I think the God of standardized tests was keeping his eye on me last night
Think of the worst thing happening at work that could happen to you, well that happened to me last week. It was so bad, I almost cancelled my test becuase I thought there would be no way that I would do well under the amount of stress that I was under. But my husband, whom I am convinced must be an angel or something, convinced me that my studying these past 3 months was nothing to shy away from. So I decided to push forward, I exercised almost every day last week, brought my notecards to the gym, came home and did about an hour and a half of studying each night. Nothing too extreme, but I made sure to prep myself for the test environment by doing the GMAT math challenges and the GMATTERS sentence correction and critical reasoning. I am the biggest advocate of excersise, I truly believe keeping your body in shape keeps your mind in shape - especially if you are dealing with a good amount of stress.
Yesterday I took my test around 4, and took a power nap around Noon for half an hour. I was used to taking my test at 8 am but I couldn't get a test slot for earlier in the day. The entire test was extremely difficult. I was mentally exhausted from math, probably because I wasn't used to taking the quant portion late in the day, and the verbal was even more exhausting since it was 7pm. But I kept pushing through and ignored my thoughts about exhaustion. This is huge compared to the first time when I got a 630. My first time I began to freak out when time was running out, or when I was tired, and was unable to fully concentrate on the questions.
There was this lady who had an annoying cough the entire test. Make sure you get those ear plugs they offer, they are a God send!
When I saw my score I wanted to scream!! But the administrator was carefully cleaning up other test areas since it was the end of the day so I waited patiently. But the minute I was able to leave the test center I pretty much called all of my family and close friends and then screamed in their ear
.
My test prep was a very diligent process. I can't stress enough the importance of taking practice tests and using the
GMAT club tests. Make sure to simulate the test environment as much as you can. Coming from me, a girl who cannot just take standardized tests and ace them, simulating this environment is vital. Getting your mind used to the stress of the test, the timing, the variety of difficulty is very important. Make sure to bring a snack with you. I brought a power bar and took a bite out of it, only because I had a huge lunch before the test. Not being hungry during the test is VERY important! I'm a girl, and obsessed with working out and dieting, so usually I'm hungry
The first time I took the test I was extremely hungry, but this time around I was full for the entire test. I also worked out the morning of which I really believe helped my mental stability during the test.
My prep materials consisted of the Princeton Review and Kaplan basic books which I think are not worth it. They teach the basics and nothing else. The PR CAT tests are okay, but I felt the calculations of the final test score were a bit off sometimes.
The
Manhattan GMAT books I am obsessed with. I got every book and felt each was very valuable. I did not get the Reading Comprehension book, but every other was useful for me. The SC book was great, and so was the word translations book. However; I only got one probability question and no questions on ratios, combinatrics, or work questions on my test. The
MGMAT CATs are hard, but the more you take them the easier they get, which I also think helped my quant score tremendously (I usually scored 43-45 prior to my
MGMAT CATs).
I also got the verbal and quant
OG workbooks the last month of prep. They served only one purpose, to give me more
OG questions. The OG11 book is also vital in order to get yourself used to the type of questions you will be dealing with during the test.
Finally, make use of the
GMAT club tests!! They also seem difficult at first, but the more you work through them and understand your mistakes, the better you get at preparing for those difficult questions. I would complete half a test some days after work, just to give my mind a mental exercise. Keeping my mind active and used to these difficult questions was a huge help for the test day.
My last piece of advice is to never give up. Trust the hard work you've completed and yourself. Sometimes you can surprise yourself. I have never gotten a 720 on a practice test, my highest was 710. I was afraid of scoring less than a 630 before I walked into the test center, but knew my practice test scores had the potential of being above 700. I kept faith but didn't get down on myself or get my hopes up. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. This is just a test. In the end, I know the schools I will be applying to will check this number, but will read deeply into my life experience, work experience and my passion - which is nothing this score could ever reveal. So keep at it, study hard, and if you don't get the score you ideally want, don't give up. There is never a good excuse for giving up on yourself, you'd be surprised at what you are capable of accomplishing.
-J
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23 Aug 2008, 17:12
