780

Hi guys,

My first (and last) GMAT score is:

Total 780
Q 50
V 47

I was a bit surprised because the result was above my expectations. I was a little nervous during the first half of the math section because the questions seemed too easy and I was afraid I might have started on a track of wrong answers. But I remembered an Indian engineer on this forum who shared the same experience and got 760, and then the problems in the second half got more difficult so I relaxed. My perception was probably influenced by the fact that in the several days prior to the exam I was practicing only the questions I was getting wrong, so I got used to a higher difficulty level.

I studied for 2.5 months (mostly doing problems and questions from books), about 2.5 hours every day (including 14 hours a day the last four-five days prior to the exam). I don't believe in the success of the strategy of relaxing a day or a week prior to such an exam. But it depends on your personal preferences, of course.

I did languages and economics at university, but I was good at math in school (10 years ago). My work consists in editing business news in English, so the SC part was the easiest for me. But, on the other hand, the SC part is also the easiest to learn by exercise.

Some of my previous results are:
GMAT Prep 1: 740 (3 weeks ago) (Q48, V44)
GMAT Prep 2: 740 (3 weeks ago) (Q49, V42)
GMAT Prep 1: 770 (3 days ago) (50:45)
GMAT Prep 2: 770 (2 days ago) (50:46)
Princeton Review 1: 660 (6 weeks ago)
Princeton Review 2: 710 (6 weeks ago)
Princeton Review 3: 700 (4 days ago)
Princeton Review 4: 710 (3 days ago)
Princeton Review 2: 750 (5 days ago) (51:43)

I got something like 610 on the Kaplan 1 test, which I found ridiculously low and totally unrepresentative and I gave up making any other Kaplan tests.

I used the OG + the verbal and quant booklets, Princeton Review (did not finish the whole of it), a Barrons (which is a bit outdated) and a Peterson's, which I found very good at explaining things, particularly AWA.

I did not try to apply any of those strategies of beating the test-writers. In most cases I would first calculate the equation or the sum and only then look at the answers.

Good luck!