I have only taken the GMAT once, which was 2 years ago and even though the score was relatively low I was happy with it because it got me into a business school that was convenient for me. Not a TOP program but I didn't want to move and uproot my family. I am currently still enrolled in my program and planning to graduate next year. I am feeling content about where I am at. It's a good school, a decent program, has great faculty, the town is nice, and they haven given me incredibly generous scholarships and fellowship which cover more than half of my overall tuition. Life is good.
Oh by the way here is my score from August 2013:
Total 560, (Q36, V31) and AWA 4. Don't remember the IR score. I am a non-native English speaker and actually felt pretty good about my verbal score. I know that many super smart people here in this forum are struggling with the language part and get excellent math scores.
My quantitative score sucked... I know! I did study for about 2 months, using books and I thought I was somewhat serious, but I probably could have done more. I didn't retake the GMAT back then, because like I said, the score was sufficient for my program. I also graduated with a 4.0 from my undergraduate program so I think that by itself was probably proof enough that I should do just fine in graduate school as well. I am doing fine so far by the way. I like my program.
However, something happened during the first semester of my MBA program. I realized that I belong in academia. It's my world. That's where I want to be. I have done a little bit of research, programs and schools for a PhD program, but haven't sent out any applications yet. It's quite an overwhelming process and yes I do understand that I will most likely have to move for this one which is fine. I would move across the country if I had to. I am thinking about either management or marketing but lean more towards micro-level management at this point.
Apparently I will have to retake the GMAT in order to get into a doctorate program. There is no doubt about that. I will need a score of at least over 600. 700+ would of course be fantastic but I am not sure if that's possible. I have read some success stories here where people improved their scores by 100 points or more. I would be completely happy with a score in the mid-600s.
So I bought the subscription to
Magoosh and I am really enjoying their instructional videos about the quantitative part.
I think that is were I need to focus on. I was in the 38 percentile with my math score which is REALLY lousy.
I also would like to get a better score on the essay part. That was a hard assignment because as a non-native English speaker it takes me much longer than 30 minutes to write a good essay. I can write pretty well in English but the time pressure was immense. I have to dig really deep for a well written paper and that's just really really hard to do in 30 minutes.
I want to get at least a 4.5 on the AWA, 5 would be better. Do you guys think that's possible? The AWA seems like the biggest problem to me right now. I know it's probably NOT the most important part of the GMAT but for a doctorate program it really shouldn't be below 4.5.
How did you other non-native English speakers do on your AWA?
The problem I see here is that it is not really something that can be learned or studied very much although all of the programs tell you that you can learn it. How? I am not impressed with the AWA videos of
Magoosh and would like to ask you all if you know of better ways or material for AWA prep?
I would greatly appreciate all other feedback as well.
Yes I do expect to be able to improve my score at a second attempt of the GMAT but I am not sure by how much. I am aiming at 660. Do you think that is possible?
Thanks.