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rvsyn
Current Student
Joined: 09 Nov 2019
Last visit: 12 Dec 2022
Posts: 19
Given Kudos: 9
Location: Indonesia
Schools: Darden '23 (WA) Booth '23 (D)
GMAT 1: 690 Q49 V34
GMAT 2: 760 Q50 V42
GPA: 3.4
18 Nov 2020, 04:12
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi, I want to share this surreal experience of mine. What was initially planned to be a 4 months game turned to 1 year. I hope some people in GMAT Club can get something useful from this post. Also, don't pick on my verbal skill in this post. 
For context, I was aiming for Top-15 (Darden, Fuqua, Yale and Tuck) and Booth for the dream school.
First Test
I started GMAT around September 2019, aiming for test in November. I choose e-gmat to guide me for the long journey, mostly for monetary reason. To my surprise it really provides a good basic understanding of GMAT. It took a bit over 2 weeks for me to catch on quant. and another 3 weeks for verbal. I'm an engineering student so catching up on quant is relatively quick for me. I get all Official Practice Test from the e-gmat pack (I don't remember how much it was, but it was super worth it) as well as free gmatclub practice test for 6 months.
Fast forward after I got more confident on the test. I took several practice test from both GMAC and GMATClub, ranging from 680-720. I don't know why but I chose to take the test. On test day, check-in went smoothly, but the test was not. Yeah. I got 680 (Q50, V31 if I remember correctly). I instantly pressed cancel, and in that moment I just felt like an idiot. I knew that I was not prepared but still pressed for the test in November.
COVID-19 Rising and Online GMAT
Hammered by the 680, I was determined to access e-gmat again, this time I properly read all the material (yes I skipped some on my first through, I'm stupid). I tried to understand the concept this time rather than to understand how to tackle the GMAT questions. And I got some good progress, I did the rest of GMAC Practice test (only got 2 left by then, do not do this please haha I really waste it. You better take it after taking all other test).
However it was COVID-19 time, no test-center based test. But to me it was a bit blessing in disguise, as the exam fee is a bit cheaper. I decided on the next test day (April 2020). Around 1 week before test, all of my subscriptions are over, and I already did most of the available practice test with better results (700-720, with some constant spike to 740).
Come the test day, I was aware of the horror that was GMAT Online. GMAT Club was scourged with all of the poor souls who rant about how bad it is, no scratch paper, overly strict proctor, no break, and the list goes on. I was not deterred by this, all those practice tests with the online whiteboard showed that I did not have problem with it. So yeah, the confident was there.
Check-in went smooth again and the proctor launched my test. "Okay, 700++ Here we go", or so I thought. My jaw dropped, my screen showed an error message (like the screen when you failed to load a website). "No worries, I'll ring the proctor". I pressed the little bell icon and waited for the proctor to show. Nobody came. 5 minutes became 45 minutes and I got bored. I waved to the monitor, made some funny faces, and typed "PLEASE HELP PROCTOR, MY TEST IS NOT STARTING" in the whiteboard. I had enough and I ran to my phone to check if he called me. Nothing. What was worse is suddenly the test is closed with prompt message "Proctor has ended your exam".
Here we go again. I was a bit annoyed by then, it was not my fault, they better let me re-sit the test for free on June 3rd. Fortunately they did let me. I will spare you guys the details of the third test. The test was quick. I was 6 minutes faster on my quant and almost 15 minutes faster on verbal. I did not take the optional break as I was scared the software would do something weird again.
I thought all it will be over soon. But GMAT just refused to let me go easily. The results did not come out after the 7 working days SLA. Nothing from GMAC and Pearson. I email the customer service, but they said they can't help me as customer services are under Pearson and this need to be resolved through GMAC. GMAC stayed silent for another 3 day until they gave a response, "We will forward your concern blablabla, however please note that in case of special circumstances, the scores can be released for longer than 14 business days". I am so done. Email won't solve anything, so I called them. The nice woman that answered the phone call told me that she will try to look at my test and called me as soon as she knew what happen.
