Hi fellow GMAT-ers,
I really hoped and believed that I am going to write a post to share a success story today, but I failed and instead I am writing a how I failed post. This is the first post on for me, but I have spent a great deal of time on this forum over the months and even years. In top of this, I am also writing to request help, because I have pretty much spent almost all content and practice exams and at this point I feel pretty depressed and lost.
Little intro to my background: I am 25 and from Kosovo. I graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology (Kosovo Branch) on 2012 with a 3.73 GPA where I double-majored in Economics/Statistics and Management with a minor on International Relations. On 2010/2011 I did a year exchange in New York at Bard College and internet on a powerful NGO and on a title insurance business. After I came back I opened my own business (outsourcing) on software development, software consulting and virtual staffing. Currently I employee 5 people and am very happy with my team. Over the years I also had peaks where I did employ 12 people and even an outside app development team. In addition to this I have also tried various venture, the latest being a local online newspaper, which has a pretty steady growth. Lately on 2013, I went to Tuck school of business for a semester as part of a entrepreneurship training funded by the Ministry of Trade of Kosovo. Class and the program was amazing and taught me a lot.
Why an MBA: Working on these things I noticed I need to build more on my skills (especially on Competition strategy, capacity building and international marketing) and that is why I have decided to pursue an MBA, which can also help me build a network of clients and partners for my businesses. I decided I want to do an MBA with an International Business focus and also decided that I really need to go to an amazing school with an amazing program, so that the 2 year investment pays off.
Kosovo investing on human capital: For my story to make sense, I need to tell you that there are 4 different fellowships/scholarships in Kosovo that pay the MBA programs in full (including a stipend to live) if the candidate has plenty of experience, good academics and a strong plan to return back to Kosovo and contribute to its economy. My background and plan do make me a very strong candidate, however I am failing at GMAT. I did apply to three of them and have been invited for an interview at all three. On the first one (fulbright) who do not look at scores I am selected as a reserve candidate, mainly because there were other candidates who had less international experience than me. On the second one I went through all phases (scored a 600 on GMAT) and am awaiting a decision. On the third I will be going to an interview next week and will get in on a GMAT exam again on early November. So, basically this GMAT exam which is going to happen in 1 month and a week is my last chance ever.
TOEFL Official Score: 115/120 (September 2015)
GMAT Official Score: 560 Q:41 V:26 IR:4 AWA:5 (October 2012)
2nd GMAT Official Score:
600 Q:43 V:30 IR:3 AWA: (September 1015 - Official score is not yet ready)
Practice Exams:
Veritas prep 590 Q:39 V:32 (September 10 2015)
Economist GMAT 600 Q:40 V:34 (September 15 2015)
GMAT PREP 1 590 Q:38 V:34 (September 1 2015) - Before I started studying
GMAT PREP 2 640 Q:41 V:35 (September 14, 2015)
GMAT Club Verbal free test: 78% correct
Other tests (manhatann and Kaplan) scores are inflated as I did those test over time and believe it or not I had remembered many of the questions.
GMAT Story: I took GMAT on 2012 right after school. I did study for over three months and read Kaplan, Princetown, Manhattan IR. Did all questiong from
OG 2013 back then and also did all manhattan and kaplan tests. Practically I did stufy over 200 hours and was doing 650s on practice exams, however I failed miserably with 560 on the real thing. Anyways, I decided not to go to business school as I felt that GMAT is not my thing. But, 3 years after here I am very convinced and super ready to pursue an MBA. Over the years I did read more NY times, the Economist and such and also attended a local GMAT class just so I keep my math and verbal content and strategy fresh. And yes I did improve my verbal score and even the TOEFL score, which I am very happy about. But, I am still failing bad. I read over a lot of stories and figured that you should not study too much on GMAT for a high score as there was a graph showing that if you over study then you will score less. So, basically this time I only studied for like 3 weeks, but again failed at 600. Here is the breakdown per each section:
AWA: Super easy and I am very confident that I scored a 6 this time.
IR: This kills me. I only scored a 3 this time. I know how to solve all, but there is no chance I can finish this in time. I am always like 4 to 6 question behind. Seriously need help on this.
Q - Problem solving: This I do very poor and take forever. I feel that I can solve all questions, but there is not enough time. On the first questions on the super hard ones I often end up spending closes to 4 or 5 minutes and then on the later ones I speed to finish the section in time. On the real exam I got in I only had 20 seconds on the last question, which I made a mistake and realized it just 5 seconds after I hit Submit.
Q - DS: I like this part. I make fewer mistakes on this one and on some I solve them super fast saving time for the PS questions.
Q - Overall: I feel that I need to learn some strategies that I have missed somewhere and that I need to practice more to freshen up my computing speed more. I think with more practice on GMAT Club questions I can certainly score a 47, but the 49 and up seem impossible.
V - CR: I love this part. I hardly make a mistake on CR. If I do then it is going to up to 2 mistakes at most from like 15 questions. Both of the mistakes will probably be from the assumption needed to take to strengthen the argument. Anyways, I got the strategy and am practicing to score perfectly on this.
V - RC: This part is bit odd. On most of the texts I hardly make a mistake, but on some text i fail on almost all of the questions deriving from it. I have no idea why and need serious help to understand why and how to improve. As continuous mistakes I probably made on the real GMAT score brought down my score heavily.
V - SC: This part is the worst. No matter how hard I train I always fail miserably on this section. I usually score correct on 40 to 50% of the SC questions. Need serious help on this one as well.
Stamina: I feel that I lose the focus on the verbal section and just want to finish and be done with it. I feel that I am not prepared enough to sit on an exam for 4 hours and that is why I scored a lot less on the real thing on verbal section than on the practice exams. Please give me tips to avoid this. Should I start gym? What do I need to eat on the break? Help please.
The Great People of GMAT Club have already helped me as only by reading things from this very amazing community, I got my motivation back and am ready to fight the GMAT back.
However, I am totally lost, confused and scared. I only have one last chance to do the GMAT and that is on early November. I am super busy with jobs, but can certainly study 2 to 4 hours a day on weekdays and up to 6 hours a day on the weekends. I budgeted to spend up to $200 for the GMAT prep this time. Budgeting the money was extremely hard at this time as first I come from a very poor country (economy and profits are nominal) and I am really struggling paying off apartment, car, salaries and some investments I have made. However, even-though it is really tough at this time, I will consider spending over $500 if I somehow get to feel that I will score over the magical 700.
So, the Great People of GMAT CLUB help me on this very important path of mine. Please take the time to read my story (and I am sorry it is so big) and help me unblock myself and get back to studying by sharing any study tip, content you think can help me, programs that I should take, books I should buy or anything at all. Any small help means a great deal to me. Thank you in advance for any of the help you provide and thank you for help you have already given me.
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23 Sep 2015, 10:24
