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ThisGuyGetsIt
Joined: 03 Aug 2014
Last visit: 13 Jul 2023
Posts: 39
Given Kudos: 12
Concentration: Finance, Accounting
Schools: Anderson '18 (D) Carroll '18 (WL) Wharton '18 (D) Marshall '18 (D) Simon '18 (WD) UConn FT "18 (A)
GMAT 1: 720 Q47 V41
GPA: 3.52
WE:Operations (Non-Profit and Government)
Schools: Anderson '18 (D) Carroll '18 (WL) Wharton '18 (D) Marshall '18 (D) Simon '18 (WD) UConn FT "18 (A)
GMAT 1: 720 Q47 V41
Posts: 39
Updated on: 21 Sep 2015, 15:28
Originally posted by ThisGuyGetsIt on 04 Sep 2015, 20:25.
Last edited by ThisGuyGetsIt on 21 Sep 2015, 15:28, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by ThisGuyGetsIt on 21 Sep 2015, 15:28, edited 1 time in total.
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Fellow GMAT Warriors. It is finished. Done. Never doing it again. I earned a 720 (Q47, V41)
Here is my story from start to finish.
Introduction/Background:
I first decided to get apply for MBA programs about 15 months ago: incidentally around the time I got married to my wife. While I initially wanted to take the GMAT and apply to business schools for Fall 2015 intake, I still wasn’t done with my master’s degree and I was trying to enjoy being a newly-wed. Simply put, I decided to hold off and wait until I finished my master’s before starting to study for the GMAT. I work full time, leading to an elongated study schedule. I ended up studying from February until my 1st attempt on August 8th, and then studied part-time throughout August until my retake. Admittedly, I felt mostly defeated throughout August as I prepped for part 2 of what felt like my GMAT nightmare.
I have experience as a proprietary trader in the FOREX market, and I have decided to make investment management my profession. I positively love market analysis and want to integrate my passion for the markets with the desire to see research institutions shift from a federal grant driven funding system to one that rely’s on interest earned through a well managed endowment. I think I can leverage my non-profit background and personal experience with proprietary trading to help me get into a strong MBA program emphasizing in Finance.
Resources Used:
— MGMAT Gmat Prep Books. Since I haven’t taken a proper math course since 2009, I gave lots of attention to relearning math fundamentals. This was crucial in my long, drawn-out study timeframe. For me, however, the drawn-out plan was completely necessary. I took about three months to get through these books, but it was well worth it. I highly recommend the books for those who do well learning through books. And, yes, the Sentence Correction book is everything everyone says about it. It is a phenomenal resource.
— Magoosh GMAT Math: In my opinion, Magoosh is simply the best. I loved everything about their math videos. The team emphasizes math sense over formulas, and it helped me solidify a lot of the concepts I had learned in the MGMAT math books. Frankly, I’m not sure how I would have done if I had stuck with only MGMAT or had only used Magoosh. Using both was helpful for me.
— Powerscore CR Bible: I enjoyed the book, but more than anything, the book makes you aware of the various types of questions and what to expect from them. My biggest takeaways are to identify the conclusion, personalize the argument (react to it as you would if a friend was making the argument), and remember that a wrong answer isn't necessarily one that is the opposite of the right answer (i.e. - a wrong answer to a strengthen question isn't necessary something that weakens the argument; a wrong answer could simply be irrelevant to the argument).
Diagnostics, Mock Scores, Official Scores:
Do yourself a favor and don’t bother with most diagnostic tools. Sure, do the diagnostic questions in the Official Guides, but really they are only good for practice. Generally speaking, they don’t really tell you much about your specific weakness, or even the relative difficulty of each question. My personal recommendation is to use GMATClub.com’s diagnostic worksheet and accompanying assessment Excel file found here: GMAT Diagnostic Test. This was phenomenally helpful and actually ended up being the most accurate representation of how I would do on the GMAT Quant section for my second attempt.
