Whew!

Whew!

Am I relieved it's all over! ... The worst part about preparing for GMAT was the knowledge that at the end of a week or a day I would know what my score is ... And the result of my hard work will either pay off or go down the drain ... I'm sure all of you reading this would identify with this kind of suspense ... And in the end, it did pay off! ... I got a 760, and the world has just turned a shade of rosy pink! ...

So I decided to take the time and write down my experiences in detail for GMAT club, while the memory is still fresh ... You guys played a BIG role in my success ... And I'm not just saying this ... More important than the tips and techniques I picked up at this site was the confidence that I got when I read about people sharing their GMAT experiences ... Some wonderful and some not so ... It made me realise that no matter how I do during those few hours, it's just an exam after all ... There are thousands of people just like me writing this exam everyday ... And reading about all their experiences brought the GMAT down from its out-of-this-world stature to a not-so-big-deal event ...

The GMAT is very human, and very defeatable ... I did it and so can you ... Here is my experience ...


What I studied

The Official Guide -
Absolutely essential ... Especially for Verbal ... I did only the last 100 questions or so for Quant ... But solve each and every question in Verbal ... And don't simply solve ... Understand why or why not ...

Kaplan CD -
Tests are OK, though low scoring ... Lessons are good for review ... Good to practise Quant from here, as the questions are above the OG level ... If you're aiming for above 700, get very comfortable with toughies ... RC's are very bad! ... The lengthy psycho-abstract mumbo-jumbo they give is nowhere near the standard of the actual GMAT ... They'll throw you off ...

Princeton -
Verbal is good ... especially SC ... The rules are very clearly laid out ... Too few problems to practice in their Bins, though ... Quant isn't that good ... AWA explanation was also the best among all the material I referred to ...

ARCO -
Did'nt observe anything extraordinary here ... Just solved all the questions for practice ...


What I did not study

Barrons -
Kindly abstain ...


The tests I took

While giving tests, it's very important that you give the whole thing in one sitting, under a controlled environment ... The sooner you start giving essays with your tests, the better it is ... Get used to the four hour environment ... And spend a respectable amount of time analysing your results ... Not just the ones you got wrong, but also the ones you got right ... Find out if you got them right for the right reasons ...

PowerPrep -
The accepted method to start your GMAT prep is with a PP test ... People told me that the score you get here is what you will ultimately end up with ... I got 730 in the first one and 750 in the second one ... Both Quant and Verbal were definitely much more simpler here than most of the questions I encountered in the actual GMAT ... But be sure to finish the two tests before you start your OG, as all questions are repeated ...

Kaplan -
Like I mentioned, scores are low here ... I got 640, 650 and 630 ... My accuracy was about 50% in both RC and CR ... Just could'nt identify with most of the solutions they gave ... Refrain from taking them a week before GMAT if low scores bring you down easily ... Very good analysis though ...

Princeton -
I was'nt very impressed with the tests they gave on the CD ... Well, I did not have a net connection on the computer where I gave my tests, so I could not check my results for the two Princeton CATs I took ... So I can't comment on their analysis ...


How I studied

Started off with a PP ... Then sat down to finish all the Non OG material ... Princeton, Arco, Kaplan CD ... Took the other PP ... Finally sat down with OG during the last week and solved each and every problem systematically ...

Here are some strategies I picked up during the course of my prep ...

Quant

Personally I don't think it is a good idea to try out the process of elimination here ... If you've got your basics right, you've got more than enough time to actually solve each and every question ... Use your scratch pad generously ... Don't be shy to write down the process ... It pays to be sure ... And practice as many short cuts as you can for the known problem types that you might encounter ...

For example,
A does some work in x days
B does the same work in y days
Time taken for both to do the work is
x*y/(x+y) days

Keep experimenting with each different category of problem type ... You're sure to find out useful shortcuts ...


Reading Comprehension

You will get 4 passages of an average length of about 40 words ... Get comfortable with topics with technical jargon, social issues, gender inequality ... And time spent in reading the passages thoroughly is time well invested ... And COMPREHEND what you're reading ... Develop a burning interest in what you're reading ... As you keep reading, it helps if you start asking yourself what might come next ... Break the passage down to a skeletal structure, and you're done ... Initial practice may require you to use a scratch pad to do this, but with enough practice you'll be able to do it mentally ...

