Shocker. Disappointed. Disbelief. These are the words that I associate with my GMAT examination this past Sunday. I got a score of 680 (Q 49, V33) which has literally rocked my world. Apologies for a long brief, but in the state I am, this is the best I could come up with. This is GMAT debrief, suggestion solicitation and profile valuation all rolled into one.
For the last 6 months I have been a part of a critical project at my workplace which ended in September itself. I had started studying by July end using self study and GMAT club. I decided to book my GMAT appointment on October 21. But it seems that destiny had its own plans as instead of passport I took other government issued identity proofs that day. Though my father was on way to handover my passport, I was not allowed to appear for the exam. I berated myself and came back home to book another appointment for October 25. Looking back I do realize that it was my own foolishness which led to the cancellation of my exam.
The next 3 days passed in heightened anxiety as I kept on believing that I was better prepared for my earlier attempt and this unforeseen development was a result of my lack of preparation. A day before my exam, all of a sudden my brain went totally blank. I could not even remember what mean and median stood for. I could not sleep for the entire night as every time I closed my eyes, a particular quadratic equation coupled with a tricky modulus question kept on floating in front of my eyes. With zero sleep and a body wrecking cold, I reached the venue around an hour before the time. Now this time at the center, another guy was turned back because of not having a passport. It seemed that history was repeating itself and I was the one being asked to leave the center. Fortunately, the sour faced invigilator asked me to go and sit inside the room. Aided by lack of sleep and a baggage of four days of anxiety, it honestly felt as though I was a part of a dream sequence and the examination was a fabrication of my imagination.
Coming to Quant, the first three questions were very easy to solve. At that time it strengthened my belief that there must be a trap as GMAC cannot have such simple questions. I took around 5 minutes to answer the third question though I had solved it in ten seconds, trying to eliminate any traps in the question. It seemed that I had messed up as all questions were easy as compared to what I had thought earlier. Again I floated back into my ‘inception’ world where the examination was a surreal experience and I was solving all questions just for the fun of it.
I completed my examination with more than 30 minutes in hand without stressing even an iota. Even for three tricky questions, I did not stress much and moved on. Took a break of a only a minute and started off with the verbal section. Man, it was tricky. With my exhausted state, I had to read every sentence twice just to understand what was being said. I just wanted to be over with my exam at that point of time. The unexpected advantage of a tough verbal was that it jolted me out of my sleepy state.
When finally the score appeared at the end, I was dumbstruck for a moment as I was not ready to accept these scores. I blinked my eyes furiously in the hope that probably the screen was flashing wrong results. I felt dejected and disappointed feeling that this is the end of me and my life as I had hoped for it. Walking out of the center I burst into tears and felt that my life is over. Fortunately my parents had come to pick me up (they came prepared for a celebratory lunch) who comforted me and made me realize that something better is still out there.
A day later, I can say that I overestimated my verbal skills which are good with respect to spoken English but not so for the GMAT. I have been a scholarship holder throughout in my academics and ECA so this has come as a revelation for me. As my mother pointed out, sometimes a failure teaches a lot more than does success.
My only aim was and is reaching ISB which I am not so sure of now. I can’t decide if I should go for a retake or focus on my essays and application? If I do go for a retake, how should I prepare for verbal? If anybody can help me, I would be really thankful!
ankurgupta03, @
E-GMAT,
souvik101990,
GyanOne,
mikemcgarry, and all reading this post, please suggest for a retake or verbal improvement.
Nevertheless, I really want to thank
Engr2012 and
Bunuel who have patiently taken all my queries. Though I have always scored well in Maths including 99% percentile in CAT examination for IIMs, I have always been a bit scared about quant since childhood. A shout out to both of them for the wonderful work that they are doing on GMAT Club.
Scores :
GMAT Prep1: 640 (July 2015: without any study, after being 5 years away from any textbook)
MGMAT: 690 (August 2015)
Kaplan: 730 (October 2, 2015)
GMAT Prep2: 730 (October 18, 2015)
GMAT: 680 (Q49, V33????
)
A little background about myself:
25, Indian female with bachelors in Business Economics from a Tier 1 Delhi University college. Scored 96.6% in class X, 86% in class XII and 74.8% in bachelors (amongst the top 10 in university). Been an active parliamentary debator at the national and international level, Vice-President of the college’s placement cell for 2 years, campus radio-jockey at a leading FM station of New Delhi for 6 months and a radio jockey for the university radio frequency for more than a year, editor of the National Social Service magazine, part of the Teach India campaign, college’s admission counsellor for two years, won multiple awards at various university conferences and competitions, etcetera. Even during school, won multiple National Youth Day awards, was the Deputy Leader of Opposition at the Youth Parliament, had top scores in various subjects in class X and XII and was given merit certificates by CBSE stating this feat.
I have been actively involved in sports and played at inter-school women hockey championships and currently I am an amateur rock climber and trekker. Got an admit from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, a leading mountaineering institute in Asia, for the year 2016 which I am getting postponed to 2017 as I intend to pursue MBA in 2016.
I have been working at Standard's and Poor's Capital IQ for the last 5 years. At work, I have had a good career progression with 3 promotions in 5 years. As I started working comparatively early, at the age of 25, I already have an experience of more than 5 years in data analytics. Though I am not a team leader, I been involved in many critical projects beyond the scope of my current designation, involving automation of processes, designing and development of workflow tools, training of new employees, guideline formulation etc. with an expertise in global M&A spectrum. In fact it was in recognition of my good work that my manager himself suggested to write a recommendation for me.
All inputs and suggestions would be really appreciated.
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26 Oct 2015, 10:25
