First, I gotta say this community absolutely rocks! Beatthegmat was the only online resource I used and it has made a 90 point difference in my score.

Just wrote the GMAT today (Dec 30) and scored a 710 (45Q, 42V) a big improvement on my 620 (33Q, 41v) three months ago. Here are my thoughts--keep in mind, I'm writing this quickly so it might read like a stream of consciousness.

Some interesting points about the GMAT scoring algorithm (although I'm sure many already know this):

- I guessed on the last nine quant questions (did not even read them) and still got a 45Q.
- Once you see a combinatorics/permutations/factorial/probability question, you're most likely in a good spot. Just seeing this type of question gave me a big boost.

Some tips:

1) USE A STOP-WATCH WHEN STUDYING. I used a program called XNote which is great because it allows for split times (just press "snap" when you're done a question) and it will log all your activity and shows you what percentage of total time you spent on each question. So while studying, I "snap" all my splits then isolate the questions that took the longest and quickly assess my weaknesses.

Another interesting point: Using the stop-watch, I realized that I could NOT finish a hard Quant question in less than 2.5 minutes, mostly I did them in 3 minutes. So I just accepted this fact and aimed to get 28 out of 37 questions done, then guess the final 9 in the last 1.5 minutes. Some might say this is crazy, but it helped me stay calm and relaxed during the exam, I knew what my limitations where and it helped me focus on the 28 questions I planned on answering.

So use the stopwatch to both get your times down and to understand what your limitations are so you can adjust.

2) STAY CALM during the test. One of the best ways to do this, IMO, is to do the GMAT Prep test one or two days before, under REAL circumstances. Whatever you get on that prep will probably be within a 30 point radius of your real score. So just calm down and go in expecting to get a score in that range. The bonus of doing this is that due to your calmness, you'll probably actually do better.

Final thing about staying calm. Go in with this attitude "I will just go answer the damn questions and I'll just deal with whatever score I get." You can always re-take (if you left yourself enough time). If you plan on applying to B-school, start early and give yourself at least two months to re-take the GMAT if you get a bad score.

Study breakdown and books I used:

- Read Princeton Review Crack the GMAT before first test to familiarize myself with the test and all the sections.

- Did some OG11 questions, both quant and verbal (about 70 or 80).

- Took the test, got a 620 (33Q, 41V).

- Found this board and did 10-20 questions a week during my lunch.

- Downloaded the flash cards (GREAT). I flipped through them while DRIVING to and from work (I know, I know, unsafe, but I was stuck in traffic...hehehhe).

- Bought GMAT Math review by Kaplan and went through the full book and timed and logged all my questions (took me about two months of light work).

- Checked out GMAT 800 from library and did only the math sections, again, I timed my work.

Final Note:

I did not go crazy studying for this. Yes, I'll admit, I constantly felt that I was not studying enough, but I still WAS NOT studying for two hours a day and 14 hours on weekends. I was fairly sporadic, always focused on it, but not consistent with my study patterns since I was also writing essays for b-school.

Anyway, that is my story, again thanks to this community for posting so many great questions and giving detailed answers to each of them....it was a great tool.