The next morning, the result got released (Right, after I called them). And... Drum rolls...
690 (Q49 V34). Holy squishy all that pain for a 10 points improvement. I don't want to elaborate further but just imagine all that drama for nothing.
Third try on Test-Center
Okay, Test centers are reopening. Last try before Darden early action deadline. One last time. I already exhausted all my resources by then, forcing me to resort to free resources (think of GMATClub SC and RC Butler and Youtube). I used all the available free practice test from each course provider (Kaplan, MGMAT, Veritas, etc) and again, constantly scores above 710. The difference this time is there's AWA on test-center GMAT, and I focused my energy on that and the verbal. (I believe on my quant abilities, haha lol).
Again, come the test day in August. Checked-in, Gathered confidence, and hopefully aced the test. The test was okay, Quant was no problem, and verbal was a bit okay. I was being realistic and expected a 700-710. And finally it was done, the gracious moment of pressing the last "Next" button before the score page.
There you go...
And all I see is a pesky 690 again, I just couldn't believe myself anymore. What went wrong? Instant cancel, and I go home after made peace with the results and convinced myself that 690 might be enough for Darden if they consider my geography.
Finale: Perserverence of the Waitlisted One
I got waitlisted at Darden, and they want me to increase my GMAT. So yeah, with heavy sigh I started it again. This time I really ran out of practice test, even the free one. After some review at GMAT Club (https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-practice-tests-overview-free-and-paid-228289.html?fl=menu) I decided to buy MGMAT (it was MGMAT or Experts Global). I took 1 week leave this time (previously it was 1-2 days leave) and do each of the 5 available test for 7 days. And the results looked grim, I was in 680-700 range (with one lucky 770 spike).
I was thinking on resched, I thought it was cheaper than do another test. But I can't afford another leave, so yeah I just moved forward like a monkey who never learned. Take it from me, if you think you're not ready, maybe you're not. Don't rely on luck please, luck will laugh at you.
Test day (again), I ask my father to let me use his room at office (his office is empty due to WFH policy) to ensure the best test environment. I also use a very good network this time to avoid unnecessary test. Checked-in went smoothly as usual. But now the proctor actually contact me before the test, giving me a sense of relief knowing that if something bad happen maybe the nightmare of my first GMAT Online won't happen again.
Here goes the test, starting with quant, I spent almost 6 minutes on my first 2 questions. This made me nervous. I increased my pace until I managed to catch up with the time. However, during the mid part of quant, the questions got really easy and easy usually meant low score in GMAT. However I just pushed further until it somehow got a bit hard, not '700-800 question' hard though.
Going into verbal, I employed a really different tactics, I just do each questions slowly, just try to be really careful, like each questions will pull me to that cursed 690 again. Please note that by the 4th try, I really enjoyed verbal question, it is like a puzzle that meant to be solved. That mindset also pushed me to tackle each questions with care, again like one mistake will pull me back to the nightmarish 690. I never really like IR, it was like a stale dessert, the main course was exhausting enough that I always want to end IR as soon as possible.
The test was done, deep inside I feel gutted about the easy quant mid section. I thought, maybe if I could get Q49 and V39, I would score 710. Maybe I can reach 49, I hope I can. The test was on Friday, November 13th. I expected the results to came through at 20-23 Nov. However last night the results just came out.
It was a glorious 760. I cannot believe it, Q50 and V42. Yeah, despite the easy questions.
I couldn't ask for more, as much as I don't like the painful 1 year saga of GMAT, the results was beyond great. Although I prefer a less stressful way to do it, I'll take the 760 and treasure the horror behind it.
Thank you all for reading this mega long post. I promised someone I'll post after my GMAT Journey is done. I hope you all get something out of my ranting.
Cheers.
