GMAT - The Good, Bad, and Ugly

I wanted to take this opportunity to write about the GMAT. What I did to prepare for it, what others have said about the exam, and my overall exam experiences.

As an introduction, the GMAT stands for Graduate Management Admissions Test. This exam is required to get into pretty much any MBA Program in the USA. It consists of the Analytical Writing Assessment(Analysis of Argument, Analysis of Issue), and math section, and a verbal section. The Math section consists of two basic types of questions (Data Sufficieny, Problem Solving). The Verbal Section consists of Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction. The Analytical Writing Assessment wasn't hard (the argument question was easy, the issue question was a little bit more difficult). Most schools don't focus too much on the essays. The Data Sufficiency questions of the math section definitely require practice. The Sentence Correction questions are by far the most difficult questions on the entire exam. Study!!

To prepare for the GMAT, I decided to go out and buy the Kaplan, Princeton Review, and ARCO books. The Kaplan book was the best, however the practice exams were harder than the actual exam. The Kaplan math was more difficult, while the verbal was about right. Of course, like the other books, there were general test taking tips and information regarding the adaptive nature of the exam. The Princeton Review book was pretty good, very similar to the Kaplan text but I still gave the edge to the Kaplan Book. The ARCO book was terrible, don't bother wasting your money.

The best kept secret, and by far the best book overall was "The Official Guide for the GMAT Review" by ETS (the authors of the GMAT). This book has over 1400 sample problems of various difficulty. This book was awesome and very helpful in my preparation for the GMAT. I also downloaded the PowerPrep exams from the GMAT website (www.gmat.org). I also bought several written versions of the exam from the GMAT website and took those exams. Another helpful website was http://www.testmagic.com. It has some excellent forums that answer some of the more difficult problems that people are having. You can also post problems if you need help.

The morning of the test, I woke up early, had a good breakfast, and went to take the exam. I was surprised by how quickly the math problems got difficult. Overall I was pleased by my performance. Be prepared, and the most important piece of advice I can give is to manage your time wisely. Also practice, practice, practice!!

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