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16 Jul 2014, 21:03
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi All,
I had posted a story about my GMAT Experience about a month ago. It was a gloomy story and a cry for help. I attempted my self-redemption during a month long of rigorous study and practice. The conclusion, a score worse than what I had previously scored and a rejection to B-School. I believe that a thorough story about my experience and the descriptions of some of my study habits might help you get an understanding about where I am coming from.
First, I would like to introduce myself. I am a 24 year old male hispanic. I work full-time at a financial firm. I graduated from UIC with a Bachelor's in Economics and Political Science in May 2012. I have been working at my company for almost two years. One of the major reasons as to why I am looking to go back to school is because I love school and I miss my alma matter. I love the classroom environment and the stimulation from academic talk. Don't get me wrong, I dislike taking exams and doing homework. However, the ability to learn in a classroom about technical topics such as Economics and Finance is something I enjoy. Thus, I plan to pursue a Masters of Science in Finance. I am interested in Equity Research and other types of Securities research. However, I worry, that the longer I take to get back to school, the less of a chance I will have to get into these fields because of my age. I get really bummed out when I think about it.
My GMAT journey started in August of 2013. I started with the Kaplan Online Anywhere Prep with attempts to get back to school for the Spring 2014 semester. Unfortunately, due to some misunderstandings during my application process, I missed my deadline. However, I did take the GMAT in November 2013. The result was a poor score of 380. The specifics, they do not matter. It is a score of 380, whatever I did, it was plain and simply BAD. I had taken two Kaplan CATs, and they were not great. The first was a 460 and the second a 480. I was simply not studying effectively and faced my first failure.
I decided to take a break from the pointless and non-directed studying for a while so that I could enjoy the holidays. I went back into the studying around mid-January of 2014 by re-taking the Kaplan Prep Online Anywhere. I really did not get disciplined until March, and that was when I started to pick up the volume. By late May - early June, I had two CAT's, each 550. There was some level of improvement, despite my highly disorganized studying and aimless direction of studying. I decided to take the GMAT for a second time in June, hoping that finally, I would reach the 500s at the very least. The result was yet again disappointing. Below is the breakdown/escalation of my scores:
CAT 3:
Quant - 41
Verbal - 28
CAT 4:
Quant - 37
Verbal - 30
Real GMAT:
Quant - 25
Verbal - 21
Now, my back was against the wall, as my application for this coming Fall semester was coming up fast. I had one more month to get my act together and figure out WHY I wasn't able to replicate my performances on the Kaplan CAT's to the real GMAT exam. So for five weeks, I spent rigorously going over all sections of the Exam. I retook Kaplan again for a third swing, and my online instructors were impressed with my progress. I was studying almost every day. The reality was that, I was always studying. I had sacrificed fun time, hanging out with friends, ect. so that I could finally beat this exam to the group. However, the difference this time was that I was actually finally adapting the Kaplan's strategies: Backsolving, Picking Numbers, SC answer choice elimination, ect. I was finally understanding some of the mathematical concepts that were rusty since high school. I was becoming more and more effective on CR questions and SC questions. So, I finally took a CAT a week before my exam last Saturday. My Kaplan CAT score was a 540: Quant - 42 Verbal - 22. I was so proud of myself that the work that I was putting into on the Quant was finally showing. It has been my highest score on a CAT since. However, I was not putting enough emphasis on the Verbal. My weaknesses appeared to have been CR and SC. So, I spent my last week and a half hammering away at the CR and SC. Coming up with the assumption has been such a struggle for me because sometimes I do come up with an assumption, it would be wrong. But I went at it. I was hitting the quizbanks, reading over and attempting to comprehend the reasonings to the correct answers. I felt like I was having great improvement with SC as well. My Kaplan instructors believed that once I would get back into that testing center, I would most likely end up flirting with a score in the 600 range after improving my Verbal to make my overall score pop.
