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alphastrike
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Ah, very nice and balanced score! A 730 is an excellent performance and should be more than sufficient for any MBA program.

alphastrike
I took the test during a "slow time" at the testing center. Even with nobody else taking breaks at the same time as me and no queue, it still took the administrators forever to get me for the break and check me in and out. I literally only had time to immediately go to the bathroom and come back. If there were other people to check in and out there is no way the breaks would have been under 8 mins. I advise finding out when the slow times are in advance and planning accordingly.
Although your debrief was informative, I found the quote above quite interesting. This is a good point. Did you purposefully plan to take the test during a slow time, or was it just coincidence? If you planned it, how?

Thanks in advance.
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Congrats on the score!

Should test takers focus on the Official Guide and the two GMATPREP tests before the exam?
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alphastrike
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bmillan01
Ah, very nice and balanced score! A 730 is an excellent performance and should be more than sufficient for any MBA program.

alphastrike
I took the test during a "slow time" at the testing center. Even with nobody else taking breaks at the same time as me and no queue, it still took the administrators forever to get me for the break and check me in and out. I literally only had time to immediately go to the bathroom and come back. If there were other people to check in and out there is no way the breaks would have been under 8 mins. I advise finding out when the slow times are in advance and planning accordingly.
Although your debrief was informative, I found the quote above quite interesting. This is a good point. Did you purposefully plan to take the test during a slow time, or was it just coincidence? If you planned it, how?

Thanks in advance.

It was absolutely unintentional. I was just trying to get a test date that would allow me to retake twice before the test change in case I double choked. The time was the only one available. I've read many other debriefs and am surprised that nobody else mentioned problems. The testing center definitely wasnt short-staffed (it only had two administrator booths) and I was the only one with my hand raised when I left for both of my breaks. I'm pretty sure this is the best-case scenario, but it still took 75% of my break for them to grab me and check me in and out. I remember thinking "wow, if there were 3 other people taking a break at the same time as me there would be absolutely no way to get a drink, go to the bathroom and get back in time".

I'm really hoping the 80/80 thing is overhyped - 47Q is only 76% now. I'm confident that my work experience and background will stand out, but would hate to get dinged over a couple quant questions. I'd also hate to have to go through the aggravation of retaking. I enjoy studying and could certainly do better, but the practical application of GMAT math is questionable to say the least.
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dchow23
Congrats on the score!

Should test takers focus on the Official Guide and the two GMATPREP tests before the exam?

In my opinion, yes, but OG quant seems too easy. Given how much higher quant scores are in general now, I think OG will only get you to the 70th percentile (if you are like me and go in knowing basically nothing).

I took GMAT prep #1 about a week and a half before my date. Big mistake. The feel of the questions is much different than manhattan. After going through the first question bank, I could look at questions posted on the forum and quickly identify what was GMAT-like, and what wasn't. I completely changed my study plan during the week leading up to the test because I realized I'd been going about it wrong. Had I done that a month earlier and had time to work with the 2nd prep test, I'm confident I would have hit 50Q. Also, review the PS by difficulty and category in the quant forums. The tricks you learn there will boost your accuracy and efficiency. I've also heard good thing about GMAT club tests. If I could do things over again, I'd hit the basics in Manhattan, make sure I could quickly do any problem in OG, hit the gmatclub PS by difficulty, do GMAT prep#1 to identify weaknesses, shore up weak areas, do gmat club tests, and take the final gmat prep test a couple of weeks in advance and tweak study from there. I'd use Manhattan CATS mainly for timing.
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Congrats on the fantastic score of 730 (Q47; V44)
V 44 is not an easy feat to achieve ,can you tell us more about your verbal prep ?
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alphastrike
dchow23
Congrats on the score!

Should test takers focus on the Official Guide and the two GMATPREP tests before the exam?

