Hi,
I passed the gmat this morning and although it didn't all go as planned, I am pretty pleased with result. I got there about 30 minutes early and couldn't find the test center. The test center was located inside a big office building and I couldn't find any reference to the test center's name. Eventually, after about ten minutes of harassing people, someone mentioned that one company has recently changed its name-> big relief. I sat down, started the test and immedaitely realised that the keyboard was a "qwerty". I probably lost about two minutes per essay changing "q"s to "a"s and ";"s to "m"s. Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is this: VISIT YOUR TEST CENTER. I don't think it affected my score but I could have done without the added stress.
Anyway, preparation with OG11 and Kaplan. My scores:
gmatprep 1: 710 (after skimming through OG)
gmatprep2: 690
Kaplan1: 590 (big panic)
Kaplan2: 610
Kaplan3:630
Kaplan4: 650
Gmatprep1 retake: 760
Gmatprep2 retake: 760
I studied on and off for about two months, doing about an hour during the week and three or four hours each day during the weekend. My main challenge was balancing gmat preparation with work load and social stuff. I would recommend OG11 to anybody. DO NOT TRUST kaplan scores. I once got through quant with 2 mistakes and verbal with 8 or 9 mistakes and got 650.
Btw, I read somewhere that you should definitely not study one year in advance. I agree. However, one thing you can do is develop a habit for reading. Don't hesitate to subscribe to a magazine such as the economist. It will help you with reading comp and the AWA.
A bit of advice for what it's worth:
CR-> start reading the question before the passage. This will help you focus on the information you are looking for.
RC-> Personnaly, I took my time reading. I wrote down topic, scope and about 5 or 6 words per paragraph. This would take me about 5 minutes
SC-> no advice here. Sorry!
DS and PS-> do it step by step and do not fall into the usual traps (read question properly, separate (1) and (2) for DS, do not assume a number is an integer if not told to,...) One thing that helped me for DS is developing an instinct for traps. For example, whenever i did not understand why either (1) or (2) was provided and why it was relevant to the answer, I knew it was a trap and that the answer was probably more complicated that I initialy thought.
Use flash cards. Download them from beatthegmat but also do your own if you have the time.
Thanks to all members of this forum for the great insight. I hope my message can help somebody the way I was helped.
Regards !
PS: I'm gonna try for Insead in september 2008.
I passed the gmat this morning and although it didn't all go as planned, I am pretty pleased with result. I got there about 30 minutes early and couldn't find the test center. The test center was located inside a big office building and I couldn't find any reference to the test center's name. Eventually, after about ten minutes of harassing people, someone mentioned that one company has recently changed its name-> big relief. I sat down, started the test and immedaitely realised that the keyboard was a "qwerty". I probably lost about two minutes per essay changing "q"s to "a"s and ";"s to "m"s. Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is this: VISIT YOUR TEST CENTER. I don't think it affected my score but I could have done without the added stress.
Anyway, preparation with OG11 and Kaplan. My scores:
gmatprep 1: 710 (after skimming through OG)
gmatprep2: 690
Kaplan1: 590 (big panic)
Kaplan2: 610
Kaplan3:630
Kaplan4: 650
Gmatprep1 retake: 760
Gmatprep2 retake: 760
I studied on and off for about two months, doing about an hour during the week and three or four hours each day during the weekend. My main challenge was balancing gmat preparation with work load and social stuff. I would recommend OG11 to anybody. DO NOT TRUST kaplan scores. I once got through quant with 2 mistakes and verbal with 8 or 9 mistakes and got 650.
Btw, I read somewhere that you should definitely not study one year in advance. I agree. However, one thing you can do is develop a habit for reading. Don't hesitate to subscribe to a magazine such as the economist. It will help you with reading comp and the AWA.
A bit of advice for what it's worth:
CR-> start reading the question before the passage. This will help you focus on the information you are looking for.
RC-> Personnaly, I took my time reading. I wrote down topic, scope and about 5 or 6 words per paragraph. This would take me about 5 minutes
SC-> no advice here. Sorry!
DS and PS-> do it step by step and do not fall into the usual traps (read question properly, separate (1) and (2) for DS, do not assume a number is an integer if not told to,...) One thing that helped me for DS is developing an instinct for traps. For example, whenever i did not understand why either (1) or (2) was provided and why it was relevant to the answer, I knew it was a trap and that the answer was probably more complicated that I initialy thought.
Use flash cards. Download them from beatthegmat but also do your own if you have the time.
Thanks to all members of this forum for the great insight. I hope my message can help somebody the way I was helped.
Regards !
PS: I'm gonna try for Insead in september 2008.
