H/S/W Success Story

Hi everyone, thought I would share my journey to HSW. I came to these forums many times for inspiration, especially when feeling defeated. I hope this story can serve you inspiration.

A little bit of background: I'm a U.S. citizen and female of Asian descent. I worked in MBB and went to a top undergrad university. I thought I wanted to go to business school 3 - 4 years after undergrad but the GMAT was a really tough exam. I tried taking one of the popular courses and read meticulously but would keep scoring in the 500 - 600 range. Then I got a private tutor to really help me for the next exam. Every time I just couldn't break into the 600 range. I did everything that was told, kept an error log, reviewed materials, scrounged all the blogs on reddit and forums like this for other people's journeys. I also meticulously reviewed the problems I got wrong. I don't know why I wasn't getting it but I still didn't so I gave up for some time.

I picked it up again a year later, thinking maybe I didn't spend enough time, and spent 3 months straight. I also took the exam again before taking it for real (as the instructors recommended a "setting" experience). By now I had already taken it 5 times. Every time I got to the real thing, I just tanked it. I gave up again.

I picked it up 2 years now with a private tutor internationally. I did the course and studied meticulously for 3 months. Then I started taking practice exams and started scoring in the range I wanted around 690 - 730. I take the test again and score 670. I was devastated, I remember crying so many days. At this point, the exam became purely psychological for me. I gave it too much power -- too much stress that the exam would determine where I would go to school. This stress prevented me from skipping questions that were above my level and the emotional turmoil of guessing would eat at me. I had one last shot. I did affirmations, meditation, and therapy to get at the psychology of the exam. Alas, my last try I scored even less 660. There were no more tries left for the GMAT - I had reached the lifetime limit. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone this.

I almost gave up on my business school journey but knew there was another exam GRE that was also accepted. I took a break for 2 weeks. I did a lot of soul searching, why I really needed business school. I took a practice GRE exam and did fairly well. Then I got a private tutor and just did the Kaplan GRE program for 2 months. I missed the R1 deadline in 2020 but I kept going. When I took the practice GRE, I was scoring where I wanted to. I set a date for the real exam -- and surprisingly I went much over what I was aiming - miraculously.

From there I applied to 5 schools and only got accepted into one of the H/S/W. I was elated.

My lesson to you is that seriously don't give up and try every avenue. Everyone is different. Also there's a lot of psychology to the exam - don't give it too much power. It's just a dumb exam and it's not everything. You are more than your score, you are more than whatever b school you get into. Don't lose sight of that. I'm in school now and the classes are no where as hard as this.

Good luck!! DM me if you have any trouble and I will do my best to help you.