Hi All, this is just me jotting down my experience as an expression. Honestly the topic name is my honest question to myself at the moment.
My Story:
1. Start to have the idea to pursue MBA around April 2023. Finally decided to really go for it on August 2023
2. Learning GMAT since, but I do not have the discipline yet and the ability to separate my focus between my prep and my work as a healthcare product manager (which is travelling extensive). Resulting in a poor prep time, only 5-8 hours a week
3. I thought I need both push and experience, so I book GMAT Classic test on mid November 2023, result: 640 (Q49; V27) IR 5 AWA 4
4. I talked to myself this is bad, because I aim for Stanford and 640 is nowehere near the average.
5. I felt that the Quant section was a fluke, since I always feel uneasy when I do the questions. So I drill myself for 2 weeks in Quant and start to enjoy doing questions.
6. I then book myself another GMAT Classic test on mid January 2024 and start to find material to improve my Verbal section.
7. I also fell sick and get the permission to work from home, at the time I decided to increase my prep hours, almost 4 hours a day
8.
OG 2019 and practice bundle is mostly my main material, I also made use of the
GMAT Club Test - free access on holidays. There was a question when I exchange a lot with bb and gain quite an insight in verbal section.
9. 1 week prior to my exam day I found Gmatninja verbal video which I thought as a super material for a non-native like me.
10. Hence my EXAM 2 came and resulted in another 640 (Q50; V26) IR 6 AWA 5
11. I did not feel so much fun at the time, I mean 2 tests with 2 different efforts result in the same score.
12. However I tried to look at the bright side and realize I was more confident on my Quant section, and my IR and AWA is improving.
13. Yet post January, only GMAT Focus is gonna be there, no IR no AWA.
14. I took 2 days break and again set to take the GMAT Focus on March 20th.
15. This time I used
OG 2023 and Verbal Practice Review as main material, and do 6 consecutive Mock Up each week.
16. I felt uneasy as in my mockup I could not breach the 700 scores. At best I did 695 twice.
17. D-Day came and I took the test. I was hoping to finally reach 700 scores, but in the end I get another 695.
There is a lot of discussion that the current GMAT score is different, and percentile is what matters. Even GMAC sent me an email about it (Perhaps to all test takers). 695 with 98 percentile would be close to 740-750 in the GMAT Classic and I would probably settle if I had this score back then. I should be happy, or should I? I had a mixed feeling right after I saw the score.
Should I start preparing my essay and application, or should I keep pushing on my GMAT Focus Scores, to Infinity and Beyond?
Will my dream school, Stanford, appreciate what I'm doing to move my score from top 2% to top 1%, or will they appreciate more if I do something else. Honestly I do not know. It is quite exhausting to separate myself from work, isolating myself and get quality prep time. Honestly I want to stop here, but there is still a part of me that says you should do better, because you know you can do better. it is a 50:50 thought
After resting for 2 days and give it some more thought, I am now 20:80 towards taking another test. But this time I think I will open up my isolation and get more activities in between my schedule, I will start preparing my essay and also scholarship application. Maybe more of a nothing to lose attitude will allow me to get a better mentality this time, for a better score I hope.
Special thanks to
bb Bunuel GMATNinja chetan2uI want to let you know you guys contribute big time to my GMAT journey
Also thank you to GMATCLUB forum, this community is a huge blessing to me.
I do not have any peers that aspire to go for the top B Schools, and it is hard to maintain self motivation. Seeing the activity of the members and moderators tutors here really help a lot. I hope more Indonesian MBA aspirants get to read this writing when they google GMAT, and please try to use this forum because it is amazing. Special mention to
plex6 , an Indonesian friend that I got from this forum and we are now fighting together for our dream.
Additional Question:
- When I took the test it was written "FOCUS EXAM 4" although it was my 3rd time taking the test (2 Classic 1 Focus), should I do something about it, like emailing the GMAC, or it is not a problem at all?
close
21 Mar 2024, 20:18
