Hi all,
Gave my GMAT two days ago. Since I wasn't such an avid participant in the site, I figured I should at least recount my experiences. I was dreaming of being able to post something like this.
General
I startred two months before the test. Since I work full-time, I only had time to study after or before work. I usually go to work at 8 and leave at 5 or 5:30 pm. Get home by bus in about an hour, and sit down. I did a LOT of studying during my bus rides to and back from work (a lot of the 1000's were done on the bus). Everyday at home I would study for 3 hours, which about three weeks before the test increased to 5 hours a day. Now that was really extreme for me, because it was just work-study-work no friends, no bars and not all the other things I like to do…
Study Materials
OG11, Verbal review and Quant review. I recommend very warmly the Manhattan SC guide as well. It's fantastic. It utilizes OG11 and verbal review questions as exercises, andit categorizes them beautifully into clear subjects. This is in addition to its own exercises. From ST I did the sets, available on esnips.com (search for the tag "gmat"). Never touched Kaplan or anything else, because I believe their questiuons are too hard, just lowering your motivation. Another thing is that nobody here on this site recommends them. Even though the Manhattan book comes along with 6 online aaptive tests and 3 online non-adaptive tests, after completing one test and getting a 650 I figured the Manhattan tests may be too hard and are unnecessary.
In the first 2-3 weeks I finished all of the OG material and the extra review books. Along the way I marked all of the questions I got wrong, and if they were hard, or whether I had any careless mistakes, etc. I came back to the conceptually hard ones one day before the exam. Next I moved on to doing sets. I did about 10 of those. During this time I also did all the quant questions appearing regularly on the ST VIP sections. A VIP membership is a must, because it gives access to all those beautiful quant questions and a lot of great advice from many people. The verbal practice questions I don't recommend as much. The CR flash guide was really helpful for me. Also during the next month I started doing the verbal of OG10, to see if there were any questions that didn't appear on the OG11 and the review. I strongly reccommend repeating the OG material over and over, because it is most representative of the real test questions.
During the last week I started becoming very anxious with the test, and I just couldn't concentrate let alone force myself to sit down and study at the same volume of the previous month and a half. I managed to study a bit though, mainly from OG10.
I recommend doing the 1000's docs, evenn though I didn't have too much to do much of them. Did maybe a 100 Q's from each.
Another thing I noticed was that it was best for me to encompass all subjects every day. If I didn't do math for two days I would stumble the next set I tried to do.
D Day
OK, here I have some tips. Don't know about other test centers, but I took a bit of achance but it was worth. Since I didn't want people typing their AWA's during my Q section, I arrived to the test center not 30, but 7 minutes before my exam time, because when you get there early they just force you into the test. The woman was a little angry, so I just nodded and went on . I got into the room, and I hear people typing like crazy, typing and typing. So I lingered on the disclaimer screen which is not timed, for another 15 minutes, until she told me, hey man you HAVE to start the test NOW! I nodded again, took a couple more minutes ad started. By this time I suppose everybody was half way through their second AWA, and little by little the room became very quet, just the mouse clicks and…. MY TYPING . Obviously by the time I got to the real part of the test I had peace and quiet.
Another big tip that helped me, the more I got close to the test the more I felt my heartbeats accelerate. I took some time, even inside the test center to meditate. I took large breaths of air, closed my eyes and imagined that I am connected to some divine being, and that they would make sure everything will be fine, the questions easy and that I would be knowledgeable. I did this in sets of about 3-5 minutes each. This helped me relax and build up my confidence. I really recommend this. Just meditate.
One last suggestion: practice mock tests only if you have timing trouble. If you don't then I am not sure it is such a great usage of your time, because it's better to complete as maany questions you can get your hands on which resemble OG questions.
The test itself was easier than I had expected. Doing the sets I almost always had trouble finishing them on time, but on the test everything seemed so easy and flowing. I finished both sections 5–7 minutes ahead of time.
I guess this is all I have at the moment. If anybody wants any more specifics, don't hesitate to contact me.
Thanks a lot to all the ST community, it provided me with the best material and test experiences ever!
GOOD LUCK!!!!!
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נצל את החודש הקרוב לעבודה על המילולי (ועל השאלות החמות הכי עדכניות בכמותי) , וגש שוב לבחינה, עם המון שקט נפשי, ריכוז, והידיעה המוחלטת שקארמה שואפת לשיווי משקל, כך שביום הבחינה הבא יש סיכוי סביר שתמצא חניה מעולה ושטר של 100 ש"ח על הרצפה (אני הייתי ממלא לוטו על הדרך, אבל אולי כדאי לשמור קצת מהמזל הטוב הזה לבחינה עצמה, סתם ליתר ביטחון…)