TL;DR
1st Try: 680 (Q50, V31)
2nd: 690 (Q49, V34)
3rd: 690 (Canceled, I did not care about the breakdown back then so I forgot hehe)
4th: 760 (Q50, V42).
Morale of the story is, never give up!
For context, I was aiming for Top-15 (Darden, Fuqua, Yale and Tuck) and Booth for the dream school.
First Test
I started GMAT around September 2019, aiming for test in November. I choose e-gmat to guide me for the long journey, mostly for monetary reason. To my surprise it really provides a good basic understanding of GMAT. It took a bit over 2 weeks for me to catch on quant. and another 3 weeks for verbal. I'm an engineering student so catching up on quant is relatively quick for me. I get all Official Practice Test from the e-gmat pack (I don't remember how much it was, but it was super worth it) as well as free gmatclub practice test for 6 months.
Fast forward after I got more confident on the test. I took several practice test from both GMAC and GMATClub, ranging from 680-720. I don't know why but I chose to take the test. On test day, check-in went smoothly, but the test was not. Yeah. I got 680 (Q50, V31 if I remember correctly). I instantly pressed cancel, and in that moment I just felt like an idiot. I knew that I was not prepared but still pressed for the test in November.
COVID-19 Rising and Online GMAT
Hammered by the 680, I was determined to access e-gmat again, this time I properly read all the material (yes I skipped some on my first through, I'm stupid). I tried to understand the concept this time rather than to understand how to tackle the GMAT questions. And I got some good progress, I did the rest of GMAC Practice test (only got 2 left by then, do not do this please haha I really waste it. You better take it after taking all other test).
However it was COVID-19 time, no test-center based test. But to me it was a bit blessing in disguise, as the exam fee is a bit cheaper. I decided on the next test day (April 2020). Around 1 week before test, all of my subscriptions are over, and I already did most of the available practice test with better results (700-720, with some constant spike to 740).
Come the test day, I was aware of the horror that was GMAT Online. GMAT Club was scourged with all of the poor souls who rant about how bad it is, no scratch paper, overly strict proctor, no break, and the list goes on. I was not deterred by this, all those practice tests with the online whiteboard showed that I did not have problem with it. So yeah, the confident was there.
Check-in went smooth again and the proctor launched my test. "Okay, 700++ Here we go", or so I thought. My jaw dropped, my screen showed an error message (like the screen when you failed to load a website). "No worries, I'll ring the proctor". I pressed the little bell icon and waited for the proctor to show. Nobody came. 5 minutes became 45 minutes and I got bored. I waved to the monitor, made some funny faces, and typed "PLEASE HELP PROCTOR, MY TEST IS NOT STARTING" in the whiteboard. I had enough and I ran to my phone to check if he called me. Nothing. What was worse is suddenly the test is closed with prompt message "Proctor has ended your exam".
Here we go again. I was a bit annoyed by then, it was not my fault, they better let me re-sit the test for free on June 3rd. Fortunately they did let me. I will spare you guys the details of the third test. The test was quick. I was 6 minutes faster on my quant and almost 15 minutes faster on verbal. I did not take the optional break as I was scared the software would do something weird again.
I thought all it will be over soon. But GMAT just refused to let me go easily. The results did not come out after the 7 working days SLA. Nothing from GMAC and Pearson. I email the customer service, but they said they can't help me as customer services are under Pearson and this need to be resolved through GMAC. GMAC stayed silent for another 3 day until they gave a response, "We will forward your concern blablabla, however please note that in case of special circumstances, the scores can be released for longer than 14 business days". I am so done. Email won't solve anything, so I called them. The nice woman that answered the phone call told me that she will try to look at my test and called me as soon as she knew what happen.
The next morning, the result got released (Right, after I called them). And... Drum rolls...
690 (Q49 V34). Holy squishy all that pain for a 10 points improvement. I don't want to elaborate further but just imagine all that drama for nothing.
