TOOK GMAT 8 TIMES! From 480(diag) to 660 to 690 to Cornell to IESE

Overview

Background: Canadian/Middle eastern. I consider English my first as I grew up speaking it. I took the GMAT 8 times (policy limit) .I have grown so much and learnt a ton through this repeated process of failure. I am very grateful to have gone through this process as most people have not experienced this level. I hope you can learn from this and avoid the mistakes I made.
Goal : I wanted a score of 760 and my target school was HBS!
Work experience : Started a consulting company in Canada/Semi-professional Stand up comedian/ a lot of volunteering in social work
Main weaknesses : At the time of starting the process, I thought I had the following weaknesses. The reason “thought” is in red, because weaknesses are always subjective and what I thought I had as weaknesses what not all true. The weaknesses I identified at the time was:
• Low GPA 2.54
• No crazy achievements (I didn’t play golf with Obama or fist bump bill gates)
• Lack of coherent story. I knew I did a lot of things but in my head, it was random
Initial Plan to addres:
• Take the GMAT and get a 730 (later in the story I increased goal to 760)
• Re-take some courses
• Worry about everything else after GMAT

The GMAT – First 3 attempts

First Online Assessment: My first online assessment put me at a 480 score. I don’t exactly remember the break down but it was pretty poor in both Verbal and Quant. My stamina was so low I couldn’t even finish the exam properly. I knew this will be a lot of work.
First Attempt May 2016 : I took my first exam in April 2016. Prior to that, I quit my job and took a month full time to study for the GMAT. I used GMAT Target Test Prep for Quant and multiple sources for verbal that I can’t remember. My goal was to get a 720 and on the GMAT PREP Exam I scored a 690 on the first test and a 660 on the second. I got a 660 V34 Q48 on the actual exam. I wasn’t too disappointed but I wasn’t happy either. I was proud because I had improved from 480 to 660 in just one month.
Second Attempt Nov 2016 : I can’t remember how I prepared exactly but my confidence was amazing. I think in the practice exams I scored between 700 and 720 and I was feeling like Super Sayain. I remember walking to the exam with zero nervousness and smiling. On verbal, I was ahead of time until the 13th question or so until I intentionally slowed down and started overthinking the questions. The result is that later I fell behind time. On Quant, I finished with 10 minutes to spare. The result 690 Q49 V35. I thought I was unlucky and that had I been more confident, I would have scored in the range I wanted. I remember when I finished this exam I thought 720 was playing small, I want to score 760. This became my new goal. I had this confidence that I knew I could do it. In reality I wasn’t having a bad day, I didn’t score higher than 690 because there was a knowledge gap but I was overconfident.
Third Attempt Feb 2017: I can’t remember much about this. I can’t remember how I prepared or what I did or didn’t do. All I know is that I was really distracted with life and my head wasn’t clear. I was overconfident and I thought if I just take the exam again I will get a 720 easily. When I did the exam I can’t even remember what I scored but it was somewhere in the 650 range or lower. I walked out of there feeling terrible. I was both confused and lacking in confidence.

The GMAT – Next 4 attempts

My next 4 attempts : This was all a blur. I became obsessed with the score. All I wanted in life was a 760. It became my obsession and I based all my happiness on it. I stopped doing my hobbies and minimized my social interactions. My whole life paused just for the GMAT. I studied obsessively, every time I did the exam I got progressively worse even though I knew more. It was insanity. I complained that I ran out of official verbal questions but the reality is is that even if I had more questions it would have not helped a lot as I was lost and focused on the outcome instead of the process. On my 7th attempt, I couldn’t believe I can’t remember how much I scored but it was something like 650. How could do I do worse than I did a year ago after this studying. This was my low point . I realized that something is not right. GMAT became my drug and addiction and it was time to break the cycle. I thought I should take some time off to ease the obsession. Application time was starting and I thought I could apply with my 690 score.

