Thanks everyone for the wishes. Here are the details.
Exam details
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I hadn't prepared well for the essays. So I was a bit worried about the AWA section. Luckily the issue essay on the exam was one of the 20 or so essays topics that I had analyzed during my preparation. That got me started on a good note. At the end of the AWA section I was relaxed and begining to have a good feeling.
I took a 10-minute-long 5 minute break. Before I started math, I moved the keyboard to one corner and created a big workspace for myself. I just used the mouse for the rest of the test.
Math questions were very similar to the ones in OG. About 1/3rd questions were of the same difficulty as that of the last 100 OG questions. The rest were of moderate difficulty. A couple of DS questions involving number theory and statistics were tricky. I almost fell for one or two of those. But a recheck, which I do invariably for DS questions, helped me catch the error/s. There was only 1 probability/combinatorics question, a rather straight forward one. I was pleasantly surprised to find a large number of number theory questions. All in all, the math section was at the same level of difficulty as the math on PP tests.
By now I was feeling very good. I knew I had over-prepared and was happy to see it paying off. I took one more those 10-minute-long 5min breaks. Before going back in, I stuffed myself with lots of high sugar food. I believe that it gives me the edge! I swear I get an instant rush of energy in the brain
Guess its all in the head
Verbal started off with 3 SCs. Not surprisingly, they were not very straight forward. Each question involved multiple concepts. Its very important that one practise SC questions involving multiple concepts. The SCs were followed by a difficult passage on women's rights. Luckily the questions were not as difficult. Then it was an SC, one more multi-concept question, followed by the first CR. CR question was an easy one. However, a momentary lapse of concentration meant I had to read the question and the options twice! Its so important to not let the guard down through out. Then came the second passage - another passage on women's education and this time it was long. I knew I was doing good. Questions were difficult this time. I believe I nailed it. Then came a series of 3-4 CRs(causation, survey, percentages etc) - none too difficult, none too different from OG. Then came the third RC. Gosh I dont remember the topic. But I was glad that I was getting done with RCs sooner than later. By this time I was on question 21 with 40 minutes at hand. It was a perfect pace, as I wanted to keep some extra time for deadly questions in the end. After successfully finishing the third RC, I came across a number of CRs and SCs - with varying difficulty. There were some easy ones here. At 32, I came across a bold face question; it was an easy one to my luck. Then, at #33, when I was cruising comfortably with 15 minutes left, came the deadly passage. But I was prepared for this one, as I made an extra effort to save clocktime for the last 8, usually difficult questions. It was a very long and difficult science passage on venus' craters - the language, the length and questions made it a difficult passage. Being mentally prepared really helped me on this one. I nailed it and moved on. I was still doing ok on the clock - 5 more to go with 8 mins on the clock.
Nailed 2 CRs and 1 SC that followed. I was now left with 2 questions and 3 minutes on the clock. Well, then came the killer question - a very long CR; it had so much information that by the time I had organized the data I was left with just 1 min on the clock. I panicked a little and rushed through the last two questions. I did the best I could in that little remaining time. I am very sure I missed the last CR, #40. Not sure about #41, an SC.
My strategy
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1. I just love RCs - each RC provides me with a new piece of information. Once I put this idea, and the idea that RC is all about comprehension, to practice RC section was a breeze.
2. For SCs, I made notes of all the rules/tricks/quirks that I learnt over the past 2 months. I regularly revised and updated my notes. Also, I practised with a number of questions taken from OG, this forum, ETS Tests, GMAT+, Kaplan, Barrons and PR. I did all the SC questions twice, to reinforce my understanding of the rules.
3. CR was never an issue for me; I spent relatively very little time on CR.
My scores on practice tests
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PR1 - 720 51q 39v
PR2 - 720 51q 39v
PP1 - 740 51q 39v
OG SCs - 88%
OG CRs - 96%
OG RCs - 90%
ACE-the-GMAT1 - 765
ACE-the-GMAT2 - 740
ACE-the-GMAT3 - 770
Crack-the-GMAT1 - 650
Crack-the-GMAT2 - 710
Crack-the-GMAT3 - 750
Crack-the-GMAT4 - 640
ETS #14 - 760
ETS #31 - 800
ETS #55 - 800
ETS #25 - 800
Kaplan 1 - 670
Kaplan 2 - 700
Kaplan 3 - 780
PR3 - 740 51q 42v
PR4 - 760 51q 45v
ETS #37 - 790
ETS #48 - 780
ETS #28 - 790
ETS #42 - 770
ETS #52 - 800
PP2 - 780 50q 47v
I can't believe I took so many tests
I badly wanted a good score!
My background
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BSEE from IIT Madras, India
MSEE from Purdue, USA
5 years of experience in high tech.
I would like to thank you all; I owe a big part of my success on the verbal to this forum. Paul, Banerjee, Nocilis, Honghu, gmat2me2, praveen, jpv, MA, chunjuwu, wilfred, antmavel, dlmd, folaa, swath - you guys rock!! Sorry if I have missed anyone else who taught me some tip or the other
Thank you.
Updated on: 18 Apr 2005, 15:25 