In my opinion, yes, but OG quant seems too easy. Given how much higher quant scores are in general now, I think OG will only get you to the 70th percentile (if you are like me and go in knowing basically nothing).

I took GMAT prep #1 about a week and a half before my date. Big mistake. The feel of the questions is much different than manhattan. After going through the first question bank, I could look at questions posted on the forum and quickly identify what was GMAT-like, and what wasn't. I completely changed my study plan during the week leading up to the test because I realized I'd been going about it wrong. Had I done that a month earlier and had time to work with the 2nd prep test, I'm confident I would have hit 50Q. Also, review the PS by difficulty and category in the quant forums. The tricks you learn there will boost your accuracy and efficiency. I've also heard good thing about GMAT club tests. If I could do things over again, I'd hit the basics in Manhattan, make sure I could quickly do any problem in OG, hit the gmatclub PS by difficulty, do GMAT prep#1 to identify weaknesses, shore up weak areas, do gmat club tests, and take the final gmat prep test a couple of weeks in advance and tweak study from there. I'd use Manhattan CATS mainly for timing.

alphastrike,

congratulations, very good overall score and superb on verbal.. thanks for sharing your view on the difference between MGMAT and GMATPrep questions style, I'll try to set preparation on the last weeks towards this information.

Regards
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Zynga
Congrats on the fantastic score of 730 (Q47; V44)
V 44 is not an easy feat to achieve ,can you tell us more about your verbal prep ?

Unfortunately, my advice here might not be the best as I've always been naturally strong at verbal. Why that is the case, I'm not sure. I read a lot when I was young but it was 90% comics and fantasy books. I've never really read much math and science related stuff and I only took one english class in college because I had to. If you count time spent doing practice tests I probably spent 10 hours studying verbal. For whatever reason, I can read the question, look at the answers and with few exceptions the right answer is obvious. Here are my tips:

RC: I'm a really fast reader and naturally skim for stuff I care about. This caused me to miss one of these every once in awhile. After reading somewhere that I should take notes on the passage I tried it and it worked wonders. I never read the notes but it forced me to pay attention to stuff I otherwise wouldnt care about.

CR: Skimmed the CR Bible for general tips. Most answers just make sense to me. Biggest thing for me was remembering what type of question it is. I'm the guy who doesnt read all of the instructions before starting the test so in my first few practice exams I'd waste time because, for example, the question would be asking me to weaken and I'd be looking for strengthen.

SC: I'm sure i missed most of the points here. Most likely on pedantic crap. With rare exception anything long is easy. MGMAT SC stuff seems pretty good but for me the ROI was low. All of the quetions I missed in practice were corner cases or things I felt were ambiguous.

Sorry I'm not much help here, words and languages are just easy for me for some reason.
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Update: Was just accepted by HBS in round 3. For those of you like me who obsess about things: I was worried about my quant being under 80%. I don't think it matters unless it is a clear red flag. If it were that big of a deal it probably would have kept me out considering how competitive round 3 is. Everything throughout the application and interview process left me with the impression that they do not care about GMAT and GPA other than for simply "checking the box". Their primary concern is your DNA - who you are. They want someone who will bring something unique to the class and case study method. GMAT has nothing to do with that stuff.
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congrats on the score Alpha... Awesome post... I agree on the RCs where you'd write down notes from the passage.. keeps you reading actively.
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Update: Was just accepted by HBS in round 3

Awesome!! Congratulations on getting in.
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alphastrike
Update: Was just accepted by HBS in round 3. For those of you like me who obsess about things: I was worried about my quant being under 80%. I don't think it matters unless it is a clear red flag. If it were that big of a deal it probably would have kept me out considering how competitive round 3 is. Everything throughout the application and interview process left me with the impression that they do not care about GMAT and GPA other than for simply "checking the box". Their primary concern is your DNA - who you are. They want someone who will bring something unique to the class and case study method. GMAT has nothing to do with that stuff.

Heartiest Congratulations !
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