My GMAT Experience

Guys,
I have been a silent observer of the various forums present on this site, but now having given my GMAT would like to share my journey.

I'm an Indian working in the IT services sector with now close to 7 years of workex. I had previously given some mgmt entrance tests in India so had a fair idea of what to expect in GMAT.

I started my preparation 4 months before (My GMAT was on 5th July) but after I started reading OG, i thought I would have already peaked before my GMAT, so I put off studies for 2 months. Before doing so I gave one GMATPrep and got 700.
The greatest worry I had about GMAT was the verbal section, maths I was fairly confident that I would get close to 50. So started my preps with Powerscore CR bible and Manhattan/Princeton Verbal reviews. All of them were of great help. Now as luck would have it, mywork load increased just as my GMAT was nearing so couldn't give as much justice as I should have given to the verbal section.

On the GMAT day I reached the centre close to 1hr before, but the ladies didn't allow me to come inside!!! SO had to wait outside with no chairs for almost 20 mins (There was no waiting area as well at my center). Had practiced only a few essays, so was a bit nervous, but actually with the experience of writing long e-mails in professional life really helped me to get through it.Was able to complete essays with 3-4 mins to spare so that I could fix any last min cosmetic errors. Started on Maths. One observation here is that maths was not difficult, but compared to OG, they just like to make it little convoluted. As I was getting the easier ones correct, I was getting a few hard ones to solve. One more thing, if you are doing good in maths, I believe you will get more DS questions, because they can make the DS more complex than the normal maths questions, again just an observation. So if you are good at maths make sure you do sufficient practice of DS as well and that too try to get some good complex DS questions. I completed my maths section with 3-4 mins to spare and then took an optional break before starting on Verbal.

Here is where I lost my way, abit as mentioned earlier I wasn't sufficiently prepared with the verbal and ended up screwing it. Also this section is definitely more complex than OG. You can rely on OG to get a hang of questions, but to really excel in GMAT you would need to get hold of complex questions wherein at least 2 choices are very close. Many times I did realize during the test that there were 2 options either of which could have been right may be I chose wrongs ones more often than the right ones.
If I had practiced more, may be I could have fared better in verbal and in hindsight I guess I made a mistake of doing nothing for 2 months after I had booked my test.

Finally the 3.5 hours ordeal was over and there were some dumb details to fill in before the scores are revealed. Had mixed feelings when I saw the score. I could have done better, but then again I think it could have been worse. So did not cry and didn't laugh either after seeing the scores.

My final score Q 50 , V 30 690. Got the essay results after few days, it was 5.0

Not sure whether will GMAT give again, or where will apply, but just a note to fellow takers, DON'T GET AWED BY THE EXAM, if you do little hardwork, 700 is easy, trust me.

All the best.

Regards,
Ashish