Hi Guys,
Let me start of first by saying that all you folks who went from 500-600+ to 700+ deserve my utmost admiration and respect.
Unfortunately, I am not in that 700+ club yet. I signed up for the exorbitantly priced KAPLAN course and I thought it was a pretty good course and the online material was quite excellent. I guess my strategy for GMAT preparation really pales in comparison with some of the members of this forum. I did at most 3 CAT tests-kind of haphazardly, section by section and not quite full-length to simulate the real exam. Randomly did questions from the online course and accompanying books, some timed some untimed. I tried not to overestimate myself in the Quant section even though I was an engineering major. So, I was SO SHOCKED when I got a miserable 38 on Quant and 41 on Verbal. HUH????!!!! My overall was 650.
I am targeting U of Chicago Part-Time Prg (no Harvard or Wharton or Kellogg) and maybe Fuqua and UC Berkeley. Chicago's my first choice though. I am in the lower range of their 80% GMAT scores but of course, in the lower range.
On the test day, I thought I was pretty well-prepared, having done about 3/4 questions on the KAPLAN 800, none on
OG (I know, GASP!!!), and of course the KAPLAN online materials that I had signed up for. BUT I FROZE ON THE QUANT! I mean, I had trouble calculating 0.4/0.002. I KNOW RIGHT??!! The frustrating thing is this...when I stepped out of the room, I instantly knew how to solve the more difficult questions I had missed. Oh boy!
So, although I am a little burnt out and discouraged from my first attempt, I do want to consider retaking. Can anyone advice me on crafting out a better prep strategy for my second attempt? How long shall I wait before retaking? I know I shouldn't wait too long so that I can at least keep the test experience fresh in my head. How can I improve on Quant and curb my anxiety? Did I underprepare? I just feel so pressured to ace the Quant and ended flunking that and outperforming my expectations in Verbal. Super weird.
Finally, thanks to all 600-700+ GMAT superstars in this forum who has inspired me to even think about retaking. I was ready to give up. ANy advice would be greatly appreciated.