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This is my first post here, I found this website after I had taken the GMAT the day before (06/23)! God knows what I was thinking, being in the IT industry didn't bother to Google for a GMAT forum right thro' my 45 days of preparation. Please feel free to ask my any questions that you guys have, also please advice me on my what I should try to do next - retake or go with this score. Cutting the crap, I wanted to share with you folks my experience. First up, my background -
I'm an Engineer, with a MS in Computer Science (from a top 20 school here in the US) and have been working in the IT industry for the last 7 years. I've been an IT manager for the last 4 years and have pretty decent acads and a decent extra-curricular activities to try to bank on (social service, volunteering/fund raising for lukemia & AIDS research, marathon runner etc).
Well, I joined the Kaplan classroom course (Surpisingly, I found this interesting and it helped get my preparation started - guess I'm not the most motivated of individuals and wouldn't have started the preparation on my own). This course was so-so, but the online material they provided is comprehensive. On completing their online assignments/homeworks, I think Verbal is on par with what you get in GMAT and Quant is a little tougher than PowerPrep/OG, but a little different, not tougher or easier from the actual GMAT (I think GMAT has changed the weightage of Quant a tad bit over the last 6 months - guess since pearson took over). I did learn a few concepts, they try to explain how to approach CRs, RCs & SCs. I also used Manahattan's SCs that was as good as Kaplan's Online Verbal resources. But, looks like it really did not help me a whole lot on the actual exam (I still managed to get a V -36). Something, I noticed in the Kaplan course was that their online tests are very comprable to the standards of PowerPrep and verbal on par with the real GMAT. From having taken 7 online Kaplan tests, 2 PowerPreps and 2 GMATPrep tests, GMATPrep is closest to the real exam. As most of the folks in this forum have already mentioned in the past, the Real GMAT is a little more skewed towards Data Sufficiency and very much towards Number Theory/Properties. I know I've been ranting about general stuff here, but let me also give you some statistics of my practice tests.
Kaplan Diagnostic (No Perparation, had no clue what Data sufficiency meant, what CRs and SCs meant, knowledge of RCs were from my GRE days - 1996 ) - 610 (03/28)
Kaplan Online Test 1 - 610 (06/03)
Kaplan Online Test 2 - 610 (06/06)
Kaplan Online Test 3 - 670 (06/08)
Kaplan Online Test 4 - 670 (06/12)
Kaplan Online Test 5 - 630 (06/16)
Kaplan Online Test 6 - 670 (06/17)
Kaplan Online Test 7 - 670 (06/18)
PowerPrep 1 - 660 (06/19)
PowerPrep 2 - 680 (06/20)
GMATPrep 1 - 640 (06/21)
GMATPrep 2 - 610 (06/22)
GMAT - 690 (06/23)
Well. whenever I got a high score be 670 and higher, in either Kaplan or PowerPrep, I scored a 50 or a 51 in qunat. My freaking verbal scores were always hovering around the 30-32 range.
Resources -
1. Kaplan Course Book and Online Material
2. Cursory perusal of OG 10
THE DAY BEFORE, Thursday, 06/22
I decided to take the final GMATPrep exam, in totality including the Essays, Quant & Verbal. I end up not finishing both Qunat & Verbal. (Quant because of Number theory & DS). I score a 600. Devastated, Lost, confused, scared, you guys sense it, the whole gamut of feelings....I was a nervous wreck. Loose hope, sit in front of the TV and guzzle down 5 beers in the matter of 1 hr.
. Feeling better now (you know why), just re-read a few SC (idioms) and my AWA templates (provided by kaplan). I pretty much realized at this time that I was not going to score high in my Quant, because of my weakness in Number theory! Hope for the best, and try to move on...Hit the sack at 11:30 PM, toss and turn a bit, wake up a couple of time during the night, and get up the next day at 6:00 AM.
During my preparation I was hoping to crack the 700 barrier, got a bit cocky when is started score 670s in Kaplan, heard from a few colleagues who had taken it in the past that Kaplan + 50 is the minimum you get in the Real Test (For all the CR reading I did, didnt realize that the reasoning was flawed! I had taken the Kaplan online, which is more representative of the GMAT than the Kaplan CD tests, those that come with their books). So after scoring a 600, I immediately started to hope to score over 600, brought my targets down by a 100 points and decided that if I get less than 700 I would retake the test).
