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18 Jan 2011, 19:49
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I had promised myself that I would post my experiece(s) provided I hit my dream score on the GMAT.
I started preparing for the GMAT in Aug 2010. I bought the MGMAT book set i.e. 8 books and scheduled a test for 7th Dec 2010. I started my preparation by taking a GMATprep exam and scored a 440 on it. I knew I had a lot of work to do, especially on the verbal section. I was aiming at 700+, not only because it is a good score but also because I fall in the worst category of MBA applicants, Indian IT male.
I finished the OG and took the 6 CATs provided by MGMAT. I scored between 600 and 640 in each of them. I took the GMAT prep, each exam twice and the maximum I scored was 660. I took 4 Kaplan CATs and scored around 550(avg). I took the 2 CATs by powerprep and scored 670(avg). On CATs other than those by Kaplan, I was scoring between 47 and 50 on Quant and between 25 and 30 on Verbal. Now comes the part that lead me to false positives. I retook all the MGMAT CATs and scored and average of 700 on them. I completely ignored that the high scores could have been caused by repetitions. MGMAT CATs, unlike GMATprep, do not provide new questions in a retake. MGMAT has 6 CATs available online. After you finish these 6, the seventh(rather 1a) CAT that you take, may not have the same questions from MGMAT 1 but it definately does not have many new questions. The seventh MGMAT CAT provides questions, from a pool that has a mix of all questions, from the six CATs previosly attempted. Hence teh possibility of repetitons is high.
Convinced by the false positives, I was gearing up for G-Day. On 7th December 2010, at 5:00pm, an overconfident me went into the exam center. AWA section was a breeze. Then came Quant, again a breeze until the 25th Question, when I realised that I had 10 minutes left for 12 questions. I hit the panic button and some how attempted all 37 questions. I may not have read atleast the last 5-6 questions but blindly selected an answer choice and hit next. During the 8 minute break, I was devastated. I thought I had ruined the Quant section, which was my stength. I was in no mood to sit for the Verbal section, in fact I did think of leaving the test center. During the verbal section, I was constantly thinking about how I ruined Quant and how it would affect my score, my MBA dream and $%#$#$$#$#$#$% blah, blah, blah. Anyways, I did sit for the verbal section, saw the test to its end and scored a 610 (Q-47, V-27). I was disappointed. I reached home, thought for a while and decided to retake the test. I scheduled the next available date, after a gap of 31 days. GMAT 2 was scheduled for 18th Jan 2011.
I had to design a retake strategy. I referred to a number of good, motivating articles on GMAT club. I was certainly not going to take too many CATs. I knew that Verbal was my weakness and timing was my main concern on Quant. I had 40 days to prepare and crack the GMAT. I downloaded lot of material from a website called esnips. I found 6 new paper tests, 1000 RC, 1000 SC and 1000 CR documents. It was certainly not easy and the holiday season made it even tougher. With a full time job and a tight schedule, things were not easy but I kept telling myself that this attempt has to be my last attempt at GMAT. I used to study for at least 2 hours on week days and at least 5 on weekends. I had read on GMAT Club that GMAT prep gives 6 (3 of G1 and 3 of G2) CATs without questions being repested. I decided to take the remaining 2 GMATprep CATs, very close to the G-day. I took the first on 4th Jan 2011 and scored 650 (Q-50,V-29). I had another week before taking the final GMATprep CAT on the Jan 11. I devoted myself to 1000 SCs, RCs and CRs. I read GMAT Club solutions, especially SC discussions to improve my grammar. On Jan 11, I took the final GMATprep CAT and scored a 710 (Q50, V36), but there were at least a couple of repetitions in Quant and a few in Verbal. I knew I needed more practice but I wasn't going to change the test date. During the final week before the real test, I did 4 paper tests. The paper tests are long and they can suck the life out of you. 65 Questions in Quant and 65 in English.