Well, Saturday came. I had taken the day off work the day before so that I could relax, do no studying, and calming the nerves and anxiety that were screwing me over in the last two GMAT Exams. I felt like this was it. My redemption and my opportunity to go back to school. My exam was at 8AM, just as how my second exam was scheduled. I could not sleep over the anxiety of taking the exam during my second time, so I think exhaustion was what weakened me along with stress during my second exam. This time, I made sure that I was rested and would fall asleep. I had a little bit of Nyquil so that I would knock out and get my 8 hours of sleep this time. As usual, I went into the Argumentative Essay and it was not a problem. The last times I had scored a 5.5 and 6 on the Essay portion. Writing and forming constructive paragraphs has never been an issue for me. I like literary art and constructive thought development since I was in high school, hence my Political Science major. Afterward, the IR section came and I wasn't always the sharpest at this section since I wouldn't invest too much time studying for this section. I was scoring 4's in the last two GMAT's. Finally came time to take my break. I went to my locker, took some drinks of my Gatorade and had some Chewy Chips Ahoy (my unhealthy but delicious desire). I was thinking to myself, "Alright, it's game-time baby. Time to rock-n-roll this sucker and get the heck out of here." I go in to take my Quant, and the first questions that I was seeing were mostly word problems. But, they looked like word problems I had never seen during my Kaplan quizzes and practices. They didn't seem like things I had practiced before. It intimidated me. I spent a lot of time in the beginning with these darn questions, and of course, lost track of time and came to the point where I was probably on Question 21 with 10 minutes to go. Well, you can just imagine what I had to do at that point. I am not going to lie, after that, I took my break, went back to my locker for some Gatorade, and thought to myself, "Fudge," and not the fudge on my Chewy Chips Ahoy, and not really the word "Fudge," I'm just trying to keep it Rated G. I was starting to feel bummed out about that, and in confusion as to why the texture of those problems looked so eerily different. I went to the washroom to wash my face, I looked at myself and said, "C'mon darn it, finish clean. Clean the score up on the Verbal." Ahhhh, that Verbal was a disasterpiece. I cannot even remember the full details of that section. I can just remember my brain experiencing fogginess and at times, feeling like falling asleep when I was reading the RC Passages. Before you knew it, I was running out of time again, had to guess, and received my score. What was that score you ask? 310. Wowww, did I feel like the world was crumbling on me. I cancelled the score; no reason for me to keep that in my records.
So I knew I was doomed. I was facing an almost yearlong nightmare. UIC had my application - they were only waiting for my scores. So, I had no other choice but to send them my 400 score. And, I knew there was no way that they would consider me, even if I had great personal essays, letters of recommendation, and a pretty good GPA. That 400 was 200 points below their average. It all came to an end yesterday when they sent me their rejection letter.
After all that intense work, sacrifice, hard work, studying during my lunch breaks, long weekends, calling time off from work to study, no happiness or enjoyment in my life, just plain GMAT primitiveness, you bet I felt an overshadowing depression hover over my heart. I felt like tearing up after so much energy and emotion that I had put into this whole process. So what now? Well, I feel demoralized, saddened, and hopeless that I will ever make it to grad school. Feeling doomed that I will be too old for Equity Research or Investment Research. But, I do also feel anger, which is fuel for my fire. Anger because this is humiliating and I know I am capable of getting into the 600s, and heck, why not higher? I know I am not a dumb person. I know that I won't give up until it is really over. I rather die on my feet than to surrender on my knees. So, I've decided to take this week off, and then take an official GMAT CAT which I have not taken before, on Saturday.
I have also ordered the GMAT OG Ed. 13 and the PowerScore GMAT: Critical Reasoning books. I am still enrolled with Kaplan, and I have had the luck to have an instructor who is going to work with me until I get where I am capable of being at. But, I do need some constructive criticism and advice. A "Hey guy, head up. It ain't over yet," would be nice too.
The deadline for the Spring 2015 semester is November 15th. I would like to retake the GMAT maybe around late September, and if worse comes to worse, one last attempt in late October. I know that if I was scoring 550's on these CATs, it's not for no reason. I obviously have some of my basics down. I crave my self-redemption and my rise.
I had posted a story about my GMAT Experience about a month ago. It was a gloomy story and a cry for help. I attempted my self-redemption during a month long of rigorous study and practice. The conclusion, a score worse than what I had previously scored and a rejection to B-School. I believe that a thorough story about my experience and the descriptions of some of my study habits might help you get an understanding about where I am coming from.
First, I would like to introduce myself. I am a 24 year old male hispanic. I work full-time at a financial firm. I graduated from UIC with a Bachelor's in Economics and Political Science in May 2012. I have been working at my company for almost two years. One of the major reasons as to why I am looking to go back to school is because I love school and I miss my alma matter. I love the classroom environment and the stimulation from academic talk. Don't get me wrong, I dislike taking exams and doing homework. However, the ability to learn in a classroom about technical topics such as Economics and Finance is something I enjoy. Thus, I plan to pursue a Masters of Science in Finance. I am interested in Equity Research and other types of Securities research. However, I worry, that the longer I take to get back to school, the less of a chance I will have to get into these fields because of my age. I get really bummed out when I think about it.
