Took the GMAT yesterday. Scored 700 (Q45 V41)! Cud have done better in Quant!
I have recently joined this forum, but always felt encourged to do better after reading the debriefs posted on this forum. Also the suggestions of the high scorers were very useful. So I must thank all of you!
It may not be a very great score but I do not intend to take the test again. I have a seven year post graduate work experience so I hope this score shud be ok.
As for the preparation, I gave myself 3 months. I studied for about 3 hours on weekdays (including Saturdays!) and about 5-6 hours on Sundays. I started with
OG and Kaplan Premier program. I agree with most others that Kaplan CATS are more difficult than the real GMAT. I scored above 600 in only one of them!
I then downloaded the 1000 documents and they really helped me gain confidence. I solved all the Quant sections and about 50% of verbal. (I needed to concentrate more on Quant coz its almost 15 years I've been out of touch with mathematics!). Something which I must share with all of you is that McGraw Hill publication has a very good online GMAT book which includes all the basics as well as 6 full length practice tests in pdf format. Although I feel its a little simpler compared with the real GMAT, taking the practice tests under timed conditions can really help boost confidence. I took all 6! If anyone needs a copy of the same I can send via email. Also, the Manhattan GMAT SC guide was very useful.
In the last 15 days, I took the free online MGMAT, scored 650. I was a little disappointed but when I read some posts saying that its a little more difficult, I felt better! I decided to stick to the
OG during the last 15 days and to take it easy. I took GMAT prepI one week before the test and scored 710 and took the second one 2 days before and scored 740! I was feeling a lot more confident by then. And the last two days I just relaxed and did nothing. Believe me, it really helps!