On Jan 18 2011 (yesterday), I took a day off from work. I reached the exam center and started my test around 5:20 pm. AWA was straight forward. In the break, I drank half a can of Red Bull, threw some water on face and was ready for the real deal. Started the Quant section and very quickly moved through questions 1-6. Seventh question was a DS bouncer and I guessed the answer and moved to the eighth, which also was nothing better, so I guessed again and moved on. The quant section section went pretty smooth though I had to rush through 3 questions towrd the end. During the break, drank red bull (whatever was left of it), threw some water on my face and was ready to go. During this break, I kept telling myself that I could not afford to think about the Quant section, which was history. I did not want to make the same mistake that I did last time. The break was soon over (they always go quick) and I stared the Verbal monster. Throughout the Verbal section, I kept reminding myself that I could not do this again. This had to be my last attempt at GMAT as studying for a third one would be even tougher. For every SC,CR and RC question, I concentrated as hard as I could. Soon it was time up. I had attempted all questions in the Verbal section. It was time to find out the score. On the final screen, I selected "Report Score", hit next button, put my head on the table and my hands on my head. After a few seconds I looked at the screen and saw a 700 (Q49, V36). The moment I had been waiting for, for the last 6 months was finally here and I could not believe it.
Lessons learnt and Tips: ( I'm sure you have heard them all)
- Do not take too many CATs. Practice, Practice and Practice
- Questions that are repeated can lead to false positives
- During the test, concentrate hard. Once a section has been complated, forget about it and move to the next. ( I had read this on every forum, on every website for GMAT but during GMAT 1, I did exactly what I was told not to)
- Exercise, play a sport - IT HELPS!!!
- For non native english speaker - read, correct the grammar in your speech, in emails
- Focus on timing for the Quant section
- Refer to solutions and explanations provided on GMAT Club esp SC.
A big thank you to the GMAT Club community. I will take some time off and begin the application essays there after.
I have a lot of Books (MGMAT series, Kaplan Premier, Princeton) and other material. Please do let me know if anyone from Brisbane or Australia is interested in buying the books.
I started preparing for the GMAT in Aug 2010. I bought the MGMAT book set i.e. 8 books and scheduled a test for 7th Dec 2010. I started my preparation by taking a GMATprep exam and scored a 440 on it. I knew I had a lot of work to do, especially on the verbal section. I was aiming at 700+, not only because it is a good score but also because I fall in the worst category of MBA applicants, Indian IT male.
I finished the OG and took the 6 CATs provided by MGMAT. I scored between 600 and 640 in each of them. I took the GMAT prep, each exam twice and the maximum I scored was 660. I took 4 Kaplan CATs and scored around 550(avg). I took the 2 CATs by powerprep and scored 670(avg). On CATs other than those by Kaplan, I was scoring between 47 and 50 on Quant and between 25 and 30 on Verbal. Now comes the part that lead me to false positives. I retook all the MGMAT CATs and scored and average of 700 on them. I completely ignored that the high scores could have been caused by repetitions. MGMAT CATs, unlike GMATprep, do not provide new questions in a retake. MGMAT has 6 CATs available online. After you finish these 6, the seventh(rather 1a) CAT that you take, may not have the same questions from MGMAT 1 but it definately does not have many new questions. The seventh MGMAT CAT provides questions, from a pool that has a mix of all questions, from the six CATs previosly attempted. Hence teh possibility of repetitons is high.
Convinced by the false positives, I was gearing up for G-Day. On 7th December 2010, at 5:00pm, an overconfident me went into the exam center. AWA section was a breeze. Then came Quant, again a breeze until the 25th Question, when I realised that I had 10 minutes left for 12 questions. I hit the panic button and some how attempted all 37 questions. I may not have read atleast the last 5-6 questions but blindly selected an answer choice and hit next. During the 8 minute break, I was devastated. I thought I had ruined the Quant section, which was my stength. I was in no mood to sit for the Verbal section, in fact I did think of leaving the test center. During the verbal section, I was constantly thinking about how I ruined Quant and how it would affect my score, my MBA dream and $%#$#$$#$#$#$% blah, blah, blah. Anyways, I did sit for the verbal section, saw the test to its end and scored a 610 (Q-47, V-27). I was disappointed. I reached home, thought for a while and decided to retake the test. I scheduled the next available date, after a gap of 31 days. GMAT 2 was scheduled for 18th Jan 2011.
