Took the GMAT yesterday

Hello,

First off, I'd like to say that this site is AMAZING. All the posts and tips are really great. The organizers of the site and all the contributors deserve much credit.

I thought I'd relate my first experience GMAT to everyone. I got a 670 (Q 46, V 36). I was a little dissapointed, but seeing as how I felt after taking the exam, I was actually a little relieved.

I got to the test site 1 hour early. Much to my surprise, my test started within 5-10 minutes from when I arrived. The test conditions were not that good. The room was very dim and the temperature was at least 80 degrees. I'd advise people to check out the test center if at all possible prior to taking the exam.

AWA was pretty standard. They were very much like PP1 and PP2 prompts.

Quant was harder than expected. Early on, I got a probability question and towards the end I got a standard deviation question. My big problem was timing. Although I did not have a problem with this on practice tests, timing was a major problem for me on real thing. I'd advise people to formulate a timing game plan that works for you and stick to it. I was really stubborn with difficult problems and just couldn't let them go. The result was that I had 14 questions left with 10 minutes remaining
Needless to say, I was pretty shaken up after that section.

Verbal was okay. Reading passages were not too bad luckily (betwen 55-65 lines). Again, I timed it poorly and rushed a bit at the end.

A couple of times, I was about to call it quits on the exam. But, I remember reading somewhere that post test impressions can be pretty misleading so I didn't cancel.

I'm planning to take the exam again in May. Hopefully I'll improve a bit. Ideally, I'd like to attend a top 15 or 20 school. I'll probably focus on SC, CR, and Probability.

Also here are my practice test results: PR 640-680, Kaplan 580-590, PP 640-690. Paper test questions seem to be easier than those found on the CAT.

For those of you who have yet to take the exam, based on the quality of the posts in the discussion group, I think you all will do just fine! Good Luck to you all! I hope my post was useful.