Took the test today - 720

Hi Everybody.. Long time gmatcluber here.. Finally took the Test today and got a 720 (Q47, V41). Contemplating on whether I should take it again before June 5. I had never got below 48 in Quants before today and got 50s in Gmat-preps. Verbal score is as expected. I had been getting between 40 and 42 in my practice tests.

Had some trouble before taking the exam today. I had taken only my DL to test center (in CA) as my ID. They showed me the rule book and asked me to go back and bring my passport as I'm not an American Citizen. Luckily i had arrived an hour before the scheduled time. So i went back and brought my passport - driving 1/2 hour each way. So by the time was ready to take the test I had driven an hour more than I had expected. Just wanted to mention it here so that no one else commits the same mistake. Any kind of unexpected hassle can be a stress-er before the test. I'm sure the requirement is mentioned somewhere and i had missed reading it.

-----Edited 05/08

Sorry for the delay. Here’s the Detailed account. I hope the length of the post will make up for the delay!

I had been thinking about a MBA for a while. However, I seriously started thinking about taking the GMAT only after I heard that one of my former roommates had got into Booth. That was in 2010. I felt like I could do a lot more than what I was doing in my current job and my thought was if he could it, so could I. So I started googling about the GMAT. GMATClub happened to be one of the first sites that I stumbled upon. I immediately knew that I had struck a gold mine of information and that here I'll find everything that I need for an awesome score.

I came to this section of the GC and read a few stories that inspired me a lot. It was very encouraging to read these stories about people from different backgrounds fighting through all sorts of challenges presented from work and life in general, but finally getting to taste sweet success in the form of an awesome gmat score.

I started my prep with Jeff Sackmann's book for Quants and the MGMAT Sentence correction book in late 2010. I planned to take the test in March 2011 with about 4 months to prepare. However, there were a lot of distractions in 2011 and could not schedule the test till Feb of this year. I also got engaged in the mean time and got married in March of this year .

I took one week off before the test and had been studying only about an hour a day leading up to the vacation. Though my preparation last year was in bits and pieces, I had the knowledge/concepts required for the test. All I needed to do was to fine tune my timing. My biggest mistake thus far was that I had not taken any full length timed tests till then. So I was basically unaware of whether I was ready for the test or not.

My 1 week off from work started on the Apr 20. I started doing the MGMAT Challenge Series here in GC. The questions were really hard. I was getting about 14-15 correct but my timing was totally off. I could not finish any of the 4 tests on time. This did not help my confidence. So I took a couple of GMATClub tests. They were better. I got about 31 questions correct but more importantly I could finish them on time. I also took all the Knewton tests in gmatclub and one of the gmatclub verbal tests. They again ok, but surprisingly I was making mistakes in Knewton CR (CR was my strongest point). So knew I needed more practice. I took my first full length test on April 24. Below is an account of the last week:

Monday - MGMAT 2 - Q48, V36 - 690 - I could not finish either section on time. I knew I could finish verbal on time if I concentrated more but Quants was pretty hopeless. Spent the rest of the day going through mistakes and kicking myself for misreading questions.

Tuesday - MGMAT 3 - Q45, V39 - 690 - I got distracted during the Quats section. Started talking to my wife and lost about 6 mins. But again i knew my main issue was timing in Quants section. I was still thinking whether I should reschedule my test though i knew i could do much better if I concentrated better and took the test under real exam conditions.

Wednesday - MGMAT 4 - Q48, V41 - 740- Finally I shut the door and took a test without interruptions. I was really relieved to the see the score. I knew I could do really well if I tried seriously. Now, for the first time, I started believing that I was not going to reschedule the test. I thought that can do well in the real test in my second attempt if in not the first. I also remembered a way to keep better track of time(mentioned below, under take aways).

Thursday - GMATPrep 1 - Q50, V42 - 740 - Another day of serious test taking. This was the first time I wrote the 2 essays before taking the test. I found the Quants much easier compared to Manhattan's. In Verbal I had 9 incorrect - all SC. I got all RC and CR correct but whatever happened to my SC. I did not know whether to be happy or sad!

Friday - I did not want to take a full length test because I noticed that they were pretty exhausting and can have an effect even the next day. So i took just the Math section of GMATPrep 2 and got another 50. I was already happy with my RC and CR performance from the previous day. So I focused on SC. I knew it had been more than 3 weeks since I had opened my MGMAT SC book. I also practiced the last 40 questions from OG12 again.

Saturday/D-Day - I had not slept well throughout the night. Also, as mentioned earlier, had some unexpected adventure before the test. I had brought 3 cereal bars and a Monster energy drink to test center. Since my test was scheduled at 11:15 I did not want to be hungry though, i did eat a big chicken sandwich right before leaving for the test. Wrote the 2 essays, however I am not to optimistic about the second one. Was short on time and had to leave my last sentence incomplete. I did not take the break and clicked through to the Math section. I found Quants was similar to Gmat Prep, maybe a little harder. I had to guess about 3-4 questions though because I was exhausted and could not think fast enough in 2 mins. I could finish on time and i felt like I'd get at least a 48. I think I was over confident after my GMAT prep experience. I forced myself to concentrate through the verbal section. I felt that the level of the questions were same as that of GMATPrep. Finished the section a min. before time. I saw my score and thought I could perform better on a better day!

Main Take-Aways:

• Take Practice tests earlier: This was one major flaw in my preparation. Not sure how many people have this issue but I was really scared of knowing my “current level”. I think I could have done much better if I had taken some full length tests earlier and finished the GMAT last year.
• Plan your timing: If your main issue is timing, divide the 75 mins into10 min segments. So while taking the Math section of the test you would know that you’d need to finish 5 questions by the time the timer hits 1:05, 10 by the time it hits 55 mins and so on. My timing was off until I started doing this.
• Read a lot of books and magazines: Though I had read the Mgmat SC book 3 times, I did not get a chance to thoroughly revise it in the last leg of my prep. I just scanned through the first 10 chapters(excluding chapter 9 – idioms – which I never read). I really think I started doing well in verbal because of reading the economist and fiction novels. I never had much trouble with time in the verbal section.

Study Material Used:
• MGMAT – Sentence Correction, Number Properties(had gone through it only once about 6-7 months before taking the test), Advanced GMAT Math (Amazing book if you want to practice some really hard problems but remember that the real GMAT is going to be easier than many of the problems in this book)
• Jeff Sackmann Total GMAT Math: Good book for Practice but there are several errors in both questions and OA. If you are doubtful about any OA in the book, try to search for the question here on GC. Chances are high that it has been discussed here earlier.
• PowerPrep LSAT Critical reasoning: Great Book and an interesting read
• Aristotle RC99: Best resource for practicing RC. I practiced about 10 Hard, 10 Medium and 5 Easy questions from this collection. The Hard RCs are as hard if not harder that they were on the real test.
• E-GMAT – I bought this last year just because I learn better when I listen. It’s also easier for me to concentrate when listening rather than reading a book. Some of the sections like verb ed/ing modifiers, if-then constructions, and tenses are explained pretty well.
• AWA – ChineseBurned template.

Based on conversations with several people, I’ve decided to not retake the GMAT though my score is far from the one that I had aimed for in the beginning. I would like to thank all the contributors of GMAT club for their invaluable insights and encouragement. This site is especially helpful for people like me who do not have a lot of friends/colleagues who have taken the GMAT. Let me know if you have any specific questions!