Hi everyone. I'd like to share my thoughts on the GMAT I took today. I scored a 700 (44Q/41V). While the quant was worse than I hoped for, the verbal was better. I am pretty sure my quant is due to question #2 which I wish I could post here. Nothing I had ever come across before.
Quant - Overall, I would say that the quant was similar, maybe slightly harder than what is in
OG. I had only one permutation probability question. You will want to know your square roots, decimals and fractions well before testing. Other than that, its what your practicing in
OG.
Verbal - I thought the verbal was much easier on the test then in
OG. Sentence correction were much more straight forward than in many of the
OG questions. Knowing common idioms and parallel structure of a sentence is a MUST. As far as RC and CR, I had two RC passages back to back from questions 5 - 12 or 13. Those of you who are not strong in RC may want to make sure you take enough time to really get those right.
Comments - As all of you have heard over and over again, spend the majority of your time on early questions. I really dug into some in the beginning, just to make sure they were right (except for quant #2 which I was completely dumbfounded on). It is critical that you get at least your first 7 or so questions correct.
Study your weaknesses in
OG thoroughly. It may not be necessary to do all of
OG, but know what you are weak and and dedicate time to your weaknesses. Don't forget to occasionally practice the other sections. You need to stay fresh in those as well.
Relax a couple days before your test, you will need your strength. I spent most of Saturday rehydrating after Friday night's excursions, and most of Sunday watching my Eagles offensive line play like a bunch of highschool kids. Go over some idioms and equations, maybe do a few problems, but don't overwork yourself.
Material I used in order:
Petersons GMAT CAT - complete waste of time. I burnt this book after I found this website and saw similar remarks on how terrible it was. It wouldn't be worth giving to charity to screw some other person over.
Kaplan 2003 - I found this useful, especially the practice tests. They were very hard compared to PP, and I liked the fact that it never let me become overconfident in myself.
Princeton Review 2003 - Glanced through it, did one of their practice tests on cd but it was all screwed up with the RC questions (they mixed up the order of those for some reason)
Official Guide - By popular thought on this board, I saved the best for last. Focused on my weak points and really reviewed the concepts especially in the questions I missed.
This website - A great resource for all to use. I appreciate everyone's feedback, thoughts and stories. It helps those of us studying to keep on trying.
After consideration, I do not think I will be retaking the test. I seriously do not see any weakspots in my application as a whole. I have a 3.9 undergrad GPA in a top 10 program in the US, my work experience in unsurpassed (in my mind, and trust me, I'll convince any ADCOM of this as well), I am very active in extracurricular activies, very energetic and am working on passing the Level 3 exam for the CFA in early June of next year (hopefully that will negate my lower quant). I just don't see the time/benefit ratio as very high by getting 20 or 30 more points.
I don't plan to apply to B-school until next fall, so until then, I can put all of this stuff on the back burner. Good luck to all and don't give up!
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13 Oct 2003, 11:06