MGMAT 1 06/06/15: 620 (Q39, V35)
GMATPrep 1 06/19/15: 640 (Q44, V34)
MGMAT 2 07/05/15: 650 (Q41, V37)
MGMAT 3 07/10/15: 650 (Q43, V36)
GMATPrep 2 07/17/2015: 660 (Q45, V35)
GMATPrep 1 Retake 1 07/25/15 670 (Q42, V40 <— that felt good)
GMATPrep 2 Retake 1 08/01/15 710 (Q47, V40)
GMATPrep 1 Retake 2 08/07/15 740 (Q49, V42)
Official GMAT 08/08/15: 650 (Q42, V37)
MGMAT 5 08/28/15: 650 (Q42, V37) <— This shook my confidence and frustrated me. I was, at this point, ready to call it a day with all the studying and all the preparation. I actually toned down the studying and began to relax for the first time in about 9 months. I think this actually helped me focus less on the stress of the test and more on the actual math and verbal. I ended up rather enjoying my final GMAT experience.
Official GMAT 2 09/04/15: 720 (Q47, V41) - Pure elation ensued the moment I saw my score.
Test Day Experience: 1st Attempt 650
My first mistake was not scheduling my first attempt sooner, leading to a test time that was not optimal to my peak critical thinking times. Needless to say, I had felt pretty good about test day, due to my 740 on the GMATPrep the day before. (Side note:I have no opinion on whether prepping the day before either helped or hindered me. I am a fan of doing whatever alleviates your nerves. If studying does that for you, then by all means, do a bit of light review the day before.)
I arrived at the test center about half an hour prior to my test time, which was 1:45pm. I was able to start about 15 minutes early, which was appreciated because I usually feel groggy in the afternoons. Unfortunately, grogginess kicked in right around question 25 of the quant section. The quant section felt incredibly difficult compared to anything I had practiced before. I felt thrown off, completely. Further aiding in my first try defeat, I didn't bring anything to eat for my breaks. Hungry and tired, I was sluggish throughout the rest of the test. My timing was off and I felt rushed.
I completed the demographic information, checked send report, and waited for what felt like long enough for the system to have crashed and erase my score. I was in disbelief at the score I saw: 650. Please note that GMAT results are completely relative; there is no one right score. 650 is a good score and perfectly sufficient to get into many great MBA programs for those with a supporting application. For me, given my background and lack of STEM education, I felt that I needed a 700+.
Test Day Experience: 2nd Attempt 720
I slept horribly the night before. I tossed and turned for several hours before I finally fell asleep at midnight. I awoke naturally at about 5:30am and decided to remain awake instead of being abruptly awoken to an alarm 30 minutes later. This, however, worked out quite well for me as I felt completely refreshed and awake throughout the entire test--it could also have been the coffee I drank the morning of, but who knows. I enjoyed the 8am test time much more, and not just for the test time. Everyone was quite chummy for how early it was. I think there was only one other person taking the GMAT with me; yes, I wanted to compare scores when it was all said and done, but, frankly, that would have been vastly inappropriate.
Virtually everything, I mean everything, was different about my second try. I didn't feel rushed, the quant felt surprisingly easy (though I know it was challenging), and I actually got way ahead during the quant section. At question 25 on the quant section I looked up to check my time and I had about 37 minutes left... Instead of keeping this pace, I decided to slow down and narrow in on the questions to try to really boost my score; I wanted a strong quant score so badly. I took my break, ate the last half of my power bar, drank a few ounces of water, did some stretching, and headed back in for some verbal. Admittedly, I succumbed to fear and ordered the Enhanced Score Report to see in what areas I could improve. As it would turn out, I actual did 96th percentile in sentence correction on my first attempt, but I did only adequately in critical reasoning and quite poorly on reading comprehension. Everything felt fine during verbal, however. I didn't feel particularly excellent during the verbal section, but I felt as though I was doing well.
By the time I got to the last question, my heart was pounding and I was even beginning to feel slightly nauseous. I was nervous, scared, yet hopeful. I finished all the demographic information and clicked the fateful "next" button. Only a moment later, I saw my score: 720.
Needless to say, I was beyond words and completely happy. I could hardly handle myself.
Some Takeaways:
One last thing. Thank you to all you amazing people here on GMATClub. I personally benefitted from many people's posts, wisdoms, debriefs, and question responses.
~ David
Here is my story from start to finish.
