i just got back from the test in southern california. i picked up a GMAT book for the first time 6 weeks ago. i've been trying to studying 1-2 hours per day at night after work and 3-4 hours on weekends. i used OG11,
OG verbal,
OG quant, kaplan verbal, kaplan math, princeton review overall,
manhattan gmat sentence correction and of course gmatprep and powerprep.
AWA was ok. first question was something about employees of not-for-profit corporations being more motivated than employees of for-profit corporations. second question was about moving up professionally at the expense of a private life.
anyway, i think my AWA was ok. we'll see in 3 weeks but i'm hoping for a 5.
quantitative
usually my math scores range from 48-51 on my practice tests. i used to always finish my practice tests with about 5 minutes to spare so i've been taking the time to recheck my work, etc. but these days that has backfired and i've been running out of time. i ran low on time so i had to start rushing at the end. i think i had like 7 minutes left for the last 5 questions and i found myself looking at the clock a lot and finding that i'm below pace.
verbal
my verbal scores range from 38-42 on my practice test. i used to finish 10-15 minutes early so i've been taking this a lot slower. i finished with about 4 minutes left and towards the end i was really taking my time to read and re-read and re-read, etc.
my goal was to have 700+. my practice tests ranged from 660-730 but usually i kind of rushed a bit on my practice tests. if i scored under 700, i was going to retake. i figured if everything goes well, i would get like a Q50/V42 (like 750).
oh well, in the end a Q48, V42. the 48 on Q was on par with the lowest i would ever score but the 42 was on par with the highest and total is 730 so i'm happy.
overall percentiles:
Q48 / 85
V42 / 95
Overall 730 / 96
(UPDATE AWA SCORE 6.0)
i'm an older guy (34) applying to executive MBA programs. my undergrad GPA from 10+ years ago was a low 2.5 from UC Berkeley.
1) UCLA EMBA
2) USC EMBA
3) Wharton West EMBA (in San Francisco)
4) INSEAD (full time 1 year)
5) maybe kellogg, maybe London Business School, etc.
RVD.