730 (V 41, Q 48 ), good enough for me

zipper123

Finished today, got 730, ( V 41, Q 48 )

I was a little disappointed at my Q score, but overall it is good enough for me. I have made my goal of getting over 40 in Verbal and naturally over 700 in combined score.

First and foremost, I need to thank my wife for her support throughout this process.

Preparation
Nothing extraordinary about my experience.
I've got a hold of the following books from a nearby library, thanks again for my lovely wife.

Then I purchased Official Guide 11th Edition, Quat Review and Verbal Review, all 3 books from Amazon.

Honestly, I only used the OG's for the last few weeks. PR 2006 helps quite a bit, so did GMAT 800. I would not recommend ARCO, it is just too convoluted.

Practice Scores:
ARCO, 590, 610, 620, 600... I gave up
PR, 640, 650, I gave up on it too

I did the PowerPrep too, but I can't remember the scores.

4 weeks before the test:

Final week before the test:

My weakest area is SC, usually 90% of those incorrect questions are from there. I spent 70% of my final week trying to refine my SC ability. I did not gain too much, but enough to get the scaled score of 41, which is my goal.

My study materials are the notes from Spidy and Rajat-nda, both of them were fetched from this forum.

And Businessweek! I found that many articles follow the same rules set forth in GMATland!

Actual Pre-Test
I had scheduled the test on 28th, but a bad case of stomach flu put me bed-bounded since 26th. I could get out of the bed by the evening of 27th, but I am in no shape to take the test.

I re-scheduled to 30th, and sunk another $250 to GMAC.

Actual Test
Freezing rain in Dallas! Once every year, generally.
The drive was not too bad, wet but not really freezing.
I have made a dry run on the route a few days before already.

I arrived at the testing center at 7:30am and they let me in at 7:45 am. Before I walked in, I saw that almost everyone else was taking the GMAT, or a test that looked awful lot like the GMAT.

The first few screens were pretty usual, and then I put down the schools that I want the scored to be sent to and so on.

Nothing really special on the AWA.

I took all 10 min of the break, because my stomach was going to cramp and I needed my Pepto.

Washed my hands, ate half of an energy bar and started the Quant section.

While I was waiting for the Pepto to set in in the waiting area. A guy was trying to negotiate his way in, he was holding a Mexican passport and was pleading the front desk to let him start. I supposed he had forgotten his passport and she did not let him in at the beginning.
It wasn't a pretty scene. The front desk lady was pretty shaken after the young man left in disgusts. Typical situation: The guy was making her feel guilty for doing her job. She stressed many times it was GMAC policy!

Anyway, I wasted 5 minutes on the first question, because the lack of blood sugar or something else. My last Q question was a genuine guess!

Then I took the second 10 min break, Nothing interesting happened outside of the room, but when I got back to my workstation, it won't start! The dialog box says something had gone wrong and the log was stored at.... The test administrator told me right away that "your computer seems to have loss connection, don't worry I will get it fixed".
The test administrators assured me they had seen this before, and told me to sit and relax. It was like another God-sent! I sat for another 5-10 min and she summoned me in. It was a good break. I started the Verbal section, and got hit by 3 SC at the get go!
then a CR and a very short passage for RC.

I think in total, I had 4 short passages for RC and one longer passage, but nothing painfully long that I had to scroll back and forth and back and forth.

I finished in the nick of time again, and then went through some screens of survey and click!

Viola! my score.

Happy was I.

Overall there wasn't any surprise questions in either sections. I think GMAC are pretty fair.

Best of luck to everyone and many thanks to everyone in this forum!

beatthegmat · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:30 pm Post subject:

Congratulations, zipper123!

There is no reason for you to be disappointed--you clearly have beaten the GMAT! Thanks so much for sharing your experience here.