A day ago, I finished the GMAT around this time. I don't remember a lot of details from the test experience anymore, except for the painful few minutes entering your data right before you get the test score. Admittedly, I thought I screwed up big time to the extent that I considered cancelling my score. Then, a 750 flashed in front of my eyes. The euphoric feeling is a little absent, as I secretly hoped for 770+ (in line with my mock exams from GMATPrep), but overall I am very happy with the result.
To help future test takers, here is some advice.
MaterialsI used the
MGMAT Guides and
MGMAT Advanced Quant for my theoretic foundation of Quant and
e-gmat (in addition) for Verbal. For CATS, I used GMATprep,
MGMAT and
GMATclub tests.
MGMATThe
MGMAT guides were great as a solid basic foundation of math, yet were sometimes a little bit out of scope. The
MGMAT Advanced Quant were great to take your theoretic foundation to the next level, teaching you dirty tricks that you haven't learned anywhere in high school. The math questions were quite difficult, but not very representative for the questions you will face at the GMAT.
GMATClubAfterwards, I switched to the notorious
GMATClub tests. As I was so used to
MGMAT style, I screwed up the first two tests.
GMATClub tests rely on a complete different concept, namely very advanced trickery, whereas
MGMAT relies (often) on difficult calculation. Both of them were great, but if you want a true reflection of (difficult) GMAT-like questions, GMATClub beats any other company by far.
e-gmatFurthermore,
e-gmat helped me a lot for Sentence Correction. I purchased the entire Verbal Online pack, yet only ended up using the SC and CR part. SC was great and definitely made me feel secure in answering questions during CATs and the actual GMAT more than any other prep company could do. I was not so enthousiastic about their CR section - quite a few questions seemed a little ambigious (as is the case with almost every prep company). Thus, highly recommended for SC, neutral about CR.
The actual GMATEssayI started off with the essay. Easy topic, flaws were obvious and could finish in time with 5 minutes left. I watched around the room and relaxed a little, before moving on to IR.
Integrated Reasoning IR went surprisingly well - I hadn't practiced a single IR question in my life (apart from my last CAT), so I was not expecting a high score here. I can't really give people advice on this topic, as I haven't practiced this section.
QuantThe first 4 questions were very easy, probably below level 600. Then, all of a sudden the level went up in a rapid pace. The questions were hard, very hard - on par with GMATClub questions (I wonder if anybody else experienced something similar lately). Time flew by: by the time I hit question 28, I only had 10 minutes left. I completely rushed the last 10 questions (skipped two lame geometry questions I expected not to be able to answer within < 2 minutes). Quite frankly, I thought I screwed up. During the break, the
MGMAT algorythm that makes your score drop tremendously if you miss a few of the last 10 questions kept spooking through my head.
VerbalStarted off with a few SC questions that were quite easy. Same goes for the CR questions. Around question 7, I got a huge RC passage with four very difficult questions. I didn't answer any of them with full confidence. It was hard to say what way I was going - SC seemed easy, CR and RC seemed moderately difficult.
At the end, I was quite sure my score would be < 700. I had no idea how I performed on Verbal and I was quite confident I scored low on Quant. Then a 750 (Q51, V40) appeared. I was especially shocked at my quant score. I am convinced that I missed quite a few questions, yet I maxed my score. I still think I could have scored a bit higher on verbal - honestly think the first 10 questions screwed me up. In general, I am happy that I am done with the GMAT. I will only apply to b-school in 2 years from now, which gives me plenty of time to focus on other stuff for now
Good luck to everybody.