took my test on 12/4...
was quite nervous on the day of my test. The test started at 8 AM. I left the house at 6:30 AM
(my luck ... as there was a big pileup on I-95)
I took a couple sandwiches & a boiled egg with me for the breaks - I almost maxed out each of the 10 minute breaks too.
I got pretty lucky with the topic on the first essay - I liked the topic and did a reasonably good job ... that carried over to the 2nd essay ...
The math section was my critical part - in practice tests I often ran out of time - so I really hurried through the math section ... just to end up with 6 minutes left for the last question. Luckily that question was in my opinion the most difficult one and I used up almost all the 6 minutes to get the answer.
Verbal section was good - sentence correction was and will always be my weakness, but I felt pretty good.
So the test was finally over ... I thought I had reached my 700 target ...
the result screen showed up: 760 ... I was stumped ... I couldn't believe it at first ... I had to walk out and look at the printed prelim results ... same thing. I even asked the Pearsons lady whether this was correct...
here's how I prepared...
I did about 10 or so practice tests
1 untimed from Petersons book
6 timed ones from a Petersons CD or so I got from the public library
1 timed one from Kaplan ... I returned the Kaplan book & CD after that one test as I felt that the questions were partially not logical. I read on this web-site some similar feedback about the Kaplan tests. (I'm sure their rep. is gonna post a reply somewhere ... this is just my opinion .. ok)
1 un-timed one from the official GMAT book.
After the first test I double-checked every question for why I got it right or wrong, how long I took for the answer and I baselined myself in the categories..
Quantative:
Problem solving: low error rate... way too slow in answering
Data sufficiency: low error rate ... a bit too slow in answering
Verbal:
Sentence correction: very high error rate ... good on time
Critical reasoning: very low error rate ... good on time
Reading comprehension: low error rate ... good on time
It really helps to have the test software tell you how much time you take per question.
In the past I had started a few times to prepare, but never actually did much or registered. So this time (with added pressure by my wife) I registered for the test first and started preparing after. I had about 5 weeks to prepare (3 month old baby at home, so I needed my parents to babysit fulltime ) Of the 5 weeks I was planning on taking 2 weeks vacation, which I did.
From my baseline, I figured that I had to speed up my math by repeat practice ... I was pretty good at getting the answers .. just not fast enough. Plus on the sentence corrections I sucked ... so I spent a lot of time on that too. I thought this would probably be the easiest way to improve my score.
In the first 3 weeks I studied maybe 2 hours every other work day evening and 3 hours each on Sat. & Sun.
In the last 2 weeks (my vacation) I studied 4-5 hours every day in the library. I can only recommend that, studying at home is way more distracting - not just with a baby at home ... I just kept going to the fridge to get something to drink or I took at 5 min. tv break ... stupid stuff.
I didn't practice any essay. I usually don't like those. Instead I read the 7 step approach from the Peterson book several times and I read several sample essays from the book and from this web-site.
I was a bit nervous about the essays. I thought that not having english as my first language would be a big disadvantage. But it's really not. The most important thing for the essay is your logic and the examples you choose. I'm sure it helps if you can put nice sentences down, but as long as you have a clear structure and purpose you can score well.
I got 5 of 6 in both essays.
What else ?
I didn't study at all the last 2 days before the test itself. I only re-read the 7 essay steps in the morning before I left the house.
I hate it when the sentence correction answer explanation reads "incorrect idiom" ...
The test center in CT (Wallingford) is great. Very nice people, great test room and good computers. They did a good job explaning the procedure.
was quite nervous on the day of my test. The test started at 8 AM. I left the house at 6:30 AM
(my luck ... as there was a big pileup on I-95)I took a couple sandwiches & a boiled egg with me for the breaks - I almost maxed out each of the 10 minute breaks too.
I got pretty lucky with the topic on the first essay - I liked the topic and did a reasonably good job ... that carried over to the 2nd essay ...
The math section was my critical part - in practice tests I often ran out of time - so I really hurried through the math section ... just to end up with 6 minutes left for the last question. Luckily that question was in my opinion the most difficult one and I used up almost all the 6 minutes to get the answer.
Verbal section was good - sentence correction was and will always be my weakness, but I felt pretty good.
So the test was finally over ... I thought I had reached my 700 target ...
the result screen showed up: 760 ... I was stumped ... I couldn't believe it at first ... I had to walk out and look at the printed prelim results ... same thing. I even asked the Pearsons lady whether this was correct...
here's how I prepared...
I did about 10 or so practice tests
1 untimed from Petersons book
6 timed ones from a Petersons CD or so I got from the public library
1 timed one from Kaplan ... I returned the Kaplan book & CD after that one test as I felt that the questions were partially not logical. I read on this web-site some similar feedback about the Kaplan tests. (I'm sure their rep. is gonna post a reply somewhere ... this is just my opinion .. ok)
1 un-timed one from the official GMAT book.
After the first test I double-checked every question for why I got it right or wrong, how long I took for the answer and I baselined myself in the categories..
Quantative:
Problem solving: low error rate... way too slow in answering
Data sufficiency: low error rate ... a bit too slow in answering
Verbal:
Sentence correction: very high error rate ... good on time
Critical reasoning: very low error rate ... good on time
Reading comprehension: low error rate ... good on time
It really helps to have the test software tell you how much time you take per question.
In the past I had started a few times to prepare, but never actually did much or registered. So this time (with added pressure by my wife) I registered for the test first and started preparing after. I had about 5 weeks to prepare (3 month old baby at home, so I needed my parents to babysit fulltime
) Of the 5 weeks I was planning on taking 2 weeks vacation, which I did.From my baseline, I figured that I had to speed up my math by repeat practice ... I was pretty good at getting the answers .. just not fast enough. Plus on the sentence corrections I sucked ... so I spent a lot of time on that too. I thought this would probably be the easiest way to improve my score.
In the first 3 weeks I studied maybe 2 hours every other work day evening and 3 hours each on Sat. & Sun.
In the last 2 weeks (my vacation) I studied 4-5 hours every day in the library. I can only recommend that, studying at home is way more distracting - not just with a baby at home ... I just kept going to the fridge to get something to drink or I took at 5 min. tv break ... stupid stuff.
I didn't practice any essay. I usually don't like those. Instead I read the 7 step approach from the Peterson book several times and I read several sample essays from the book and from this web-site.
I was a bit nervous about the essays. I thought that not having english as my first language would be a big disadvantage. But it's really not. The most important thing for the essay is your logic and the examples you choose. I'm sure it helps if you can put nice sentences down, but as long as you have a clear structure and purpose you can score well.
I got 5 of 6 in both essays.
What else ?
I didn't study at all the last 2 days before the test itself. I only re-read the 7 essay steps in the morning before I left the house.
I hate it when the sentence correction answer explanation reads "incorrect idiom" ...
The test center in CT (Wallingford) is great. Very nice people, great test room and good computers. They did a good job explaning the procedure.
Last edited by mbartsc on Tue Dec 23, 2008 9:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
