740 - from Q30 to Q49

Question

Hi all, Today was my test day - got 740 (Q 48, V 44), but really messed up with AWA. The scores for AWA are not coming before cancellation deadline, so I would really appreciate advice on retake strategy. With GMAT Online not having AWA section, do admission officers look at AWA from GMAT at all these days? My dream is TOP 3 in the US. I think I could end up with as low as 1 or 2 on AWA, because by the time I was doing AWA (this was my last section) I got completely burned out and could only write something from templates plus one or two sentences off the top of my head... On a more happy note, here's a summary of my GMAT adventure. GMAT Prep I am a Russian female, a lawyer in an international law firm, working with English law and hence English language on a day-to-day basis. I took GMAT for the first time straight after getting bachelor's degree in 2012 (don't ask, I honestly don't know why I did that) and scored 570, with both Q and V at the average level. But then when I decided to start serious preparation in 2020 and took the first mock, I scored 710 (Q 42, V 46) with preparation only focused on quant and no preparation on verbal. This verbal score is a reflection of an advantage of someone with legal background I guess, legal drafting involves a lot of critical thinking that, to me at least, seems very similar to GMAT logic in verbal. As I mentioned, I scored 710 (Q 42, V 46) on the first mock after already some preparation on math. I thought there was no use to take the mock before going through math concepts, as I knew nothing - literally nothing - math related. I am a person who really struggles with math, as a lawyer who wants to change the career path but who did no math for 12+ years I felt completely frustrated with having to start learning math from the very basics, eg re-learn how to do long divisions... But GMAT Club really helped me to overcome this frustration. I started carefully reading all Share GMAT Experience posts and got the impression that a lot of people struggle with math and still get a good quant grade. I was preparing with focus on math for about 5 month by my first attempt today, but this time includes a number of breaks inbetween. All in all, I studied for about 200 hours. No magic in my math preparation, I just followed recommendations from the other Share GMAT Experience posts, so any improvement in quant for me is really thanks to GMAT Club members!! My preparation was as follows: - Manhattan set on quant (the old series of 5 books I got a while ago, not the All the Quant new edition - I cannot comment on that); - OG 2020; - Kaplan 800 (this helped to get from Q 44 to Q 48); - Manhattan Advanced Quant (this was unnecessary - did not help to increase Q 48 any further); - finally, a printout with some 300 700-level questions on Arithmetic/Algebra/Geometry, a material passed to me by a friend - consisting as I found out mostly of the questions that could also be found here on GMAT Club, perhaps some old OG questions. To my surprise, this was enough to get Q 48!! My strategy takeaway from the books was that GMAT tests not just math, but GMAT-math - there's a pattern in question types, common traps and so on. From my converstation with friends who also took GMAT, being a non-quant person has its advantages - you don't know how to solve questions before preparation, but then you learn how to solve GMAT-way, quick way, while quant people could (as I imagine) have some solution paths they are used to which take longer. Of course it would have been a dream to score higher, but I could not manage to improve Q 48. Apparently, a jump from Q 48 to Q 51 is the hardest part... With my verbal score, Q 48 seems sufficient, but hey those scoring at upper levels - wow

My mock results were as follows: - 01/04 - GMAT Prep 1 - 710 (Q 42, V 46) (the first mock after already some preparation on math) - 13/04 - MGMAT 1 - 700 (Q 44, V 41) - 20/06 - GMAT Prep 2 - 730 (Q 44, V 45) - 09/07 - GMAT Prep 3 - 750 (Q 48, V 45) - 30/07 - GMAT Prep 4 - 720 (Q 48, V 41) - 04/07 - GMAT Prep 5 - 750 (Q 47, V 47) Test Day Contrary to recommendations from the wise GMAT Club members, I messed up my sleep schedule the week before the exam. I tried to get good night sleep before test day, but I just could not fall asleep until 2 am, while my test was scheduled at 10am. Nevertheless, I decided to wake up 2.5h in advance of the test, to take cold shower, do some yoga and complete a warm-up (ie do 3 math questions). I think the warm-up really helped to overcome the fear, when I started quant it was as if I am just continuing the practice questions I started home. Yoga also helped, for those interested in yoga, 10mins video on Youtube that is good to wake up and focus - Yoga with Adriene / Yoga For Focus & Productivity. I got to the test center in advance, check-in went smoothly, I chose sections order Verbal, Quant, IR, AWA, the same as I practiced on mocks. On verbal, I got extremely slow compared to my home practice. I think it may have to do with the fact that I got V 47 the day before the test, which made me subconsciously striving for perfection. I got stuck on one of the questions for so long that it ruined my whole pacing, and finally, on question 31/36, I had 6 minutes left, and question 31 turned out to be another (4th) RC passage!! I tried to keep calm, visually scrolled through the passage and tried to make educated guesses on 3 RC questions, then solved 1 SC and had to guess the last two questions. I took the break before quant. When I came out of the test room, I thought I'd probably have to retake because of verbal, but I knew if I held on to that thought I would ruin the rest of the test, so I did my best to forget about verbal. Quant was not as bad as I thought, I had to guess on a number of questions but my pacing was fine. IR was not as bad either, I could not get higher than IR 5 on mocks and tended to run out of time, but on the test day it went smoothly, I think the key to IR is realizing that to get IR 8, you do not have to solve all the questions, so let go of the harder ones if need be (if only I followed this simple logic on verbal...) I started AWA by writing the essay structure using the templates, re-read the argument and my brain froze... AWA was a disaster. Then the exam results show up and wow, 740 (Q 48, V 44), perfect considering I had to guess a lot on verbal!! I could not ever dream of this score a couple of years back, and always thought 700+ is for quant people only. This is so much ought to the tons of helpful material provided by this forum, thank you so much everyone. I never wrote posts here before, thought I have nothing to add, but I was an attentive reader for a long time. I know this is only the first step for applications. The book recommended here by someone - Snapshots from Hell/The Making of an MBA by Peter Robinson - reveals MBA is generally painful, but more so for 'poets' (non-quant people). But well, I guess I am an optimist

