my first experience:
too-boring-too-verbal-q-50-v-144812.htmlI know there is a format for sharing experience, but I will go in my style.
I am going to share what I experienced during my stages. ( Before the 1st test- During the 1st test- In the middle of the 2 tests-During the 2nd exam )
Although the link I gave above includes, let me give
some background of mine.-I am non-native. However, I have been somehow involved in English for plus10 years.
-I am an engineer and graduated from one of the top universities in my country. Thus, I am always good at math.
- I have a full time job
-Our education system is in a way that you have to be good at this kind of tests to get good universities, work, etc, and I have always been good at this kind of standardized tests so far. ( Except for my 1st GMAT attempt =)) I believe that if you are good at this kind of exams, then you always have high chance to success this kind of things as long as it is in your interest area, not something like japanese =)
Before the 1st test
I saw that an MBA program that I am going to apply requires this exam. Fine, I need to dig what this exam is about. I saw that this is a standardized test. I looked the question types, and thought "yes it is managable and no need to study too hard".
After a couple of months, I solved the
OG Diagnostic test. I do not remember my score but, I remember that I felt like quant was a joke (a good joke). Conversely, verbal was also like a joke ( but from the inhuman ones) :D. Another point is that, DS was a kind of weird. I had never seen such type questions, but they were not that bad.
Then, I could not find enough time to study and almost a month passed. But, the GMAT was always somewhere in my mind. Because after the diagnostic test, I saw that it was not going to be easy. In this period, I searched on the internet about the GMAT and checked forums and collected the materials to be studied etc.
It took me almost 2 months to study for the first GMAT. Here is a brief summary of my study detail.
AWA & IRAWA was not required for me.
I knew that IR is new and would not effect my score.
I did nothing for them to study. Did not even solve the questions in Prep and read a single line about AWA.
QUANT
I wanted to have a look at all the topics because I knew that there were ,for sure, some concepts that I forgot. Well, It was not so bad, and it did not take even a one single weekend to cover all topics. I used Manhattan series for quant.
Then I realized that although DS is not that hard it is a new question type and I needed to gain experience in this concept. Thus, in my free times or whenever I was bored with Verbal, I practised this type of questions. By the way I can say that even if you are perfect at Quant, you have to have a look on Advanced questions of
Manhattan GMAT. It covers good points. I finished all the
OG questions from the 12 edition.
VERBAL
It was actually scary but challenging. I like challenging things. Actually, I felt that I could beat these questions, but always faced with some weird questions in general and failed most of the time.
SCI covered Manhattan series and solved OG12 and
OG Verbal questions. I did not care about the timing. I just solved. If I did correct, did not even have a look at the solution. If I failed, I checked the explanations. To be honest, I did not want to check explanations because it was quite time consuming.
As the time passed by, I was doing better.
CRThe question type was fun. I like this kind of things in my real life and making comments on things that nobody even cares =) I started to Manhattan but I got bored and did not finish. I finished rougly %90 of the OG12 and
OG Verbal questions.
My first attempts were so bad. Then, I understood what the CR wants and I started to do much better. It was the same, If I did correct, did not even have a look at the solution. If I failed, I checked the explanations.
RCIt was not a new question type, it was always the same for years in my education. Literally, did nothing for this part.
GMAT-PREPSI solved (without caring time) these preps a couple of times, and my scores were within 650 and 710. It was enough for me. My target was not that high. 650was enough for me.
During the 1st test
Finally, it was over and ready for GMAT. I went to the test centre. I took some candies and water with me. After procedures, the test started. I was not excited and quite calm.
My plan was creating a chart for ABCDE and 1-2-3... for verbal questions during the AWA. I did this within 5 minutes. Then I wondered about the AWA. Believe me or not, it was the first time I read what AWA exactly is and what this part asks for. It was like a CR question and commenting about it. Since I got plenty of time, I wanted to be relaxed by being busy with irrelevant thing (AWA) before the real thing (Q and V). I wrote something.
Then IR.
The concept of the questions was good and easy. I did not care so much but did as much as I can.
