Hi Samir,
I agree with your initial assessment. This was/is exactly my experience as well.
I believe that the great majority of GMAT takers are non-native speakers, but you and I don't fall into the "typical" non-native speaker category. I, for example have always been great at sentence correction regardless of me being a non-native speaker. SC is by far my strongest section on the GMAT, but I don't have a quantitative background like many here do thus I am always low on the quant score..
Sometimes, it upsets me a little bit when I hear that what is tested on the GMAT are just some very basic math and grammar skills. That's not entirely true. RC and CR can get quite complicated and the "basic math skills" are tested in a way that makes it really hard to apply my knowledge.
I recently took a practice GRE just to see what the questions look like and I didn't even finish the whole thing, but what I saw was that YES the math part is easier and for the verbal part you need more vocabulary which shouldn't be that hard to learn because it is something that can be memorized and it would actually be fun to learn a few new fancy words that you can throw at people at work or dinner parties.
But people kept telling me that the GMAT is easier for non-native speakers, I just wasn't aware that they had a different profile of "non-native" speaker in mind when they said that. I don't fit that profile and I think you don't either.
But hey let's not give up yet. I agree with BB that some people just need a lot longer to finally have a break through.
I really want to believe that HARD WORK PAYS OFF IN THE END.
This has always worked for me in life and I want to believe the GMAT is no exception to this.
SamirAbrahao wrote:
bb wrote:
It takes a lot of effort and energy to get over that limitation but I can tell that when you do, that is going to be a very liberating and eye-opening experience. I have learned a lot from my GMAT test-taking and still draw some conclusions and perspectives from it - don't be shy to invest yourself fully into it. It is not just a test - it is a learning opportunity that can/will reward you over the years - use it instead of trying to brush it off and rush past it.
Well said, BB! I am also a strong adept of this point of view. GMAT is most certainly an opportunity to develop new skills, and I am an eternal knowledge-seeker. This is why I am so motivated towards a high score goal. I also wanna push myself to the limit for a change, see how far I can go without time constraints. It's been a thrilling experience so far, to say the least. It's a curious thing that my tone has led you to think otherwise. I am just in a process of understanding some key facts and barriers involved in this challenge, and I am not committed to being a pessimist or an optimist, I'm just trying to grasp the reality of things here.
As to everything you said, let's look at things this way: I consider myself to be quite proficient at the verbal section, even though I am not a native speaker. In fact, I think I've gone against everything you (and others) described as being the ideal, and yet I learn many new things about GMAT, specially quant skills, every day! I wanna make clear that I am NOT questioning your advice, or anyone else's, in any way. I'm just saying that experts often offer generic advices and information by nature, with good reason of course, but people have a very hard time coping with this when they do not fit the average profile. For instance, you almost exclusively touched the verbal section on your last response. Why would you do this if not out of pure habit? Why did you enforce not once, but twice, that what you were saying only applied to non-native english speakers? Was it because you saw that I'm from Brazil, or because
most test takers are from India? I think this only strengthens my conclusion in the 4th point of the main post.
I'm just stating what I believe to be a fact concealed among such a wealth of information this forum has to offer... Just leaving some quick notes in the wall for the next unwary South American that comes through