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pmaples
Joined: 25 Jul 2024
Last visit: 09 Feb 2025
Posts: 4
Given Kudos: 7
Location: United States (GA)
Schools: Tepper '27 (A$$$) Booth '27 (A$) MIT '27 (WL) Fisher (A$$$$) Kenan-Flagler '27 Kellog '27 Ross '27 Wharton '27
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q80 V90 DI87 
GPA: 3.79
Schools: Tepper '27 (A$$$) Booth '27 (A$) MIT '27 (WL) Fisher (A$$$$) Kenan-Flagler '27 Kellog '27 Ross '27 Wharton '27
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q80 V90 DI87
Posts: 4
06 Aug 2024, 07:42
Kudos
Bookmarks
Score Breakdown & TLDR
715 total: Q80 (66pct), V90 (100pct), DI87 (99pct). Yay!
TLDR: Pay attention to time and ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS. Or at least most. Ha.
Background
I was laid off from my tech job about 3 weeks ago and decided I wanted to take some time off and really think about next steps before subjecting myself to a job hunt. I've been vaguely considering an MBA for years but it never seemed like the right time, so I decided with my free time I would take the GMAT so at least I would be ready to apply if I ever decide to.
General stats - American LGBT female, 3.8 at top US undergrad (history degree but with a few math/science classes). Solid career trajectory in tech (9 years exp), but not a ton of leadership and got laid off recently. GREAT extracurriculars - on two boards related to my main hobby (one local, one national).
"Prep"
Let's be real, I had three weeks and was also moving. I did very little prep. I knew that <3 weeks wouldn't be enough time to truly study. I figured I might as well take it once with very little investment, so if I got a good score I wouldn't waste $$$ on prep classes etc that I didn't need.
I wanted to set myself up for success at least somewhat though, so I did a few free things:
I then spent a week basically drilling the quant questions in the free starter kit. I felt like I was getting faster and more accurate. When I took the SAT basically all my prep was practice questions so I thought that would be best for me.
Second practice test - I accidentally took the one labeled "Practice Test 1" which I theoretically had done before? I found the GMAT official prep interface wildly confusing. I either didn't remember the questions or got new ones. And the results...615, FIRST percentile quant. (99/100 in DI/V). Apparently I was getting worse at math, and slower - I only answered 15 questions!
After that, I registered for GMAT club and got the free Magoosh trial that it offered. Ultimately the Magoosh was probably the most helpful, because after I got questions wrong I could watch the little videos about the topics. Between those two resources I learned a bunch of tricks to help with certain types of questions, especially combinatorics and polynomials. and the timer on GMAT club was great - I was hitting <2min for most answers. Including incorrect answers,
Final Practice Test - I wanted a final checkup a day or two before the exam, so I took the Official Practice Exam 2. Since we were moving I didn't have time until 24 hours beforehand. Oops - 585 again, 5th percentile quant, and slightly lower DI than before (like 96th vs 98th pct, not a huge drop). My big takeaway was that I was still WAY too slow. I hadn't been focusing on time so again I had many unanswered questions.
After this, I actually tried to reschedule my exam, but since it was within 24 hours they wouldn't let me.
Prep Totals
Test Day
After the rough practice test the day before, I went in thinking "well at least if I score poorly, the TTP guarantee will count for more points!". I tried to stay super relaxed and decided that my number one goal was to ANSWER ALL THE QUANT QUESTIONS.
I did Quant, DI, Verbal for my order - hardest to easiest, since I knew I would be getting restless after sitting for two hours. Oddly, the test felt HARD compared to all the practice I had done. Even on verbal, my strongest section, there were ~4 questions I tagged for review because I just wasn't sure what they were looking for. (I ultimately only changed one answer, and it was a successful change.)
On Quant, I REALLY focused on time. If I hit 2.5 minutes and still felt far away from an answer, I guessed and moved on. Sometimes I took 15 seconds to try to intuit the best guess - apparently this helped because I got questions 1-18 all correct! Then I was slow on 19 (and incorrect) and did not get to 20-21. So I didn't quite get to ALL of them but I did much better than in practice.
DI and verbal - not much to say. They felt slightly more difficult than the practice tests. The mouse at the test center was terrible which made using the calculator hard, and the screen was a weird size which resulted in lots of annoying scrolling. I actually did not get to properly answer the last question of DI due to time which had NEVER happened in my practice exams. (I had time to click a random answer and submit, it was incorrect.)
Results and Next Steps
715 - Q80 (66pct), V90 (100pct), DI87 (99pct). My goal was a 720-730 (classic) based on hoping for either a top school or a scholarship. The concordance tables put a 715 Focus at a 750-760 Classic, so I definitely hit that!
I am considering retaking to try to further improve the quant score to maximize my chances of getting scholarship $$ at a solid school. (My partner and I would likely have to go long-distance during the MBA, so our living expenses would increase.) If I decide to retake, I would buy the official question bank and sign up for 1-3 months of a prep service so I actually learn more of the math!
