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12 Feb 2016, 08:23
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Hi all,
(I am looking for advise on how to proceed - retake yes/no, if yes: when and what should I focus on. I will pose the questions at the end, so please skip directly there if you find debrief of my test experience too long to read)
Now - here comes my dilemma: I am actually not happy with my score. I know to many this might sound ludicrous as supposedly breaking the 700 mark should be sufficient to get the foot into the door of many B-Schools.
Though my situation is slightly different. I am "already" 35, and after working a few years on my own startup, doing consulting and working for a Big Data Startup for the past 3 years which got recently acquired by a Large Silicon Valley company, I want to head to B-School. I know my age is a disadvantage, and also the fact that I am applying in Round 3 (not so much of a problem in Europe, but definitely in the Top Schools in the US).
My background is Computer Science, I graduated with distinction 7 years ago (yet to calculate GPA, but almost in all exams I got the best grade during my studies). Math was usually very easy for me and I tend to be strong in doing quick calculations in my head.
All those factors combined make me think that
a) with my background, a high score in Quant will be expected from me by the Top Schools (besides the fact that the look for a good Quant score in any applicant)
b) having a high overall score like 730-740 (above the school average) will be necessary to have any chance in Round 3
Nov 12th, GMATPrep Exam 1: 650(Q44/V35, IR7) without any studying
Jan 11th, MGMAT CAT1: 620(Q40/V35) did some studying, around 60 hours in total on/off
Jan 19th, MGMAT CAT2: 640(Q44/V33, IR5) started studying full time on Jan 11th, 5-7 hours a day
Jan 29th, GMATPrep Exam 2: 710(Q48/V39)
Feb 8th, VeritasPrep: 680(Q48/V34) had a hard time with Verbal, had a hard time on Verbal
Feb 12th, Real GMAT: 710(Q44/V42, IR8)
Material I used:
ManhattanPrep Strategy Guides 1-8
OG, Verbal and Quant Review, 2016
As you can see, it has been quite a ride. I was very excited about my initial score and thought getting to 700 would not be too hard, until I realized that it turned out to be much harder than expected. I was really disappointed when I saw my score get lower in January when I took the first ManhattanTest, even though I already had studied for 60 hours. I perceived Quant as extremely difficult (compared to the GMAT Prep Exam), but I have read that in different posts that MGMAT Quant is known to be harder than the one on the real GMAT.
I focused on Quant (but not neglecting Verbal), got stronger and got my reward when I took the 2nd GMAT Prep Exam. I was thrilled by my Q48 and shifted my focus towards Verbal. As you can see, Verbal was in the 30’s in every exam, and the last Veritas Prep exam was really disappointing with such a low verbal score. Nevertheless, I was motivated to take the real GMAT and was aiming at a 700/710 score (Q47-48, V38-39).
It starts of with a „simple“ word problem, 2 equations with 2 unknowns, solved it, but my result was not amongst the 5 answer choices. Redid it twice, got nervous, said to myself: you can’t miss this easy questions, you can’t!! After 4 1/2 minutes I decided I needed to move on, of course nervous and took me some time to recover. I seemed to have missed a few other questions, spend too much time on individual ones and by the time I got to the last 10 questions I had only 15 min left. A very unpleasant situation to be in, and once I realized I got very easy questions at the end (something like x*y odd; (1) x is odd, (2) y is odd), I knew I had bombed it. To make things even worse, the last 2 questions I got wrong as well because I did not think of squaring an equation on both sides, and made beginners mistakes in plugging in numbers on another one.
Of course extremely set back and frustrated of such a poor performance in my „usual“ (or perceived) strong section, saying good bye to my B-School ambitions, I headed into the second break. Tried to focus again and said to myself that Verbal is now just a practice run, the overall score will not cross 640, probably be even low 600, or high 500.
Overall, found verbal not too hard this time. Could not tell if previously wrong answered questions resulted in not too hard questions in both CR and SC, or I just perceived them as not too hard and they actually were. Tried not to think about my bad quant performance, even though it was constantly in my head and I had to tell myself to stop thinking about the low overall score and focus on the reading in CR and RC. Somehow I made it through in time to the end and got ready for my worst score ever. Frightened to tell anyone and ready to give up!
But then - the unbelievable surprise of seeing a 710!! on the screen. Q44/V42 and IR8(!! did not expect that) I was speechless, and of course my immediate reaction was: darn, had I only done better in Quant, I could have probably gotten a 730. I was extremely frustrated, but still reported the score, can’t let a 7xx go. The front desk guy who handed me the printout of the unofficial score congratulated me and was surprised that I was not that happy with my performance. He must have thought, what a strange guy I am:)
1.) Retake - yes/no?
2.) How much time should I wait and study until I retake it (maximum is 7 weeks, as the deadline for applying is early April)
3.) Would it make sense to go for another test in already 2 weeks (I feel I underperformed in quant, maybe because of being nervous, having this bad start with Question 1, so with my current knowledge, I think I can do better).