THE BIG DAY, Friday, 06/23
Wake up at 6:00 AM, solve 5 questions from each section (DS, PS, SC, RC & CR) don't check the answers, and head out for the test center. Had scheduled the test at 9:00 AM, got there by 8:30 AM, and was mostly relaxed during the whole checkin process. Was not a nervous wreck like the previous day, but want to get done with the exam and move on to something a little more exciting in life! Surprisingly, my whole attitutude towards the exam changed, when I told myself that I could always retake the exam and convinced myself that I could get only better.
Tested the marker, and the laminated sheets. The single most reason for any frustrastion/anxiety for us GMAT test takers will be the markers. Make it a point to test the marker, not that it make a difference, my marker 'croaked' midway through my test - but luckily it was the verbal section, I was hard pressed for time, and decided against writing anything down.
Started with the AWA, was a breeze, followed the template and just coasted! My only advice here, head into this section with a template, and use this section to get a feel for the computer and the environment. The real challenges were going to follow shortly. Started with the argument, then the issue and completed each in 25 minutes, used the last 5 mins to proof read the essay. I personally think this is a most important thing in the AWA, even if it means that you write a little less (in terms of content), its just very important that you proof read and correct any inconsistencies in you essay.
Next was the Quant, start off with a tough question, completed in 2 mins, and then the questions started getting harder. Did fairlywell, realized that I was running short on time, and had to hurry up, couldn't do that because I was hit with more Number Quantity in DS, but still tried to stay afloat, and had to complete the last 4 questions in the last 30 seconds. Just picked my preferred option for the day - 'D'. Got 3 coordinate goemetry, 3 probability, no combinations, 1 geometry, 2 Set theory and tons of Number Properties - mind you this is from the 33 questions that I actually solved, God knows which devil was waiting to get its hands on me in the remaining 4). Didn't have a great feel after I finished Quant, took the 10 mins break, used the restroom - more to talk/psyche myself, the regular routine, loo, candy, a red bull and got back in 5 mins. Here goes verbal...
The verbal started off well, CR, CR, CR, SC, RC (40 liner) SC, SC, and then BoldFace CR. Got the usual total of 4 RCs. By the time I reached question 31, I had 13 minutes to go. I thought I could still complete the test, but at 33 I was hit with a real hard RC - dense, and it talks about Plants, Orbits and some nubula stuff! Had no clue, re-read it, and guessed my way through. Then came 2 more CRs, by the time I got to question 38, I had 1 min. left....tied to solve that CR, intelligent guess this time, and ploughed through the last 3 in 15 secs - used my preferred option for the day - D.
The survey was prefilled, guess because I filled in my profile online when I scheduled the test and clicked through the screen, in my haste, clicked to 'cancel' score, checked the error, accepted score report, and the score was displayed. Mixed feeling, because I had set my expectations to 600, but deep down knew I could do much better.
BOTTOMLINE-
The test was not as hard as I thought it would get and please dont freak out before the test, that can only hinder you performance. Based on my experience, GMATPrep is the closest you will get to the real exam. On quant, stress more on Number Properties (esp. in DS) and for Verbal - follow the OG as a bible...Reread, reread...that is the key. Kaplan Online is fairly decent, it helps you understand the concepts in both Quant and Verbal...will get you to a 650, anything higher than that - its upto the individual. I think, I saw pretty interesting stuff under the quant section in the forum here. I think, that is something you should refer too!
Its gotten painfully long, and before I loose your attention, I have a question. I'm targetting the Executive MBA programs (The top five schools), and I'm also confident that I can score over 700, not sure if I'm mentally ready to take the GMAT one more time. What should I do, try to apply with this score (660), or should I retake the GMAT?
PS - If I think I have missed something, I will not hesitate to add the 'short' msg.
