NEW HERE? LEARN MORE
closeclose
Last visit was: 27 Apr 2024, 21:11 It is currently 27 Apr 2024, 21:11
Decision Tracker
My Rewards
New posts
New comers' posts

Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel

First try disappointing at 600

SORT BY:
Date
Kudos
Tags:
Find Similar Topics  Add a Tag
Show Tags
Hide Tags
avatar
Franck Garcia
Intern
Intern
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 13
Own Kudos [?]: [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: Paris
Send PM
First try disappointing at 600 [#permalink] New post   16 Aug 2004, 01:53
Dear all,

After a few posts I had been a silent visitor for more than 1,5 months now. :oops: Time has come for me to share my experience with you.

I worked during 3 months and scored a 600 for my first try (August 5). :( Disappointing given that I scored on my prep tests around 650/670 each time (PR). I always score the same in quant and verbal (42/40).

AWA quite easy, with a schedule already clear in mind to answer the issue/argument. Then I started quant and after the easy beginning (arithmetic) I picked up two or three hard questions (prime/combination) and each time I could not find my answers in the list. I did not know how I was doing and thus was very nervous. Math was quite easy in fact (except those 2/3 questions between 5 and 8) but I think this is because I did not reach the critic level in order to have the pleasure to see a standard deviation issue. After the quant part I was sure I did bad and then did not even take the break. I wanted to fight quickly with verbal piece.
Global quant level somewhere between Kaplan anf OG.

Verbal was hard : after 5 questions a first RC of 50 lines with a very specific vocabulary (harder than usual). Then another RC of nearly 80 lines around question 10...horrible. I started to feel angry against this computer. SC quite easy (OG). CR normal level (OG).

At the end of the exam I realized that I did normal in math (42) but crashed in verbal (30).

I was disappointed because it was the contrary of my thought. YOU MUST NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT YOUR FEELINGS AFTER ONE PART IS DONE.
Had I remained calm and self confident, I would have taken my break and come back for a 40!!!

Instead of that I need to retake the exam. target at least 660. Some advices to improve RC? What is the standard time period between 2 exam? What can I do in order to improve my quant? (OG already done, kaplan also, and currently working on PR cd rom). Can i have the feeling and plan of someone who retake the exam after a disppointing try and improve a lot on the second? I must have a complete file for next summer (entrance September 2006).

Good luck to all of you and one thing is sure : I 'll have the score I want. No matter how long it will take me. We must believe!
avatar
kaiser_berger
Intern
Intern
Joined: 14 Aug 2004
Posts: 1
Own Kudos [?]: [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Send PM
hey frank/others - gmat prep [#permalink] New post   16 Aug 2004, 02:31
Hey Frank:

First, congrats on your score. Second, congrats on your drive and determination. Very admirable.

I only discovered this site a couple of days ago. I'm now preparing to sit the GMAT, and i'm after a score of comfortably over 600. I've been studying for about 3 months, but I'd say I didn't start to get serious until about 6 weeks ago. Since then, I've probably been studying about 15 hours a week or so. Prior to that, I was probaby studying around 5 hours a week - in retrospect, i wasn't serious.

Obviously, the answer to this question is very much individual specific. However, any information is useful, I believe. How much time did you invest epr week into your GMAT prep? I've seen bb recommends 20 hours. what do others think?
avatar
Franck Garcia
Intern
Intern
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 13
Own Kudos [?]: [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: Paris
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   16 Aug 2004, 03:54
At least 15 hours. 2 hours daily and then a complete test on saturday morning and study of mistakes on sunday).

I've studied first Kaplan, then OG + PR free tests.

Each time in OG with 10 PS + 10 DS + 10 SC + 5 CR + 1 RC in one hour.

Week before the exam I took 2 adaptive tests and scored 650. I confirm you that most of my improvement was 2 weeks before the exam.

Good luck to you
User avatar
Antmavel
Current Student
Joined: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 583
Own Kudos [?]: 132 [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: London, UK
Schools:Tuck'08
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   17 Aug 2004, 03:29
hi Franck,

I think that's ok..it's a first try and I think that pressure and stress are also there...
I presume it's not easy the first time, I'll do it also in 3 weeks...

Anyway, it seems you studied hard before and your GMAT score doesn't reflect your previous score when you were training yourself...

please keep faith :wink:

bon courage a toi ! je suis dans le meme cas et je passe le GMAT dans 3 semaines...je suis francais, j'ai 25 ans et je vis en chine. :)
avatar
Franck Garcia
Intern
Intern
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 13
Own Kudos [?]: [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: Paris
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   17 Aug 2004, 07:58
Interesting!

