I'm completely relieved to be done with the GMAT for good. I haven't really posted here much, but I've been lurking for a few months.
PrepI will admit up front that I didn't prep enough. I *know* I could've done better, but I'm not trying to get into a competitive school and decided it wasn't worth my time. I'm kind of a perfectionist though, so I really wish I'd done more. Basically, I read through the Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT book and did a few of the problems in the medium-hard quantitative practice bin. I also went through a couple of the practice sections on the GMATPrep. I only started looking over the materials two weeks ago.
Practice CATs GMAT Prep 1: 740 (Q47, V45)
The TestUgh. I've never had test anxiety in my life, but I do have anxiety about a lot of things - including being stuck somewhere and not being able to leave. Did not help for the GMAT. I tried to get a good night of sleep last night, but I woke up repetitively, and even woke up an hour before my alarm clock (this is *unheard of* for me). I got to the test center 30 minutes early, and there were 6-7 people ahead of me, so I didn't get to start the test until pretty much spot on noon. Since there were so many people taking the GMAT, there was just a cacophony of keyboarding clickety clacks, and I decided to put on the headphones. I write horribly under pressure, so if there was one thing I was actually worried about, it was the AWA, but I actually felt like it went pretty well. I wrote for the full 30 minutes on each essay, and was able to write a full five paragraphs for each. But then... perhaps a big mistake. There were SO many people in there, and it seemed somewhat chaotic, so I was afraid to take a break and not get back to start in time. Didn't take a break after the AWA, and started right away on the quant section. I DON'T SUGGEST THIS. Wow. I actually got to a point in the quantitative section that I felt like I could no longer understand English. For a few moments, I actually stared blankly at the screen and wondered how I was going to continue. I was sure I'd have to quit and cancel the test. I tried not to panic, but I definitely guessed wildly on two or three questions, just wanting the impossible-to-understand stuff to go away. I'd spent way too long on a couple of problems, and then was watching the clock tick down, calculating how much time I had left for problems, so I really just clicked a couple of fairly random answers. Again. Not exactly a good strategy. I did find four or five problems that I definitely wouldn't have gotten a month ago, and was glad to know I was getting something right. But towards the end of the Q section, I was getting much easier problems and knew I'd knocked my score down a bit. After the section, I considered taking a break, but was still too worried to get back to my seat in time, and I decided to pass again. Verbal has been my stronger section, so I decided I'd just rather power through. It went pretty smoothly, though I knew there were a couple of questions I wasn't very focused on. I finished the verbal section with about 15 minutes left, so I probably should've gone more slowly, but I honestly just wanted to get done and get out. My score popped up, and I was somewhat pleasantly surprised, considered my issues during the Q section:
Quant Q47 (78th percentile)
Verbal V41 (92nd percentile)
Total 710 (92nd percentile)
I said I'd be happy with anything over 700, but I guess I kind of feel like I would have done better with more preparation. Still, I'm incredibly glad I'm DONE DONE DONE and I will not even for a moment consider taking it again.