I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi all,


Summary:
- Engineer with 7+ years work ex. (EE background)
- Interested in working on the bigger picture and figured an MBA would help in getting there..
- Started studying from scratch last week of June'07. Took the GMAT Sep. 24th 07
- Got 680 (88 Percentile overall, 72 Percentile Quant, 89 Percentile Verbal)

I was planning on applying to some dream schools if I touched at least 700+. My undergrad acads and academic pedigree are not the greatest. But I've a couple of milestone type scholastic achievements along the way and a unique set of achievements at work which I'm pretty confident of spinning into a nice story.

I'm not so sure with this score. I was planning on hitting the R2 apps for 2008(FT) and R1 apps for 2008 (PT). Hence I'm in two minds over trying to give my GMAT again..

Disappointed for sure. I was hoping to peak in the actual GMAT. In retrospect
- I should bagged a few scores in my target score range during my practice tests.
- I should have addressed my Q weakness more aggressively. No basic problems here as I'm an engineer. My issue was managing in the limited time and my mistakes were mostly (silly mistakes or taking too long to translate words into figures)

Thanks to Eric, Stacy and all on this site for all the knowledge shared.

I'm hoping for some insightful comments from all
(Reg: prep. strategy, score, how schools(PT/FT) will consider a 680, my poor Q scores, Q vs V split etc).

@Stacy: Would it be possible for you to give me some additional feedback ? I could send you my detailed spreadsheets and point you to my MGMAT online test details.

Thanks,
-B

Details:
- Put in 3-4 hours per week in July, 7-10 hours (Sometimes 20) per week in august
- Initially scheduled exam for August 24th. Postponed it to a month later as scores were not improving.
- Last month before the exams slogged away (2-4 hours per day, 10-16 hours on weekend)
- Materials used
-- OG 11ed, Quant, Verbal Review supplements
-- MGMAT Free Intro class
-- Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Guide
-- Manhattan GMAT Online tests, practice timers
-- GMAT Prep tests 1,2
-- Eric's flash cards
-- 800Score AWA Guide
-- My own flash cards - Primarily for SC derived from MGMAT
- Studying pattern
-- Took initial diagnostic tests. Did prelim. analysis of weakness and started studying OG.
-- Brought Manhattan GMAT SC and OG Q, V review supplements in August.
-- Worked in sessions of 20 problems in 30 mins for each type.
-- Tests taken (Full tests including AWA)
06/30 - Paper based OG diagnostic (Took after revising basic material in OG, GMAT overview) - Average: PS, CR, SC. Above Average: RC. Below Average DC
07/15 - GMATPrep 1 580 (35Q, 35V)
07/29 - MGMAT Online test 1 620 (42Q, 33V)
08/11 - MGMAT Online test 2 580 (38Q, 31V)
09/02 - MGMAT Online test 3 670 (45Q, 36V)
09/09 - MGMAT Online test 4 660 (42Q, 38V)
09/15 - GMATPrep 2 680 (44Q, 38V)
09/20 - MGMAT Online test 5 710 (45Q, 41V)
09/22 - MGMAT Online test 6 - Unfinished attempt as mentally tired
09/24 - Actual GMAT 680 (44Q, V40)

Takeaways:
- As the MGMAT folks say, schedule your GMAT with enough time for prep. It's the easiest thing under your control.
- Give yourself at least 0.5-1 month of buffer time to get used to the format of the GMAT, figuring out your studying pattern and record-keeping strategy.
- Identify your weakpoints early on and make sure you address them aggresively (e.g. Buy guides etc). In retrospect I should have invested in some guides for some Q weaknesses etc
- Every test is precious. Make sure you allot appropriate time to analyzing them and prepare a followup to address weak points. In retrospect maybe I wouldn't do a full test every time (including an AWA). Also cramming consecutive tests day after day might not work for you. It didn't for me.
- Timing matters. For me especially for Quant. Anybody can solve the probs given infinite time. What matters is performance under time pressure.
- Get a few data points in the range of your target score during your practice tests. The GMATPrep software seems to be a pretty good indicator of your actual score.
- I'd recommend the MGMAT SC book highly. Included as a bonus is access to 6 online tests (not as accurate a predictor of actual performance as GMATPrep), SC question bank and practice timer functionality. MGMAT offers various tools (Excel export, analysis based on Question type etc). I used these regularly and would highly recommend them.
- Workflow
-- Used practice timers on MGMAT and used generated excel sheets to keep track of performance. This was much more efficient than using the other excel templates I found on the wiki.

I'll try to clean up my excel sheets and post them someone soon.