Sure, I guess I should clarify a few things first. I have a PhD in Applied Physics (ie. I am relatively comfortable with Math) and also as I am currently based at a university, I asked friends of mine who were studying English literature to teach me some English grammar.
The first time that I took the GMAT (in Oct 2008), I was very badly prepared. I had taken the GRE in 2002 and had score a 99% in that. Consequently, I was over confident about my chances with the GMAT. That coupled with the fact that I was submitting my PhD dissertation a week after the GMAT date, meant that I allocated a total of 2 weeks to study for the exam. During this time, I studied OG11, the Verbal and Quant books, Kaplan 800 and took three Manhattan GMAT practice tests and 2 of the GMAG practice tests.
Even in this short period of time, I discovered some basic problems with my practice. Firstly, even though I did every Quant question, I did not make a note of where I was making the errors. The result was that every time I looked at a question, I would forget the error that I had made in solving it previously. Secondly, I over analyzed the math questions and thirdly I did not practice my timing.
The result was that I scored a 620 in my first GMAT practice test and 640, 700, 660 respectively, in the three Manhattan GMAT tests and finished every exam in the nick of time.
The day before the actual exam, I took the second GMAT exam and scored a 700.
My GMAT exam was scheduled for the afternoon, and a consequence of sleeping for 6 hrs before the exam, cramming grammar rules till 5 minutes before the exam, and overloading on caffeine meant that I was extremely tired by the time I began my test. Remarkably, I actually believed that the quant section went well. However, by the time I got to the verbal section, I could barely read the questions, let alone comprehend them.
Not surprisingly my first score was not what I had hoped for. ( Q: 70%, V:74% Total 76%, AWA: 6.0)
Although, I wished to retake the test immediately a few extenuating circumstances prevented me from doing so.
I did not practice anything related to the GMAT till Jan 15th of this year. However, when I did start studying again, I first collected all the resources that are provided on here. Question banks, flash cards, even the excel time tables. I also made a note of all the questions, wherein I was making a mistake and kept checking them every time I practiced. I also purchased the SC guide and had some friends teach me how to break down the sentences. One of the interesting things, that I did find was that my problem with SC was that I did not know what some of the grammar configurations were ( ie phrases, clauses etc). I did use them in my day to day life, but knowing how to address them definitely helped.
I even did SC, whilst reading the newspaper or the internet ( You would be surprised how many mistakes some journalists make).
Anyway, after tabulating all the quant formulae, errors and SC rules, I read the printed sheets for 30 min every day. I did practice the GMAT exam a couple of times again but found that my timing was still off. So this last week, I worked really hard at timing myself.
That was it really. I slept for 8 hrs last night, had a good breakfast this morning and drank only one cup of coffee before the exam.
I definitely felt that I was a lot calmer about the exam the second time around. A certain lack of interest in the exam results also probably helped.
I would mention though, that I definitely felt that I had screwed up my Math, as I found the questions a lot easier. That and the fact that I finished my quant section 11 minutes before it was supposed to end made me think that I must have missed something.
Anyhow, I got the 770 (Q: 99%, V: 95%), so it must not have been the case.
I would definitely recommend the Manhattan material. The quant sections are definitely a lot harder than the actual GMAT exam.
thanks
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