I just Beat The GMAT!

Got a 710 (50Q 94%, 36V 78%)

Im upset that I got below 80% in verbal, but I hit my target score so whatever

First of all, thanks to everybody on this site, especially Eric and all the Experts.

My opinion on Prep Material (keep in mind that these are all in MY OPINION):

OG 11 and 12 (obviously necessary)
Manhattan SC (necessary)
Manhattan SC and RC (pretty good)
Kaplan Premier Book (waste of my bloody time)
Kaplan 800 (makes me want to puke that I wasted any time with this)

Did not use any other materials so I can not comment on them

Brief Overview of How I studied:

For Math:
OG, GMAT Prep, and Manhattan Tests: all pretty good, but keep in mind that Manhattan Math Tests are WAY harder than actual test.

I learned the most from the experts on this site:

List of Freakin Geniuses (off the top of my head so sorry if I forget you):
Ian, Stuart, DanaJ, BlueMentor, ScoobyDoob, Cramya, Jose (Forget His Last name), Logitech and there are a few more I can not think of.

LISTEN TO THESE PEOPLE. Understand how they do the problems, and, more importantly, how they think. This is critical to doing well on the Math. Ian's explanations on absolute value are especially good.

For Verbal (although you may not want to pay attention because I obviously suck at this):
OG, Manhattan Tests, GMAT Prep, and this website

List of Freakin Geniuses (once again sorry if I forget you):
Stacy Kopaline (not sure about the last name), ScoobyDoob (a SC Beast), Jose, and many more.


Practice Test Results:
Manhattan Tests (Dont Remember Breakdowns and Dont feel like checking):
Manhattan 1: 690
Manhattan 2: 640
Manhattan 3: 650
Manhattan 4: 670
Manhattan 5: 680
Manhattan 6: 710

As I said earlier, MATH SECTION IS WAY MORE DIFFICULT, but it seems that they are still pretty accurate. I think that Manhattan Tests are very useful for their explanations and for practicing timing.



GMAT Prep 1: 670
GMAT Prep 2: 680

Then, I continued to take 2 GMAT Prep every weekend for a month and eventually got up to 740 (this is obviously skewed due to repeats)

Regarding Timing: Search for Logitech's "I just beat the GMAT" post.
DONT FORGET TIMING IS CRITICAL (as my Verbal score shows)


Test Experience:
Tip: I read that many people had trouble sleeping the night before so I found the best way to avoid this problem. The day before the test I woke up at 4am to make sure that I was very tired by about 7pm. It worked and I was sleeping like a baby at 730pm.

Essays: I think I did pretty well on these, hoping for at least a 5.5. Essay questions are pretty much exactly what you expect.

Just follow a test prep company outline and you should do fine.

Math: Oh my god did I think this crap was easy. Not to sound like a punk, but I thought I was going to get a freakin 19 on Math, the questions were so easy. I mean really, the questions were so easy that it affected me during verbal. I kept thinking about how crapy I must have done on Math and I think it affected my Verbal score. In conclusion, the Math is way EASIER than the Manhattan GMAT and easier than even the GMAT Prep.

Although I can not go into any particulars regarding Math Questions I will tell you this, they were mostly the stupid little trick questions. Just make sure that you read the question fully and you should do fine.

Verbal: Pretty much the complete opposite. I felt like it was all a blur. To be honest, I think that I was doing well up to about question 9, but looked at the clock and saw that I had already used 27 minutes! So panic hit me. I was basically trying to catch up the entire time and felt like I rushed literally every single question. In hindsight, I probably would have been better off going at my speed and guessing at the end.

In conclusion, do a bunch of problems, do a bunch of GMAT Prep Tests, and listen to the people on my list of "Freakin Geniuses" and you will do well.

REMEMBER, WORK HARD AND YOU WILL GET YOUR SCORE!

Im planning on applying to Cornell, UNC, and NYU (this is probably a stretch)

Any think that I should retake?