Satisfaction - 770 (Q 50, V 45)

Okay, I'm ready for my debriefing. I did sleep for a long time last night after having had to go to work, so my memory might not be accurate.

My test was in the morning. I'm not a morning person but I simply could not get an afternoon slot at either of the two centers of my choice. I wanted a center that was in a quiet office building. I actually picked a center that I saw and liked because a couple of others that I could have chosen were in crowded shopping malls. Tip -> Know your center before you pick it.

My day went like this - I woke up earlier than usual because I could not sleep well at all, which is typical for me before big days. I take a couple of hours in the morning to get going in any case. So, I surfed the net and did a couple of questions of each type to keep my mind fresh. I also refreshed my mind with the templates I came up with for AWA.

I had my usual breakfast - oatmeal, fruit and a large Colombian, prayed, kissed my sleeping wife and left the house. I reached the center about 40 minutes before the test. There were 15 people who reached before me, but none seemed to be taking the GMAT, most were appearing for some test called the NASD or for a test called Praxis. I already knew the layout of the area and where restrooms were etc.

First I filled in the confidentiality agreement form and stuffed my backpack in a locker. I then went outside to catch some fresh air instead of being stuck in the small waiting area. I washed my face and went in and within a few minutes, they called my name and I did the sign in etc. I asked for a noise cancelling headphone set which was given to me promptly. I did not like the seat that they gave me - right next to the door when people were walking in and out. Plus the two proctors were laughing and chatting and it was a visual distraction for me. But they had no other GMAT computers so I had to take that crappy seat. Tip -> Go early and ask for a quiet seat, if possible.

AWA

As I mentioned above, I had a template for each of the two AWA essays which I employed in every practice CAT that I took. I got the analysis of argument first and the analysis of issue later. Each of them took me about 25 minutes to complete. So far so good. I then utilized the 5 minute break - drank a sip of water, then took a leak and washed my face with cold water and hands with soap (I hate it when my hands get oily). I got back to my seat with some 10 seconds to spare! I clicked okay and used the Math instructions screen to calm myself down by taking a few deep breaths.

Math

Math started of with a couple of easy Algebra questions but the 4th or 5th one was a slightly involved combinations problem - you have to consider various cases and add them up. Then I got a super hard overlapping sets DS problem with 3 categories and lots of percents, fractions and actual numbers. I took a while for this but I have a feeling I might have gotten it wrong. In these types of hard problems, if you are getting E, it is usually wrong - because most guessers guess C or E in harder problems. I was a bit rattled by it and had to calm myself down again in the next problem, which was another one of my bugbears - statistics. Luckily, this one was easy and I was able to progress smoothly. I did not get ANY probability problem (perhaps explaining why I did not get 51). There were many problems with co-ordinate geometry/slope/circles, sequences and series and mean/median. There was one clever problem that combined remainders and set theory! There were also a few problems where I had to use brute force calculations to get 3 digits after the decimal, so I must advise people who have been avoiding long hand calculations to get down and dirty. I honestly did not feel that I made any mistake after Q 8, but I have this feeling that a couple of mistakes earlier might have put a ceiling on my score at 50. I do not buy GMAC's "All questions are important" spiel. Anyway, in the last 4-5 Qs, there were some involved geometry problems. I finished with a couple of minutes to spare. I clicked okay and opted for the break. This time, I drank some water, had a couple of bites of Baby Ruth bar and half a caffiene pill (vivarin). Got back to the desk again with seconds to spare. I calmed myself down yet again and focused on positive thoughts and then clicked okay to start the Verbal section.

Verbal

Verbal was a totally weird experience for me. I got a couple of SCs and a couple of very easy CRs in the beginning, CRs were such that the incorrect answer choices were so clearly wrong that you could not but pick the right choice. Then came the whammy - a super hard history RC passage regarding some European woman author and women's rights in some century (40 lines). Folks, I simply could not make head or tail of the passage and had to read it 4 times and ended up using POE to get answers for each of the 3 questions. One of them was about the attitude which was lost on me because I could not tell if the author was critical of the woman or the person whom the woman author was criticizing. Tip -> Practice a lot on the RC types that you are not comfortable with.

I then got an easy CR and a couple of super hard SCs followed by a very hard Bold face CRs where it was not clear whether a bolded part was a premise or evidence or fact. Time was running fast. But I must have been doing well because I then got back to back RCs - 70 line and 50 line, one on science and one on business. Then more SCs and regular CRs. Another history passage (40 line) followed but this one was easier. Then it was more CRs and the test ended with 3 medium level SCs. CRs were no harder than the hard OG ones. SCs were definitely more involved but no confusing answer choices. Many of the long ones were ones where you have to eliminate answer choices based on pronoun reference, parallelism etc to end up with the correct answer - essentially not obvious ones. I finished verbal with about 8 minutes to spare.

By this time, I had a feeling that I did well in Verbal but the easier middle part of Math was haunting me. I clicked through the stupid survey and then selected the "Show scores" option which the computer forces you to selecte twice. I was overjoyed when I saw the score even though I had an instant tinge of anger at myself for missing a 51 in Math. But my Verbal score was mind boggling for me because 45 was about as high as I got in my practice tests. I'll post my preparation strategy below but I must point out that I got 770 in each of my 2 Powerprep and GMATPrep CATs. I took PPs before trying the OG.

So I signed out and got the score printout, and drove back home. I called my wife who was happy that the ordeal was over. The rest of the day was a blur for me. I did have a wonderful night's sleep after a looooong time. I had to get back to work immediately but I'm taking today off to celebrate with my wife. But I figured I post my debriefing here before I forget my test experience. I'll post my study strategy details in a bit.