Thanks Paul, Luminos, mckenna, jpv, Hjort, gmat2me2, MA, Gayathri, Praveen, Hong Hu, Doggita and the rest on the gmat club for your support.
The GMAT has been a long way for me. 2 previous attempts with low scores and close to 7-8 months of studying.
I last took my test in December 2004 and was totally depressed after my scores. I then took a 2 month break from studies and then started everything afresh. My weakness was verbal and I worked extensively on it. Not that I hadn't studied earlier. But I guess the GMAT is all about mental strength. After getting a couple of tough questions I had succumbed to the pressure and gave in. My strategy this time was timing, timing and timing. I constantly paced myself and let go of those questions which I was unsure of, made educated guesses and moved on. Believe me guys this strategy is very very crucial. If only I had adopted it earlier....
Test experience:
Slept well the whole of the previous week and more so the night before the exam. Reached the exam center 45 minutes before the scheduled time. Filled the form and completed the rest of the formalities. Just before entering the testing room I was handed the scratch paper and looks like ETS has reduced the number of scratch sheets allowed. I remember being handed 6 sheets in my previous attempts. This time it was like a fullscape sheet, the first sheet with the ETS mark and just 4 sides of paper. I was shocked and I checked with the proctor. He said that ETS now supplies only that and told me I could ask for another sheet after I handed over the first one. I tend to use a lot of scratch paper and those who need to use more beware of this......
AWA :
The AWA section was pretty ok. I used this section to warm up. Managed to finish the section with 3 minutes to spare on each topic. Took the 5 min break and proceeded.
Quant :
Started off pretty well.First 2 qtns were very simple. Had to struggle with the 3rd but got it after a while. The 4th was tough but could nail it as well. Had a couple of probability questions but they were quite simple, nothing like we see here on the gmat club. Had one question testing the mean, median concept but that too was manageable. The DS sums were tricky though - tested a lot of number properties and had to be careful as I tend to make silly mistakes there. I think ETS tests a lot of number properties and basic concepts. Had a tough geometry question on triangles and a circle but managed to nail it too. I lost some time on some of the tricky number properties sums and was left with 1.5 mins and 2 sums to go. The second last question was a long question with percentages. Was actually easy but as I was short of time I just randomly guessed and moved to the last question. The last question was a very easy question on decimal multiplication and took only 25-30 seconds to solve. Again took the 5 min break loaded myself with high sugar food and moved on.
Verbal:
The section started with 4 SC's in a row. They were long - testing multiple concepts but were quite manageable. Then had 2 RC's back to back. One 65 lines and the other 45. The passages were ok but I fell behind schedule and that continued till the very end. As a result I had to rush towards the end of the section. Around the 36th Question I got a long passage and had to skim it and answer the questions. Luckily the questions were pretty easy and manageable. Had 2 BF questions and were quite similar to the ones posted on GMAT club. The CR questions were easy nothing like the Kaplan questions and could easily eliminate the wrong answers. I used the POE on the entire verbal section and I think it was a great help.
Thoughts about the GMAT:
The key to the sucess on the GMAT is timing, timing and timing and I cannot stress it more. In my previous attempts I did poorly all because I let the GMAT get to me and panicked when I was lagging behind. I had to guess on my last 4-5 verbal questions and I guess that contributed to my low scores. Mental strength and remaining focussed for the entire 4 hours is crucial. Sure there are going to be some questions which are tough and beyond you. I learnt to let go of these questions by making an educated guess and moving on.
The verbal section is very much like the questions in the OG but the Quant is much tougher than the questions in the OG. Since verbal was my weakness ( not so much because of concepts but more because of timing) I worked very hard on the timing part. Every time I worked, I timed myself and learnt to pace myself. For my final attempt I used the Princeton Grammar smart and I think this book is really wonderful. I read about it in one of the posts on the GMAT club and wished I had started my preparation with it. The book is a small book but the explanations are good and I used it as reference book.
Thanks once again everybody for your support and encouragement. This site is really wonderful but I came across it pretty late in my preparation. Thanks Praet and BB for maintaining this site. The Challenges are great and keep up with the good work.
All the best to the rest of the guys on the club. Ciao.....
Apr 28
Apr 27
29 Apr 2005, 09:05
for ur apps. 