mangamma · Answer

Congrats on your great score of 740. Still you have scope to improve in Quant. Coming to your AWA score, top schools always check all the score including IR and AWA. So, considering your strength in verbal, score improvement scope in quant and your mocks, It is better to take test one more time. all the best.

shharf · Answer

Thank a million! I was hesitating but after giving it some thought and reading this comment, decided to retake indeed. Last thing I want is to have a low AWA score be a decisive factor in the admissions process. So let the GMAT journey - part 2 begin. I have just booked the retake for 17/09 and bought GMAT Club tests.
Let’s see where I get after more practice...

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HoneyLemon · Answer

inspiring !!. Congrats ..

davidbeckham · Answer

I could relate to your story so much. I am a lawyer too and I am struggling with Quant daily. Q 49 is like my dream Quant score.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Great job with 740! Thank you for sharing and good luck with things moving forward.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi shharf,

First off, a 740/Q48 is an outstanding Score, so you can comfortably apply to any Business Schools that interest you. Programs generally do not put much emphasis on an applicant's AWA Score - and as long as you score at least a 4.0 (out of 6.0) on the AWA, then you would likely be fine. An AWA of 1.0 or 2.0 would mean that you strayed from the topic and discussed ideas that had little to do with what the prompt presented. From what you describe, your essay might have been a little 'thin' (meaning that you might have scored a bit lower because of a lack of 'thoroughness'), but that issue would not be enough on its own to lower your AWA Score down to a 2.0 (or lower). This is meant to say that your AWA might actually be fine - and a retest would not be necessary. Since you're interested in some highly-competitive Schools, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement.

There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

gmat1393 · Answer

Congrats  shharf  on 740!! Interesting debrief!

All the best for the next phase.

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

Congrats on getting a 740! Though V44 is an outstanding score, I feel your Verbal score may also improve further if you give GMAT the second time around.

Appreciate your tip on Yoga. All the very best for your retake.

shharf · Answer

UPDATE 22/09: Just came home from the retake today, 710 (Q 47, V 41, IR 8). This time probably did good on AWA, but completely devastated by the drop in the overall score... There were some technical glitches during the exam (at the test centre), which made me more stressed, but this perhaps can only partially be the reason for the score drop.

Since my first exam:
1) On quant - I did a few GMAT Club tests, with scores varying radically. The highest score was Q 49 but in above 62 min, seems like I am still missing some basics on Quant plus really need to work on pacing. 
2) On verbal - I did nothing, that was a mistake, lost my advantage here.

Thought on retake strategy: I will be re-reading Manhattan guides I guess and will continue doing GMAT Club tests. I will also be doing OG for verbal since I am usually good at verbal and I think I just lost the habit of verbal questions in the month since the first attempt.

