Profile:
32 years old Male. (I have wonderful little daughter).
BS in Engineering ( from India)
10 years of experience in Technology Consulting with last 6 years being in US
First Attempt:
I scheduled my first appearence for GMAT on 22 Nov 2008. My score during my first attempt was 650 ( V29, Q49 ). I was very disappointed with the total score as I used to get much better scores during my practice tests. I got a 720 in my last 2 GMATPrep tests and consistently above above 670+ in the MGMT tests ( considerd to be tougher than the actual GMAT tests and believe me they are ) . I was more than disappointed with my verbal score which brought my overall score down. Though I am not a native english speaker my verbal skills were not as bad as to get a 29 in the GMAT. I used to do reasonably well in the verbal section during my practice tests.
I then decided to give a second try. My take was that even if I improved my verbal a little bit maintaining a similar performace in quant I should see a better score than 650. Also I said to myself that there was nothing to loose since the schools only consider the best score among all the scores. So I scheduled my second attempt on 29 Dec 2008.
Second attempt:
I scored 710 ( V41, Q47 ) on my second attempt at GMAT. Though I did score a bit less in quant ( Q49 -> Q47 ) than during my first attempt the jump I have achived in my verbal score ( V29 -> V41) enabled my overall score to get past 700 which is in line with performance during my practice tests.
Perp Material:
MGMT books (specially the Sentence Correction) and PR
OG along with the supplements
KAPLAN GMAT 800
1000SC
beatthegmat forum
My take on the practice Tests:
KAPLAN tests - Good to get some good practice and increase one's stamina
6 MGMT tests - Slightly harder than the actual GMAT but are good. A definite must for all GMAT test takers
2 GMATPrep (the closest you can get to the actual GMAT test. One should save these tests for the end)
Finally:
I was already one month into my preparation when I accidently bumped into this site searching for something related to GMAT on the net. There was no looking back from then onwards.
.I want the thank all the beatthegmat forum members for posting their valuable suggestions on this site and wish that they will continue to do so for the benefit of all the future GMAT test takers. I will also lend my hand in this regard. This forum has been a great learning tool for me and I have gained a lot from the experiences and strategies of the some of the high scorers. Sometimes it has been quite inspirational as well to read messages of some forumers ( The first name that comes to mind is Ursula ). Once again a special thanks to you all and wish you all the best.
Thanks,
Sriram
