Studying and Test Day

[Guest]

Been following others on this board and wanted to include my piece on my test day today.

Started studying 3 months ago with a 560 on the 1st GMAT Prep Test although I took it with my laptop in my lap which may have not been ideal.

From there I reviewed the 100 basic topics in an old Kaplan book I bought two years ago and did some problems in a Kaplan GMAT course book passed onto me from my roommate. At this point I decided to take Kaplan's free test and scored a 630 and took the first MGMAT CAT and scored 660. From here I started my work on the OG and over the course of a month with random test days in between taking a MGMAT 2 and scoring 680 and then 690. When I finished the OG I moved onto the Kaplan 800 book with a month to go at which time I scored a 710 on MGMAT 3. As I wrapped up the Kaplan book, I even went back to some OG problems to keep other aspects I wasn't working on in Kaplan that day fresh.

Over ten days ago I took the GMAT Prep test number 2 and scored a 740 which was a whole new level for me. I then took two more MGMATs in the last week and scored 750 and 750. I also took the GMAT Prep test number 2 again on Sunday and scored 770 (I was aware this had a good deal of questions I had seen before). Finally, yesterday I reviewed the old Kaplan book's tips on the writing sections and did a few older problems from the OG to keep my mind fresh.

Going into today I had stuck to a routine and had taken yesterday off from work so I wouldn't get pulled into anything that would keep me late. Arrived at the testing center without a problem and the center I went to was great and staffed by a great bunch of older gentlemen.

Dominated the writing (I hope). Was able to structure a good argument and felt really good at the first break.

Started the quant with a question that was way harder than it should have been and using too much time I thought. From there I thought I screwed up one of two other in the first 10 and felt that the rest of the way the question were really easy which worried me because I imagined my score sliding down and thus the easy questions and actually moved steadily along so I did not need to sprint through questions at the end like I usually do with MGMAT questions.

Got some water and a snack at the second break and was ready to move on and attack the verbal and felt like the questions weren't too bad early and I was handling them but encountered some really tough readings that were science based with alot of tougher terms and at this point I found it somewhat hard to concentrate and like I was zoning out and not really in a good grove especially on CR and RC questions so much that the SC were a relief when I got them. All made worse by the guy bumping his car's base outside at one point.

At this point I was pretty nervous and after reading some of the horror stories on here, I expected to be one of them and was already dreading having to retake the test (not so much retaking as the time and money of studying and the exam). I was pleasantly suprised when I got my score to get a 730 with a Q49 and V41 for a 88/92% split.

The 49 tied my high Quant score on any ptace test and the 41 was lower than alot of the practice tests from the last week where I was at 43,44,45 but better than the 36 of a few weeks ago. That said, based on zoning out abit during verbal and the fact that if 3 months ago when I started this journey someone would say that I would score a 730 I would have taken it in a second.


A few thoughts lastly is that make sure you do the essays on a practice at least once. I never did them although I would outline them but not write them. Maybe I was zoning out in verbal because it was longer I than I had gone before although you dont run a marathon to train for a marathon.

The MGMAT CAT exam questions are hard, in fact really hard but they make you tougher and quicker which is maybe why I thought the questions today were so easy, too easy in fact.

I viewed the exam as training for a marathon or weight lifitng. Start light and do the OG questions in 10 question bits like different exercises in a weight room.

Also, hope this was some help and best of luck to those taking the test in the future.

[Guest]

Good briefing........Good luck on your apps!!!!!

[Guest- Orig Poster]

As I said above I kook my test on Tuesday and yesterday morning when I woke up (Saturday) I had my official score report email and AWA scores. 5.5 so cant complain.

Cant believe it was so quick