I wanted to share my experience with you all in an effort to give hope to those that believe a test cannot predict your ability in getting into bschool or how well you will do when there. I rarely posted but I was on the site for a solid year everyday. I loved it.
I studied for about 1 year with little results.
1. Princeton Review (twice) low 500's
2. Bell Curves private tutor. $3k and the biggest waste of money in the entire process. My score went down 100 points. Probably one of the lowest points in my life and was not able to get any of my $ back.
3. Self study with
MGMAT...absolutely the way to go content and price.
But...still had an issue with test anxiety. I was finally able to score mid 600's on any given day on
MGMAT practice exams and GMATPrep exams. I just could not break 600 on the real test.
At the end of it all I never broke 600 on the real test (4 tries) but I had this belief that I was made for a top b school. So I made sure that my application was air tight on the other aspects.
I applied to 6 schools (all tier 1, 2 in the top 10). I have been accepted to 3 so far waitlisted at 1, still waiting on 2. One of the accepted - a top 10. I say this not to brag but to give hope to others. GMAT is not the end all but I put myself in a very hard spot. I put myself at the mercy of who ever read my app. My essays were really good but I also worked on them for a year. My answers to Why MBA Why Now were on point. I interview for my company so my interview skills were sharp. I did many practice interviews with alumni. My undergrad major and gpa, resume and work experience are pretty good too. I knew my app was good, just 1 weakness. I also wrote a really good supplemental essay to explain my gmat. I held off applying for a full year to make sure everything else was great not just good.
Advice - believe in yourself no matter what. At the end of the day 10% get IN under the 80% range of any school. I was one of them. I prayed about it, believed and was blessed. See you ladies and gents this fall in the Ivy league.
Thanks everyone for your help