welcome dude

Welcome and good luck. You will find this site very helpful. Welcome to the community.

Good luck and welcome. My number one advice is "learn to love GMAT".

Welcome to the community, Nicole! I'll echo what uwhusky said and say that I think you can really enjoy studying for this test if you go into it with that mindset (and it looks like you're bringing some enthusiasm to the table!).

My biggest piece of advice for getting started - be prepared to ask the question "why" a lot, and you'll find it to be incredibly helpful:

-Why does this formula or number property hold true? (Understanding is deeper than memorization, and can also translate to the ability to apply it to a wider range of concepts)

-Why did I get this question wrong? (Knowing yourself and your weaknesses/tendencies/common errors is much more important than simply knowing how to correctly answer that one question)

-Why did the author of the question use that phrasing? Why was that answer choice written that way? (Learning to think like the testmaker will give you insight into their "playbook" and allow you to stay a step ahead of the questions)

I look forward to your updates and to the opportunity to help along with the rest of the community here!

Thanks for the advice Brian!

I guess I'm just really excited because I've known I want to go to b-school for so long, and I'm finally going to be one step closer. I should also mention that I'm only a junior in college, so it'll be a while before I actually go, but if I do well enough on the GMAT I'll apply to the HBS 2+2 program.

Hey Nicole,

Sorry - didn't see your reply until just this morning, but I'd definitely like to add that I think you have a huge advantage by taking the GMAT while you're still in college. Some of the best advice I've ever received was from my mother (funny how that's usually the case...) when she told me to take the GMAT, LSAT, and GRE all fairly soon after graduation so that I'd have scores on record from when I was at my studying-and-thinking-critically peak. That helped me a lot.

(That said, if you're applying to 2+2, all of your competitors will similarly be taking the test at the same time, but you still have an advantage over most!)

Update: I just took my first practice CAT test! It was a Kaplan test, and I got a 720 (Q46, V43) - 3 questions wrong in quant, 5 wrong in verbal. How accurate do you think my score is? I also finished each section about 20 minutes early, so I really need to work on slowing down.