The GMAT

I wanted to target 680+ as 90 percentile would keep me comfortable wherever I applied. I had two months to prepare and achieve it. I started researching about books and zeroed on the three books:

1. Original guide to GMAT (OG)

2. Kaplan 800

3. Princeton Review

Pros and Cons

1. OG - The book is the official preparation guide written by GMAC itself. So the level of difficulty was more or less representative of the actual GMAT. Also the number of questions under each topic is exhaustive. But the book is weak on theory. Also unless challenged very few people tend to improve. Also the books cost twice the amount of the other two.

2. Kaplan & Princeton - Theory is clearly explained. Level of questions is challenging. Priced at half of OG. But what both these books need is a more than a few practice questions. Kaplan is better than Princeton as it is better organised in terms of content and clarity - wise better.

I bought all the three one after the other as I ran out of practice questions in just a month. Then I turned to the world wide web and piracy. I bought the Kaplan 800 practice DVD from the local piracy market. I also surfed through different websites with GMAT practice tests. I also downloaded the free GMAT tutorial. 

I started with the Kaplan DVD and my confidence kept falling. Verbal was turning to be a nightmare. Just 3 days prior to the GMAT I took my first evaluative test on the Kaplan. I scored 580. On the second one I scored 600. On the third one 600 again. For the first time in my journey I freaked out !! I had google coming to my rescue here. I googled Kaplan CD and found that people around the world had a similar experience with Kaplan especially verbal. So my scores looked decent now. Now I tried GMATprep test one day before GMAT and scored 690 on first and 700 on the second. Confidence was back !!

On the test day I preferred to just relax. Didnt study ! No tests ! Just my usual exam routine where I listen to music and prepare myself mentally as GMAT is a patience tester with the 4 hour long sojourn !!

I reached the test centre about a an hour early. Got registered at the desk and at my appointment time started with the test. I was apprehensive about essays as I had not prepared anything on it. So just blurted out for the next one hour on both the essays. I had a feeling that I didnt exactly do 'well' on this one. 

The Quant section went well. I didnt have any issues. By the time I was done there was about 20 minutes remaining on the clock. Verbal was tricky but the Reading Comprehension was easier than anticipated. I didnt exactly screw it but I knew I had made a few mistakes here and there. I had about 15 mins left on my clock by the time I was done ! Submitted and chose to receive the score. When I saw 720 I was ecstatic. Took my scoresheet and left for home.

GMAT  was truly done and I was truly on my way. Some of you may feel I scored low but I know 700+ was good enough for any B-School let alone ISB!! I felt the tougher part was out of the way but as I learnt later this was the easiest part !!