It seems that my world is ended. :(

It surely hasn't! Let me share you my story.

First... please take a look at my scores:
GMAT 1 (2006): 540
GMAT 2 (2007): 460
GMAT 3 (2007): 430
GMAT 4 (2009): 570
GMAT 5 (2009): 690

For the first GMAT I enrolled myseñf in the Princeton Review. I dedicated lets say around 3 hours a week. But did not took the exam seriously as I did not used any practice test.. I trusted my common sense (a major fault in this exam) I ended up blowing my score but I did not learned my lesson.

For the GMAT 2 and 3 I was sure that something had happened with me and that probably I made some careless mistakes that surely could have brought my score down. I took again the test and received a big dissappointment as you can see and just took one practice test two days before the GMAT and did not even finished it.

For the GMAT 4 I had learned my lessson... This exam could get tough if you don´t practice a lot so I needed to fully dedicate myself to practice! I sacrificed a lot of my social life... I committed to study 5 hours on weekdays and around 15 hours on the weekends for 6 months. but something went wrong... I only brought my score up to 570. Again, I did not use any practice test!

With this score I decided to apply to BSchools in 2009 - I was so exhausted with the GMAT - that I convinced myself that I could create a killer application and that my global working experience will offset this low grade. I hired an admissions consultant to help me with the process and to give me tips on what to do to "break" the system and get accepted... Unfortunately this very expensive and did not worked the way I wanted it to work... I got dinged from Kellogg, Ross, Tuck, Berkeley and waitlisted at Mendoza just to eventually got dinged.

Early in 2010 I simply didn't know what to do !!! I did not wanted to practice for the GMAT again! The past years were a nightmare and there was no way out! I lost my girfriend because I did not pay much attention to our relationship and at work things started to get complicated as well... I started to lose myself in the process of sending (more like "begging") adcoms my profile just to hear something good from them... I wanted any school to tell me "Your profile looks great! be sure to apply"... Believe me I sent an email to all the top 50 schools in the world!

I then decided to look for a school that did not demanded a GMAT as a requirement to grant an admission... I ended up excited by the fact that Madrid's IE program has its own admissions test! To tell you the truth I nailed the test and was later admitted to the MBA program.

I was ok with my IE admission but something about it was not right (althouth its a great school!)... My goal had been always to study at the US or the UK and I had drifted away from my goal because of this monster (the gmat)...

I started then to deeply think that I did not wanted to live my life thinking "what if I had taken the test a fifth time?"... So after taking my time to make this relevant decision.... I then enrolled in the Manhattan GMAT boot camp at NYC in the summer of 2010. This would be very expensive (I am from Latin America), but I kept thinking "WHAT IF" this works?

I simply can tell you that this decission was the best I've ever made in my life! They break up the GMAT not into two main topics... they go way much deeper in their study guides! and apparently the way they break up the test works for my mind structure because on August 2010 I increasen my latest score 110 points! just in time for the early rounds at Duke and Tuck!

I now think back and understand my faults which I would like to share with you:
1- Take this test seriously (I know you have)
2- Dedicate time to practice
3- Don't just start going through the problems... you will end up making the same mistakes again and again! What is needed is to fully understand the concepts! (for me, the MGMAT boot camp was my saviour)

Please do not give up! I am one of those scary stories with a happy ending! don't become one! Its too stressfull! I saw your post and wanted to share my experience with you. You can do it! You have to think what strategy could work with you as you are the person that knows you the most...

Let us know how the next test goes!

Good luck

Congrats dude!! good luck with ur MBA

Thanks mattapraveen!

Things were very difficult for me! But I finally did it!
As part of my strategy I only applied to first and early rounds! I applied to the following schools:
First picks: Fuqua and Tuck
Second picks (plan b): Georgetown and McCombs
Third pick (plan c): Manchester

And it went like this:
- Fuqua: Accepted !!!!! I already paid the school to hold my spot!!! I'm going to NC next year! I'm overjoyed!!!)
- Tuck: Will know later today (probably dinged they have been calling since yesterday)
- Manchester: Accepted with scolarship
- McDonough: Interview invite
- McCombs: nothing do far (I suspect I will be dinged I applied two months ago)


The best of the lucks with the GMAT!

