My GMAT Experience

I thought of putting My GMAT experience which I took in Aug 2005. I have picked it up from a post which I put in a forum. I have arranged it in chronological order
April 2005
I decide about it...started the ground work did a lot of brainstorming and
Discussion with people and realized that GMAT is all about practice, mind you I have not started studying at all then
As it is with lot of ppl ...I am a very social guy with lot of frenz and I also hold
Responsibility for a lot of stuff in my workplace .so I realized my biggest problem will be putting in regular hours
May 2005
I made a Plan.....I looked out for opportunities at workplace and.... tried to find a assignment which is less hectic, and rewarding at the same time ...opportunity came...there was a consulting opportunity for one of our business associate in the same city I worked in, the work was very good and rewarding but less hectic ...owing to my repo I forced my managers to get that assignment
Then for the regular hours, I blindly joined one of the coaching institutes for weekend course not because I need assistance but as it will help me in putting regular hours at week end and also give me that kick of exceeding other at the class
Then I had a long hard look at my calendar to see where I can schedule my Test ...I looked at days where I can find few continuous off days ...I zeroed in to 13th 14 th 15 th august as this was a long weekend in India, applied for leave on 16th and then booked a slot. Now I have 4 days off for my exam. and I wasted only one leave for it
But the slot was already full....I decided to ping the site daily ...and in 10 days I got 16th august ...5pm to 9 pm slot
Preparation
June 2005(1 to 15th June)
Gave my first Diagnostic 490......honestly when I saw the score felt a .........ouch
Rustiness galore and verbal was difficult.....I decided put in a week and then Gave PP1 ....got 650
(15th to 30th June)
I started out with again with a plan... bcoz of my analysis I was sure that I need not to do many books...also there was my classroom coaching...so I decide that I will do only KAPLAN 2005 and OG.
Finished my Kaplan in 10 days including all RC and read Sahil and spiedy notes .started reading question on this forum.....Decided to give a test every week
While in workplace I build up a rapport so good the even on days I come in at 11pm or go at 4PM no body has a problem
I was lucky to come along a post which I used very frequently .....guys just read this post ........the plan here is too good and so are the resources
http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2005/06/what-one-person-did-t o-score-790-on.html
(1st to 20th July )
Started out on the OG by this time my strike rate was
95%+ in Cr
90%+ in Rc and
80% in SC
Quant I was pretty comfortable but there were some weakness in DS of number system
Here I started the OG every day ...I will do 20 q each from any 3 portion ( CR,Sc PS or DS) I will treat each set as a mini test and try to improve my score...I marked on the Og what question in each section I got wrong and also those which really challenged me or were good . I planned to use them for my revision
I also kept a note book noting my errors frequently ..This way I was zeroing in on my most frequent errors
I finished CR and SC by 20th July and started on 1000 sc
After my plan went slightly awry...there was a request at my workplace to take a 10 days training session...I have to do that...I will speak in office daily for 5-6 hours and by the time I reach home I was exhausted...cant study...I was becoming frustrated ....and irritated
20 July to 1st august
26 th July gave Kaplan test1 630 , felt bad but still had hope , 27th July gave Kaplan 2 590 I went sick ...went to a doctor he told I have a high Blood pressure ( 160-100) which is dangerous ...........he asked me too cool down ...........I took a break ..........even thought of postponing the test
1st to 10th august
1 st august I fought back...went back and analyzed the test .....Noted my mistakes...... which were weak Rc and taking it easy on CR due to over confidence ......I set out a plan to remedy these
I counted the no of RC passage in OG and calculated that if I do 3 passage in a day I will finish them in 12 days ...and I planned to do 40 quant question a day from OG( 20 PS 20 DS) . For Sc I started revising OG …finally finished Sc twice....
Last 4 days
I think here I lost it a bit...after so much effort I did not have plan for last 5 days ...I was not sure what I was going to do ...what will I cover ...just gave the twp new power preps and sat idle ...only thing I worked on is giving test at same time of my actual test and try meditating for half hour to ease anxiety.....
D day
Reached test venue 45 minute before (mistake again) waited out side for 45 minutes ....the started on the test Quant I was pretty sure I did not get more then 2 - 3 wrong .............verbal in first 10 I was cautious got a RC in 4th question and a bold face on 24th ...on looking at bold face I felt confident. ........finished the test looked at a score ....did not knew how to react ...but was slightly disappointed

My Scores
1) Princeton Diag 490
2) PP1 650 before Og
3) Princeton 1 710
4) Princeton 2 610
5) Princeton 3 680
6) Princeton 4 700
7) Kap 1 630
8) Kap 2 590
9) Princeton 5 580
10) PP new 1 700
11) PP new 2 710

My Analysis
I agree to what most other test takers said but here is what I did different
1) Don’t get bogged down with question of Kaplan, Princeton etc...usually there are poorly researched questions and the answers are either too hazy or too obvious...there is no competition to the question of OG
2) The OG and Gmat question are of very good quality which are entirely solvable ...not like some the question which appear on forums
3) Guys , if you really want a good score ...really go for it...don’t compromise on any thing...money resources etc....don’t let a few bucks make you weep later. what I mean is don’t compromise on resource...get the best book ..arrange the best environment for your study...do what ever it takes to get there ....believe me ...spending some thing and getting there is much better that saving some and missing out
4) OG RULES......ate least for Sc ...do Og twice ...I was in a situation where ....on reading a question I could really tell its answer ( not the option) without looking at the answer choices
5) Use PP test judiciously...I did not analyze my scores in new pp ...and my score remained there ...if I had it would have increased slightly
6) Don’t overwork on AWA in the test
what I men is work on your AWA before hand ….so that you don’t have to work too hard on the actual test and you can save some energy for other question ….otherwise ppl spend a lot of energy in writing essays