Thanks a ton to Bunuel, Karishma, and anyone else who helped me in quant! It is very much appreciated!

Glad to finally be done with math study and on to applications. I'm a little disappointed with my quant score, as I've done better in practice tests, but my overall score is median for HBS and stanford so hopefully they dont worry too much about my Q score being slightly below 80.

General test day stuff:

I bought a thin dry erase marker and dry erase sleeves to simulate the scratchpad. I used the setup for about 30 seconds before realizing that it just got in the way. I didnt use it in prep after that. The scratchpad didnt affect my test day performance at all. It maybe cost me a few seconds flipping it, but that's it. Dont worry about it.

I took the test during a "slow time" at the testing center. Even with nobody else taking breaks at the same time as me and no queue, it still took the administrators forever to get me for the break and check me in and out. I literally only had time to immediately go to the bathroom and come back. If there were other people to check in and out there is no way the breaks would have been under 8 mins. I advise finding out when the slow times are in advance and planning accordingly.

AWA:

I never practiced writing essay. I looked at a template for about 15 seconds before the test and that's it. Everything they ask you to write about is easy to poke holes in or take a firm position on. I wrote random crap. Nobody cares.

Quant:

Studied for a couple of months after work. Quant is my weak area. I'm good at math in that given time I can figure out pretty much anything, but unfortunately GMAT doesnt give you time. I took a bit too long on a few problems because my initial approach was bad. I also feel that I was extrememly unlucky with the questions I got. I am very strong in number theory and conceptual math, but got mainly computational stuff. Also, I've done tons of problems but there was one type I'd never seen before and 2 mins was too short to figure it out so I had to guess. I got THREE of this exact same type of problem. WTF is that? The form of the questions was 3 modulus with a bunch of roots and pi and variables in the middle that were stated to be in the form something squared + pi + variable ovoer a modulus that contained a !. Yeah...not good.

Used all of the MGMAT Prep material. I feel that it was a good foundation. I should have done the GMAT Prep tests earlier as the questions I saw were far different from the manhattan cat style. I only had a week to work with them which probably hurt my quant. Also, I found the PS by difficulty level and subject topic in the forums a week before my test. It would have helped immensely if I had found it earlier. The quant geniuses here know some formulas and shortcuts that manhattan doesnt teach you but are necessary for success. If you are like me and don't have the quant background, you need to know every trick possible to boost your efficiency.

Verbal:

Dont know what to say here. I did minimal study because I can just read the stuff and it makes sense. RC is the easiest if you can retain info well - I dont think their tricks are very tricky. Critical reasoning can throw a tough one out every once in awhile, usually when the correct answer could potentially be seen as out of scope. SC is probably what brought my score down. I personally feel that some of the correct answers are debatable. I know, for example, that there is a question in the OG that is flat out wrong. Some of the pedantic SC stuff is ambiguous (like whether "it" is sufficicent or you need to restate something for clarification). One of the questions I ran across on the actual GMAT was the worst I've ever seen. None of the setences were clear in meaning and all contained elementary grammar mistakes. Maybe it was experimental.

Prep tests and conclusion:

Prep tests are as follows. Breakdown for all Manhattan tests after the first was about 75-85% Q, 95-99% V. I used the first MGMAT CAT as a diagnostic when I first started the process. I took the 1st test again later because I forgot my login info and which email address I used so had to re-register. I spent like 3 hours on the quant section and got a 59%. Probably becuase I am a product of California public schools so never had to study much, and becuase College math wasnt that in-depth or difficult.

Again, GMAT prep quant is substantially different from Manhattan. Go through the banks early so you know what to expect. I wish I had. I strongly believe I could have hit 750+ had I done GMAT prep earlier and more effecitively used GMAT club quant resources.

MGMAT1A: 630
MGMAT1B: 700
MGMAT2: 720
MGMAT3: 730
GMATPREP1: 690 (blew math because of timing and got like a Q42)
Actual GMAT 730 (Q47 V44)

In conclusion, I'd like to offer encouragemnt to anybody out here who is struggling to shore up their weakneses. My quant score went from 59% it the beginning to 76% on test day (after what I believe was terrible luck in question distribution). If you are willing to put in 200 hours of study, you can make it happen. Given more time I'm sure I could have hit 90+ as things only really started to come together for me a week before the exam. My best advice is to enjoy the proces and take pride in your improvement, however small it may be. If you work hard enough and keep at it, you WILL get there.
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HBS Class of 2014

Q47 V44 is a very nice balanced score! Congrats! I wonder if you should worry about your GMAT score at all! You have a 730 and you have a decent balance! Enough to kick ass!
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If you like it, Kudo it!

"There is no alternative to hard work. If you don't do it now, you'll probably have to do it later. If you didn't need it now, you probably did it earlier. But there is no escaping it."

710 Debrief. Crash and Burn

Congrats on the score!

Should test takers focus on the Official Guide and the two GMATPREP tests before the exam?

In my opinion, yes, but OG quant seems too easy. Given how much higher quant scores are in general now, I think OG will only get you to the 70th percentile (if you are like me and go in knowing basically nothing).

I took GMAT prep #1 about a week and a half before my date. Big mistake. The feel of the questions is much different than manhattan. After going through the first question bank, I could look at questions posted on the forum and quickly identify what was GMAT-like, and what wasn't. I completely changed my study plan during the week leading up to the test because I realized I'd been going about it wrong. Had I done that a month earlier and had time to work with the 2nd prep test, I'm confident I would have hit 50Q. Also, review the PS by difficulty and category in the quant forums. The tricks you learn there will boost your accuracy and efficiency. I've also heard good thing about GMAT club tests. If I could do things over again, I'd hit the basics in Manhattan, make sure I could quickly do any problem in OG, hit the gmatclub PS by difficulty, do GMAT prep#1 to identify weaknesses, shore up weak areas, do gmat club tests, and take the final gmat prep test a couple of weeks in advance and tweak study from there. I'd use Manhattan CATS mainly for timing.
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HBS Class of 2014

alphastrike,

congratulations, very good overall score and superb on verbal.. thanks for sharing your view on the difference between MGMAT and GMATPrep questions style, I'll try to set preparation on the last weeks towards this information.

Regards

Update: Was just accepted by HBS in round 3. For those of you like me who obsess about things: I was worried about my quant being under 80%. I don't think it matters unless it is a clear red flag. If it were that big of a deal it probably would have kept me out considering how competitive round 3 is. Everything throughout the application and interview process left me with the impression that they do not care about GMAT and GPA other than for simply "checking the box". Their primary concern is your DNA - who you are. They want someone who will bring something unique to the class and case study method. GMAT has nothing to do with that stuff.
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HBS Class of 2014

Update: Was just accepted by HBS in round 3

Awesome!! Congratulations on getting in.