Got to the test center at 7.30 AM, my test was scheduled to start at 8 am. Checking-in was a smooth process, started the Essay part at around 7.50 AM. Both were easy, got done in good time, without straining my brain cells. Definitely took the optional 8-minute break, ate half a protein bar, got back at the end of the 6th minute.
Started Quant at around 9 am. Got about 3-4 overlapping sets problems, combined with a couple mixture problems, and of course major chunk of the problems were number properties both in DS and PS. Apparently, the test takers LOVE number properties; the worst is when you get those in DS. Anyways, I think I got one Combination problem and one Probability problem. There were a couple problems where I couldn't even figure out what area it was from, those seemed like a mix of probability, percentages, and overlapping sets. I didn't get an X-Y plane problem until almost the end, which I'm happy about - since coordinate geometry has never been my forte. My timing wasn't the best, I remember seeing the timer when I had about 30 minutes left and I was still at the 16th question. That's when I started to make a couple educated guesses to get myself back to the 2-minute average per question. Luckily, it worked. I believe I had about a minute to answer the last question, which was a DS and I knew it's either A or D. Ended up marking A, since I was sure A was enough. I still am wondering whether or not I got that one right
Took the 2nd optional break, ended up eating the 2nd half of my protein bar, not that I was hungry but I didn't want my stomach to growl in the middle of attempting verbal questions. Oh and one thing to remember, if you do choose to wear the ear plugs, you can hear every single sound your stomach makes. So make sure you aren't hungry,which might be a distraction.
Started off Verbal at around 10.20 AM. I think it started off fine, with a couple CR questions, followed by SC, and then RC. My first RC passage was 2 paragraphs long. No idea how straight forward it was, since RC has never been my forte. SC questions, I think were slightly harder than GMAT Prep, so were CR. CR I was always down to the last 2 choices (which I hate!), no comments on RC, except that my first RC was 2 paragraphs long, 2nd and 3rd were 4 paragraphs long and the last one 1 long, confusing paragraph. By the time I got to the last RC, I was looking at the timer and feeling that sense of freedom already... of course that quite didn't work, since I am pretty sure I messed up that last passage. Or maybe it wasn't that bad after all, Question # 38, bold face question.. YES!! I even made a little smiley on the yellow notebook when I saw it... And that was only because I still had 11 minutes left for the last 4 questions, so I could afford to smile and make a smiley face too. Anyways, couple questions were CR and SC. I think I hit 'Next' on the last question when I still had about 2 minutes left.
Hit Submit, smiled, raised my hand, and got escorted out of the test area.
How I prepared for the GMAT:
A little bit about myself: I am an Accounting major, worked in Audit for a couple years, and then moved to Corporate Finance. Born in India, and been in the US since the last 10 years.
Started around Labor Day weekend in early July, took the first GMAT Prep test (without any preparation), and got a 530 (Low 30's in quant and high 20's in Verbal). Realized I need to study for both a lot!!
Quant:
Luckily one of my friends had 5 MGMAT Quant books, except the Fractions one, borrowed from her, went thru all of them in about 4 weeks, attempting all OG 11 questions, followed by OG 12 problems. I did download the Error Log from BTG, ofcourse made some edits (I am a Financial Analyst and work in Excel all day long, so I had to make some of my FA edits �) Reviewed the error logs the last 2 weeks before the GMAT and made sure I understood them all.
Verbal:
Sentence Correction: I heard of e-gmat on the forums and decided to give it a shot. Loved the content, the format, decided to use that a 100% in my preparation. Since I was tired of reading MGMAT books for Quant, e-gmat offered exactly what I was looking for after having spent a month on reading Quant books. Attempted all the concept files, all Application files, all UGE's, followed by attempting OG12 questions. My accuracy improved from 50% to about 85%-90%. As one of the other users mentioned, the e-gmat process helps a lot in solving SC questions.
Critical Reasoning: I read parts of the MGMAT book, attempted OG 11 questions, but my accuracy rate was only around 70%. Unhappy with the 70% accuracy rate, 2 weeks before the test, I ended up taking a 2-hr training session with e-gmat. Luckily, it worked and helped me get my accuracy rate up to 90%.
Reading Comprehension: This was the one that I disliked so much that I couldn't even gather the patience to study for RC. So, my lack of interest in RC is responsible for my lower Verbal score.
Anyways, I am happy with the score, I am applying to part time programs in the top 15 schools, with ASU being my back up school � Thanks to BTG and the awesome members for all the input and support. Any questions, please feel free to ask
Happy GMAT'ing!
