AusMBA

Tim, No plans for GRE at this stage. Data sufficiency and Sentence correction were my weaknesses at the begining, but practice makes perfect here. It tooke me a while to understand what I was looking for in both of these types of questions. Eventually I got the habng of it and my speed and accuracy improved greatly. Another thing that I learnt from my prctice tests was to read the questions carefully. Often the questions are worded in such a way as to lead you to the wrong answer. Early on I was finding x instead of y for example. THE TEST SETTERS KNOW THIS and so often you'll see that answer in the list!! Initially I would often leap on the first answer that came from my working and was one of the selections. What I learnt was to not confrim the answer until I had confirmed the question. Best of luck, it would be good to see some fellow Kiwi's at B-School (Go the All Blacks)

Did my GMAT yesterday, and got 710. I know that pales in comparison to some of the scores I have seen in this forum, but it beat my goal of 700. The test day was interesting. I was more than prepared to face the test, I wasn't prepared to get a bad cold the day before. The decision to do the test was one of pure economics. I figured that I would have to pay for it either way so I may as well give it a shot. I went through the test with time to spare in each of the sections. I wasn't felling too well, and was sure that I had blown the test. Towards the end of the Quant section I got some really easy questions so I figured I must have done poorly in the earlier, harder questions. By the time I had finished the verbal I really thought I had blown it. By that stage I was ready to go home to bed. I contemplated cancelling, but I thought I had come this far, I should at least see the score. I really expected a score around 600 so I was blown away with a 710. I figure I could do better, but I don’t know if it’s worth resitting all things considered. Perhaps you guys can advise me on that one. As far as preparation goes, I probably did more than required. I have been planning on doing this test for some time and started with the Kaplan book some time ago. If anything this discouraged me. Worth a read, but other materials were much better. About 2 months ago I started working through the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] - did all of the quant and about 80% of the verbal. There is nothing like the real thing to get you used to the type of questions you will be facing. After I felt comfortable with the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] I did the Kaplan test from the CD. Scored a 560 - I was ready to give up. Fortunately I found this forum, and all the feedback suggested that Kaplan scores were not accurate and the ETS tests were much closer to the real thing. (Even on the morning of the test Kaplan math questions had me worried) I bought all 9 tests and did them methodically over the last 4 weeks. I scored from 680-720 on these. These were by far the most useful prep for me. Having done a number of standardised tests in the past, I know that I learn much better from practice tests than hours of endless study. I was also given two Barron's GMAT books - both were a complete waste of time. Very glad I didn't buy those ones. Would not recommend them at all. What did I learn from this whole thing? Confidence. Doing the practice tests form ETS gave me confidence in my own ability and meant that I trusted my answers. This meant that I wasted less time questioning my responses during the exam and relieved a lot of nervous tension. I can also suggest that good preparation is much better than long preparation. I took a very long time to gather up the courage to sit the test. I think if I had started with the ETS tests earlier, I would have spent much less time preparing and still achieved a good score. Thanks to everyone on this forum - I know this is the lump sum of my contribution, but I hope it helps someone as much as the other posts have helped me. I am not sure how this score places em in terms of admissions. I would really like to attend one of the top 10 schools, but I am not sure if this will get me over the line. Thanks again, and good luck to all of you Colin