Now it really begins=)
Quant was quite easy. I did not find anything new or too difficult. There were last 3 questions left and still I had almost 13 minutes. By solving the questions (twice), I completed the section with 5 minutes left.
VERBAL, arghhhh Verbal!!! I was no idea what I was doing. It was so difficult to focus on every single question. I felt like I was doing good at RC, but SC & CR was like something appearing on the screen and I choosing sth and then disapperaing, like a horror movie. It was like that for 75 mins. Time was not problem, by arranging last 10 questions and taking some more time for these questions I finished at time.
SCORE of the 1st GMAT: AWA: 4 huh?!
IC: 6
Q:50
V:24 !!!!!!!!!!!arghhhhhhhhhhh
Total: 630
When I saw 630 on the screen, I felt like an idiot. Yes it was true I screwed and this was the official report proving that.
I did not know what to do, I was speechless. If somebody had offered me another test after an hour, I would have accepted it. I was so impatient to take it again and could not understand how could it be possible.
After a couple of days, my body turned back to normal and was able to think better. I knew I had to take it again.
In the middle of 2 tests
After the 1st exam, I could not study for almost 10 days then I started again. I wanted to take it as soon as possible (namely, after a month). But I was also thinking about, well I failed, instead of attacking it harshly and impatiently, it might be better to give some more time and get things better. I convinced myself and decided to take test when I felt ready.
I changed things and started to new study style.
QUANT
I always knew that I am good at this section and it was officialy proved after the first score. I did not want to spend my limited time again with the same things. I found 198 consolidated prep questions on the forum and solved almost 150 of them before the 2nd exam (in other words till today!!!! =)) I solved 20 of them yesterday after the work. =)
VERBAL
RC
Everbody was saying, RC takes too much time and requires more concentration. Fine... I started to study this part. I saw that there are same techniques. Somebody takes notes during reading, somebody just reads a couple of line from each paragraph, etc. I decided to write down some notes during reading. That makes me stay focused. I solved more than half of the OG12 questions. It was exactly like that, If I understand the passage and it attracts my attention, I did %90 of them correct. If I did not understand the language and the topic is not in my interest area, I did too bad. Sometimes even 1 or 2 correct answers per topic. It was a shame."How could I stay focused even I do not like it? " I searched on forums and asked experts. The answer was the same "Just READ". Fine... If it is worth to do it, I am in. I downloaded The Economist app. on my tablet, but it did not work. Then I downloadaed BBC app. Everyday, I read some news from there. Sometimes, the things I like, sometimes the things I do not like but I read everyday. I am sure my average is within 10 to 15 minutes per day for 2 months. Yesterday also watched some videos to solve GMAT questions. It was always the same. Either take notes when you read, or take notes of a couple of sentence from the first lines.
SC
This was actually the thing I do not understand how I cannot achieve. There are some rules, just apply these rules to do questions. As an engineer, my whole study life passed like that. Then I started to do something new. I did not want to solve the same question over and over again. I found some questions from a private coach (as far as I understand that questions are Manhattan GMAT quesionts. they are available in this forum), the questions were good and they had explanations. This time I did this part with a better plan. I did not solve questions in order 1,2,3... I solved the question topicwise. And here he comes..... I saw a guy "RON PUREWAL". He changed everything I know.
For example,
whenever I saw which, I was just looking at the verb before it.
whenever I saw passive sentence, I was eliminating it.
whenever I saw pronoun, I was eliminating it. etc...
Well, these are very very very fundamental rules. They are not enough to get good verbal score. I realized that and this was the biggest change for my study this period.
I like the way Ron explains. Watched every video of him, took notes. I downloaded all of his videos, and collected in topicwise folders. My study was like that: Finished the topic, lets sat, X's folder, solve the questions from the source I told. Then solve the questions again from OG12. But it is important TOPICWISE.
As I watch the videos, I realized that whatever I know about SC was nothing. I do not exaggerate. My prior knowledge was just enough for 600 type of questions. Not more...
