720 : My GMAT story.

[supratims]

Finally I am done with GMAT. Scored 720, what a relief. Would share my story in brief.

GMAT booked : 17th June. Preparation started the same day.
GMAT taken : 05th August.
Preparation time : 50 days.
Score : 720 Q50, V38. (overall 94 %ile) AWA awaited. Will update when i get it

Books and materials referred :
1. OG12.
2. Verbal workbook
3. Kaplan Premier 2009
4. Manhattan SC Guide

Tests taken prior to GMAT (not in chronological order):
1. GMAT Prep1 - taken thrice - : 700 (Q49, V37) , 700 (Q50, V35) , 740 (Q49, V42)
2. GMAT Prep2 - taken twice - : 720 (Q50, V38), 730 (Q49, V40)
3. MGMAT Free test - 670 ( Q48, V33 )
4. MGMAT 1 - 640 - ( Q46, V32 )
5. MGMAT 2 - 680 - ( Q48, V34 )
6. MGMAT 3 - 710 - ( Q51, V36 )
7. MGMAT 4 - 720 - ( Q51, V37 )
8. MGMAT 5 - 710 - ( Q49, V38 )
9. MGMAT 6 - 680 - ( Q49, V34 )
10. Kaplan Test on CD - 1 - 590 (Q48 V28)

Here is a summary of what I have to say about my GMAT experience and advice to others.

1. Regular practice is the key. How many days you take, depends on the individual, but I think one should be in touch always. One month practice, then break, the practice is not the way. You should be in the zone when you are taking the actual GMAT. For this, one has to build a momentum , and carry that to the test.
2. At the time of the test, staying focused is the key. Take a lot of mock tests to make yourself aware of test environment. To gauge time strategies etc..
3. GMATPrep tests are the key to success. You should use them wisely. Retaking them helps, but you should not retake within 2-3 days else there is a repeat of questions and you will get skewed scores. I would suggest one should take the GMATPrep tests atleast 3-4 times. Save GMATPrep 2 for last 5-10 days of your preparation and take this test in absolute test environment with AWA, breaks etc. Try to score as much as in GMATPrep2 and do look at where you went wrong.
4. For any materials other than SC, i dont think you need to go for materials beyond OG. Take the OG seriously, and keep a error log. Revisit OG once completed. For PS/DS I reinstalled GMATPrep quite a lot of time and got a lot of new questions. It is a huge bank !
5. For SC, Manhattan SC Guide is a must. I also referred to the 1000SC series.
6. Kaplan books and tests are a waste of time, in my opinion. Kaplan tests have different styles of questions, esp in Verbal, and sometimes I didn't agree to their CR answers. So i found them useless.
7. For AWA, one must practice writing, and that too in test environment. Sometimes 30 minutes seem very less a time.

[tomslawsky]

interesting that the curve continues to slip as a 720 is now a 94th percentile. I feel the GMAT 9is losing value as a "hard" test.