I'm an Engineer, with a MS in Computer Science (from a top 20 school here in the US) and have been working in the IT industry for the last 7 years. I've been an IT manager for the last 4 years and have pretty decent acads and a decent extra-curricular activities to try to bank on (social service, volunteering/fund raising for lukemia & AIDS research, marathon runner etc).
Well, I joined the Kaplan classroom course (Surpisingly, I found this interesting and it helped get my preparation started - guess I'm not the most motivated of individuals and wouldn't have started the preparation on my own). This course was so-so, but the online material they provided is comprehensive. On completing their online assignments/homeworks, I think Verbal is on par with what you get in GMAT and Quant is a little tougher than PowerPrep/OG, but a little different, not tougher or easier from the actual GMAT (I think GMAT has changed the weightage of Quant a tad bit over the last 6 months - guess since pearson took over). I did learn a few concepts, they try to explain how to approach CRs, RCs & SCs. I also used Manahattan's SCs that was as good as Kaplan's Online Verbal resources. But, looks like it really did not help me a whole lot on the actual exam (I still managed to get a V -36). Something, I noticed in the Kaplan course was that their online tests are very comprable to the standards of PowerPrep and verbal on par with the real GMAT. From having taken 7 online Kaplan tests, 2 PowerPreps and 2 GMATPrep tests, GMATPrep is closest to the real exam. As most of the folks in this forum have already mentioned in the past, the Real GMAT is a little more skewed towards Data Sufficiency and very much towards Number Theory/Properties. I know I've been ranting about general stuff here, but let me also give you some statistics of my practice tests.
Kaplan Diagnostic (No Perparation, had no clue what Data sufficiency meant, what CRs and SCs meant, knowledge of RCs were from my GRE days - 1996 ) - 610 (03/28)
Kaplan Online Test 1 - 610 (06/03)
Kaplan Online Test 2 - 610 (06/06)
Kaplan Online Test 3 - 670 (06/08)
Kaplan Online Test 4 - 670 (06/12)
Kaplan Online Test 5 - 630 (06/16)
Kaplan Online Test 6 - 670 (06/17)
Kaplan Online Test 7 - 670 (06/18)
PowerPrep 1 - 660 (06/19)
PowerPrep 2 - 680 (06/20)
GMATPrep 1 - 640 (06/21)
GMATPrep 2 - 610 (06/22)
GMAT - 690 (06/23)
Well. whenever I got a high score be 670 and higher, in either Kaplan or PowerPrep, I scored a 50 or a 51 in qunat. My freaking verbal scores were always hovering around the 30-32 range.
Resources -
1. Kaplan Course Book and Online Material
2. Cursory perusal of OG 10
THE DAY BEFORE, Thursday, 06/22
I decided to take the final GMATPrep exam, in totality including the Essays, Quant & Verbal. I end up not finishing both Qunat & Verbal. (Quant because of Number theory & DS). I score a 600. Devastated, Lost, confused, scared, you guys sense it, the whole gamut of feelings....I was a nervous wreck. Loose hope, sit in front of the TV and guzzle down 5 beers in the matter of 1 hr.
. Feeling better now (you know why), just re-read a few SC (idioms) and my AWA templates (provided by kaplan). I pretty much realized at this time that I was not going to score high in my Quant, because of my weakness in Number theory! Hope for the best, and try to move on...Hit the sack at 11:30 PM, toss and turn a bit, wake up a couple of time during the night, and get up the next day at 6:00 AM.
During my preparation I was hoping to crack the 700 barrier, got a bit cocky when is started score 670s in Kaplan, heard from a few colleagues who had taken it in the past that Kaplan + 50 is the minimum you get in the Real Test (For all the CR reading I did, didnt realize that the reasoning was flawed! I had taken the Kaplan online, which is more representative of the GMAT than the Kaplan CD tests, those that come with their books). So after scoring a 600, I immediately started to hope to score over 600, brought my targets down by a 100 points and decided that if I get less than 700 I would retake the test).
