mtariq

Sounds like you have a good shot at a top school. It also depends om what you have done outside of work, essays, etc. But I think you should go for it. If the you learned something significant during that trip and can convey how the trip made an impact about you , then write about it. But if you have had some other experience, even if it was close to home that made a signifiant impact and affected you as a person, then that's OK too. It really depends on what you have to say. Just travelling around the world won't impress them per se unless there's a deeper story behind it. Mariam

Sharing questions, even if they are not the same numbers, is not ethical. Remember, they make you wait a month before retaking the exam. So even giving a hint about the type of problem to someone who is going to take the exam would give them an advantage. There are only a finite # of problems they create. It was very easy for me to recall after the test about 90% of the problems. If I shared these with someone and they took the test after me, there's a good chance they'd see some of same problems again. There has been a lot of issues with people sharing and posting questions and ETS has been cracking down on that. Also all the general concepts and topics are known ahead of time. You won't be surprised by any problems on the test. The problems cover exactly the subjects ETS says will be covered. What's tricky is that the problems aren't all plug and chug. You have to think about how to apply those standard concepts to different problems. That's what they are testing you on. So posting problems that you might see ahead of time would not be allow for a fair test. Mariam

Test Magic is definitely #1 :)

Kaplan 800 focusses on more difficult problems in my opinion. Mariam

I am not a very good writer but scored a 5 with minimal preparation. My opionion is tht you don't have to have a lofty writing style to score a 5. But you just need to be clear and organized in your structure. Have your thoughts flow clearly. I think most of the test books out there give you a sample structure like an into, supporting paragraphs, and conclusion. They recommend using a lot of transition words (consequently, furthermore, therefore, etc) to make the essay flow well. You know ahead of time that one eassy is analysis of an issue and the other of an argument. So you can come up with a skeleton structure to use ahead of time before test day. So my opinion is that you can get that book to see how some good essays are written but the other test books are adequate to get at least a 5. I found the essay writing to be kind of mechanical. The hardest part was coming up with what to say and points, arguments to make. Mariam

I don't know the answer but I do remember on the Princeton Review site that they had a tool where you could enter your desired score and it would tell you how many you could get wrong. You could also adjust it so that if you are weaker in verbal you could set the verbal target lower than math. I don't recall if you could access this portion of their website without purchasing their book. The book gives instruction to access extra areas on their website. Mariam

I did not find them very helpful. In general, it's really hard to mimic the real questions. Just my experience. Mariam

I don't think that you can really gauge yourself that way. The questions are in no particular order of difficulty. So you may get a whole bunch in a row correct but they may not have included harder questions. Just my 2 cents. Mariam

There are not many free tests out there that are really worth soending time on other than the 2 real GMAT tests you get from ETS. You could try Princeton Review, they have 4 tests online that you can access when purchasing their book. They may have one test you can access without purchase. As far as scores, 700 or above is usually considered ideal for a top 10 business school. Mariam

If you take the same exam twice you will be getting the questions drawn from the same database. You may not get all the exact same questions or order but you will see a lot of overlap. So it's pretty much useless to retake the same test. I don't know how it is for the GRE but for the GMAT, the Powerprep tests use the same questions from the official guide. So be careful. If you save taking that second test until after you finish the Ofiicial Guide, you may render the second test useless because you may seen the problems before. THis happened to me with the GMAT. Mariam

It's definitely not impossible to score a 700 event though you may have missed some of the first 10 questions. I was able to score above 700 and I know I missed questions in the first 10. Also there is some debate as to whether it is really true anymore that the first 10 questions have more impact. I recall Erin (or it may have been one of his students) ran a test with the Powerprep tests (actual GMAT tests from ETS) and he answered questions wrong in the top 10 during one trial and then another trial answered the question in the first 10 correctly and missed some later. The score did not change between trials so it appeared that missing a question early on did not result in a lower score. Mariam

Kaplan Cd you can get by ordering the Kaplan book (be sure it's the one that includes the CD, they also sell the same book without the CD) For Princeton Review, once you buy the book you can can get online access to 4 tests. I think they do have a free test on their website. Of course 2 actual GMAT tests can be downloaded from mba.com. I don't think you have to register for the GMAT to get the downloads. Mariam

I think the PR tests are OK. I used them and found them helpful. Mariam

I agree. I have never seen any RC's comparable to the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. If you went through all the RC passages in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], you should be prepared. I don't know anyone who has gotten through all of them since there are so many new ones in the 10th edition. I can say DO NOT use the RC book put out by Arco. They have a book just on RC passages and they are way more complicated than the ones put out by ETS! Mariam

I would just read and study the appendix of Kaplan Verbal workbook. I would learn all the 100+ formulas in the math workbook. I would skip the rest of those books (yes, that means only using 20 pages or so from each) Second, I would do all the math mini-tests from the Kaplan CD (comes with some editions of the regular kaplan book) I think the book itself is too general and I wouldn't waste time on that. Finally, I would go through GMAT 800 cover to cover. Just my thoughts based on my own expereinces. Mariam