Hello GMAT Clubbers,
I took the GMAT today for the second time and am very proud of my 730 Q48/V42 score!!
This is a going to be a rather detailed post, because I feel that I need to give back to the many contributors of the forum. I looked for hope many times here and dreamed about the day when I would write about my success too
My journey:It has been a very long journey since I started to study the GMAT. Non English native speaker and with a background that did not prevail anything good in quant, I expected the GMAT to be tough and therefore decided to start studying a year ago in August even though I was not planning to apply to business school for another three years. I just wanted to make sure that I took enough time to do it right, but I sure never thought it would take out a year of my life!
I studied on and off for the first 4 months and started an intense study schedule at the beginning of 2010 with the objective to take the test in March/April. I took it for the first time in April and obtained a very disappointing 570! This score wasn't representative of my actual level, which was about 640, but everything got ruined on test day because of a very high level of stress that made literally sick a few days before and until the test day.
Massive lesson learnt here: I shouldn't have booked the exam without being certain that I can reach the level aspired (my goal was 710). The only reason I booked the test was because I was so tired of working on the GMAT, I had been working about 3 hours per working day (after and before work) + 10 hours per weekend. I sacrificed my everything for the GMAT and all I wanted was to get my life back! Pressure was too high and I realized that I wasn't ready yet two weeks before the test, so stress won me over...
I took me about two weeks to recover from the test, I felt so down and ashamed of my score. When studying for the GMAT, I had had many ups and downs, as everyone does, but this one took me down badly. Yet, I couldn't let my story with GMAT finish with such low score, so I built a retake plan with the fundamental rule 'work hard but don't forget to live', which I did fro May onwards.
At the end of July, I felt that I was getting close to my dream score (710) but needed an additional push. So I decided to work with a private tutor. At this stage, a group class would have been a waste of time, I just needed specific coaching on my weaknesses. I worked with a tutor that I found via gmatix.com for a few sessions, mostly on quant, my main weakness. It helped me a lot to grasp concepts that I had issues with and also boosted by confidence. When the G day arrived, I knew that I had done everything I possibly could have and felt much more comfortable than the previous time.
My prep:I went through many different phases of work. During the first 4 months, I focused on getting up to speed on the quant, I really had to learn everything from scratch (even had to learn how to make a division...). Once my math level was acceptable, I started to work with the
Manhattan GMAT books, which I highly recommend for getting good GMAT basics. I based all my practice on the
OG guide version 12 and the two small quant and verbal versions, it goes without saying that this is a must on the book list.
During the four months before my first test, I continued with the same tools and took many practice tests with
MGMAT. I also highly recommend their test for their difficulty level and closeness to the real GMAT, most high level questions are actually too high but that makes it good practice.
My retake strategy was to focus on my weaknesses and really tackle them. As everyone advised, I was keeping track of my weaknesses and had a clear idea of what they were, but my mistake was to assume that these areas/topics were too hard for me anyway, so I didn't really spend on fixing them. In May/June, I choose one topic per week, reviewed the concept thoroughly and practice as much I could until I am sure to get it. I also took many full length practice tests to get me used to focusing for 4 hours, as this was a main weakness. My study material remained the same, no need to use 10 different books, the important is to pick them right. Only for one week before the exam, I studied with Kaplan 800, which was a big push in terms of difficulty but also a big confidence booster because I didn't bad at all with it!
My tips:- everyone says it, because it is so true: PRACTICE as much as you can!
- track your weaknesses and then work on each of them to ensure they are no longer weaknesses (by the way, we will always have weaknesses on the GMAT, as the level get harder as you go through it)
- be also aware of your behavioral weaknesses (just came up with the word): although it is good to know that you are weak in geometry, inequalities.... it is crucial to know whether you mess up a questions because if stress, timing, lack of focus, fear...
- take your time to study, don't rush into taking the test without being sure that you can reach the aspired level
- stay positive and don't be discouraged because of low practice test scores or low real test scores, everything is possible, it is just a matter of time and hard work
The last thing that I would like to say is that everyone can do it, no matter what their background is. When I was a kid and until not so long ago, everyone told me that I was no good in math and unable to deal with numbers. I thought that too, and when I got my 570 I really thought that I was not good enough, I thought many times about giving up on my MBA dream. In the end, I told to myself that I could at least try to get a 680...
But here I am today, after a lot of hard work and positivism I lifted my level to 730
If I can, you can!
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16 Aug 2010, 11:35