I had to design a retake strategy. I referred to a number of good, motivating articles on GMAT club. I was certainly not going to take too many CATs. I knew that Verbal was my weakness and timing was my main concern on Quant. I had 40 days to prepare and crack the GMAT. I downloaded lot of material from a website called esnips. I found 6 new paper tests, 1000 RC, 1000 SC and 1000 CR documents. It was certainly not easy and the holiday season made it even tougher. With a full time job and a tight schedule, things were not easy but I kept telling myself that this attempt has to be my last attempt at GMAT. I used to study for at least 2 hours on week days and at least 5 on weekends. I had read on GMAT Club that GMAT prep gives 6 (3 of G1 and 3 of G2) CATs without questions being repested. I decided to take the remaining 2 GMATprep CATs, very close to the G-day. I took the first on 4th Jan 2011 and scored 650 (Q-50,V-29). I had another week before taking the final GMATprep CAT on the Jan 11. I devoted myself to 1000 SCs, RCs and CRs. I read GMAT Club solutions, especially SC discussions to improve my grammar. On Jan 11, I took the final GMATprep CAT and scored a 710 (Q50, V36), but there were at least a couple of repetitions in Quant and a few in Verbal. I knew I needed more practice but I wasn't going to change the test date. During the final week before the real test, I did 4 paper tests. The paper tests are long and they can suck the life out of you. 65 Questions in Quant and 65 in English.
On Jan 18 2011 (yesterday), I took a day off from work. I reached the exam center and started my test around 5:20 pm. AWA was straight forward. In the break, I drank half a can of Red Bull, threw some water on face and was ready for the real deal. Started the Quant section and very quickly moved through questions 1-6. Seventh question was a DS bouncer and I guessed the answer and moved to the eighth, which also was nothing better, so I guessed again and moved on. The quant section section went pretty smooth though I had to rush through 3 questions towrd the end. During the break, drank red bull (whatever was left of it), threw some water on my face and was ready to go. During this break, I kept telling myself that I could not afford to think about the Quant section, which was history. I did not want to make the same mistake that I did last time. The break was soon over (they always go quick) and I stared the Verbal monster. Throughout the Verbal section, I kept reminding myself that I could not do this again. This had to be my last attempt at GMAT as studying for a third one would be even tougher. For every SC,CR and RC question, I concentrated as hard as I could. Soon it was time up. I had attempted all questions in the Verbal section. It was time to find out the score. On the final screen, I selected "Report Score", hit next button, put my head on the table and my hands on my head. After a few seconds I looked at the screen and saw a 700 (Q49, V36). The moment I had been waiting for, for the last 6 months was finally here and I could not believe it.
Lessons learnt and Tips: ( I'm sure you have heard them all)
- Do not take too many CATs. Practice, Practice and Practice
- Questions that are repeated can lead to false positives
- During the test, concentrate hard. Once a section has been complated, forget about it and move to the next. ( I had read this on every forum, on every website for GMAT but during GMAT 1, I did exactly what I was told not to)
- Exercise, play a sport - IT HELPS!!!
- For non native english speaker - read, correct the grammar in your speech, in emails
- Focus on timing for the Quant section
- Refer to solutions and explanations provided on GMAT Club esp SC.
A big thank you to the GMAT Club community. I will take some time off and begin the application essays there after.
I have a lot of Books (MGMAT series, Kaplan Premier, Princeton) and other material. Please do let me know if anyone from Brisbane or Australia is interested in buying the books.
nilaybadavne
Joined: 03 Sep 2010
Last visit: 21 May 2013
Posts: 50
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Given Kudos: 29
Status:Seeking new horizons...
Location: Taiwan
Concentration: Strategy, Technology
Schools: ESADE '15 (A)
18 Jan 2011, 23:09
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[strike]Thats[/strike] That's a good jump of 90 points on your score! Congratulations!
And thanks for the tips in the end!
And thanks for the tips in the end!
18 Jan 2011, 23:12
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Nice score and well done. I see you did a lot of verbal study in between tests, and clearly improved. But what helped lift your quant score from 47 to 50? Did you just review the MGMAT guides?
