It's done! Although I think I underperformed during the test, I'm not going to complain about a 760. My goal was to hit 750+ and I made it (by a hair).
Background:I've always been a pretty strong test taker, so I knew that I could do well on the GMAT. After 1 week of prep, I took my first GMATPrep and hit 750. It is tempting to conclude that I could have gotten a good score had I taken the test right then and there. I don't think this is the case. Though my starting average was high, my standard deviation was also very high. For instance, I might have gotten 780 on a good day, and 680 on a bad day.
I booked my test and spent the next 5 weeks looking to minimize the standard deviation of my results. I wanted to go into the test confident that if I "bombed" the test, I would still walk away with a good score.
Going into the test, I knew that my "average" performance was around a Q50.5, V44. For instance, on a good day I might get Q51 V46, whereas on a bad day I might get a Q50 V42. Factor in a downwards adjustment for test-day nerves and jitters, and I figured that "worst case" performance would be around Q49 V40.
GMAT-eveI do triathlons so I know how important proper nutrition is to long periods of strenuous activity. The night before the GMAT I had my traditional night-before-tri meal. A gigantic bowl of pasta, although really any sort of complex carbs will do. Got to bed with 10 hours of sleep planned but tossing and turning resulted in me only getting around 6.
The TestGot to the test center about 1 hour early, and the test administrators allowed me to start early. I must say that the entire process was very professional.
AWA started off well, and I was confident that my first essay was a 6.0 response. The second AWA extremely tough. Then again, I only looked at one pair of AWA questions before the test, so I really have no idea what they are looking for.
Quant - well, this is where the trouble started. By the time I had gone through the first 3 questions, I had already burned 8 minutes. To top that off, I had to guess on the third question! I knew that the slow start most likely kicked me out of the Q51 band, but fought hard the rest of the way to maximize my score and get to the Q50 range. By the 30th question or so, questions were sufficiently tough that I knew I had recovered nicely.
Verbal - took a quick break, and sat back down for the verbal. During my prep I became so strong at CR and RC that I felt I could get any question they threw at me correct. In my GmatPrep, for instance, I routinely got all RC and CR correct. My strategy to get a high V score was to get all RC and CR and do "relatively well" on SC. Things were going well, but then I got this absolute beast of an RC passage.
I have dealt with long RC passages before and I know how to handle lengthy RCs. But this one was particularly tough to digest. I use the lengthy strategy to RC (I take notes), so I always burn a lot of time reading, but can then answer each question in under 30 seconds. Well, this passage took me 8 minutes to read and annotate. Then as I re-read my notes, panic started to set in. I had no idea what the passage was trying to say! I didn't even understand the main message, let alone all the inane details. I can see the clock continue to tick, so I just closed my eyes and relaxed for a few seconds. The fact that I kept my cool is what ended up saving me. I took it 1 question at a time, re-reading portions of the passage as I needed to. In the end I figure I may have gotten 3/5 of the questions, "disastrous" based on my strategy of getting perfect on RC and CR. By that point, I knew I was having a bad day. Nevertheless, I knew that I could still get a 750 on a bad day, so I just kept pushing through to the end.
After clicking on report scores, the 3-4 second delay felt like an eternity. Imagine my relief when the scores came up on the screen.
Next Steps
I plan on applying next fall for 2010 admission, or the year after that for 2011 admission. I'm really relieved that I can tick the GMAT off the list. Now I have the next 14 months or so to get my essays in order.
Study LogI kept a detailed study log of what I did to prepare here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/8-t68965Thanks for all the help over the past few weeks everybody!
Patrick.
close
Updated on: 21 Aug 2008, 09:37
