I just Beat The GMAT!

Well, I took the GMAT this morning and rocked it, getting way better than I ever expected to get! And I owe a lot of thanks to this website.

Quant 49 (88%)
Verbal 42 (95%)
Total 750 (98%)

obviously, don't have writing, but I felt very comfortable with my responses.

A little bit about me:
College: Large top 50 public univ.
Finance/Marketing major
GPA: 3.90
H.S. Tests for comparison (because I was curious how they correlated when I started to study)
SAT 1430 (740 M, 690 V); ACT -31 (Math 35, English 32, Reading- 28 or something)

Will be joining a consulting firm in a few weeks with the expectation that I get my MBA in 3-4 years at a top 20 school and then return to that firm. I took the test now because it is good for 5 years and I was fresh out of school/test-taking. I also had tons of free time in May, June and July before I started work.

I HIGHLY recommend any one in that situation to do the same.

If I were to have scored lower I would have simply retook when most of my future colleagues did.


My prep:

Took GMAT Prep I (downloadable) cold, no prep in March before Spring Break:
NO AWA
710 (94%) Q 45 (76%) V 42 (96%)

I was disappointed with the math, because I thought I would do better considering by SAT/ACT, but satisfied with the overall.
I reviewed the answers within the next few weeks, and concentrated on having fun and the end of my senior year.

In early May I purchased KAPLAN Premier.

I spent about a week doing the diagnostic test and going over all the sections in the book. It was extremely frustrating because there are TONS of little errors in the book which is completely ridiculous for a book which you aspire to learn from.

Regardless, it was helpful in Data Sufficiency, Reading Comprehension, AWA, and Critical Reasoning strategies.

Kaplan tests (May-June) ALL NO AWA:

In Book: 670 (91) Q 44 (74) V 45 (99)
KAP1 CD: 640 (85) Q 42 (67) V 36 (81) <---midnight/tired
KAP2 CD: 690 (94) Q 50 (96) V 38 (85) <--got a lot of repeat Q questions for some reason
KAP3 CD: 640 (85) Q 36 (50%!!!) V 40 (90)

By this point, I was absurdly frustrated that my scores had gotten worse, and also was frustrated because I had taken the CD tests on two different computers and was getting repeat questions on some tests. At the suggestion of GMATJim (https://www.beatthegmat.com/seemingly-ge ... 40167.html) I took GMAT PREP #2.


JULY (a little over 1 week to go): July 6
I did the AWA and took the test around 8:00 (when I took the actual)
GMAT PREP 2: 730 (96) Q 47 (79) V 42 (95)

This convinced me that Kaplan purposely gives low scores to encourage you to buy more of their product/justify their Higher score guarantee.

So I took a Free Manhattan test online (July 10)
MGMAT 1: 700 (93) Q 47 (81) V 38 (83)

And finally, I retook the first GMAT Prep 1 on July 13 (3 days before)
(it had been 4 months)
GMAT PREP 1: 750 (98) Q 49 (88) V 44 (97)

JUDGING BY MY PRACTICE TESTS THE GMAT PREP TESTS ARE VERY ACCURATE INDICATOR OF ACTUAL PERFORMANCE.

My actual results were almost identical to my last test.



Other materials used:
-Downloadable flashcards from beatthegmat.com (helped with S.C. and math strategies)
-GMAT Math Bible. this was invaluable..... I skipped through each section and focused on the topics I struggled with....https://www.totalgmatmath.com/
I had a copy a friend gave to me.
-Green OG Quantitative supplement- I knew math was my weak point for some reason (had to brush up on h.s. math) and so did all D.S. problems.
-99 700+ OG problems found on beatthegmat.com (I did about 1/3)

I focused my prep almost entirely around math and I ended up bringing up the score significantly.


Before the test I kept myself in a good mood by joking around with the test center staff and also made sure I went to bed at 10 pm (test at 8)

AWA was easy, probably the best topics I had to date.

Quant: I don't even think I answered the first question right, I TOOK FOREVER on it because I simply did not know how to do it. It involved nickles, dimes, and quarters. Frustrated I picked numbers and threw out a close guess. I maintained focus and tried to pick up speed and if I took too long I would make an educated guess. The rest went by well.

Verbal: I knew I did decently well on math, and verbal is my best section. I found the reading to be the easiest part and probably stumbled on some SC/CR.

I clicked...hoping to score above 690 and was shocked.

Thanks to everyone that helped me out (if you are still reading) and this website! I hope my experience helps others in some way.




If anyone would like to shed light on my chances at the following schools I would be interested (my stats are above) and my job is with a top 5-10 consulting company. Also, tell me what I can do to improve my chances...

UNC-Chapel Hill
U. Virginia
Cornell
Berkeley (Hass)
HBS
Northwestern
Chicago
Wharton






that was long.