First, I want to thank Beatthegamt and its members for the invaluable resources and support that helped me to achieve my target GMAT score.
I gave the test yesterday and scored 730 (Q49, V41). My target was 720+, so there it is. I was expecting 50 in quants and 39-40 in verbal but I guess my one point moved from quant to verbal (I have no regrets with this move though
)I started my prep in mid May this year. In all, my study period was 3 months; I gave nearly 5 hours a day Mon-Fri (I reserved weekends to take care of my family responsibilities).
Following are my prep test results:
GMAT Prep 1 - 580 (Q49, V21); 06-June-2010; left 6-7 verbal questions un-answered
GMAT Prep 1 - 710 (Q50, V35); 26-June-2010; few repeated questions
GMAT Prep 1 - 720 (Q50, V37); 15-July-2010; few repeated questions
GMAT Prep 1 - 730 (Q50, forgot verbal score); 08-Aug-2010; few repeated questions
GMAT Prep 1 - 780 (Q50, V47); 11-Aug-2010; many repeated questions
GMAT Prep 2 - 720 (Q49, V40); 15-Aug-2010; only few repeated questions
MGMAT Test 1 - 660 (Q43, V37); 02-July-2010; left last verbal question un-answered
MGMAT Test 2 - 690 (Q47, V40); 09-July-2010
MGMAT Test 3 - 710 (Q47, V40); 03-Aug-2010
MGMAT Test 4 - 680 (Q47, V40); 05-Aug-2010
MGMAT Test 5 - 740 (Q46, V45); 13-Aug-2010; left last quant question un-answered
MGMAT Test 6 - 760 (Q47, V45); 14-Aug-2010
Note: I had solved few RCs ealier and few of those RCs appeared on MGMAT tests. Hence, MGMAT verbal score is little inflated. Also, MGMAT 5 and MGMAT 6 were much easier as compared to other MGMAT tests.
Kaplan online free test: - 610 (Q42, V34); 14-July-2010; Free test's scoring algorith is not convincing, Ok for practice
Kaplan Online CAT # 1 - 690 (Q54, V29); 31-July-2010; left last verbal question un-answered
Kaplan Online CAT # 2 - 760 (Q52, V48); 04-Aug-2010
Kaplan Online CAT # 3 - 690 (Q51, V32); 06-Aug-2010
Kaplan Online CAT # 4 - 710 (Q53, V35); 12-Aug-2010
Note: If you are surprised to see Q54 and Q53 on Kaplan tests, don't blame me; please contact Kaplan for explanation
I highly recommend all these tests. Even taking GMATPrep tests multiple times helps as we still get many fresh questions. Moreover, one gets the feel of real questions. Quants of MGMAT tests is unarguabley tougher than actual GMAT but it is very good for practice. On the other hand, quants of Kaplan is little easier but their RCs are very dense. Again, they are very good for practice.
I want to add few points that might help others:
1. As been said millions of times, pacing is very important. I always struggled to finish my verbal sections on mock tests (and MGMATs quant sections too, of course). I used to make mistakes towards the end if I had even little less time. For example, if I had 5 minutes and 4 questions to do, I would get almost all of them wrong. Hence, I decided to speed up from the beginning or at least in the middle. This way, even if I make few mistakes in the middle, I will have enough time to tackle the last questions. Additionally, I read in some posts of this forum (https://www.beatthegmat.com/how-to-appro ... tml#283989 ) that logically, there should be fewer experimental questions towards the end of the section. This may not be true, but giving more importance to last few questions (as we do for initial few questions, though for different reasons) worked for me, because I was not tenses towards the end and thus avoided mistakes.
2. Practice, practice and practice. I was weak on verbal section and improved mainly because I did many practice questions. Be careful to choose the practice questions - practice with official questions and questions reputed sources.
3. Test day is very important. Try to make strategy for the test day. How will you react if you get a tough moster like RC? What will you do if you a probability or geometry question that scares you most. Have a strategy to handle/skip all the hurdles rather than getting stumped by them. If you lose the focus on the test day, your score will be hampered badly. There are few good posts in this forum to form the strategy (I liked Stacey's post: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -game-plan ). In general, I do not like to make strategies, but I did one for my test day. It was simple. Stay cool and focused, try to solve tough question if you have enough time, else move on to next question, don't waste time on one question. Whatever happens, try to focus on the question on the screen and forget about everything else (except to keep an eye on timing).
I will be glad to be of any help to fellow test takers.
-Balraj.