Introduction/Background:
I first decided to get apply for MBA programs about 15 months ago: incidentally around the time I got married to my wife. While I initially wanted to take the GMAT and apply to business schools for Fall 2015 intake, I still wasn’t done with my master’s degree and I was trying to enjoy being a newly-wed. Simply put, I decided to hold off and wait until I finished my master’s before starting to study for the GMAT. I work full time, leading to an elongated study schedule. I ended up studying from February until my 1st attempt on August 8th, and then studied part-time throughout August until my retake. Admittedly, I felt mostly defeated throughout August as I prepped for part 2 of what felt like my GMAT nightmare.
I have experience as a proprietary trader in the FOREX market, and I have decided to make investment management my profession. I positively love market analysis and want to integrate my passion for the markets with the desire to see research institutions shift from a federal grant driven funding system to one that rely’s on interest earned through a well managed endowment. I think I can leverage my non-profit background and personal experience with proprietary trading to help me get into a strong MBA program emphasizing in Finance.
Resources Used:
— MGMAT Gmat Prep Books. Since I haven’t taken a proper math course since 2009, I gave lots of attention to relearning math fundamentals. This was crucial in my long, drawn-out study timeframe. For me, however, the drawn-out plan was completely necessary. I took about three months to get through these books, but it was well worth it. I highly recommend the books for those who do well learning through books. And, yes, the Sentence Correction book is everything everyone says about it. It is a phenomenal resource.
— Magoosh GMAT Math: In my opinion, Magoosh is simply the best. I loved everything about their math videos. The team emphasizes math sense over formulas, and it helped me solidify a lot of the concepts I had learned in the MGMAT math books. Frankly, I’m not sure how I would have done if I had stuck with only MGMAT or had only used Magoosh. Using both was helpful for me.
— Powerscore CR Bible: I enjoyed the book, but more than anything, the book makes you aware of the various types of questions and what to expect from them. My biggest takeaways are to identify the conclusion, personalize the argument (react to it as you would if a friend was making the argument), and remember that a wrong answer isn't necessarily one that is the opposite of the right answer (i.e. - a wrong answer to a strengthen question isn't necessary something that weakens the argument; a wrong answer could simply be irrelevant to the argument).
Diagnostics, Mock Scores, Official Scores:
Do yourself a favor and don’t bother with most diagnostic tools. Sure, do the diagnostic questions in the Official Guides, but really they are only good for practice. Generally speaking, they don’t really tell you much about your specific weakness, or even the relative difficulty of each question. My personal recommendation is to use GMATClub.com’s diagnostic worksheet and accompanying assessment Excel file found here: GMAT Diagnostic Test. This was phenomenally helpful and actually ended up being the most accurate representation of how I would do on the GMAT Quant section for my second attempt.
MGMAT 1 06/06/15: 620 (Q39, V35)
GMATPrep 1 06/19/15: 640 (Q44, V34)
MGMAT 2 07/05/15: 650 (Q41, V37)
MGMAT 3 07/10/15: 650 (Q43, V36)
GMATPrep 2 07/17/2015: 660 (Q45, V35)
GMATPrep 1 Retake 1 07/25/15 670 (Q42, V40 <— that felt good)
GMATPrep 2 Retake 1 08/01/15 710 (Q47, V40)
GMATPrep 1 Retake 2 08/07/15 740 (Q49, V42)
Official GMAT 08/08/15: 650 (Q42, V37)
MGMAT 5 08/28/15: 650 (Q42, V37) <— This shook my confidence and frustrated me. I was, at this point, ready to call it a day with all the studying and all the preparation. I actually toned down the studying and began to relax for the first time in about 9 months. I think this actually helped me focus less on the stress of the test and more on the actual math and verbal. I ended up rather enjoying my final GMAT experience.
Official GMAT 2 09/04/15: 720 (Q47, V41) - Pure elation ensued the moment I saw my score.
Test Day Experience: 1st Attempt 650
My first mistake was not scheduling my first attempt sooner, leading to a test time that was not optimal to my peak critical thinking times. Needless to say, I had felt pretty good about test day, due to my 740 on the GMATPrep the day before. (Side note:I have no opinion on whether prepping the day before either helped or hindered me. I am a fan of doing whatever alleviates your nerves. If studying does that for you, then by all means, do a bit of light review the day before.)
