I just Beat The GMAT!

Am a 27 yr old New Zealander, working in telecomms in London, just finished the GMAT and am absolutely ecstatic! I prepared for a few months, firstly by working through the Kaplan and OG books, Kaplan CD and then isolating areas of weakness and working through them using specific Manhattan books, examples from this forum as well as the GMAT800 book.

Leading up to the exam I focused on idioms (I found the idiom spreadsheet that someone posted here to be EXTREMELY useful) and exam technique. I would also reiterate the point that someone made about ignoring the Kaplan CAT scores leading up to the exam, confidence going in is important and these do nothing to help in this department.

I found taking about 4 CATs in the 3 days leading up the test to help my timing significantly. The Manhattan CATs help here as they give you an idea of the level of the questions you are answering and as a result give you a good idea of the timings required for the exam. In saying that though, I probably did rush a little at the start of the Quant due to nerves and finished with about 8 minutes to go. Was fine once I calmed down.

Didn't get any dreaded bold-typed questions, but felt I was well prepared after reading some good material on this forum. One thing I felt that the books didn't cover so well that are covered in detail here are probablilty/combination problems, so thanks to everyone who posted information on these.

Now it's on to applications, when will it end!!!!

Congrats dude... thats a great score. Best of luck for your apps.

Congratulations!! Well done. Good luck with your apps.
-Ashish

Congratulations. If only the Kiwis could apply your strategy in the second test match against Proteas it would serve them well.

Congrats man and wish you all the best!