Finished, could have been better (700, Q 49 V 36)

Thanks for the congrats but is it enough to put me in any of these schools

I am applying to MIT, Columbia, NYU, Yale and Wharton and I better start workign on those apps.

Background: Undergrad, Chemical Engg., IIT New Delhi, 3.67 GPA

Went straight to grad school to Rensselaer Polytech Inst in 1996 (GRE was 2100, actually I am surprised that my GMAT is also in the same ratio)
and finished PhD in 2001 (4.0/4/0 GPA and lot of publications). Came to IBM Research but did not get the group and project I was hoping for, moved around between groups learning lot of new stuff but once you are a specialist and PhD, you want to do what you like. Anyhow worked in IBM till this June and got totally pained and left. Now working in a start up Solar Cell Company in New Mexico (kind of got into a hot field). But I love East Coast and my wife is still there in a job so want to apply in East Coast schools. Now why MBA after PhD:

During IBM job, when I got pained of being moved around, I got really interested in investing stocks. At least they paid me decent so I had money saved up. Even took risks and borrowed money on credit cards to invest. I doubled my money in 2 years and that too with the full time job. Used to wake up 4 AM in morning to watch CNBC and follow markets, used to set up autotrades etc.

Any way I think I am made up for finance and given my strong technical and mathematical background can get into either Investment Banking, VC etc. but need a good MBA b4 that. I could have applied earlier but I was waiting to get my Green Card (which I shud I have applied for earlier anyway)

Congratulations!

Never mind 700 is pretty good score & a score of +30 wouldn't add much to the apps dimension!

All the best for applications!

I had seriously started studying around mid July for GMAT, My first diagnostic test from some website in end of May gave me 590, so I knew I needed some studies

I used Princeton review, OG 10 (free from somebody) and OG 11 plus little bit of Kaplan.

Initially I thought I don't need to focus on MAths that much but later found out since I had not touched the kind of problems GMAT tests in like 14 years, I better brush up everything and practice a lot.

Verbal had always been weak for me (even in GRE), but kept focus and kept practising. I had never been a reader, I only read the stuff I needed to (technical). Took GMAT prep test and Princeton review tests, my score varied from 670 to 740 so I fell in the average of my test scores.

My advice: practice essays also when takign tests, while takign practice tests, i used to take long breaks between Q and V and this kind of hurt, Last time I took such a long exam was in grad school in 1999. So it does take getting used to

I already described my bad experience first time of taking test, when I didn't have the passport. Today i had it and took the test

Essays were easy, but I am a slow typer and if I try to tyoe fast, I make typos. So typed slowly and finished both on time and was able to revise them.

Quant: There was a mixture question, that I read wrong and was so frustrated not to find answers in choices that I was getting and later found my mistake. There was a ds question about two planes intersecting the sphere so please be careful, GMAT is testing new concepts too, lot of ds questions involving modulus and inequality, 1 Prob question, 1 combinations, one median, avg ds was so bad that I had to guess, In the end I was runnign out of time and finished with 15 seconds left, I was running out of writing space in the dying minutes so I had to ask fo rnew pad and that consumed 45 seconds

One question related to relative speed ds (Car A in front of B etc.) I knew I screwed up by hitting wrong button and I think I did that in hurry on another question otherwise I woudl have got 51 in Q

I was not happy about it but tried to forget about it and focus on Verbal.

Started with 2 SC, but next came a horrible Cr, spent 3 mins and made a best guess, then came horrible RC, where every sentence had some circualr reasoning. The later RC became easy but CR were much tougher than I did in GMAT Prep tests, I don't knwo what other recent test takers think, I think I started hurrying up in questions (I usually do that) and int he end had more than 2 mins per question and slowed down (bad strategy, sicne if you screw up initially, questions could become easier and extra time does not help)

I still wanted tto see my scores just to check how lucky I was in my guesses, I guess not too much, guessing does not help too much.

still I think My quaifications, GPA and wok ex would help me in apps, plus I have some leadership and volunteering experience. Hope I make to one of the 5 schools. I think I will apply to Cornell, CMU too.

Hey Buddy.

Congrats! That's a good score.

The Q question hints you gave were indeed on GMAT today!

I ended up with overall score 10 shy than yours. 51Q 35V.-690.

Thinking to re-do this again.

Best of luck!

Congratulations :D ..... Great score

Now, the next steps are in front..... Good luck ! ! :D