This was my first attempt (it was on May, 8) and I don't think I will try any more. My scores are Q51/V38 (740 overall) and AWA 4.5.
PREPARATION
I've started my preparation about 2,5 weeks prior to the exam, using Kaplan Premier Program 2008 and Kaplan GMAT 800 2008-2009. First, I've went through Premier Program, then I've passed Kaplan CAT practice test and practice test #1 (GMATPrep). Then I also studied GMAT 800 and passed the second practice test from GMATPrep, just a day before the Test Day. Here are my results of the practice tests:
30-04-2009: Kaplan CAT 680
01-05-2009: GMATPrep1 750 (Q50 V40)
07-05-2009: GMATPrep2 730 (Q50 V38)
08-05-2009: GMAT 740 (Q51 V38)
For me, as you can see, actual score turned out to be an average of two GMATPrep practice tests.
TEST DAY
I am morning person, that's why I've decided to take exam at 8.30am. I preferred some fresh fruits to caffeine, so I ate 2 apples before the exam and took a bottle of still water with me to drink in breaks.
The possible reason of my relatively low verbal score is that in the break I understood, that I did very good in Quant part and got a little bit relaxed => during the first 5-10 questions in the verbal part it was very difficult for me to simply concentrate.
I would recommend not to think about your performance on the test before you get your unofficial score report - it will only hurt your score.
ESSAYS
Not a difficult part actually, if you take care of time. I used Kaplan methodology, but did not have much time to proof read the essays after they were ready.
MATH
The most important here, I think, is to read the question once more after you finished all the calculations to double-check that you are answering the right question. I would also recommend to check how much time you have left after 10th, 20th and 30th questions to be sure, that you have enough time to answer all the questions.
I had unexpectedly many tasks associated with mean and median values and so on, so be sure that you know how to work with these things.
VERBAL
This one was the most difficult for me, I scored in 83rd percentile and, probably, had only 6 minutes left for the last 5 tasks. You can prepare very good to Critical reasoning and Reading using Kaplan's books, but they will not help you much with Sentence Correction tasks, so, probably, it would be better to try other preparation books.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Thanks very much for this forum. I've read some stories before taking my exam and they were really inspiring.
As a final advice, I would recommend to dedicate more time to SC, than to other parts - in Quant, RC and CR you can use your logic to eliminate incorrect answers, while in SC you need just to know, which options are wrong and which one is right.
5-Day Free Trial
5-day free, full-access trial TTP
Available with Beat the GMAT members only code
MORE DETAILS