Third try on Test-Center
Okay, Test centers are reopening. Last try before Darden early action deadline. One last time. I already exhausted all my resources by then, forcing me to resort to free resources (think of GMATClub SC and RC Butler and Youtube). I used all the available free practice test from each course provider (Kaplan, MGMAT, Veritas, etc) and again, constantly scores above 710. The difference this time is there's AWA on test-center GMAT, and I focused my energy on that and the verbal. (I believe on my quant abilities, haha lol).
Again, come the test day in August. Checked-in, Gathered confidence, and hopefully aced the test. The test was okay, Quant was no problem, and verbal was a bit okay. I was being realistic and expected a 700-710. And finally it was done, the gracious moment of pressing the last "Next" button before the score page.
There you go...
And all I see is a pesky 690 again, I just couldn't believe myself anymore. What went wrong? Instant cancel, and I go home after made peace with the results and convinced myself that 690 might be enough for Darden if they consider my geography.
Finale: Perserverence of the Waitlisted One
I got waitlisted at Darden, and they want me to increase my GMAT. So yeah, with heavy sigh I started it again. This time I really ran out of practice test, even the free one. After some review at GMAT Club (https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-practice-tests-overview-free-and-paid-228289.html?fl=menu) I decided to buy MGMAT (it was MGMAT or Experts Global). I took 1 week leave this time (previously it was 1-2 days leave) and do each of the 5 available test for 7 days. And the results looked grim, I was in 680-700 range (with one lucky 770 spike).
I was thinking on resched, I thought it was cheaper than do another test. But I can't afford another leave, so yeah I just moved forward like a monkey who never learned. Take it from me, if you think you're not ready, maybe you're not. Don't rely on luck please, luck will laugh at you.
Test day (again), I ask my father to let me use his room at office (his office is empty due to WFH policy) to ensure the best test environment. I also use a very good network this time to avoid unnecessary test. Checked-in went smoothly as usual. But now the proctor actually contact me before the test, giving me a sense of relief knowing that if something bad happen maybe the nightmare of my first GMAT Online won't happen again.
Here goes the test, starting with quant, I spent almost 6 minutes on my first 2 questions. This made me nervous. I increased my pace until I managed to catch up with the time. However, during the mid part of quant, the questions got really easy and easy usually meant low score in GMAT. However I just pushed further until it somehow got a bit hard, not '700-800 question' hard though.
Going into verbal, I employed a really different tactics, I just do each questions slowly, just try to be really careful, like each questions will pull me to that cursed 690 again. Please note that by the 4th try, I really enjoyed verbal question, it is like a puzzle that meant to be solved. That mindset also pushed me to tackle each questions with care, again like one mistake will pull me back to the nightmarish 690. I never really like IR, it was like a stale dessert, the main course was exhausting enough that I always want to end IR as soon as possible.
The test was done, deep inside I feel gutted about the easy quant mid section. I thought, maybe if I could get Q49 and V39, I would score 710. Maybe I can reach 49, I hope I can. The test was on Friday, November 13th. I expected the results to came through at 20-23 Nov. However last night the results just came out.
It was a glorious 760. I cannot believe it, Q50 and V42. Yeah, despite the easy questions.
I couldn't ask for more, as much as I don't like the painful 1 year saga of GMAT, the results was beyond great. Although I prefer a less stressful way to do it, I'll take the 760 and treasure the horror behind it.
Thank you all for reading this mega long post. I promised someone I'll post after my GMAT Journey is done. I hope you all get something out of my ranting.
Cheers.
TL;DR
1st Try: 680 (Q50, V31)
2nd: 690 (Q49, V34)
3rd: 690 (Canceled, I did not care about the breakdown back then so I forgot hehe)
4th: 760 (Q50, V42).
Morale of the story is, never give up!
18 Nov 2020, 10:14
Kudos
Bookmarks
Wow. This is a great story. I see a lot of similarities between yours and mine except the fact that I have not yet seen the light ! This gives me motivation and the hope to move forward. Thanks for sharing your story.