4.) What do you think in general about the score distribution (Q44, V42), given my background?
5.) I attached the enhanced score report, unfortunately it does not break down into great detail on Quant. Surprisingly, I was weakest in PS, which I used to do better than DS in any mock tests
6.) For the re-take, any recommendations on what to focus, and how to study? I finished all hard Problems in OG, Verbal/Quant Review.
If you made it till here (even if you skipped parts of it), greatly appreciate it - I loved to read debriefs of exams during my preparation, and found the answers always very helpful. Hope some of you have can give me some valuable advice, thanks in advance.
Best,
Martin
(I am looking for advise on how to proceed - retake yes/no, if yes: when and what should I focus on. I will pose the questions at the end, so please skip directly there if you find debrief of my test experience too long to read)
Background:
After very intense studying, I had my big day yesterday and took my first GMAT. First of all, a big thank you to GmatClub and all its members - it has been extremely useful during past few weeks, and helped me cracking the 700 barrier.Now - here comes my dilemma: I am actually not happy with my score. I know to many this might sound ludicrous as supposedly breaking the 700 mark should be sufficient to get the foot into the door of many B-Schools.
Though my situation is slightly different. I am "already" 35, and after working a few years on my own startup, doing consulting and working for a Big Data Startup for the past 3 years which got recently acquired by a Large Silicon Valley company, I want to head to B-School. I know my age is a disadvantage, and also the fact that I am applying in Round 3 (not so much of a problem in Europe, but definitely in the Top Schools in the US).
My background is Computer Science, I graduated with distinction 7 years ago (yet to calculate GPA, but almost in all exams I got the best grade during my studies). Math was usually very easy for me and I tend to be strong in doing quick calculations in my head.
All those factors combined make me think that
a) with my background, a high score in Quant will be expected from me by the Top Schools (besides the fact that the look for a good Quant score in any applicant)
b) having a high overall score like 730-740 (above the school average) will be necessary to have any chance in Round 3
Preparation
Last but not least, here comes the story of my journey and insights on my wild ride during the testNov 12th, GMATPrep Exam 1: 650(Q44/V35, IR7) without any studying
Jan 11th, MGMAT CAT1: 620(Q40/V35) did some studying, around 60 hours in total on/off
Jan 19th, MGMAT CAT2: 640(Q44/V33, IR5) started studying full time on Jan 11th, 5-7 hours a day
Jan 29th, GMATPrep Exam 2: 710(Q48/V39)
Feb 8th, VeritasPrep: 680(Q48/V34) had a hard time with Verbal, had a hard time on Verbal
Feb 12th, Real GMAT: 710(Q44/V42, IR8)
Material I used:
ManhattanPrep Strategy Guides 1-8
OG, Verbal and Quant Review, 2016
As you can see, it has been quite a ride. I was very excited about my initial score and thought getting to 700 would not be too hard, until I realized that it turned out to be much harder than expected. I was really disappointed when I saw my score get lower in January when I took the first ManhattanTest, even though I already had studied for 60 hours. I perceived Quant as extremely difficult (compared to the GMAT Prep Exam), but I have read that in different posts that MGMAT Quant is known to be harder than the one on the real GMAT.
I focused on Quant (but not neglecting Verbal), got stronger and got my reward when I took the 2nd GMAT Prep Exam. I was thrilled by my Q48 and shifted my focus towards Verbal. As you can see, Verbal was in the 30’s in every exam, and the last Veritas Prep exam was really disappointing with such a low verbal score. Nevertheless, I was motivated to take the real GMAT and was aiming at a 700/710 score (Q47-48, V38-39).
Test Day - The real thing
Test day came, and I had no problem with the AWA, was a good warm up, but started to struggle during the IR. (Had a 7 on my cold GMAT Prep Exam, a low score on the Manhattan IR, did some practice IR questions the week before the exam.) Some of the questions seemed hard to understand, I got a bit nervous, and had to guess 2-3 times. I tried to focus again during the break, and here comes disastrous Quant section.It starts of with a „simple“ word problem, 2 equations with 2 unknowns, solved it, but my result was not amongst the 5 answer choices. Redid it twice, got nervous, said to myself: you can’t miss this easy questions, you can’t!! After 4 1/2 minutes I decided I needed to move on, of course nervous and took me some time to recover. I seemed to have missed a few other questions, spend too much time on individual ones and by the time I got to the last 10 questions I had only 15 min left. A very unpleasant situation to be in, and once I realized I got very easy questions at the end (something like x*y odd; (1) x is odd, (2) y is odd), I knew I had bombed it. To make things even worse, the last 2 questions I got wrong as well because I did not think of squaring an equation on both sides, and made beginners mistakes in plugging in numbers on another one.