715 total: Q80 (66pct), V90 (100pct), DI87 (99pct). Yay!
TLDR: Pay attention to time and ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS. Or at least most. Ha.
Background
I was laid off from my tech job about 3 weeks ago and decided I wanted to take some time off and really think about next steps before subjecting myself to a job hunt. I've been vaguely considering an MBA for years but it never seemed like the right time, so I decided with my free time I would take the GMAT so at least I would be ready to apply if I ever decide to.
General stats - American LGBT female, 3.8 at top US undergrad (history degree but with a few math/science classes). Solid career trajectory in tech (9 years exp), but not a ton of leadership and got laid off recently. GREAT extracurriculars - on two boards related to my main hobby (one local, one national).
"Prep"
Let's be real, I had three weeks and was also moving. I did very little prep. I knew that <3 weeks wouldn't be enough time to truly study. I figured I might as well take it once with very little investment, so if I got a good score I wouldn't waste $$$ on prep classes etc that I didn't need.
I wanted to set myself up for success at least somewhat though, so I did a few free things:
- Took the free official practice tests
- Used the free "GMAT Starter Kit"
- Registered for GMAT Club, which included a limited free trial to Magoosh
I then spent a week basically drilling the quant questions in the free starter kit. I felt like I was getting faster and more accurate. When I took the SAT basically all my prep was practice questions so I thought that would be best for me.
Second practice test - I accidentally took the one labeled "Practice Test 1" which I theoretically had done before? I found the GMAT official prep interface wildly confusing. I either didn't remember the questions or got new ones. And the results...615, FIRST percentile quant. (99/100 in DI/V). Apparently I was getting worse at math, and slower - I only answered 15 questions!
After that, I registered for GMAT club and got the free Magoosh trial that it offered. Ultimately the Magoosh was probably the most helpful, because after I got questions wrong I could watch the little videos about the topics. Between those two resources I learned a bunch of tricks to help with certain types of questions, especially combinatorics and polynomials. and the timer on GMAT club was great - I was hitting <2min for most answers. Including incorrect answers,
Final Practice Test - I wanted a final checkup a day or two before the exam, so I took the Official Practice Exam 2. Since we were moving I didn't have time until 24 hours beforehand. Oops - 585 again, 5th percentile quant, and slightly lower DI than before (like 96th vs 98th pct, not a huge drop). My big takeaway was that I was still WAY too slow. I hadn't been focusing on time so again I had many unanswered questions.
After this, I actually tried to reschedule my exam, but since it was within 24 hours they wouldn't let me.
Prep Totals
- ~30ish questions from free official bank. The 20 they had for quant and the rest DI. (I did the DI without a calculator to help practice fast arithmetic.)
- 39 Magoosh quant (free GMATclub trial)
- 40ish quant from GMAT club
Test Day
After the rough practice test the day before, I went in thinking "well at least if I score poorly, the TTP guarantee will count for more points!". I tried to stay super relaxed and decided that my number one goal was to ANSWER ALL THE QUANT QUESTIONS.
I did Quant, DI, Verbal for my order - hardest to easiest, since I knew I would be getting restless after sitting for two hours. Oddly, the test felt HARD compared to all the practice I had done. Even on verbal, my strongest section, there were ~4 questions I tagged for review because I just wasn't sure what they were looking for. (I ultimately only changed one answer, and it was a successful change.)
On Quant, I REALLY focused on time. If I hit 2.5 minutes and still felt far away from an answer, I guessed and moved on. Sometimes I took 15 seconds to try to intuit the best guess - apparently this helped because I got questions 1-18 all correct! Then I was slow on 19 (and incorrect) and did not get to 20-21. So I didn't quite get to ALL of them but I did much better than in practice.
DI and verbal - not much to say. They felt slightly more difficult than the practice tests. The mouse at the test center was terrible which made using the calculator hard, and the screen was a weird size which resulted in lots of annoying scrolling. I actually did not get to properly answer the last question of DI due to time which had NEVER happened in my practice exams. (I had time to click a random answer and submit, it was incorrect.)
Results and Next Steps
715 - Q80 (66pct), V90 (100pct), DI87 (99pct). My goal was a 720-730 (classic) based on hoping for either a top school or a scholarship. The concordance tables put a 715 Focus at a 750-760 Classic, so I definitely hit that!
I am considering retaking to try to further improve the quant score to maximize my chances of getting scholarship $$ at a solid school. (My partner and I would likely have to go long-distance during the MBA, so our living expenses would increase.) If I decide to retake, I would buy the official question bank and sign up for 1-3 months of a prep service so I actually learn more of the math!
06 Aug 2024, 09:03
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congratulations on an excellent result.
All the Best for the applications.
All the Best for the applications.
06 Aug 2024, 10:11
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi ptrish12,
Congrats on a great score! Good luck with things moving forward.
Congrats on a great score! Good luck with things moving forward.
