MGMAT I - 690: Freaked out on 3rd question in Quant and decided that its not worth doing a timed test. I however timed my verbal section.
MGMAT 2 - 670: Both quant and verbal were timed.
GMAT Prep1 - 650
GMAT Prep2 - 670
Actual GMAT - 660
Not that i am very happy with the score, but i am happy that i was able to achieve this with 3 weeks of studying, with a one week break in between.
My experience at the test center was very weird, my test was scheduled at 8 and i reached there exactly at 8, i totally did not read the part in the confirmation email that i had to be there 30 mins before the tests. Anyhoo, the procedure went smooth, i wrote AWAs and then came out, had double shot of Starbucks coffee and half of trail mix and started tackling Math. I was so cautious in my approach that i would double and triple check my answers even though i knew they were correct, and because of that over cautious approach, i ran out of time on my last question
. At this point, i had decided i will retake my GMAT, so i went in pretty relaxed and started Verbal, and boy was it difficult, all my grammar rules were shredded and thrown out of the window. I paused for about 30 seconds, recuperated myself and then started again and somehow, i completed. And then the dreaded question, do you want to report your scores? And i was like, what's the worst that could happen and to my surprise i got a 660. I am not sure if this score is ok or not but i am interested in part-time mba in Chicago and i might be able to get through, if not i will try again.
Anyway, i wanted to thank this awesome community for helping me with my studies and clearing a lot of doubts. Special thanks to Stacey, Ron (sentence correction) and DanaJ (Critical Reasoning). I learned a lot from your posts. I also wanted to thank thephoenix, Bhumika, Phirozz (there are others as well but if i start naming them, then there would be no end to this post), if it wouldn't have been their questions, there would have been not that many answers. I have learned a lot from this forum.
What worked and what did not:
1. MGMAT math and concepts are awesome - They will make you a rockstar in math, however the math in the MGMAT cat is difficult compared with real GMAT math. So, understand the concepts and you should be good for CAT.
2. Do not spend too much time on combinatorics and probability - The ones asked in real CAT are pretty basic.
3. MGMAT sentence correction - A pretty comprehensive material, but there are just too many rules to remember them all. What i started doing is paying particular attention to the work emails that i wrote and also try to be as much grammatically correct as possible while speaking.
4. OG 12 - Everyone has raved about it, so no point in stating the obvious.
5. Economist - I read a lot of the magazine online and would try to understand what the article was trying to describe, what the meaning of the passage is and what could be the potential questions. I would try to read the articles other than my area of interest to develop the ability to read difficult passages.
6. BTG sentence correction and CR - i would read this daily for about 30 mins without fail for the last month.
Recommendation:
1. Study everyday even if it is only for an hour.
2. Try to relate your GMAT studies with day to day events.
3. Do not freak out when one section is goes awry, you can always catch up.
Thanks for all the support.
