Hi guys,
I gave GMAT yesterday that is 26th April and my score is 730 (Q49, V40).
First of all many many thanks to gmatclub, without which this would not have been possible at all.
As far as my background is concerned, I did my B.Tech(passed out in 2008) and working in IT industry (making me one in the herd) for the past two years. Around January 2010, I have decided to give GMAT and started preparing for it, but until I booked my slot for the above date on 18th Feb, it was not serious at all.(So I was left with around 2 months for the big day). This is for sure that one gets serious only after booking the slot for the exam. So, going by my experience, I suggest all of those who are preparing to book a date depending on their convinience.
To begin with my preperation, it revolves around mainly one and only source
OG. These are the materials I have used:
Verbal:
Official Guide 12th, 10th Editions
Official Guide Verbal Review 2nd Edition
gmatclub SC forum(and a few others forums too)
Mahattan SC
Practice Questions in Kaplan, GMATPrep, Powerprep softwares.
Quant:
Official Guide 12th Edition
I have used no material other than these.
I have read in most of the forums that the questions in
OG are similar to those in the original GMAT, so I decided to start with
OG only. After doing 12th Edition
OG once, I realized that my SC is very poor, CR is very good and RC is decent.
My mistake:
Then I decided that I have to improve a lot on SC and I started to pick all the material that I could and started preparing. I was so involved in SC that by the time I completed my SC, I was almost running against time and was left with very less time for me to complete prep for other sections and ended with just
OG for all others.
However, good point is that while doing SC, I almost completed CR and RC in both the OGs 2 times and gave one GMATPrep exam and got (believe it or not) 730 (Q49, V39).(I gave this exam around 25th of March)
Going by the review in the model exam, my SC got better and RC got worse, but no time left to improve it. Still because of the score in the exam, my confidence levels were high.
And by the time I completed SC satisfactorily, it was just two weeks away from the exam and I started Quant, since I did not touch this until now. (Of course I did this because, I knew that my maths is always a plus point for me, I have never worried and I will never worry about maths.)
So realizing that not much time is left, I did the practice questions in the above softwares and again did a quick review of OGs.
Just 3 days from the exam, I did the BIGGEST BLUNDER (My mistake #2) by attempting Kaplan CAT( and got scores of 640, 630 and 620 in the first 3 tests). Seeing the scores, I was dashed and became nervous like hell. After giving the 3rd test, frustration was at its peak and I decided not to give the fourth one and took a day off. The next morning, woke up and gave the GMATPrep exam 2 and got 740 (Q50, V40). This was a lot relieving. At this point, I was left with one more thing AWA. There is this miracle post in gmatclub for AWA by chineseburned, looking at which I felt it is more than enough and gone through it thoroughly for around 2 hours and did not even touch the book for the remaining time until exam, because I did not want to get tense or something unnecessarily at this point of time.
Went to the exam without any tension in my mind, and tried to give my best possible shot. However, after looking at the score, it was an okok feeling...i know that how much ever you get, u feel that u ended up 20 short or something. In the end, i think it is a decent score if not average.
Well, this became a long one i guess. Actually, to be frank, I was thinking from yesterday how (even whether) to put my experiences here because I really cant say whether my prep and experience will be of any sort of motivating or not, will they be useful or not (and all the experiences that I have read here were really inspiring). So, after a long thought I have written this.
Final notes:
1. Book ur gmat date as early as possible if u r serious.
2. Take your own time especially while doing
OG, even if you take 2 days more, it is good to spend until you assess it thoroughly. Not only knowing the correct answers, but also knowing why the options are wrong is very important.
3. Use your GMATPrep tests very effectively. Here, I would to like to add one thing. Most of the forums suggest to give the first exam before prep or smthing like that. Personally, i dont advise this because before starting the prep it does not matter whether u got 500 or 800. And halfway through the prep, if u want to know ur stand, u will not be able to gauge it.
4. Know ur strong and weak points, plan and prepare accordingly(dont make the same mistake that I committed).
5. Stress on
OG as much as possible...VERY VERY IMPORTANT. You cannot do
OG more than 2 times, if u do more than that seeing the question, u will recognize the answer mostly.
6. Never panic...this is the key in preparation and in the exam as well. Take a break if u panic.
7. Never do any question from KAPLAN 3 weeks before the exam. Personally, i suggest that its better if u can completely avoid it(at any stage).
Hope this is helpful...
Now, have to start analyzing the colleges. Again looking towards gmatclub, as i dont even know where to start.
PS: After all this, i realized that out of 5 sections(PS,DS,SC,CR and RC), i prepared properly only one section(to my satisfaction)...