740

Friends in this forum,

I took GMAT on 9/3/2003, and scored 740 -98% with (Q-51, V-38).

ItтАЩs been a rocky summer: I started thinking about GMAT and decided to take it On 6/1/2003, the date when I finished an important research paper and wondered what to do in summer. I purchased all the books: Official Guide, Kaplan GMAT, Kaplan 800 and Kaplan Verbal in the following week.

Initially, I believed, based on my experience, that the key is to find a competent study partner. I went to Princeton Reviews offices and posted a few тАЬlook for GMAT study partnerтАЭ notes, but received no response. Perhaps, this is a country which cherishes individualism, not teamwork 

Knowing that Verbal is my weak area, I first completed Kaplan verbal book in about two weeks. I did the first PP test and scored around 650. I started Official guide by the end of June, and got through it by the end of July. Before taking the test for the first time on 8/12/2003, I scored 740 on PP2 and consistently around 620~650 on two Kaplan exams and one Princeton Review online test.

It was a terrible night before the exam. Despite taking two sleeping pills for the first time in my entire life, I couldnтАЩt sleep till 5AM. I went to take the test nonetheless. Predictably, I scored 690 (Q49, V34) and AWA 6.0.

I had thought of stopping right there. However, knowing that I can easily score beyond 700 under normal condition makes me feel like a quitter if I donтАЩt give it another shot. To avoid the insomnia problem, I decided not to register the next exam in advance but to do a walk-in. However, the devil strikes even harder this time. I couldnтАЩt sleep for any night throughout last week, perhaps because I know that if I sleep well, I will take the test. The mental game was so torturing that, finally, I decided not to take the exam and instead to rely on other aspects of my credential to build up my MBA application. I didnтАЩt touch any GMAT for the past three days and indulge myself in reading some Chinese websites. Yesterday, I burned all the GMAT books and said to myself тАЬOh, good lord, this journey is over, I will go with whatever you give meтАЭ.

I had the first good sleep last night. I woke up this morning feeling so relaxed that I almost had sex with my wifeтАФno kidding  Thanks to Lord, I took a look at the clock hanging on the wall, and noticed that it was still 6:37AM. I rushed to the testing center and performed well.

In mid June, I enrolled a GMAT test prep class (https://www.gorillatestprep.com/). It is not expensive and I did that solely to find a study partner. In the first class, the instructor talked about picking numbers as an essential strategy for math. He talked about it again in the second class, I became impatient and he told me that I just had to try and see how magical it is. I conceded. He talked about that again in the third class. That is when I decided to quit it and he kindly gave me a partial refund. For people who have similar background to mine (graduate degree in science, and strong math skills but not very good at verbal), IтАЩd suggest them not to take those prep classes because prep classes generally target American students who are usually not good at math.

Materials I have worked on:

Kaplan Verbal bookтАФone pass.

GMAT official guide тАУ one pass, then reviewed the sentence correction part which is my weak area. I didnтАЩt finish the entire math portion though because I donтАЩt have enough time.

Kaplan 2003. тАУ 50 percent of it.

Only touched the Kaplan 800 book for part of its sentence correction portion. It may be good, but I hate those тАЬexpert suggestionsтАЭ.

Kaplan simulation exams тАУ the math is harder and I couldnтАЩt finish the math portion of the first exam. Since I did that right before my first exam, I carried that тАЬrushтАЭ feeling and attitude into the real GMAT exam, as a result, I guess I made at least two or three stupid mistakes so that I only scored 49тАФa disappointing score for a Chinese student. No insult here, but the culture among Chinese GMAT takers is: if you miss one point, you fail; if you miss two, you are a loser.

In retrospect, I was correct when I decided that grammar is my weak area and I worked on it extensively. At the beginning of this summer, I thought I would use this test prep process as a chance to improve my overall English ability. Luckily, I found a suggestion from this forum that SchaumтАЩs Outlines for English Grammar is a good book.
I bought it and studied it carefully before delving into the preparation journey. It is a very good book which provides solid foundations on grammar for non-English speakers.