I have mostly been a lurker on this site. But have found this site incredibly valuable for prep. Kudos to the creator as well as the visitors of this site....

Took my test today and scored 700 (Q48, V38). I have been reading other Feb test takers' experiences and have been apprehensive about the Verbal before the test. I can now confirm from my own experience that even though Verbal section seemed like a smooth ride to me (while taking the test), my raw score does not correlate with it. I had a bold faced CR as my 13th question and also got an innovative CR (whose type I had not seen in any prep guide) so I thought that I was doing fairly well at least till that point in test. Anyway, lets hope March test takers have better luck...

My Q score is lower than what I had expected, but I guess that is just my fault. Coming from an engineering background I sort of always took Quant prep lightly. In retrospect, I should have practised more. And that is precisely my advice to future test takers.

Just as a backgrounder, I had scored 710 on PP1 without any prep and had scored 760 on Paper Test 55 a day before my real GMAT. I was hoping for a better score in the real test, but I can't really complain, especially given the fact that I only had about three weeks of serious prep.

As per recommendation for prep guides, I think several previous posts have done a comprehensive job, much better than what I can list in a few lines here. But in brief, mastery of OG is your key to good score...

Great score Vastav. I'm sorry the verbal hit us a little bit this month. I suppose that's just the way it goes. That's probably why ETS talks so clearly in the official guide about margin for error on their scores.
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Paul

I would take it again. I have an engineering background, but I was also surprised by my score on the quant section the first time I took the test as a CAT (previous, I had never scored below 99% on any Q test from PSAT on up). Like you, I didn't take it seriously and barely studied for it. I practiced for about 6 weeks, then took it again and got a 51.

More importantly, you seem lilke you have a lot of space to improve your V side. On the GMAT, the total is "greater than the sum of the parts", i.e., if you get 90% on V and 90% on Q, that will translate to about a 98% total (around a 740).

Being that you are in the vicinity of two elite programs, i don't see why you shouldn't invest a llittle time to see what you can get.

JMHO. Best of luck whatever you do.
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Best,

AkamaiBrah
Former Senior Instructor, Manhattan GMAT and VeritasPrep
Vice President, Midtown NYC Investment Bank, Structured Finance IT
MFE, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Class of 2005
MBA, Anderson School of Management, UCLA, Class of 1993