I was getting acceptable (450 -550) score in GMAT prep test.It was enough for me I was thinking if I'm getting this score in GMAT prep I'll reach at 650 in real exam and after that will go to again for it.

Hey SoniaSaini,
Sorry to hear about your previous attempt. But don't lose heart, things will definitely improve the next time. When do you plan to write your next GMAT? Since you mentioned that you will be applying to b-school so as to matriculate next year, I suppose there isn't much time left, so best of luck!!!

Hello Srjaidev,

I've started my G-day journey.Before go to real exam I wanna go write whole MGMAT (I wrote only one),Kewten,Gmatclub and Kaplan free tests. Wanna see my progress where I stand.

Hi Sonia,

I have the same story as yours. I took the exam in October this year and got an awful 510 (Q42 V20). I was so dejected that I did not know what to do. I can recollect my state of mind by reading that you were so dejected that you did not even realize that there was traffic on the road. I left my job to prepare for the GMAT and I prepared for full 6 months - day and night. For each and every minute of those 6 months, I had only GMAT in my brain; still I got 510! I did not get anything lower than 600 in any of my prep tests, either Manhattan or GMAT Prep. I booked the date in an anticipation that I'll be able to score at least 630 but failed badly.

I completely understand your plight but I do not intend to sympathize with you as sympathy is not the solution to the failure that we have seen. I have decided to take the exam again as I cannot sacrifice my dreams to just one failure.

I would suggest you to take a break from studies for about 2 months unless you are in a hurry to take the examination. Spend time with yourself to introspect that what actually went wrong. In my case, I feel that since I am an Indian and have always learnt British English, taking a leap to learn American English is a difficult step in itself. Now, I have changed my perspective towards English completely and have drifted towards American English. Believe me, it is all about your hunger to learn the language, to feel the language and to live the language.

Start reading novels written by ONLY American authors, practise SC and other things that you feel you should do. Fix a target to take the examination and plan accordingly. One more thing - spend as much time as you can with your family because once you decide to retake the GMAT, you will have to sacrifice your social life (this is what I am doing)!

I hope that I make some (if not much) sense to you.

Cheers!
Rajat.

When is your test?
I wouldn't recommend taking every one of the CATs.
Take a MGMAT test and create the assessment report. That would give you some idea about your weak points. Judging by your score, I am sensing that there could be some concepts you are not yet clear with. Its difficult to give you any further suggestions till I understand how much time you have left

Sonia...
Just something additional to consider:

"I've heard (read on google) that in real exam if we get an easy question that means not doing well.I was getting very easy questions,like area,solving equations and measure... suddenly,that thing clicked in mind and I lost my confidence. "


Remember there are some experimental questions that could be either easy or hard and to our misfortunue they are placed randomly in the test... So, whenever you reach a weird question that you might think is easy to answer (or just weird) remember that the evil GMAC could just be testing some statistics with it and by no means will affect your performance on the test.

Good Luck!!!

Hello Rajat,

Thank you very much your story.
I really don't know what had happened to me on G-day? I've heard (read on google) that in real exam if we get an easy question that means not doing well.I was getting very easy questions,like area,solving equations and measure... suddenly,that thing clicked in mind and I lost my confidence. next question was again measurement and could not able to solve it. Any ways... that was my bad day.

After some days,I realized that when we more chase something,the further it goes away from us.and when we stop chasing it,if it's destined,it does come back to us.at least now I've found it true in my life.

I've started my G-journey again. Let see how it goes.
all the best to you. do well.
On this forum people are really very helpful.Moreover,their G-journey and debrief motive me.