My GMAT journey started in August of 2013. I started with the Kaplan Online Anywhere Prep with attempts to get back to school for the Spring 2014 semester. Unfortunately, due to some misunderstandings during my application process, I missed my deadline. However, I did take the GMAT in November 2013. The result was a poor score of 380. The specifics, they do not matter. It is a score of 380, whatever I did, it was plain and simply BAD. I had taken two Kaplan CATs, and they were not great. The first was a 460 and the second a 480. I was simply not studying effectively and faced my first failure.
I decided to take a break from the pointless and non-directed studying for a while so that I could enjoy the holidays. I went back into the studying around mid-January of 2014 by re-taking the Kaplan Prep Online Anywhere. I really did not get disciplined until March, and that was when I started to pick up the volume. By late May - early June, I had two CAT's, each 550. There was some level of improvement, despite my highly disorganized studying and aimless direction of studying. I decided to take the GMAT for a second time in June, hoping that finally, I would reach the 500s at the very least. The result was yet again disappointing. Below is the breakdown/escalation of my scores:
CAT 3:
Quant - 41
Verbal - 28
CAT 4:
Quant - 37
Verbal - 30
Real GMAT:
Quant - 25
Verbal - 21
Now, my back was against the wall, as my application for this coming Fall semester was coming up fast. I had one more month to get my act together and figure out WHY I wasn't able to replicate my performances on the Kaplan CAT's to the real GMAT exam. So for five weeks, I spent rigorously going over all sections of the Exam. I retook Kaplan again for a third swing, and my online instructors were impressed with my progress. I was studying almost every day. The reality was that, I was always studying. I had sacrificed fun time, hanging out with friends, ect. so that I could finally beat this exam to the group. However, the difference this time was that I was actually finally adapting the Kaplan's strategies: Backsolving, Picking Numbers, SC answer choice elimination, ect. I was finally understanding some of the mathematical concepts that were rusty since high school. I was becoming more and more effective on CR questions and SC questions. So, I finally took a CAT a week before my exam last Saturday. My Kaplan CAT score was a 540: Quant - 42 Verbal - 22. I was so proud of myself that the work that I was putting into on the Quant was finally showing. It has been my highest score on a CAT since. However, I was not putting enough emphasis on the Verbal. My weaknesses appeared to have been CR and SC. So, I spent my last week and a half hammering away at the CR and SC. Coming up with the assumption has been such a struggle for me because sometimes I do come up with an assumption, it would be wrong. But I went at it. I was hitting the quizbanks, reading over and attempting to comprehend the reasonings to the correct answers. I felt like I was having great improvement with SC as well. My Kaplan instructors believed that once I would get back into that testing center, I would most likely end up flirting with a score in the 600 range after improving my Verbal to make my overall score pop.
Well, Saturday came. I had taken the day off work the day before so that I could relax, do no studying, and calming the nerves and anxiety that were screwing me over in the last two GMAT Exams. I felt like this was it. My redemption and my opportunity to go back to school. My exam was at 8AM, just as how my second exam was scheduled. I could not sleep over the anxiety of taking the exam during my second time, so I think exhaustion was what weakened me along with stress during my second exam. This time, I made sure that I was rested and would fall asleep. I had a little bit of Nyquil so that I would knock out and get my 8 hours of sleep this time. As usual, I went into the Argumentative Essay and it was not a problem. The last times I had scored a 5.5 and 6 on the Essay portion. Writing and forming constructive paragraphs has never been an issue for me. I like literary art and constructive thought development since I was in high school, hence my Political Science major. Afterward, the IR section came and I wasn't always the sharpest at this section since I wouldn't invest too much time studying for this section. I was scoring 4's in the last two GMAT's. Finally came time to take my break. I went to my locker, took some drinks of my Gatorade and had some Chewy Chips Ahoy (my unhealthy but delicious desire). I was thinking to myself, "Alright, it's game-time baby. Time to rock-n-roll this sucker and get the heck out of here." I go in to take my Quant, and the first questions that I was seeing were mostly word problems. But, they looked like word problems I had never seen during my Kaplan quizzes and practices. They didn't seem like things I had practiced before. It intimidated me. I spent a lot of time in the beginning with these darn questions, and of course, lost track of time and came to the point where I was probably on Question 21 with 10 minutes to go. Well, you can just imagine what I had to do at that point. I am not going to lie, after that, I took my break, went back to my locker for some Gatorade, and thought to myself, "Fudge," and not the fudge on my Chewy Chips Ahoy, and not really the word "Fudge," I'm just trying to keep it Rated G. I was starting to feel bummed out about that, and in confusion as to why the texture of those problems looked so eerily different. I went to the washroom to wash my face, I looked at myself and said, "C'mon darn it, finish clean. Clean the score up on the Verbal." Ahhhh, that Verbal was a disasterpiece. I cannot even remember the full details of that section. I can just remember my brain experiencing fogginess and at times, feeling like falling asleep when I was reading the RC Passages. Before you knew it, I was running out of time again, had to guess, and received my score. What was that score you ask? 310. Wowww, did I feel like the world was crumbling on me. I cancelled the score; no reason for me to keep that in my records.