You're right for the stress. Even if there's no reason why. It's so heavy to keep working this exam till you reach the score you want...

good luck to you and to all French guys who study hard. What are your first scores on PP or OG? Are they encouraging? What is your target?
User avatar
Paul
CEO
CEO
Joined: 15 Dec 2003
Posts: 2709
Own Kudos [?]: 1539 [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   17 Aug 2004, 09:16
Hey Frank, I'm sorry to hear about your verbal score but it can definitely be improved. I am french canadian and english is only my 3rd language (vietnamese is my first). I strongly believe that with determination and perseverance, you can be very strong for the verbal GMAT. Go through the forum and work on your areas of weakness. If you fear RC, you have to face it. I would suggest you to work on RC 5-6 in a row and analyze it in excruciating detail. See how/where you went wrong and I promise you that after 2 weeks of doing that, your RC will improve!
Ce n'est en effet pas facile mais si tu le veux, tu peux! Bon courage mon ami et j'espere te voir plus souvent dans le forum. a+
Paul
avatar
Franck Garcia
Intern
Intern
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 13
Own Kudos [?]: [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: Paris
Send PM
Thanks Paul [#permalink] New post   18 Aug 2004, 01:48
Thanks Paul for your nice post.

I'm training hard actually on RC and CR in order to improve. SC is much easier after studying the OG cover to cover. Concerning your targets, did you reach them? How many times did you stand the exam in order to have your score? What was the time period between 2 exams? Did you succeed at INSEAD entrance?

In fact I'll be leaving to Singapore in one year and I just feel like entering a MBA at this time. I don't have many choices : NUS/Insead. Both are hard to obtain. But I definitively need to reach 650 at least to be competitive. With one year to do it, There is no problem, but I'd like to finish with that exam quickly in order to come back to a normal life with "real" problem!

Merci de tes encouragements. La motivation est là.
User avatar
ywilfred
SVP
SVP
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 2004
Own Kudos [?]: 1900 [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: Singapore
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   18 Aug 2004, 02:13
Hey Franck, I'm from Singapore and you're quite right about the limitation in choice ! But why would you want to do a course at INSEAD in Singapore ? For myself, I would love to go down to France and do it there, but there's a cost to consider.

I'm trying to get myself ready for the GMAT in December so I can apply for a course in MFE for the 2005 intake, and right now I'm a little nervy with:

Quantitative: Probabilty problems and some work problems
Verbal: I think I'm okay with SC, RC and CR, but stumble on the ones that are harder
AWA: That's a nightmare ! I've gone through some of the official AWA questions and I think unless you've been reading serious material for the past year or so, you've going to be in trouble. Seriously, I can't think of what to write when I read them !

Maybe we should start discussing AWA here too.
avatar
Franck Garcia
Intern
Intern
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 13
Own Kudos [?]: [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: Paris
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   18 Aug 2004, 03:36
In fact I'd like to follow my wife who is going to work in Sing for her french firm. Here is the main reason.

Quant : probability problems : do and re do the probability section on this site (prob and comb issues). I had the chance to pick up one question (which was exactly the same) during my exam.
Work problem are not difficult if you reason by asking yourself : how many can be done in one hour? (usual inversion described in Kaplan/PR)

Verbal is a real struggle and I think there is no other way than to take and retake questions (understanding each time your errors and trying to find the logic of the reasoning : evidence=> conclusion, if i weaken the evidence, i weaken the conclusion...etc etc)

With my small experience I can tell you that AWA is important but with a good structure already in mind (PR plan for example) you can easily tackle every argument or comment every issue. Most important thing is to give the impression to the e-rater that your thought is organized and supported by examples.
Try it as a game : imagine you are in front of another person and that this is a verbal match between you and this person. How can I destroy his or her argument or how can I prove that my thinking is the correct one, without any further discussion?...
User avatar
Antmavel
Current Student
Joined: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 583
Own Kudos [?]: 132 [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Location: London, UK
Schools:Tuck'08
Send PM
[#permalink] New post   18 Aug 2004, 22:36
Waow, seems a lot of people are french or speack french in this forum :P

Concerning the Verbal issue, I think that SC is the easiest one, this is really where you can get a lot of points and where you can reduce your loss if you're not good at verbal.

In my mind, I really think that the SC is more mathematic than verbal, you have to work like a scientist looking for any of those errors (pronouns, parrallelism, verbs tense, ...) and check it one by one. It's a systematic approach because there might be 7-8 maximum different kinds of errors. In addition to that, the Process of Elimination works really good because you can compare all the answers first and it will give you an idea of what you're looking for... :idea:

The CR is very logical but in fact the worst thing that can happen to you is to make assumptions by yourself, everytime you read one CR you should think like a child, like if you were stupid and knew nothing...be very strict with the questions and practice a vertical scan of all answers, the Process of Elimination is really the best weapon in verbal, learn to guess right the wrong answers (avoid all the words like "only"or "few" because usually it just changes the sense of the answer...if you master this process of elimination you can really ace the verbal part...no doubts :wink:

For non english speaker the only problems would be idioms because you can not invent it ! you know it or you guess it...no other way. :evil:

If you can improve your results in SC, then in CR, it will give you a more comfortable margin for the RC...

Good luck

ps : Franck n'hesite pas a me contacter, j'ai une de mes meilleurs amies qui vit actuellement avec son copain et qui travaille a Singapour. Bonne chance !
GMAT Club Bot
gmatclubot
[#permalink]
18 Aug 2004, 22:36
Moderator:
bb
Founder
37320 posts

Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group | Emoji artwork provided by EmojiOne
Main navigation
GMAT Resources
Partners
MBA Resources
www.gmac.com|www.mba.com | | GMAT Club Rules | Terms and Conditions