I am looking at T-6 days before deadline now.
While I lost about 3 weeks of studying recently due to work, business trips, a cold, and general mayhem at home, I am going ahead with my planned test date of June 7th at 8:00AM. (this decision was only partially related to the fact that there are no reschedule dates available at my testing site for at least a month without trying to take off work).
I just completed GMATPrep2 and it seems to correspond to how I feel that I am ready for the test (a big 760, with a couple of questions that could have gone either way).
So far, my practice tests are:
GMATPrep1 - 710 (48Q, 40V) 2/24/08
GMATPrep1 (2) - 710 (44VQ, 42V) - 3/8/08
MGMAT1 - 740 (47Q, 45V) 4/12/08
Kaplan1 - 600 (37Q, 36V) 5/4/08 - bad test all around. ran out of time in everything, even in verbal (that I have never otherwise had time problems in).
MGMAT2 - 700 (44Q, 41V) 5/10/08
GMATPrep2 - 760 (50Q, 44V) 6/1/08
The last couple weeks of studying have been real and I think that the advancements in my score will stick with me.
Some interesting observations from my last GMATPrep -
Quant -
1) I am terrified on time management in Quant. As a capable engineer, I could solve every question, but even on some of the 'easier' ones, I am a little too systematic and take time. I am doing everything possible to break free. This one I actually had the full 2:30 minutes I wanted for the last problem, unlike some other tests I have taken so far.
2) I missed 7 questions, six of which were data sufficiency. Not sure what I can learn from that, but I get caught in a lot of the tricks.
3) I missed question 21 early on, and then after that all my misses were in a row between 29-34. I actually thought I was getting these right, but huge bad streak at the end, even with the time. Overall, I still got a 50, which as you can see was my best score.
4) I was very disappointed to see at least 4 problems on this test that I have seen on this forum. I say this because I knowingly avoid any questions that said they were from GMATPrep2, as I didn't want to influence my score. However, I knew that I had solved these four on this forum without knowing their source. I still did the work, but I had a good idea of the right answer. I hope these didn't prop up my verbal score too badly (and now I can't remember if I would have gotten them right or wrong originally).
Verbal -
1) I actually am pretty good at the verbal section. In this case, I only missed 5 questions, mixed in throughout the section (although more in the middle where I got 1 right, 1 wrong, 1 right, 1 wrong, and then all right up to the end). Probably honing in at some level at this point.
2) As I have seen before, I missed no Critical Reasoning.
3) I did miss 2 Reading Comprehension questions. I vascillated back and forth between the right answer and the wrong one that I chose. Not sure what I could learn from these mistakes though.
4) Missed 3 sentence correction. This was the one portion that I studied like crazy (thank you Manhattan GMAT SC Guide). I know most of the GMAT errors and rules pretty well. Even these three were some less common error types (or actually correct sentences) that I am not sure how much will I learn from them, other than to not reject sentences so easily, as 2 of the 3 were correct.
Focusing my time now until next week is:
1) Timing on the Quant section. I still see this as one of the greatest risks come test day.
2) Reviewing notes on sentence correction - make sure I know all those rules inside and out
3) More Quant (and Data Sufficiency specifically) practice and review those notes.
4) Relax and be ready for next Saturday
I may have done well in quant today, but I still feel like that is where I could fail in the end. And I have come to trust myself pretty well in Verbal that I feel the score will be good.
If I can review my notes (thank you Eric for your note cards - I used all the books up to now - but review time is much easier with your work), I think I can enter Saturday's test in a pretty good state.
Now I have to keep me from psyching myself out. I think the score I want is there, I just need to not screw it up.
Thanks everyone! I will be on all this week to keep my mind up.
Long post, I know.. just rambling after putting all my mind into that test : )
While I lost about 3 weeks of studying recently due to work, business trips, a cold, and general mayhem at home, I am going ahead with my planned test date of June 7th at 8:00AM. (this decision was only partially related to the fact that there are no reschedule dates available at my testing site for at least a month without trying to take off work).
I just completed GMATPrep2 and it seems to correspond to how I feel that I am ready for the test (a big 760, with a couple of questions that could have gone either way).
So far, my practice tests are:
GMATPrep1 - 710 (48Q, 40V) 2/24/08
GMATPrep1 (2) - 710 (44VQ, 42V) - 3/8/08
MGMAT1 - 740 (47Q, 45V) 4/12/08
Kaplan1 - 600 (37Q, 36V) 5/4/08 - bad test all around. ran out of time in everything, even in verbal (that I have never otherwise had time problems in).
MGMAT2 - 700 (44Q, 41V) 5/10/08
GMATPrep2 - 760 (50Q, 44V) 6/1/08
The last couple weeks of studying have been real and I think that the advancements in my score will stick with me.
Some interesting observations from my last GMATPrep -
Quant -
1) I am terrified on time management in Quant. As a capable engineer, I could solve every question, but even on some of the 'easier' ones, I am a little too systematic and take time. I am doing everything possible to break free. This one I actually had the full 2:30 minutes I wanted for the last problem, unlike some other tests I have taken so far.
2) I missed 7 questions, six of which were data sufficiency. Not sure what I can learn from that, but I get caught in a lot of the tricks.
3) I missed question 21 early on, and then after that all my misses were in a row between 29-34. I actually thought I was getting these right, but huge bad streak at the end, even with the time. Overall, I still got a 50, which as you can see was my best score.
4) I was very disappointed to see at least 4 problems on this test that I have seen on this forum. I say this because I knowingly avoid any questions that said they were from GMATPrep2, as I didn't want to influence my score. However, I knew that I had solved these four on this forum without knowing their source. I still did the work, but I had a good idea of the right answer. I hope these didn't prop up my verbal score too badly (and now I can't remember if I would have gotten them right or wrong originally).
Verbal -
1) I actually am pretty good at the verbal section. In this case, I only missed 5 questions, mixed in throughout the section (although more in the middle where I got 1 right, 1 wrong, 1 right, 1 wrong, and then all right up to the end). Probably honing in at some level at this point.
2) As I have seen before, I missed no Critical Reasoning.
3) I did miss 2 Reading Comprehension questions. I vascillated back and forth between the right answer and the wrong one that I chose. Not sure what I could learn from these mistakes though.
4) Missed 3 sentence correction. This was the one portion that I studied like crazy (thank you Manhattan GMAT SC Guide). I know most of the GMAT errors and rules pretty well. Even these three were some less common error types (or actually correct sentences) that I am not sure how much will I learn from them, other than to not reject sentences so easily, as 2 of the 3 were correct.
Focusing my time now until next week is:
1) Timing on the Quant section. I still see this as one of the greatest risks come test day.
2) Reviewing notes on sentence correction - make sure I know all those rules inside and out
3) More Quant (and Data Sufficiency specifically) practice and review those notes.
4) Relax and be ready for next Saturday
I may have done well in quant today, but I still feel like that is where I could fail in the end. And I have come to trust myself pretty well in Verbal that I feel the score will be good.
If I can review my notes (thank you Eric for your note cards - I used all the books up to now - but review time is much easier with your work), I think I can enter Saturday's test in a pretty good state.
Now I have to keep me from psyching myself out. I think the score I want is there, I just need to not screw it up.
Thanks everyone! I will be on all this week to keep my mind up.
Long post, I know.. just rambling after putting all my mind into that test : )
Last edited by zacharyz on Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:36 am, edited 3 times in total.