I arrived at the test center about half an hour prior to my test time, which was 1:45pm. I was able to start about 15 minutes early, which was appreciated because I usually feel groggy in the afternoons. Unfortunately, grogginess kicked in right around question 25 of the quant section. The quant section felt incredibly difficult compared to anything I had practiced before. I felt thrown off, completely. Further aiding in my first try defeat, I didn't bring anything to eat for my breaks. Hungry and tired, I was sluggish throughout the rest of the test. My timing was off and I felt rushed.
I completed the demographic information, checked send report, and waited for what felt like long enough for the system to have crashed and erase my score. I was in disbelief at the score I saw: 650. Please note that GMAT results are completely relative; there is no one right score. 650 is a good score and perfectly sufficient to get into many great MBA programs for those with a supporting application. For me, given my background and lack of STEM education, I felt that I needed a 700+.
Test Day Experience: 2nd Attempt 720
I slept horribly the night before. I tossed and turned for several hours before I finally fell asleep at midnight. I awoke naturally at about 5:30am and decided to remain awake instead of being abruptly awoken to an alarm 30 minutes later. This, however, worked out quite well for me as I felt completely refreshed and awake throughout the entire test--it could also have been the coffee I drank the morning of, but who knows. I enjoyed the 8am test time much more, and not just for the test time. Everyone was quite chummy for how early it was. I think there was only one other person taking the GMAT with me; yes, I wanted to compare scores when it was all said and done, but, frankly, that would have been vastly inappropriate.
Virtually everything, I mean everything, was different about my second try. I didn't feel rushed, the quant felt surprisingly easy (though I know it was challenging), and I actually got way ahead during the quant section. At question 25 on the quant section I looked up to check my time and I had about 37 minutes left... Instead of keeping this pace, I decided to slow down and narrow in on the questions to try to really boost my score; I wanted a strong quant score so badly. I took my break, ate the last half of my power bar, drank a few ounces of water, did some stretching, and headed back in for some verbal. Admittedly, I succumbed to fear and ordered the Enhanced Score Report to see in what areas I could improve. As it would turn out, I actual did 96th percentile in sentence correction on my first attempt, but I did only adequately in critical reasoning and quite poorly on reading comprehension. Everything felt fine during verbal, however. I didn't feel particularly excellent during the verbal section, but I felt as though I was doing well.
By the time I got to the last question, my heart was pounding and I was even beginning to feel slightly nauseous. I was nervous, scared, yet hopeful. I finished all the demographic information and clicked the fateful "next" button. Only a moment later, I saw my score: 720.
Needless to say, I was beyond words and completely happy. I could hardly handle myself.
Some Takeaways:
- Know when you get groggy and avoid that time slot. Seriously, it's not worth trying to force a good score out of tiredness.
- Remember that if you can't sleep the night before, it's probably because your brain thinks you are in crisis mode. Do everything you can to relax yourself and convince yourself that there is no crisis to the GMAT, because, really, there isn't.
- Magoosh. Seriously. $99 for quant and verbal and you get it for a year. Magoosh was a phenomenal investment and I would recommend it above all other prep materials (That is if you do better with visual/audio training like me).
- Don't get caught up on one score. Identify the score you think you need and chase after it, but don't retake the GMAT unnecessarily.
- Establish a consistent study schedule, and study in shorter bursts rather than for excessively long stretches.
One last thing. Thank you to all you amazing people here on GMATClub. I personally benefitted from many people's posts, wisdoms, debriefs, and question responses.
~ David
DazzleMBA
Joined: 08 Jan 2015
Last visit: 03 Feb 2019
Posts: 7
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 281
Location: United States
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
Schools: Consortium-UNC '19 Consortium-Hass '19 Consortium-McCombs '19 Consortium-UCLA '19 Consortium-Goizueta '19 Consortium-Marshall '19 Cox '19 Booth '19 Kellogg '19
17 Sep 2015, 11:29
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Thanks for the informative debrief, and congrats on a great score. I've been a member of GMAT Club for a while, and somehow missed the Diagnostic Worksheet. Thanks for sharing!
19 Sep 2015, 06:00
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dwartenb89
I'm pretty sure that if everyone read what you've written here, median scores at all schools would go up by 40 points
