Hi,
I joined GMAT club in Jan 2012 and since then I am aspiring to appear for the GMAT but only after my German trip in 2013, I started studying seriously and blocked my test appointment on 18th Jan 2014 which is my first attempt. The cumulative length of my test oriented study would be approximately 4 months.
Material:
I would reiterate the fact that only official material should be referred, questions from dubious sources are not going to be helpful in any manner whatsoever.
OG 13 and
OG 12 should be solved multiple times to get a hang of the level of questions that can be expected during the test.
Verbal:
I started with Manhattan series and then quickly moved on to POWERSCORE for all the three sections. POWERSCORE CR is a must read book, it helps to develop overall reasoning skills, not only the skills required for GMAT. I was a regular visitor to this website and solved the 600-700 level questions. In this section the difference between GMAT questions and GMAT like questions is much more prominent.
Quant:
Initially my DS skills were very weak but regular practice with hundreds of questions helped me attain a respectable level in DS section. The solution methods used by the math experts in this forum have also contributed in many ways. Again I used the Manhattan series/Math Bible for basic understanding of the problem types.
IR and AWA:
IR is a very difficult section and ample practice for this section is required. I would suggest to go in the real test with a full proof game plan. For AWA, a template should be created before the actual test and 3-5 questions should be solved.
Practice Tests:
One of the key to attaining a good score is to solve as many full length tests as possible; I would also suggest that start solving the mocks 1 month prior to the actual test (a mistake from my side), identify weak areas by thoroughly going through the answers after the test and avoid making the same mistakes in subsequent tests.
“The Day”:
I “tried” to be as calm and focused as possible. Don’t let the test center gimmicks throw you off guard. Glucose helped me a lot. Move to a new question/section with a clean slate.
In the AWA section, I kept on jumping between paragraphs, which should ideally be avoided, but at the end of 30 minutes my story was coherent. I had aimed to write around 300 words and I think I was able to do it. Lack of practice and exposure pretty much sums up my IR performance. I had a good grasp on the Quant section and was able to complete it in time. In the verbal section, the level of the questions, especially CR, was a tad higher than my practice questions.
Details:
Computer Engineer from Mumbai University
Indian IT male with 5 years of experience
My Scores:
Jan 3 2014: Economist: 640 -> Q44 V35 – Very good quality of questions; quant was on the tougher side.
Jan 5 2014: PowerPrep1: 690 -> Q48 V37
Jan 8 2014: PowerPrep2 750 - > Q50 V41
Jan 11 2014: Gmat Prep1: 650 - > Q47 V33
Jan 12 2014: Veritas: 720
Jan 13 2014: Kaplan: 700
Jan 14 2014: Manhattan 690
Jan 15 2014: Gmat Pill: 640 -> 43Q, 35V
Jan 16 2014: Gmat Prep2: 700 -> Q49 V35
Jan 18 2014: Actual GMAT: 720 Q49 V39 IR 3/8 AWA 5/6
Target Schools:
Anderson, Stern, Sloan, ROSS and Columbia.
Final Note:
I would like to thank GMAT club and all its members for being a SPOC for my GMAT.