So after three weeks of intensive full time study, I ended up with 760 (Q49, V44). So far so good.
Some thoughts on
Books
- The ManhattanGMAT books really are very good at the content, especially the quant and the SC one, I dont see much value in RC and CR though
- The series sorely misses an overall strategy book, that is much better covered by Kaplan and PrincetonReview (who's cheater's guide approach is valuable, but not on its own)
- Kaplan 800/Advanced book seems to have only limited relevance to actual GMAT questions. Especially CR and RC are way out there
- Going through the OG and the companions as well as the 198 700+ guide posted here is invaluable, but should be done after studying the MGMAT books and possibly also the Kaplan exercises (I did not bother to check the referenced OG problems at the time)
CATs
- The ManhattanGMAT CATs have very nice solutions but esp. quant is by far too hard. I scored between 650 and 710 on those but 730 and 760 on GMATprep (ironically usually better on verbal than quant). I don't believe a second that the estimated scores are unbiased, for that the quant problems are much too hard
- Don't use GMATprep too early. For damn sure, don't use it as initial diagnostic test - it's much too valuable for that
- Kaplan CATs are a mixed boat. I would not consider them to be bad, but neither are they particularly good - if you need more practice, by all means go for it
Other
- Beat the GMAT and MGMAT forums are invaluable for the discussion of OG/GMATprep problems
Now I'm back to considering schools. I have a Masters in Econ/Finance and work for one of the top three strategy consulting firms in Europe, so I'm quite sure that a 2 year program won't bring me much (aside of it being very high on opportunity costs) but I find it hard to decide on the 1 year programs (otherwise Stanford would probably be my number 1 choice), INSEAD looks good (esp. SG), Kellogg ok and Cambridge ok too. I'm also wondering about the 15month track at LBS though - is that very stressful? Somehow, I'm a little lost here
Some thoughts on
Books
- The ManhattanGMAT books really are very good at the content, especially the quant and the SC one, I dont see much value in RC and CR though
- The series sorely misses an overall strategy book, that is much better covered by Kaplan and PrincetonReview (who's cheater's guide approach is valuable, but not on its own)
- Kaplan 800/Advanced book seems to have only limited relevance to actual GMAT questions. Especially CR and RC are way out there
- Going through the OG and the companions as well as the 198 700+ guide posted here is invaluable, but should be done after studying the MGMAT books and possibly also the Kaplan exercises (I did not bother to check the referenced OG problems at the time)
CATs
- The ManhattanGMAT CATs have very nice solutions but esp. quant is by far too hard. I scored between 650 and 710 on those but 730 and 760 on GMATprep (ironically usually better on verbal than quant). I don't believe a second that the estimated scores are unbiased, for that the quant problems are much too hard
- Don't use GMATprep too early. For damn sure, don't use it as initial diagnostic test - it's much too valuable for that
- Kaplan CATs are a mixed boat. I would not consider them to be bad, but neither are they particularly good - if you need more practice, by all means go for it
Other
- Beat the GMAT and MGMAT forums are invaluable for the discussion of OG/GMATprep problems
Now I'm back to considering schools. I have a Masters in Econ/Finance and work for one of the top three strategy consulting firms in Europe, so I'm quite sure that a 2 year program won't bring me much (aside of it being very high on opportunity costs) but I find it hard to decide on the 1 year programs (otherwise Stanford would probably be my number 1 choice), INSEAD looks good (esp. SG), Kellogg ok and Cambridge ok too. I'm also wondering about the 15month track at LBS though - is that very stressful? Somehow, I'm a little lost here
