My experience - 710

Hello people. This is a great site that I wish I had discovered before taking the test. I'll share my story with you. Nothing profound, but here it is.

I studied for about 5 total weeks over a 2 month period, about 2 hours a day. I took a week here and a couple there and did nothing.

I had scheduled the appointment for early February, but after 3 weeks of studying, I didn't feel comfortable and decided to postpone it a month. I was happy to give away another $250.

Basically, I used the OG book, the Kaplan CD and the CD you get when you register for the test.

I hate the Kaplan CD. Could the format suck anymore? The window takes up about half of the screen and makes it hard to read the Reading Comp sections. That and it scores so much lower and hurt my confidence because I hadn't read these posts about it. I didn't use the Kaplan book.

I did all the OG book math problems and some of the verbal stuff, about a quarter of them.

I got 550, 590, and 550 on three Kaplan tests.

Got 690 and 640 on the GMATPrep CD.

Got a 710 when I took it for real. 43 Q 44 V 5.5 Essays

I took the test at the Downtown Chicago location. I got there about a half an hour early and they let me start the process right away. They were professional and respectful. I asked for headphones and they offered earplugs, which I recommend. People in the room are at different points in the test and I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on anything besides people typing had I not had them. I didn't practice with the earplugs, but it worked for me. Also, the eraser boards suck ass. My marker sucked. I had to dab the pen on my tounge to get it to work right most of the time. Gross I know, but the intensity was high so anything to get the job done.

I didn't do any practice essays. I read a couple example essay answers in the book and got a feel for what they were looking for. When writing the essays, I took about 5 minutes to think and write down some ideas before I started typing. On the first essay, I didnt get a chance to write a conclusion, but whatever.

On the Quantitative, I took about 10 minutes on one problem and screwed myself. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Then the questions started looking too easy and I thought I was totally sucking. When "1+1=?" showed up, I totally wigged out. They might as well have been that easy. I guess that is how it goes though when you are taking the interactive test for real. They get you on a level so you aren't seeing harder questions that you would see on a practice test. 43 isn't too bad, but I would have liked to do better.

The Verbal went well. I was able to concentrate. As long as I can focus and get in a zone with my reading, I'm cool. When my mind starts wandering is where I get in trouble.

I was very happy with the 710. Now, after reading all these posts on here, I kind of want higher, but I have to realize that obviously people who kick-ass on this stuff are going to want to share.

Im going to start a Masters of Accountancy program this summer or fall. I got all my app stuff in last week and now the wait begins. A little late in the game, but hopefully my number one will show me some love.

Later