I just Beat The GMAT!

Before I say anything,
1. Thanks to the website, for the help I found. I have never posted anything, but I owe this one to all of you.
2. I am not planning to get into a full time program.
3. I am not going to re-take the test(or at least I think!)

I have a full time family & a fairly successful career(read as job which demands more than 40hrs/week). I booked my GMAT 3 months before my target date. BTW this I did after consulting people who had earned fairly good scores(>700) & approximately of my caliber(perhaps not..now!).
I embarked upon my prep, waking up @ 5am in the morning reading till 7, going to work, coming back from work and perhaps putting in an hour or 2. I was following the Kaplan 12 week strategy. Before I began preparation, my score on the GMAT Prep was 550. And 5 weeks into my prep, I got 680 on my GMATPrep.

Then suddenly, I had to quit my prep for a month!

So after a month, after thinking a lot, re-planning my prep schedule and everything, I decided to move my test date by a month to make up for lost time and to get back into the groove. I had anticipated an increased workload, that is why I picked my March date, but I could not help it now. So, with more work and less time to prepare, I still put in a decent 25 hours per week for the next 4 weeks.

I used the Official Guide 12, Official Guide 2nd edition for Verbal, GMAT 2012 Premier 2012 & GMAT 800. I purchased the Critical Reasoning Bible from Power-Score, but found it too much for the time I had. It is in a pristine condition and I will probably put it up on Amazon. I found the CR strategies in GMAT800 to be good and GMAT premier from Kaplan for all the rest. I used the ebooks for Official Guides, which help me study in many locations. I completed them 2-3 weeks before my exam and re-did my problem areas. I referred to the MGMAT verbal supplement but did not rely a whole lot.

The practice scores I received were
Kaplan CAT1 550
Kaplan CAT2 560
Kaplan CAT3 570
Kaplan CAT4 580
GMAT Pper CAT1: 550, 680, 630, 710
GMAT Prep CAT 2: 630, 660
I did the sample Princeton for 510, but I felt it deliberately lowered my score to sell me the stuff, but I may be wrong.I stopped doing anything 2 days before the test. I did a reading of many AWA prompts and thought of how I would attack them.
The one thing I consistently noticed on my prep tests was that whenever I breezed through the test, I got lower scores. And it also happened that I was left with more than 5 mins on my Quant section on my actual GMAT and looks like that brought me down! On the test day and 2 days before it I was slightly tensed, though fairly relaxed. I did not prepare for a 700+ score and kept my hopes realistic. I would have been happy had I crossed 650 & would have jumped all over the world if I touched 690.
The AWA section was very good, I think it gave me a good chance to provide some good examples. Having said that I will wait for the results to be out.
The QUANT section pulled me off, I was surprised at my fast pace, and I started getting skeptical, but I moved on to the next question and did not worry about the previous ones. I finished the section well within time. I took a good 7 minute break. I carried 3 cereal bars, I used up 2 for each of the breaks, I also carried some coffee and downed it before Verbal section.I felt the Verbal section was really tough, I almost spent a lot of time on the initial questions and was running less than 2min/remaining question. I thought that none of the answers I picked would be true! But I scored 35 with 75 percentile and I am happy about it.

So here are my tips if you need any
1.If you are a non-US national appearing for the test in US, please carry your passport with you.
2. It is ok to spend some extra time on the initial few questions, but do not spend your life for first 10 questions.
3. Be very careful in every answer choice you click, I wanted to pick "D" but clicked on "A".
4. Take every break, during the 8 minutes, drink a lot of water, use the facilities & of course munch some protein bar of your choice.
5. If you have practiced enough then, there won't be any surprises.
6. Enjoy the test, don't fret over it. It is normal to be a bit tensed.

Having, said that I may not be the right guy to teach you GMAT skills, I hope my experience will somehow help you.

First of all congrats for the score.
Great post.Kudos for the great efforts to gift such a great post.The post reflects on the following:
1.The disciplined efforts on prep (with in the limited amount of available time)
2.A process oriented approach (this can easily be said from the stats and details about the prep-tests etc)
3.A humble and realistic approach towards the test (can be reflected by the target score etc.,)
4. Last but not the least, gratitude towards BTG and helping hand towards BTGians (without which we may not expect this painstaking and detailed analysis)

I think you definitely deserve more than this, but GMAT score is not the only criterion for validation. I am sure that Clarity and Process oriented approach are the strengths you have which are rare ones and which will definitely be reflected in the other criterion as well and lead to success.
Thanks for the sharing and kudos once again for the efforts..
All the best

What are the part time programs you are applying?
I'm in same boat applying for Mccombs

Got a chance to talk to a current student, I think I should retake.
I will retake.
Planning to apply for Evening Booth, Evening Kellogg or Kellogg 1y.
Also thinking of the online offering from Kenan-Flager.
With my score I may make it to Ross, but I am looking for something in Chicago.
Mccombs, I have no idea!

My friend is graduating from Kellog part time this year and he tells me that 630 can get you into part time program with good experience and essays.

Congrats! Do you think Kaplan's cat's are harder than the actual test (since your actual score jumped up from those)? I'm hoping the answer is yes....it'd make me feel a lot better about my upcoming test day

The answer is kaplan Cats are tough.

This post really shows the importance of sticking to your studies.