So, I just returned from my first battle with the GMAT. I scored a 640 and I'm pretty disappointed because I was hoping for a 680-700.
Study Materials:
OG 11
Kaplan 800
About 2 weeks ago I read that you can only take the GMAT once every 31 days so I decided to hurry up and schedule a test so that I could take it again at the end of February before submitting some applications in late Feb/early March (apps to be submitted to MBA programs in Europe) Obviously I didn't have much time to study so all I really did was:
Studied OG11 and GMAT800 for 2 days (a little bit of each question type)
Took GMATPrep #1 - 620 (Q38 V38)
I was little surprised to see a 38 for verbal (engineering background) so I studied Math for 2-3 days
Took GMATPrep #2 - 700 (Q45 V40)...looks as though my studying paid off (I was thrilled).
Took the Real GMAT today and scored 640 (Q44 V33)
I was hoping that my 700 practice test would be a good indicator of how I'd do on the actual test but I guess I was wrong. Maybe I got lucky.
Wow what happened to my verbal score? Who knows. It did seem a bit harder than the practice tests. I had been finishing GMATPrep verbal with about 10 min to spare but in the actual test I was rushed through the last 2-3 questions. I really dont know what happened though. I wish I could take it again tomorrow, I feel as though I'd do a lot better with a 2nd shot (probably wrong).
As for the Q score, I'm pleased with the score of 44 because I jacked up my pacing and had to rush though the last 7 questions (probably actually worked 2, educated guess on 3 and wild guess on 2).
I'm planning to take the test again in 31 days. I think I need to focus on:
1) My pacing
2) Sentence Correction
3) Critical Reasoning
4) Probability
Comments welcome!
Hughes9115
My profile in brief:
26 year old America Male
3 years experience automotive design (Mechanical Engineer)
Target Schools (and my view of my chances):
INSEAD (long shot: even after 680-700 GMAT is achieved)
IE (possible)
Cambridge (possible)
IE (likely)
ESADE (likely)