HBS Application and Final GMAT Attempt

After some time off and mental recovery, I focused on the HBS application. I hired an HBS consultant who helped me with my resume and story. When I first talked to him and explained my story, he said applying to HBS is a “moon shot”. I was persistent as I had visited HBS and attended classes there and I knew the caliber of students was not better than me at all. We worked rigorously together, and he helped me develop a good story. It was not easy. The more we worked together, the more the consultant was impressed by work and progress and actual accomplishments. By the end of the application he said, “you know I think you have a real shot at HBS! I was wrong. Do you think you can the GMAT one more time and get a 700 plus score? If you can it would help immensely”. I thought about it, by that time, I hadn’t studies for the GMAT in a while and my head was clearer. I was ready to give it another go.
Reflections and Mind Shift before Final GMAT Attempt : I still had one more time to go before the policy stopped me. I knew that if I continue doing what I am doing its not going to work. By this time, I had looked at every gmat article, solved thousands of questions, got tutoring. I knew I need a fundamental shift in mindset to crack this.
10 day vipassana retreat : I decided to take a 10 day vipassana retreat. It was not just for the GMAT but for my life in general. This involved 10 days of meditation in silence from 430AM to 8PM. This is were I internalized my real weakness. I discovered what I already knew but I was able to see it control me. I realized that my obsession with goals in life prevents me from enjoying life itself. All I cared about is setting goals and I placed my own merit on achieving the goals and getting recognition from my family, friends and community. I discovered how empty that was and how even if I achieve a goal, the feelings will stay temporarily but fade away in a few days. I was time to head back and tackle the GMAT but this time, while enjoying every process and step of the way. “I will focus on getting every question right and skipping questions I don’t know or that take time. I will enjoy every question. The score will take care of itself” That was my new strategy
Prep for final attempt : With the new strategy in mind, I identified my weaknesses at the time. It was verbal CR and RC. I didn’t do well in these so I enrolled in E-GMAT. This helped a lot. My RC skyrocketed and my CR improved as well. My quant was consistently between Q49 to Q50 so I wasn’t worried about it.
final attempt : The final attempt was very peaceful. I did not panic. Verbal was the usual. Some questions were hard and some were easy. I followed the process and focused on every question. Quant was walk in the park. However, the result came to my shock: 690! I did well on the verbal but my quant score had gone down to 46! When I ordered my ESR, I saw that my RC and SC rate was over 90% and CR a bit lower but my quant suffered. I was okay with that. I was peaceful. I knew I did the best I could and conquered my fears even though it wasn’t the Disney ending. I was ready to close this chapter and continue applying for HBS!
HBS Decision : My consultant wanted my to get in. He was emotionally invested in me because he saw my drive and passion. We submitted the application and hoped for the best. A few months later, the results came in. I have been denied admission. HBS was the only school I applied to. Of course, I was a bit sad but I kept that peace, I knew that this doesn’t define who I am. I was grateful for my GMAT journey because it taught me that.

Rebounding

A few months later, I started applying for the following year. My strategy was different. I was less focused on my weaknesses and more focused on showing my strengths. I also was more open minded about where to apply to. After talking to students from top 10 schools in Europe and US, I realized HBS isn’t really my cup of tea. Sure, it looks cool and I get validation from my peers if I go there. But besides that, my heart wasn’t in it. I decided to applied to a number of different schools and my top 3 were Stanford, Yale, and IESE (I also applied to Cornell but it wasn’t first choice). I had different reasons to attend each one but I had no interest in the other schools (I visited Dartmouth, Berkeley and a few other schools but besides the prestige I didn’t really like them).
I worked with a different MBA consultant who had a different strategy. She specialized in people who are “underdogs” and not typical applicants and we bonded really well.
My strategy for my story was this: be as honest as possible while focusing on strength. I knew that with my GPA of 2.54 and 690 GMAT I have no statistical shot in any of these schools so I chose to play up my strengths and shift my focus to them.

After months of hard work and applications, the results were in: No from Yale and GBS. And a waitlist from Cornell and IESE was still pending. I was happy my efforts was producing some results.

IESE vs Cornell

When I talked to admissions at Cornell, they said waitlist applicants have to remain in touch with the school to improve their chances of getting in. I wasn’t sure about both Cornell and IESE so I decided to visit their campuses. First I visited Cornell in Ithaca and met a professors there. He said Cornell is good but Ithaca isn’t that great. He half-jokingly said I would rather live in Barcelona. Next was my IESE assessment day. This is a team work style interview with a case method style workshop. First we did a case and engaged in a team work style discussion. This was in the NY campus. I fell in love with the process and school right away and I thought that if I get in into this school I will go.
A few weeks later, I got the news. I got admitted to IESE. This was new future! I said no to Cornell as I followed my heart.

Conculsion

This is not a Disney story. The Disney version would have been this: the underdog beats all odds and goes from 480 to 760 and gets admitted to HBS and GBS with full-ride scholarship. In reality the story was this: underdog does well at first and then fails and fails again changes goals and tries and then fails and then succeeds and finds peace. The reality is that sometimes what we think we want is not the best for us and is not coming from the right place. With my academic profile my people don’t apply to the schools I applied to because they think its not possible. The reality is it is. But it will likely happen if your heart is in it and you are not depending on your admission to value your happiness. In my case, I wanted an Ivey league school to please my ego. In my experience, this was soul draining and unhealthy. In the end, I got admitted to a top 10 school that’s in a different continent with a different type of experience. “Build a life and not a resume”. I hope whoever read this article (or even whoever skipped to the conclusion) knows that you can achieve whatever you want but first ask yourself, will the process of pursuing this goal – not the goal itself – give me joy? Why do I truly want it? The more you dig deep the easier you will achieve it.
Finally, thank you to this wonderful GMAT community who helped me immensely throughout the whole process. (big thanks to jennpt and meditation have played a great role in the self-confidence so far. It really helped my dig out the stories I have about myself and how ridiculous they are.) Good luck to everyone and remember THE MBA OR GMAT OR CAREER DOES NOT DEFINE WHO YOU ARE OR YOUR POTENTIAL!!