Hi all,
today was my big day, my first real GMAT-Exam.
I am 18 years old and I am currently in my last year of High School. I need the GMAT for my bachelor studies at the University of St. Gallen, which requires a minimum of 650 points. I started studying on the first of March. Studying wasn't always easy since I still have normal school and I also had to study for my final exams, which at that time were slightly more important.
I first bought the Princeton Review, which gave a good overview of what I should expect. But otherwise, the Princeton Review is complete bull shi*t, the questions are too easy and make you way to confident, in addition the online test are horrible. I ordered
the Official Guide and went through almost all the questions. When I did not understand a question a researched and really got to know all principles necessary for the test. The
OG was extremely helpful, although sometimes it was a bit too easy! I quickly made a good progress my first GMAT-Prep which I did in two parts (left out AWA and took a day between Q and V) was a 690 - I was really confident! A few days later I did the same test (obviously 3-4 questions which I already knew appeared) and scored 710 with V41!
A week late I did the second free test, this day including one AWA and without a break and scored 650 with V37. One week ago I did the last test again, again with one AWA and scored 700...
All this really gave me hopes and it espacially felt like I had improved a lot in V, from 20 to 40!
Three days ago I had my last exam in school and wanted enjoy my last 2 days before the exam... Instead of enjoying my last two days, I got a cold... 38°C fever and head ache. I took yesterday off and tried to get fit again... It worked a bit with a lot of water and Aspirin my headache vanished and fever wasnt as bad anymore. I don't know if I had done better today without the cold, but I really don't want to use it as an excuse for my relatively poor score today.
Taking the test:The two AWA essays were okay, can't really evalute it yet, but it doesn't really matter that much to me... The University, I want to apply to does need a good AWA score. All the AWA did was to take away my concentration...I had never taken a full GMAT test with all 3 sections before. AWA was a bit annoying since I am uses to a German keyboard, where the Y and the Z is swapped. Nearly every word with Z and Y in it was wrong before I checked it, that really cost some time!
(Get used to the American keyboard)The Quant section was horrible! Never felt so bad, a lot of disibility, factor and Data Sufficiency questions. Absolutely no idea how I scored Q48, never had above 47 before!
(Don't go into V with a bad feeling, it could be there for no reason!) Verbal section seemed okay. I felt confident with all SC and most CR questions, but with RC I really struggled, my concentration was so low, that I had difficulty really understanding what I was reading...! I expected it to be in a mit 30s and there for I was shocked when I saw V29 ;(
What I have learnt:It is all about concentration! (at least for me) I never really did a complete GMAT-test, but I should have! I might not put too much effort into the Quant anymore, I will now try to increase my V by working on my concentration. I will start reading novels again and spending less time infront of the computer wasting time on Facebook and Youtube!
What now:I will enjoy my two weeks of easter holidays now and then prepare again for my 2nd test. I am confident that the new Prep software will help me! Should I also buy the new
OG 13?
Looking forward for you replies,
Lars