Then finished my studies like that.
CR
Another weird point. Although I did good this section, why wouldnt I do in the first exam? After studying from CR Bible, it was the same for what it was SC. I did not know this section. There are a lot of sections. Every question type requires different strategy. Before, I was just reading the question and looking to answer choices. I did not have any strategy. Funny but, I did not know different questions require different approaches. After finishing this book, I was like WOW! Everything was much easier now.
I solved the LSAT questions. I read that they are more difficult than the GMAT. But I was doing good and this made me couraged.
AWA & IR
Although I knew that I do not need them, I had a quick view them yesterday at work for an hour.
Final notes: I have not solved any full test. I started to feel bored with looking the same things and I was ready again for the battle.
[b] During the 2st test-TODAY
There was a problem with the connection and my test started a little bit late. I was condifent that I am going to get 650. There was not any reason to fail. My first score was so close to my target. I learned much more new things after my first attempt.
I started to create my chart again for verbal. 1-2-3.. vs. ABCDE.
Well, this time I intended to do AWA. Yesterday I saw templates and applied them. That was all. Probably, I get more than 4 (it must be the logic, comparing the first one =))
IR, again I say, the quesiton types are the ones I like. I solved them. But the last one was a huge table and making comment on them. This kind of stuffs requires being focused and energy, to be honest, I did not spent my energy here and randomly pickes sth for this table ( There were 3 questions from this table)
Now the party begins again=))
Quant, I started with easy questions. Then they become very difficult. The concepts were all the same but especially DS were so tough. I randomly picked several questions subsequently. (Although I tried to solve and spent some time on them). A little bit demotivated but tried to be calm. I tried to be focused on the questions, but I could not. It was like 5 minutes - 3 questions left. I tried to solve visually and picked something. Then break...
I knew it was worse than the first exam. But whatever happened happened. I had to forget about it. Also I know that, without Verbali no matter how good your Quant score is. Last thought, "what if I do better on Verbal, and fail just because of the Quant?" My heart beats started to speed up... I drank some water and went back to the test room.
Verbal, started with the SC. I was stuck with two chocies, picked one and continued. 2nd question similar thing...stuck with two chocies, picked one and continued...
Then several CR questions, I was reading but could not understand them. Then a short RC, I read, I do not know why but I could not take notes just read and picked some answers. It was like in the middle of the Verbal section. I stopped and though "How was it going?", "my answer was: even worse than the 1st one". I was so nervous, hungry, totally exhausted and bored and accepted that I failed. Last 10 questions I literally picked some answers without thinking so much. I lost my track and the last question was there, and...17 minutes left.... I did not realize that. This was the proof of what I thought. My brain flight away...
Then it asked do you want to score or not?
I thought a little bit. I gave up applying the MBA program and tried to be positive. Maybe this was one of the few things I failed in my education story. I destroyed. And last thought: whatever happened happened, whether you like it or not, you did this. After these thoughts, I reported the score. I was expecting sth between 600 and 650. First I saw double zero, and thought it is 600. (this happens in miliseconds =)) Then WOW! What a schock! It was 700.
I could not believe. I got the printed unofficial score and it was the same.
Q:50
V:33
Total:700
I was quite happy and turned back the life although I did not understand how it could be possible. Comparing the first one, I felt that I did 1st exam better. But the score was not :D
Whatever.... Now I am happy to have a chance to be student again, even MBA =)
TAKEAWAYS:Although I thought I could not do good on the exam, the score does not lie! So, I have a right to give some takeaways =)
-SC is not what you think. Meet Ron! Watch videos and solve questions TOPICWISE.
-CR is easy when you know what you should do.
-RC, I do not know whether it effects or not, but read something everyday.
-No comment on quant, I did not spend too much time for it.
-Never give up in the exam.
-Solve some full tests for getting ready to 4 hour war. ( This was a mistake of mine)
Sorry for such a long debrief =) I just wanted to share my experience
Have a nice GMAT Exams. That's all for me on this journey =)
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07 Mar 2013, 11:10
