review.
MGMAT's tests were tough. The questions were hard and very time consuming. I had to work really fast in order to finish each section on time.
QuantTo prep I worked through the
OG questions and did some of the
MGMAT and Kaplan questions as well. I had no problems with the hardest word problems, but I found a lot of the number properties questions tough. I've always been a practically oriented in math, so some of the abstract questions were tough. The
MGMAT number properties book helped me improve my score, but I think this was what kept out of the 50+ range on the quant.
VerbalUnlike a lot of people, I had no problems with CR questions. I put the credit for this on my philosophy background. I did, however, have some problems with the SC section. I worked through the
OG questions, and when I looked back through my
error log, I found that I was only making a few mistakes over and over. When I reviewed these, my scores greatly improved.
RC wasn't too tough. I read the whole passage and then wrote down the main idea before starting the questions. This helped me with "what is the purpose of this passage" questions. If I didn't write down the main idea right away, I'd get bogged down in the details when answering questions and it would distort my view of the bigger picture.
I never got the timing right on the verbal. I finished most of the practice tests with 15-20 minutes to spare. On the actual GMAT I finished with 12 minutes to spare.
Advice-Give yourself enough time to study. I'd recommend 6-10 weeks.
-Figure out what you're good at and what you need to work on early. This will help you maximize your studying efficiency.
-Error logs are important. Most wrong answers are due to only a few blind spots.
Well my GMAT journey is done. Good luck to the rest of you!
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23 Dec 2009, 19:21
