Took the GMAT this past weekend and got a 710. Thankful that its not too bad, not super excited that its a great score either. But i guess this would be the range I would score in if I retook the test in the next month, so 710 it is. Applying to some of the big schools, not sure if this will suffice.
Preparation for the test was pretty much confined to
OG and
MGMAT.
MGMAT's sentence correction guide was a real life-saver. Helped me get a better understanding of where i was committing a lot of "silly-mistakes". I took the
MGMAT cat's along the way. Preparation time was about 6 weeks prior to the test date. Concentrated on finishing OG11 and making sure I understood where and why I went wrong. Did most of the questions from the
OG-Verbal review.
My scores during prep were in this order:
GMAT prep 1: 680,
MGMAT CAT's (1-5): 610, 640, 680, 670, 660, GMAT prep 2: 700,
MGMAT CAT-6: 730, GMAT prep 1(retest): 700 Official
Gmat 710Getting the three 700's in the last week was a great boost, i was otherwise quite disappointed with
MGMAT's 600's earlier. Scored consistently ~47-49 in quant and ~32-36 in verbal. Was hoping to get a surprise big score on the big day :D
Test day went well and without incident. The questions, I felt, were very close to the GMAT prep ones. Definitely tougher than the OG11 questions, especially in Quant. Got scared couple of times when there were ridiculously easy questions towards the end, but well they might have been experimentals or maybe the GMAT's CAT algorithm is different from what's assumed.
My advice on prep would be to be thorough with all the materials that are release by GMAT, be it
OG's, the verbal/quant reviews or GMAT prep. Take the GMAT prep multiple times, they have a decent sized pool there. This gives you the best picture, but be warned, the real deal is a bit tougher too.
MGMAT's SC guide is great too. Also, start practicing the essays in advance. Make sure you write the essays while taking the CAT's, that is preparation enough. (Don't have my AWA score yet, hope it was ok). If you are looking for a study group, Grockit will be a nice place to start. Though not conventional, its great to find company. I was frequent on it till the questions started repeated way too much. But it helped in being a good kickstart at the beginning (everyone needs one) because of the helpful people there, the tips from instructors and a generally engaging experience
All the best y'all.
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Updated on: 29 Sep 2009, 21:25