So I knew I was doomed. I was facing an almost yearlong nightmare. UIC had my application - they were only waiting for my scores. So, I had no other choice but to send them my 400 score. And, I knew there was no way that they would consider me, even if I had great personal essays, letters of recommendation, and a pretty good GPA. That 400 was 200 points below their average. It all came to an end yesterday when they sent me their rejection letter.
After all that intense work, sacrifice, hard work, studying during my lunch breaks, long weekends, calling time off from work to study, no happiness or enjoyment in my life, just plain GMAT primitiveness, you bet I felt an overshadowing depression hover over my heart. I felt like tearing up after so much energy and emotion that I had put into this whole process. So what now? Well, I feel demoralized, saddened, and hopeless that I will ever make it to grad school. Feeling doomed that I will be too old for Equity Research or Investment Research. But, I do also feel anger, which is fuel for my fire. Anger because this is humiliating and I know I am capable of getting into the 600s, and heck, why not higher? I know I am not a dumb person. I know that I won't give up until it is really over. I rather die on my feet than to surrender on my knees. So, I've decided to take this week off, and then take an official GMAT CAT which I have not taken before, on Saturday.
I have also ordered the GMAT OG Ed. 13 and the PowerScore GMAT: Critical Reasoning books. I am still enrolled with Kaplan, and I have had the luck to have an instructor who is going to work with me until I get where I am capable of being at. But, I do need some constructive criticism and advice. A "Hey guy, head up. It ain't over yet," would be nice too.
The deadline for the Spring 2015 semester is November 15th. I would like to retake the GMAT maybe around late September, and if worse comes to worse, one last attempt in late October. I know that if I was scoring 550's on these CATs, it's not for no reason. I obviously have some of my basics down. I crave my self-redemption and my rise.
17 Jul 2014, 17:55
Kudos
Bookmarks
Haven't taken my first stab at the GMAT yet, but from reading, curious when you take practice CATs are you in a similar environment as the testing center (Quiet, Isolated, etc.)? How about time of day, is it around 8am when you practice? Helps set a habit of sorts and get you familiar with the process so it won't be such a shock test day.
From my limited experience, I'd recommend learning the application of the concepts you mentioned versus just being able to do the math. It'll help you be able to turn the difficult looking problems that you have not encountered into the practice problems that your familiar with.
Lastly, work on that testing anxiety, it's just a test and be confident you know the material!
"Hey guy, head up. It ain't over yet"
Good Luck and Beat The Exam!
From my limited experience, I'd recommend learning the application of the concepts you mentioned versus just being able to do the math. It'll help you be able to turn the difficult looking problems that you have not encountered into the practice problems that your familiar with.
Lastly, work on that testing anxiety, it's just a test and be confident you know the material!
"Hey guy, head up. It ain't over yet"
Good Luck and Beat The Exam!
