Relieved to finally get GMAT out of the way. I am pleased to get the score especially after a harrowing experience at the test center.I walked in 15 minutes before the exam and the administrator asked me for my passport. I was then given one hour to come back with my passport. A very tense 40 mins and 1 cab ride and 1 CTA (chicago transit authority) ride later, I was at the test center and ready to start. So international students, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR PASSPORT WITH YOU. It was kind of ironic and embarrassing that I did not read the instructions on the GMAT carefully ( and here I thought RC was a breeze).
First few questions in Q were easy however it became difficult towards the end.No combinatrics questions though.
In verbal I got one bold face question towards the middle and some very tough SCs so I knew I was doing fairly well in that section.
Most of my prep was in the last 2 months though I had been preparing passively(some practice questions once every few days) for the last 6 months. Before I started any kind of prep, I scored around 700 on my initial GmatPrep test. I then signed up for Veritas self prep course since I thought a test prep course will give me some focus but I did not feel that their material was useful at all. It was very basic.It looks like most members on this site are looking for a 700+ score so I dont think Veritas would help you much at all. If anything it was a distraction since I forced myself to go through their first few online chapters. The reason I chose Veritas over
MGMAT was the availability of more tests and more material. Once more in my life I was reminded, quantity never trumps quality.
Even though an Indian applicant with a base in technology , I concentrated more on quants since I was having an issue with timing. I signed up for the
Gmatclub tests.My first test I scored 46% but after a few tests I was in the 75 percentile range.Valuable resource. It puts you in the mindframe of looking for gotchas especially in number properties.
I was scoring around 700-730 on my practice tests before I started using
MGMAT's sentence correction book and Kaplan 800. My Verbal scores immediately went up from 38-40 to 44-45.I think a good verbal score is the key to a high GMAT score. I once scored a 43 on Quants and a 45 in Verbal and scored a 720.
All in all, very pleased with the score though would have loved 90%ile plus on both sections.