Hey everyone,
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me right back in....
My name is Humboldt and I've been near mortally wounded about the GMAT. My aim was to apply among the top 10 schools in the world (Harvard, Wharton, LBS, Insead, Columbia), and the GMAT has been a bane of my existence and has prevented me from Round 1. Wanted to share my experience to discuss and also perhaps someone can feel a bit better on themselves that they're not the only ones not getting the high 750s & perhaps what to do and what not to do.
Firstly as my background, I did a finance degree at university & have won prizes for writing case studies at Chartered Accountancy exams, so the subjects of maths and English themselves are very familiar to me and are not in themselves problems. I started my GMAT proper in June 2014 (not having ever seen an integrated reasoning question before then or knowing that the GMAT was full of number properties questions and the like) - taking coaching with Kaplan. Very quickly, within a month, I went through all the Kaplan techniques and went on the "Kaplan" tests from around 600 first time to about 700 - and 2 weeks before my first GMAT attempt, I got 700 in my GMATprep (doing the "full" thing without any breaks - averaging around Quant 47, Verbal 40). I got 700 twice in GMAT preps before the first GMAT exam - both times got Quant 47, Verbal 38-40; inevitably particularly with Quant would often get the first 3/10 questions wrong which seemed to lead to my downfall. Lowest score in one month leading to exam was I think 680.
Then in August when I did the exam - I got 660! (Quant 47, Verbal 34). This was hard to take - but I guess I messed up the first few questions and this is where I realised the Kaplan prep was very 'lite' - more about strategies than actually tackling questions, in particular number properties questions, where I seemed to be illiterate. I also found I was heavily stumbling in the dark on Sentence Correction questions, and not uncommonly getting about 6/10 wrong. It seems my English deserted to rescue me like it usually always did. Anyway- immediately rescheduled test and got on with it after a week's break.
So I bought the
MGMAT book - read the number properties book for some of the chapters which was very useful (HIGHLY rued not taking
MGMAT but I think it might be too late now). Got the advanced quant book - but to be honest - I freaked out at the amount of content and after going through half the book, much as I enjoyed it realised I needed to practice so did do the remaining exams. Here were my scores between Actual Exam 1 and Actual Exam 2:
late August - GMATPrep1 (repeated) = 720 (Quant 48, Verbal 41 - originally got 700 on my first attempt, very few repeated questions; I didn't really remember to be honest)
early Sept - GMAT Kaplan 6 = Score 690 (Quant 47, Verbal effectively 43 - under new scores that's worth 710)
early Sept - GMAT Kaplan 7 = Score 690 (Quant 47, verbal 42)
early Sept -
MGMAT - I freaked out when looking at the questions, they seemed funny and I got 43 on the
MGMAT Quant, seemed a lot more difficult than the 'real thing'
early Sept - GMAT Prep 2 (repeat) - Got a score of 680 (Quant 47, Verbal 37)
early Sept - 2 days before GMAT - GMAT Prep 3 (repeat) - Got a score of 710 which would probably be 700 under current scores (Quant 49, Verbal 40)
So good but not particularly great. I wasn't hitting 750 territory or even 730 which was always a risk before my GMAT.
I also became pretty ill in last week of exams - severe chest infection, pretty bad nausea - so on the afternoon of exam, had probably puked thrice before the exam (sorry for the expression) and was coughing my lungs out and had a migraine tablet. Had a ventolin pump every 30 mins for a coughing fit. That's not really to make an excuse but wasn't feeling fighting fit. Maths went.....alright for my standards (a poor 47). English...once again I got 35 (I felt like time went pretty slow but then my head was spinning a bit). And the end message is I got 660, and moaning at the computer "you have got to be kidding me".
So its a long post - and only one day after the exam yesterday (I still feel crap), but I'm committed to doing this again because I don't think Wharton will take me seriously with a 660 even if I have a very good resume and work experiences etc. I guess the questions are:
- What should my testing strategy be now? Aside from
MGMAT, I've exhausted all 4 GMATpreps and Kaplan exams. And a whole list of 1000 quiz questions in Kaplan to boot. My English non performance in exams is particularly painful and perplexing.
- I don't think I have a technical problem (aside from possibly number properties where I can get better). I do my quiz questions on a timed level but somehow when it comes to an exam I fall down in the first 10 - my starts are not the best.
- When to do the GMATs again? When I'm still fresh and do it straight by end of October?
- Or do I need tuitions? Are there any private tutors in London that do teaching, specifically for 700+? I need to somehow find a road to 750 and I cannot cannot find it.
I guess the question is, how can I get to 750 and what should my route be (and when to take the test) - as I've probably exhausted nearly 14 days of holidays on GMAT (oh that really hurts) & I am super tired and dead of studying like a madman between 10pm and midnight when I return from work everyday plus Saturdays and Sundays. Your help is most useful (or indeed deprecating remarks). I just want to kill this GMAT now by getting to 750 - this is now personal.