Any tips are more than welcome! I have ordered the ESR to know more what went wrong this time, and have registered for the retake on 17/10.
I will try to stay optimistic but by now I am terrified with the idea of having to do this once more... For some reason the second attempt was far, far more stressful that the first one. My husband says not to worry as he himself took GMAT 5 times, also I am a perfectionist and love the idea of scoring 800, but retaking with R2 deadlines approaching is a mess!

shharf · Answer

UPDATE 04/12: Another update. Sorry, probably should have waited until the end of my GMAT journey with the debrief, now this seems more like a blog. I had to postpone the GMAT several times for personal reasons. Had almost no study inbetween for the same reasons. Now my GMAT story is as follows: - July 740 (Q48, V44, IR5, bombed AWA); - September 710 (Q47, V41, IR8, AWA ok); - December 740 (Q49, V41, IR5, AWA ok). Quant - GMAT Club Tests What I managed to do inbetween is re-cap on MGMAT math books, including the drill sets on problem areas and, more importantly, GMAT Club Tests for Q. I found GMAT Club Tests for Q extremely helpful. I did almost all 25 tests. My scores always varied tremendously, up to the last test, depending on daytime, mood and I don't know what. I often got as low as Q40. But I read the GMAT Club Tests for Q are more difficult than the real test, and it seemed true on Test Day. With the help of these tests and them only, I got rid of my fear and brain freeze about a whole variety of Q questions. Answer explanations are easy to understand (much easier than OG), and forum discussions can help develop math logic. I think if I were more diligent with these tests (error logs, etc) I could get Q50 (or, let me dream, Q51) just using them and reading through related forum discussions. TONS HELPFUL. Thanks so much who created this service. With these tests, I paced relatively well, since I did most of the tests in test mode with timer running. On Test Day, I had time left to solve the last question while previously I had to guess the last one or two questions. I also started to enjoy math. Even on Test Day, I noticed questions were getting tougher, and I felt stressed, but also really curios about the solution and the logic behind the questions. I felt proud, I am the only non-math person in my family. My granddad is head of algebra and math logic department at a university in Siberia, my dad won Russian nationwide math competition, many relatives studied math. I felt like an outsider who cannot add and divide!!! But no longer

Verbal - Acceptance I am relieved now that my score split is more balanced, I think Q49-V41 split is better than Q47-V44 for career switcher from non-business background. Still, I hate that I could not make use of my verbal skills, after scoring V47 on several mocks, V41 yet again was surprising. I ordered ESR out of curiosity, I am out of habit writing and I guess it may be SC is what got me to this score. What I realized in my preparation is that with all the pressures put on the shoulders of MBA applicants, along with pandemic stress, it is impossible to be perfect. The more I studied for Q, the worse I got in V. For me this was somehow interrelated, I just cannot wire my brain to both Q and V all at once in 4 hours of the exam with its 8 minute breaks. And as much as I hate that the score does not reveal my full potential in V, I accept that EXAM FOR THE SAKE OF EXAM is not worth it. Exam is just one stage. Perfectionism must die. At least until R2 submission deadline! After that who knows, maybe I will crack that 800. But not sure. Really, at some point I reached a stage where I wanted to throw my GMAT books out the window. I pushed myself to practice more and more, but this was a painful exercise. I even recorded a terrible hip-hop mish-mash with words from GMAT Club Test intro page, to make fun of my misery. Cannot upload lacking 5 posts, but consider yourself lucky, I purposely sang with Russian accent and as bad as I can sign, so that it sounds fun and makes me laugh every time I start a test

Conclusion for V people who struggle with Q 1. If your problem area is Q, MGMAT guides + GMAT Club Math Guide + GMAT Club Tests (+ OG of course) are a good combo. I was at around Q30 level, started prep using these materials in February 2020, studied on and off with large breaks and got to Q49. With more diligence, you could maybe get higher. 2. MGMAT has 'foundations of math' book that teaches the very-very basics, and is a good start. MGMAT also has comprehensive guides for all topics. These guides are good to get a structured basis on math. 3. But, in MGMAT guides some tips and tricks are scattered throughout the guides and are not easy to find for re-cap purposes. For re-cap, I would advise to use GMAT Club Math Guide, but only after you already have foundation in math. Otherwise the guide will look like a magic manuscript in a language you don't speak. 4. Do GMAT Club Tests and read related forum discussions! 5. Do not get discouraged if preparation takes time, it is not unexpected you will score lower than people who worked with math in their jobs. Everyone is talented in a unique way. 6. Also, do not get discouraged if your V score drops, your brain needs to adjust to Q and no one can be - or needs to be - perfect. Again, perfectionism must die. Wish luck to everyone still on the way to the desired GMAT score! I know the pain, I am with you.

shharf · Answer

Just received my ESR and was surprised. I have three ESRs now, and verbal percentiles vary without a clear pattern. Seems luck plays a big role here. I also wonder how many mistakes make V44 drop to V41.

V44 July 2020
CR 78
RC 96
SC 96

V41 September 2020
CR 98
RC 80
SC 81

V41 December 2020
CR 84
RC 88
SC 94

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