Once you do this for a passage, the content will be so imprinted in your mind that you'll be ready to answer the questions without the need to refer back to the passage ...


Critical Reasoning

Process of Elimination is the backbone of CR and SC type questions ... But, for CR, refrain from looking at the options immediately after reading the argument ... First frame a general idea of what the question wants you to find out ... Nothing beats the thrill of finding out your answer among the options listed ... If not, you'll atleast hit upon the right idea ... And that should give you reasonable confidence to mark the option as the right answer ...


Sentence Correction

Before starting my Prep for SC, I picked up an old grammer book of mine and reviewed certain key concepts ... Knowing sentence structure is essential to cracking SC ... Find out about clauses, both independent and subordinate, subjects, verbs and other important components of a sentence ... Be comfortable with all forms of tenses ... And then of course there are the standard rules like misplaced modifiers, parallel structure, subject-verb agreement ...

Approach towards a problem is very similar to the CR approach ... Before jumping to the options, ask yourself what is wrong with the statement itself ... If you're able to find atleast one mistake, immediately eliminate all options containing that mistake (of course, you have to be sure that it IS infact a mistake!) ... Once you get your options down to two, it should be easy enough ...


Last few days

I started OG only one week before the GMAT ... Wanted to save the best for last ... That way, the problems I solved and the errors I made would be fresh in my memory ... Finished the quant first and focussed on verbal over the last couple of days ... Repeated a PP the day before just to get comfortable with the testing process ... Also kept an error log of the questions I got wrong in SC ... Solved all these questions again on the last day ...


D-day

Watched TV the whole day till the test in the afternoon ... Did not touch any book or study material ... Just wanted to relax myself ... Got to the centre well in time and finished the minor formalities ... They make you sign loads of confidentiality agreement docs ... The rules are pretty strict out there, so come prepared ... Can you believe they made me take out my sweatshirt coz it had a hood! ... Apparently anything with a cap is not allowed ...

I was suddenly called from the waiting room outside and thrust into a small cubicle with a computer ... Was'nt quite ready for it so early, so had to compose myself ... Lucky thing it begins with the essay section ... Really helps to calm your nerves ... That's why it's much better to practice atleast 10-12 essays before the D-day ... Since this is the first section you'll be facing, it helps if you've got atleast certain things down pat, like structure and introduction lines.

Quant was of average difficulty ... Questions 5-20 were more difficult than the rest, so schedule your time properly ... I divided up the 75 mins into 3 parts of 25 mins each, and aimed to solve atleast 12 questions in each section (for verbal this was 14) ... Word problems are a favourite with ETS, so get ready to convert them all quickly into equations ... Checked and rechecked all answers, and so managed to finish it just in time ...

Verbal started with a shocker of an SC ... Stared at the question for sometime before things started becoming clearer ... Third question was a relatively simple passage ... Got four passages totally, of length 35, 40, 40 and 60 ... Questions in all were manageable ... CR started pretty late for me, at the 7th or 8th question ... Did get a couple of boldfaces in the end ...

Overall was expecting 750, so was pleasantly surprised to see 760 ... Breakup was 51 (99 perc) in Quant and 41 (93 perc) in Verbal ... Took some time for the whole thing to sink in ... After a long walk for half an hour, during which I made loads of calls to my family and friends, I finally settled down ... The suspense was finally over ...
But the journey has just begun ... I have just a couple of years work-ex under my belt currently, so I'll be applying for 2006, by when I'll have three ... Gives me plenty of time to start my research on B-schools and work on my applications ...

Since I'm very new to the US B-School applying process, I would appreciate if someone can start me off in a broad direction ... What range of B-Schools can I aim for with this kind of a score? ... And since Financial Aid is also a huge consideration for me, can anyone confirm which schools might be willing to take me in with a full/partial fee waiver? ...

Thanks a load again to the members of this wonderful forum ... I'll gladly answer any queries you might have about my GMAT experience ...

Best of luck to all GMAT aspirants!