Dear Coffeeloverfreak, Haralampi and Rahul Rao - Thanks!
Dear RahulRao - In response to your post and by way of background - I am a corporate lawyer, and well, had to take time off from work to study for the GMAT. I took 15 days off. I used the Princeton Review book, OG11,
OG Verbal,
OG Quant and K800 in that order. I did three full length tests - PR (690) about a week before the exam; Kaplan (640) about four days before the test and PP1 (770) the day before the test. I really wished that I had studied methodically for about an hour or so every day for about a month before I took my preparatory leave. It would have really helped.
Exam day -
AWA - The Analysis of an Issue left me speechless - I just did not know what to write and where to begin (which is rare for a lawyer!). Finished 10 seconds before time. Analysis of an Argument was simple. Finished well in advance. Did make notes prior to beginning in both cases - about 2 minutes each. I did not prepare for AWA at all. I just checked out what PR and the
OG had to say about it - at a conceptual level - and left the rest to exam day and loads of practice writing memos at work.
Maths - Started really easy - Question on fractions. Second question - simple DS. I got my first P&C at question 6 - Got really confused. I am still searching the forums to see whether there is any equivalent question which has been discussed here. Guessed and moved on. One simple question of Co-ordinate Geometry. About 3 or 4 geometry questions - both PS and DS. Questions seem to average out in difficulty levels at about Q12 – 14. Ran out of time at the end and did the last 3 questions in about 2 minutes. Timed myself really poorly. Guess clicked the last question.
Verbal - Had not really practiced too much during my study leave. I will put it down to overconfidence which I sorely regret now. RC - Fairly standard - Not particularly tough. Two boldfaces - question 9 and 17 - remember this very distinctly. RC and CR were about the same difficulty as
OG. SC was tougher - much tougher than the
OG. Entire sentences, convoluted meanings and multiple errors. I was a bit paranoid about time after the quant section so I really hurried up. Finished about 35 minutes early.
Score - 750 (99%ile) (49Q - 90%ile; 42V - 96%ile).
My learning – (1) Prepare well in advance. Last minute study will not work. If work is a bother, just do an hour or so everyday for a couple of week before taking off to just study for the exam. (2) I really genuinely believed that I had mucked up my quantitative during the entire exam. I was clearly wrong. I should have not been thinking about quant at all, especially during verbal. I think in the heat of the moment you are completely unable to gauge how well or poorly you are doing – and its possibly a huge waste of time to slow down and try to get the questions correct to push up your score (3) The level of P&C questions in the forum is alarming for first time viewers. They should stay away from all of these question till they have their basics and then some in control. After that, they MUST do all of the questions in the forums if they are really thinking of cracking the GMAT. (4) I speak English as a first language for all practical purposes. I barely speak my mother tongue. I was overconfident because of this – and suffered. Just like maths, English NEEDS to be studied.
Could someone please please please help me? I am really really confused about whether to apply or not this year. If I should - which BSchools should I apply to. Does a 750 give me a fighting chance for the top 10? My profile is posted in the Ask Accepted and Ask Hjort forums. I would really appreciate some input!
If anyone wants more details I will be glad to mail / post!!
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10 Oct 2005, 11:18
