I just Beat The GMAT!

As mentioned a few posts below, I took the gmat on April 5th, after only studying for about a week. Ok - maybe about 10 days but some of those days being wishywashy. Here's my impressions, opinions and the not well thought out strategy.

I scheduled my test in early January thinking that 3 months would be plenty of time. It was....plenty of time to procrastinate! Also, I scheduled it on the 5 year anniversary of my Dad's death - not even thinking that would be an issue. I'm really smart, but sometimes a complete idiot. Oh well, maybe he can watch over me as I do the math - he was a math teacher! Anyway, as March approached, I started panicking, but had the busiest month ever: trip for bro's wedding, a family funeral, business travel, etc. So by the time I got serious I realized I only had about 10 days left.

I started studying on Thursday, March 27th by doing some questions in the OG. THat didn't go well and I was getting a cold.

Friday the 28th - stay home from work with a cold that I think was a descendant of the black plague. I started reading through Kaplan premier (note- I had a bunch of books that I had bought in January with the best of intentions) I did some more questions and did a practice test from the Kaplan CD. I got a 530 and thought: oh crap! I should have started studying earlier.

Sat&Sun, 29th-30 - still sick, but hunkered down in my house for all day/all study sessions. (Ok - I usually started at about 12pm and went until about 10 with 1-2 breaks and of course trips to the bathroom). I was doing more Kaplan problems and did the practice content on the GMAT prep software. Took another practice test from the Kaplan CD and got 540 - oh no - all that work for only 10 points! But, luck stepped in and I found this forum which I visited every day up to the test. On here I read about some other materials that sounded helpful so I purchased the OG Math book (green) and The Kaplan Math Workbook and Kaplan 800. (I now realize that I sortof duplicated a lot with 3 Kaplan books).

Mon-Wed - I have a full time job so couldn't study during the day (although I did bring a book to work to do some problems on my lunch hour). But every night, I started studying at 6pm and finished at 11. I split the time between Q & A fairly evenly, but for verbal would focus on one specific area at a time trying to get better in that area: ex - 1 hour of SC, 2 hours of RC. Also, right before I went to sleep, I reviewed some non-published material like flashcards I found on this site (SO AWESOME!!!) I took a few more tests: 2 PowerPreps: 670, 640 and one from GMAT prep: 600

Thursday night: I took the MGMAT online test and got a 650. By now, I'm thinking that I had spent more time on math so I focused mainly on V. At about 8pm I was starving, and since I hadn't been shopping, I decided to treat myself to dinner at a snazzy restaurant 2 blocks away. I brought my books which attracted a little attention as I sat at the bar. Two seats down was a gentleman in a suit who asked what I was doing...after a brief chat, it turned out he was a Wharton grad and he gave me some really good advice that echoed in my head during test day: Just be in the moment - the correct answer is in front of you. (how true!) Anyway, he left before me and when I asked for my check it turns out he had paid for my dinner. I hope I can do that one day for a gmat student. (And score! free dinner which lasted for two days!)


Friday - I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I may break 600 - maybe even hit 650 but talk myself into a 600 as a solid score. Fri night I did a little more practice but kindof took it easy. Laid out my clothes for SAt and packed some snacks. Went to bed early and used a sleep aid.

Sat - got to the test center early but was still 8th in line. EVerything was as described on here. 5pg dry erase notebook, dry erase pen, cubicle, and they offered earplugs (which I didn't take) and there were sound canceling headphones which I did use. I didn't prepare for the AWAs at all and should have looked over some things while studying...although I think they went pretty well considering. I used my break - went to the bathroom, ate half an energy bar and drank some water.

Quant - I was certain that I was doing just ok. It felt hard. Sometimes it felt really hard which made me think I was doing well, and other times it felt way too easy, leading me to think I was doing poorly. My advice: Try not to think about that during the test. Finished math section exactly on time - maybe like 9 seconds left. The practice from the math workbooks really helped me get my pacing up. I didn't finish the math sections on a few of my practice exams so I was glad to get better at pacing. Used this break again - bathroom, energy bar, water and a few quick walks up and down the hall outside the test center. And a few arm swings and shoulder rolls to keep the blood flowing.

Verbal: I had a good mix of the three types of questions but it felt a little SC heavy. On one RC, I was like WTF!? I had to read it like 4 times. Aside from that the Verbal felt a lot easier than any of the practice stuff I did. Even the practice content from the GMAT prep. I finished early - with about 9 minutes left - in practice tests I usually had 15 minutes left so I was reminding myself to slow down.

I breezed through the post test questions about me, and felt a terrible acid in the pit of my stomach as I waited for my scores. I closed my eyes and waited for about 1 minute before I could open them. I opened to see the 710 and couldn't believe it. I must have sat there dumbfounded for another 1-2 minutes. I left the test room and hugged the administrator. There was the guy at the front desk who checked me in that handed me my score report and I hugged him too. He asked if I was applying to Penn (I live near Philly) and I said no, but maybe I would think about it now.

I ran into the parking lot and called everyone I have ever met. I said to my sister: "I got a 710!" she said "Is that good?!" struck me a funny.

Anyway - it was definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. The prep really helps and if you are rusty at math AT ALL, get thee to a book store for the math prep workbooks from Kaplan and OG. Speaking of the OG - I did not use the big orange OG book at all. Maybe 10 questions total.....I didn't like the paper it is printed on - it hurt my eyes. (IS that weird?)

I hope this has been helpful. I know 710 is low for some of the folks on here, but the point of the story is that you can do better than even you think you can. If you're shooting for a 790 - you can get there. I'm hoping to finish up some applications today - am looking at some programs in the philly area: Villanova, Drexel, Rutgers, etc.

Best wishes! YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!

thanks, so much

Congratulations.