21 Jul 2014, 13:15
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi,
I can provide you some info in regards to retaking the exam. here you go:
Concerning whether to take another exam. It is a tough call, but a few things to take into account:
Schools do not normally care if a student takes the exam multiple times. That's ok. Can one apply with less than a 700 or a bit less than the school may ask for? Of course! The application to an MBA or other program will depend on several factors, including the GMAT. Now if a student gets a 350 on the GMAT and needs roughly a 700 then of course a retake is in order but if schools are asking for a 700 and someone gets a 690, I would still say go for it, not because a 690 is not excellent but because if one can get a 690 then when can certainly even jump to a higher level. In fact from one exam to the next scores can vary wildly sometimes. A score can dip from one exam to another even with the same amount of knowledge or the same percentage of correct/incorrect. The GMAT scoring algorithm takes many factors into account including where you make errors (eg making mistakes on 'graded' versus experimental questions, or the 'weight' of the question itself etc), how many mistakes you commit in a row, whether you finish both sections or leave questions out, whether the last few questions of either section seemed like they were guessed at (ie did you spend only a few seconds on the last few questions as opposed to the full time you should have), how you felt on test day - these can all affect score.
From one test to the next you can easily jump +/- 30 points (and even up to 80 or so) depending on where the mistakes are. So you can get the same percentage of right and wrong on two exams with the same amount of knowledge and yet have a score that differs by quite a bit. This is the same as the real GMAT. To illustrate, I can make a mistake every other question in the Quant over 5 exams (ie in every exam my percentage is 50% but have a score range from, say, a 15 to a 35, for example, which is quite insane, but it shows too that where you make mistakes can often be more important than how many. Overall, when a student wants to know where he/she stands, the best way to do so is to take the average after a few exams. This should get you to a fairly close estimation of where you are at. You can also check out our blog for more info on GMAT scoring: https://gmat.economist.com/blog/test-taking-skills...
I do wish to add the following. While I like to encourage students to retake exams if they have the energy and time to do so, in certain circumstances in may not be necessary especially in the context of other application criteria. So altogether a retake is good for students who are both far and close to their GMAT range but this will take dedication and further practice. If you have it in you to do so then go for it! If you have other aspects you need to take care of but are already at your range then I do not see it as all important. The other aspects of the application may carry quite a bit more weight. And finally, you can always ask the school itself whether it is worth doing. Sometimes they actually help in that regard.
I hope that helps.
Sincerely,
Evan
I can provide you some info in regards to retaking the exam. here you go:
Concerning whether to take another exam. It is a tough call, but a few things to take into account:
Schools do not normally care if a student takes the exam multiple times. That's ok. Can one apply with less than a 700 or a bit less than the school may ask for? Of course! The application to an MBA or other program will depend on several factors, including the GMAT. Now if a student gets a 350 on the GMAT and needs roughly a 700 then of course a retake is in order but if schools are asking for a 700 and someone gets a 690, I would still say go for it, not because a 690 is not excellent but because if one can get a 690 then when can certainly even jump to a higher level. In fact from one exam to the next scores can vary wildly sometimes. A score can dip from one exam to another even with the same amount of knowledge or the same percentage of correct/incorrect. The GMAT scoring algorithm takes many factors into account including where you make errors (eg making mistakes on 'graded' versus experimental questions, or the 'weight' of the question itself etc), how many mistakes you commit in a row, whether you finish both sections or leave questions out, whether the last few questions of either section seemed like they were guessed at (ie did you spend only a few seconds on the last few questions as opposed to the full time you should have), how you felt on test day - these can all affect score.
From one test to the next you can easily jump +/- 30 points (and even up to 80 or so) depending on where the mistakes are. So you can get the same percentage of right and wrong on two exams with the same amount of knowledge and yet have a score that differs by quite a bit. This is the same as the real GMAT. To illustrate, I can make a mistake every other question in the Quant over 5 exams (ie in every exam my percentage is 50% but have a score range from, say, a 15 to a 35, for example, which is quite insane, but it shows too that where you make mistakes can often be more important than how many. Overall, when a student wants to know where he/she stands, the best way to do so is to take the average after a few exams. This should get you to a fairly close estimation of where you are at. You can also check out our blog for more info on GMAT scoring: https://gmat.economist.com/blog/test-taking-skills...
I do wish to add the following. While I like to encourage students to retake exams if they have the energy and time to do so, in certain circumstances in may not be necessary especially in the context of other application criteria. So altogether a retake is good for students who are both far and close to their GMAT range but this will take dedication and further practice. If you have it in you to do so then go for it! If you have other aspects you need to take care of but are already at your range then I do not see it as all important. The other aspects of the application may carry quite a bit more weight. And finally, you can always ask the school itself whether it is worth doing. Sometimes they actually help in that regard.
I hope that helps.
Sincerely,
Evan
