The battle is finally over !
I began studying back in the beginning of October with the intent of taking the exam in the beginning of January, so I've had about 90 days of good prep time. I graduated from my undergraduate program with a BS in Finance back in May 08. I'm looking at MSc Finance programs here in the U.S. and in the U.K. (if I'm lucky); so I know my <1yr of work experience isn't going to get me into a top tier MBA program :wink:
Study Materials:
OG11 Orange
OG11 Green + Purple
Kaplan GMAT Math Review
Kaplan GMAT800
ManhattanGMAT online tests
GMATClub challenges
GMATPrep software
Chineseburned AWA guide
Math Review PDF from GMATClub forums
My initial
MGMAT freebie test was a 630 Q44V36.
Began with a thorough run through the OG11 guides back in October, doing them in 20-30 question segments on my lunch breaks, after work. When it became clear that my math skills needed a little sharpening, I bought the
Kaplan Math Review guide - I do not recommend this guide, the questions are far too basic for people already pulling in scores in excess of 600. During the month of December I tried to go through all of the GMATClub challenges, one a day, to improve my math skills for the harder questions. Going through the GMATClub challenges helped me get from hovering around a 44-45 on the quant section up to a solid 48-49 every time. I definitely did not put in enough effort here to get up any higher on the quant score, which is my fault. I assumed my verbal would help carry the score up high enough to get me through 700+ and it did.
I worked and re-worked the OG11 guides until I had my speed under control, then bought the
MGMAT practice tests. I found that these tests are FAR more difficult than the actual GMAT or GMATPrep software - their combinatorics questions are particularly difficult, whereas mine on the official test were very simple ( essentially a direct permutation question or two, not even difficult wording ). This is in line with the GMATPrep software, I usually ran into one permutation per test. I took all 5
MGMAT tests, my scores pretty much followed a linear progression up from 650 to 750 on the last test - though I wasn't sure if this was due to familiarity with the problems or if I was actually getting better. Likewise, when I began taking and re-taking the GMATPrep software in November, I began at about a 670, ramping up to a 760 at my peak. I took each practice on the GMATPrep 3 times, for a total of six tests. My last three were all 750+, so I took this as a good indicator of my chances.
I honestly studied for the AWA all of an hour this morning, read Chineseburned's guide and examples to memorize my paper layout, then copied that onto my test booklet to guide myself. I made 5's on the AP Lit/Language exams in high school, so I was not very concerned with the AWA score. Both of my essays on the test today were fairly straightforward, though I believe I did much better on the analysis of an argument than the analysis of an issue.
There were about 10 people in the test center all taking the GMAT with me today
I hope I did better than all of them
. Definitely eat a good breakfast / lunch before your test, and get a solid night's sleep before. Yesterday, all I did for studying was take my final GMATPrep and then I turned the computer off. I highly recommend of all my study materials the
OG Guides, the GMATPrep software, and the
GMATClub tests. I found the Kaplan books not worth the investment and while the
MGMAT online tests were interesting, I believe they are far too difficult and may actually hinder test-takers into thinking they're worse off than they actually are.
Thanks all for your information here on the forum, and thanks for reading my long-winded post. It feels good to relax, finally... (at least until I start writing applications)