Of course extremely set back and frustrated of such a poor performance in my „usual“ (or perceived) strong section, saying good bye to my B-School ambitions, I headed into the second break. Tried to focus again and said to myself that Verbal is now just a practice run, the overall score will not cross 640, probably be even low 600, or high 500.
Overall, found verbal not too hard this time. Could not tell if previously wrong answered questions resulted in not too hard questions in both CR and SC, or I just perceived them as not too hard and they actually were. Tried not to think about my bad quant performance, even though it was constantly in my head and I had to tell myself to stop thinking about the low overall score and focus on the reading in CR and RC. Somehow I made it through in time to the end and got ready for my worst score ever. Frightened to tell anyone and ready to give up!
But then - the unbelievable surprise of seeing a 710!! on the screen. Q44/V42 and IR8(!! did not expect that) I was speechless, and of course my immediate reaction was: darn, had I only done better in Quant, I could have probably gotten a 730. I was extremely frustrated, but still reported the score, can’t let a 7xx go. The front desk guy who handed me the printout of the unofficial score congratulated me and was surprised that I was not that happy with my performance. He must have thought, what a strange guy I am:)
Conclusion
Now, here I am, finally happy that I crossed the 700 barrier, and have a very good baseline which puts me well beyond average of European Schools, so it’s a good safety net. However, I know I need to amp up my quant and this means, I probably need to retake it. Only worried that I am not gonna achieve the same Verbal Score again (as it clearly seems to be an outlier based on my previous performances).Open Questions
Looking forward to getting your thoughts and recommendations on the following questions:1.) Retake - yes/no?
2.) How much time should I wait and study until I retake it (maximum is 7 weeks, as the deadline for applying is early April)
3.) Would it make sense to go for another test in already 2 weeks (I feel I underperformed in quant, maybe because of being nervous, having this bad start with Question 1, so with my current knowledge, I think I can do better).
4.) What do you think in general about the score distribution (Q44, V42), given my background?
5.) I attached the enhanced score report, unfortunately it does not break down into great detail on Quant. Surprisingly, I was weakest in PS, which I used to do better than DS in any mock tests
6.) For the re-take, any recommendations on what to focus, and how to study? I finished all hard Problems in OG, Verbal/Quant Review.
If you made it till here (even if you skipped parts of it), greatly appreciate it - I loved to read debriefs of exams during my preparation, and found the answers always very helpful. Hope some of you have can give me some valuable advice, thanks in advance.
Best,
Martin
Attachment:
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Joined: 12 Aug 2015
Last visit: 24 Nov 2022
Posts: 219
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 1,475
Concentration: General Management, Operations
Schools: Johnson '18 (WL) Duke '18 (M) Tuck '18 (D)
GMAT 1: 640 Q40 V37
GMAT 2: 650 Q43 V36
GMAT 3: 600 Q47 V27
GPA: 3.3
WE:Management Consulting (Consulting)
12 Feb 2016, 10:19
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I think you should take another try. You only need to push on quant. Schools would expect you to retake. I see them asking you why you decided not to retake.
Tell me please what is your approach to CR? You have spent about 2.42 min (145 secs) - more than recommended and the accuracy is rather high. How many question of each type you had please? Assumption, bold face, flaw. Did you feel the increasing level of difficulty in CR questions?
Tell me please what is your approach to CR? You have spent about 2.42 min (145 secs) - more than recommended and the accuracy is rather high. How many question of each type you had please? Assumption, bold face, flaw. Did you feel the increasing level of difficulty in CR questions?
12 Feb 2016, 12:06
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Martin,
First off, a 710 is an outstanding score (it's right around the 90th percentile overall), so you should apply to any Business Schools that interest you. While a Q44 won't impress anyone, it would only be a 'red flag' if you were planning to apply to a highly-competitive Finance Program or other Specialty Program. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Although you did not list the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. There's a Forum full of them here:
ask-admission-consultants-124/
Ultimately, there's no harm in retaking the GMAT - it's just a matter of whether it's really necessary or not. Based on your own self-description though, the fact that 'math' comes easy to you and you do calculations 'in your head' are likely two things that are actually working AGAINST your Quant performance. To raise your Quant Scaled Score to a consistently high level, you'll need to focus more on your Tactics and eliminating silly/little mistakes from your work.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
First off, a 710 is an outstanding score (it's right around the 90th percentile overall), so you should apply to any Business Schools that interest you. While a Q44 won't impress anyone, it would only be a 'red flag' if you were planning to apply to a highly-competitive Finance Program or other Specialty Program. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Although you did not list the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. There's a Forum full of them here:
ask-admission-consultants-124/
Ultimately, there's no harm in retaking the GMAT - it's just a matter of whether it's really necessary or not. Based on your own self-description though, the fact that 'math' comes easy to you and you do calculations 'in your head' are likely two things that are actually working AGAINST your Quant performance. To raise your Quant Scaled Score to a consistently high level, you'll need to focus more on your Tactics and eliminating silly/little mistakes from your work.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