THE BIG DAY, Friday, 06/23
Wake up at 6:00 AM, solve 5 questions from each section (DS, PS, SC, RC & CR) don't check the answers, and head out for the test center. Had scheduled the test at 9:00 AM, got there by 8:30 AM, and was mostly relaxed during the whole checkin process. Was not a nervous wreck like the previous day, but want to get done with the exam and move on to something a little more exciting in life! Surprisingly, my whole attitutude towards the exam changed, when I told myself that I could always retake the exam and convinced myself that I could get only better.
Tested the marker, and the laminated sheets. The single most reason for any frustrastion/anxiety for us GMAT test takers will be the markers. Make it a point to test the marker, not that it make a difference, my marker 'croaked' midway through my test - but luckily it was the verbal section, I was hard pressed for time, and decided against writing anything down.
Started with the AWA, was a breeze, followed the template and just coasted! My only advice here, head into this section with a template, and use this section to get a feel for the computer and the environment. The real challenges were going to follow shortly. Started with the argument, then the issue and completed each in 25 minutes, used the last 5 mins to proof read the essay. I personally think this is a most important thing in the AWA, even if it means that you write a little less (in terms of content), its just very important that you proof read and correct any inconsistencies in you essay.
Next was the Quant, start off with a tough question, completed in 2 mins, and then the questions started getting harder. Did fairlywell, realized that I was running short on time, and had to hurry up, couldn't do that because I was hit with more Number Quantity in DS, but still tried to stay afloat, and had to complete the last 4 questions in the last 30 seconds. Just picked my preferred option for the day - 'D'. Got 3 coordinate goemetry, 3 probability, no combinations, 1 geometry, 2 Set theory and tons of Number Properties - mind you this is from the 33 questions that I actually solved, God knows which devil was waiting to get its hands on me in the remaining 4). Didn't have a great feel after I finished Quant, took the 10 mins break, used the restroom - more to talk/psyche myself, the regular routine, loo, candy, a red bull and got back in 5 mins. Here goes verbal...
The verbal started off well, CR, CR, CR, SC, RC (40 liner) SC, SC, and then BoldFace CR. Got the usual total of 4 RCs. By the time I reached question 31, I had 13 minutes to go. I thought I could still complete the test, but at 33 I was hit with a real hard RC - dense, and it talks about Plants, Orbits and some nubula stuff! Had no clue, re-read it, and guessed my way through. Then came 2 more CRs, by the time I got to question 38, I had 1 min. left....tied to solve that CR, intelligent guess this time, and ploughed through the last 3 in 15 secs - used my preferred option for the day - D.
The survey was prefilled, guess because I filled in my profile online when I scheduled the test and clicked through the screen, in my haste, clicked to 'cancel' score, checked the error, accepted score report, and the score was displayed. Mixed feeling, because I had set my expectations to 600, but deep down knew I could do much better.
BOTTOMLINE-
The test was not as hard as I thought it would get and please dont freak out before the test, that can only hinder you performance. Based on my experience, GMATPrep is the closest you will get to the real exam. On quant, stress more on Number Properties (esp. in DS) and for Verbal - follow the OG as a bible...Reread, reread...that is the key. Kaplan Online is fairly decent, it helps you understand the concepts in both Quant and Verbal...will get you to a 650, anything higher than that - its upto the individual. I think, I saw pretty interesting stuff under the quant section in the forum here. I think, that is something you should refer too!
Its gotten painfully long, and before I loose your attention, I have a question. I'm targetting the Executive MBA programs (The top five schools), and I'm also confident that I can score over 700, not sure if I'm mentally ready to take the GMAT one more time. What should I do, try to apply with this score (660), or should I retake the GMAT?
PS - If I think I have missed something, I will not hesitate to add the 'short' msg.
25 Jun 2006, 20:42
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thanks for the detailed debrief. And congrats on the grt score, it really is a decent score. I am taking the exam in exactly 2 weeks and am really nervous abt this beast. I'd appreciate it if you can give us a few more details abt the Quant section, were the first few questions really tough? or GMATPrep level and regarding the number property DS questions, similar to GMATPrep? any feedback on the Quant section will be appreciated.
Also what is the best way to deal with stress before and during the exam any ideas. Thanks...
Also what is the best way to deal with stress before and during the exam any ideas. Thanks...
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