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Hi aaaa, It was actually a lot less than 15 days hahaha I was working full time during these two weeks (weekends too) and I think I only really had 3 full days in 2 weeks to devote to it, and maybe an hour a night tops. With sentence correction, you really have to study the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] explanations very carefully as to why a particular answer is wrong. After a while, you really will notice what is expected/wrong. For example, the "not only...but also" comes up so often that I dont remember seeing a question in which the right answer doesn't follow that format. There are numerous of these examples. Of the days where I did have time to practice, I did almost two days of sentence correction and maybe 1 day for practicing CR and RC and getting ready for the writing assessment (i ran out of time!) I wish I spent more time on RC and CR - I only did about 20 questions of RC and CR from the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]........and I did about 80% of the SC in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. As for the maths, I knew deep down that there is NO WAY I can compete with the mathematicians and engineers......there's no way a lawyer can beat them in the game of numbers, so I just had to do my best and I'm happy with my Quant score of 44. I practiced most of the questions (data sufficiency included) before I took the GMAT the first time; and this time I ONLY re-tried the questions that I got wrong last time. The first time I practiced the maths/DS my accuracy rate was about 85%; and of the 15% that I got wrong (this sounds like a maths questions!), I managed to get an 90% accuracy rate when I practiced them briefly for the second try. So I have to say, the REAL GMAT maths was hard....i thought they were extremely tricky. As for the writing task, i'm not too worried because i'm not applying for an mba, but I think I nailed it this time. I couldn't even type 3 paragraphs last time!!!! (i didnt prepare last time for the writing task....very silly) So here are my suggestions: - work through Kaplan on SC thoroughly if you havent already. - practice the SC from the OG; separate questions that you got right into 2 groups - ones that you KNOW you've solved, and ones that you guessed right; and obviously keep a list of the ones you got wrong - you should then read the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] answers and study them VERY carefully as to WHY the right answer is RIGHT - you should then practice all the ones you got wrong and the ones you guessed right until you can nail them As for the RC and CR, like I said, I had like less than a day to do those so I didnt really get into them. From doing all this, I found the SC in the actual GMAT quite easy. There were some tough ones, but I was able to keep noticing errors which allowed me to eliminate wrong answers. The RC and CR was quite hard. And as I've said somewhere above, the maths and DS was HARD (for me). The essay was easy. Anyway, good luck!!

Hi, I dont think i'm that strong in quant (i'm a lawyer after all) but I definitely found the quant questions in the actual exam a lot harder than the ones in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. I managed to work through a lot of the questions in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and found they were ok. I really hate the data sufficiency questions. I did notice one thing those, EVERYTIME you see something squared you have to be suspicious that there is both a positive and a negative answer. As for permutation/combination, I dont remember getting any this time....as for probability, there were a few, but my probability is really bad so I end up guessing on some of these ones. As for RC, you really have to keep full concentration when you read it for the first time. Don't pre-read the question before reading the passage because your mind will be too busy looking for the answer rather than concentrating on the passage as a whole. Don't read it too fast nor too slow. If you skim it too fast you'll find that you may have to read it a second time which defeats the purpose of skimming; but on the other hand you don't want to read it too slow either, that takes up too much time. I guess that was about it?? I think my strength is really in sentence correction now, my RC and CR are so so. ANyway, good luck with your test!! remember to not let questions that you cannot answer affect the rest of the exam. If you can't answer something, don't waste time on it, just guess and move on. But you should spend more time on the question in the beginning and then accelerate (or so I've been told because apparently the earlier questions count for more??)

YAY!!! I managed to get 660 today! Very happy with Quant 44 and Verbal 37, it's not as high obviously as some of the people on this forum, but i'm pretty happy with the score considering my minimal preparations. I was initially aiming for 700+ but 650 was my 'respectable' minimum, so 660 i'm pretty happy with (considering 2 weeks ago I only got 570!) This time I focused mainly on verbal in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and the Kaplan 800. Sentence correction was my main problem - but I manage to get from an accuracy rate of about 50% up to about 85% from the practice questions in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. After reading the kaplan 800 and I started to notice distinct patterns in sentence correction problems so in the end it was a breeze. I did run out a bit of time in both the quant and the verbal sections, so had to guess I think the last 2 quant questions and about 4 verbal questions. So i'm quite happy with 660. I'm not even going to think about doing a resit unless my applications go south this year. As I mentioned in my previous posts, i'm trying to apply to a phd program - not a hardcore quant school, but just somewhere that's not all about quant. Even though 660 I think is quite low to the median GMAT score of phd applicants, i'm hoping my other strengths will carry me through! (eg the fact i'm already teaching mba finance at a university etc) Anyway, thanks to all the people who replied and gave me some helpful comments. Every little bit helps I guess.

Thanks for the kind comments!! I'm taking the test on Friday!! yikes! 4 days! I'm practicing through all the SC in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and I must say I'm starting to notice patterns! my accuracy rate in 20 question lots of the SC in [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] went from 50% to about 80% now! which i'm quite happy about.....i guess I should have done this in the first place! it's so hard trying to prepare in such a short period of time espcially as I work full time; one of my students (mba) told me that he practiced for 4 months for the GMAT ;p gosh I wish I had 4 months! anyway, taking the test in melbourne in 4 days if I can keep my quant at 42 or improve it, AND improve on the verbal i'll be happy........... i wish I knew about the GMAT a few month earlier....would have had a lot longer to prepare than 2 weeks [bomb]

I know my main weakness is sentence correction.... Any advice on how I can best tackle this beast?? (and fast! as i'm resitting in less than 2 weeks!) My quant was 42 (which I know I can improve), but my verbal was only 27....[V] Any comments or advice re sentence correction would be greatly appreciated!!

Hi everyone, I would appreciate some advice re fast GMAT preparation. I'm an Australian and down here we are not really into standardized testing as such; and I did the GMAT yesterday and only got 570!! Very disappointing......I'm aiming for 650+ (hopefully around 700). Tried the first Powerprep and got 640, and the second Powerprep got 710; so naturally I was very disappointed with 570. It's really frustrating because I know I'm not an idiot as I have a masters degree, I'm lecturing at a university, I have a GPA of 3.87, and I'm a lawyer by profession too (and I'm admitted to the bar). (BTW I'm applying to do a phd in accounting/finance). Every aspect of my application i'm happy with, except for this GMAT score which seems to taint and begrade everything else. It's extremely frustrating to say the least........ My main weakness seem to be verbal, which I performed rather badly in comparison to quant. Sentence correction was a killer for me yesterday. RC and CR I'm not too bad at..... I only had one and a half week to prepare for the GMAT I did yesterday; and I will resit in just 2 weeks!!!! I have the Kaplan, [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], Kaplan 800 and Princeton, but didnt really have much time to go through any of them (because I work). My main preparation had been working through the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and that was about it. Any advice??? If I don't do well in two week's time, I will be extremely disappointed. In Australia, there really aren't any preparation courses or tutorials being run because GMAT is not very popular here at all. So any advice on how I should best prepare?? I appreciate any comments. Thanks.