I just Beat The GMAT!

On Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011, I took the GMAT and scored 760 which is 99th percentile overall.(Quants-92nd percentile and Verbal-97th percentile) I have been an occasional visitor to this site, and reading others' experience was always informative, so I decided to post mine too.

Background:
I am from India and I have finished my engineering, and I am about to join Infosys in a month. I decided to take GMAT now because my joining date had been pushed to January from the anticipated October.

Preparation Time:
Roughly three months

Practice tests:
Kaplan test: 700
Manhattan Free test: 700
Princeton Review free test: 730
GMAC Test 1: 710
GMAC Test 2: 710

Preparation material:
Kaplan-GMAT strategies and Review: This is the first book I used, and although it is not very extensive, it is good for starters. Also, it has a prep test free which I gave at the end.

OG-12th edition
OG-Verbal
OG-Quants
All the official guides are very useful for practice.

Manhattan SC Guide-The best SC prep material.

GMAT Plus Math- Although it doesn't have a very high level, it is a confidence booster when it comes to Problem Solving.

Kaplan 800-Only at the very end to gauge preparation level.

Test experience:
My AWAs did not go as well as I wanted them to. So I was a little jittery when I started Quants, but I was very confident about the Problem Solving questions. Data Sufficiency had always troubled me and I did find myself resorting to guessing a couple of times, but overall it went well.

In Verbal, RCs were my main problem. I was pretty confident about the SC; and the CR section did not trouble me too much. But for some reason, while solving the last 10-15 questions in Verbal, my head started aching pretty badly. So I tried to finish as quickly as possible, and I may have messed up a few questions then.

In the end, when I got the score of 760, I was over-joyed because my highest in practice tests had been 730.

With a score of 760, I am sure there are several new avenues that have opened up for me, but since most universities demand sufficient work ex, I think I would need to build a good profile in the next couple of years or so. If anybody has any suggestions, I would be most grateful. I am aiming the likes of ISB and INSEAD, although I have submitted my score to Harvard, Stanford and MIT as well.

And again, if there are any queries, you can always contact me.

All the best!

Congrats! Then a 760 is definitely a pleasant surprise! Best of luck whatever you decide to do in the future!

Congrats and well done, great score!

Could you please guide me as I have just started thinking and preparing for GMAT. I gave the prep test before starting preps and score was 570. Verbal killed it , mainly SC and RC, then in Quant DS was time consuming I felt. Could you please give me some tips (including prep material, coaching etc) on SC and DS.

Thanks

Hi Rajpat!

Since you've just started preparing, I would advise you to first take up Manhattan SC guide. Make your own notes and then solve as many questions as you can. You will find that there are a number of standard rules which are tested. The list of idioms and standard expressions is also very useful. By the end of this prep, you should be confident about SC because there isn't a lot out of the ordinary which is tested.

For RC, well, till the end even I was facing a bit of a problem. A number of books advise you to make shorthand notes per paragraph so that you know the construction, others ask you to simply take a brief look and then according to the question, get into details. You will have to find your comfort zone. If you feel your retaining power is high, then you can skip making notes. This will come only with practice. Take Kaplan or any book you have and practice from it.

For DS, speed will come with practice. Again pick up questions and try to time yourself while you're solving it. Use a stop watch and make sure you don't exceed time limits. If you find the time getting over, make educated guesses. Keep eliminating options which you feel are not possible, and then choose from the remaining. This improves your probability of being correct, without getting behind on the time.

I used the prep material that I mentioned. There are a few notes with the GMAC software also, you can go through those. Since mine was mostly self study, I really have no idea about the coaching. Although I had a few friends who had given GMAT before I did, so I asked them whatever doubts I had.

Hope this helps, and if there are any other doubts, you can always ask! Happy studying. And oh, take your test date. This will ensure that you study