Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum and am sharing my GMAT experience. I just took the GMAT today. It was such a relief to finally get it over with. I got:
Overall: 710
Math: 44
Verbal: 42
Percentile: 94%
For me this was very good because I had been getting 550 on all 4 of the Kaplan tests (give or take 10 pts). I did take the PowerPrep test the day before and I scored a 680 on that. I'm not sure why there was such a large descrepancy, but needless to say I was shocked when I received my score.
A few recommendations for those who are still studying. These may seem a little random, but I can't stress enough how important they are.
1) Don't drink too much coffee or other liquids in the 2 hours or so prior to the test. In my case the bathroom was far away - and having to hold it definitely distracted me during the test.
2) Don't worry about how badly you think you did on the math - I was so depressed at how badly I thought I did on the math that I could not focus for the first part of the verbal - it definitely slowed me down and I didn't finish the last 3 verbal questions. (Incidentally, I actually did pretty well on the math, so my worrying was unfounded)
3) Take a nap prior to the test. I scheduled my test for the evening, and I took the day off. I slept for an hour in the afternoon and it made me feel so rested and at ease during the test. Naps really work!
4) I never tried the
OG that everyone talks about, or Princeton Review, or any of the other ones - I only practiced with Kaplan and PowerPrep. I have to say Kaplan was much harder than PP and so I definitely recommend it for honing your math and verbal skills.
5) One thing with Kaplan - beware of buying more than one of their books. They have three books -1) General Math & Verbal Study Guide 2) Verbal Workbook, and 3) GMAT 800 (supposed to be the hardest questions) - I bought all 3. The problem is that their questions overlap way too much. I really liked the CD, which comes with the general guide, so I would go with that one if you had to pick just one.
Okay, well those are my random tips. Good luck!