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28 Sep 2016, 07:40
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Dear GMAT Club,
First of all thanks for hearing me out.
Just took my first GMAT today, I scored a 640 with Q52 V25 IR8. I am really not sure how to improve my verbal score. I did better than I thought for quant.
Background:
I am an American born Chinese, was a native english speaker, but then decided to attend college in China (all classes taught in Chinese, so I had to learn to read/write/speak Chinese), after graduating I proceeded to work in a Chinese firm for a few years where everything was once again in Chinese. Long story short, my English has deteriorated and is now what we consider 'chinglish'. I mean I still understand, speak, and think in English, but it's just really distorted with awkward vocabulary mixed in with bad grammar.
So I decided to take the test for various reasons, primarily looking to take a break from work, gain some perspectives, student life, and to return to an English/international environment.
Preparation:
My work hours are quite long, and I often work during the weekend too, so the amount of time I had for studying was rather limited. I studied for roughly 3-4 weeks, averaging about 10-15 hours per week, I know it's not enough but I don't have much time and am trying to squeeze in to the round 2 MBA deadline. I thought my biggest weakness would be quantitative, so I spent most of 70% of my time on it. Studied independently, using Manhattan prep, GMAT official guide, cracking the GMAT (for verbal mostly).
Test Day:
Took a day off work, went for a jog, grabbed a light lunch and then went off to the test center 30min ahead of time. Felt a bit nauseous in the morning, but the light jog really helped clear the mind.
AWA:
I formulated my points relatively easily, but I realized I had a difficult time putting it into writing, probably due to not having wrote in formal english (especially an essay) for a long long time. Overall not too difficult, but need to practice English writing (even as I am writing this right now I realize I am finding it a little difficult to write coherently)
IR: Score: 8
Didn't do any prep for this other than the IR in the free practice tests from GMATprep. This was relatively easy, and had lots of time to spare. I think I must of got lucky with the questions.
Quant: Score: 52
I was really nervous about quant, but to my surprise everything went relatively smoothly, need to work a bit more on my timing. I finished with just 30 seconds left on the clock.
Verbal: Score: 25
By the time I got to the verbal section, my brain was feeling really fried. I could feel my thinking slow down. It took me 30minutes to do the first 10 questions... I spent 15 on a reading comprehension and 5+ minutes on one sentence correction. In the end I had 20 questions left with 25minutes... I ended up blind guessing the last 12 questions... I am not sure what happened, my head just went blank, all the sentence correction choices looked right to me and reading comprehension took way too long. I've read all the Manhattan Prep and Cracking The GMAT, but I honestly struggle with SC and RC. I am not sure how to improve it... Maybe I need to read more in general (books, the economist, WSJ?). The problem is I understand what the sentences in SC is saying but most of the time all 5 of the answers look right to me (maybe because I've been using and hearing bad grammar for too long).
I am looking to retake the GMAT in 3-4 weeks, will be primarily focusing on improving my English SC and RC... but I really don't know what's the best way. I am feeling really lost and desperate, for math it's quite black and white when it comes to answers, but in SC I really feel like I am playing a guessing game. I remember back when I took the SATs, the advice was 'pick the one that sounds right', but for me right now on the GMAT everything sounds right... It would be great if you guys can share with me your experience on improving verbal and what worked best for you. I should probably read more books.
Also, is round 2 of mba deadlines worth trying? Or should I just wait till next year and aim for round 1? Many thanks.
First of all thanks for hearing me out.
Just took my first GMAT today, I scored a 640 with Q52 V25 IR8. I am really not sure how to improve my verbal score. I did better than I thought for quant.
Background:
I am an American born Chinese, was a native english speaker, but then decided to attend college in China (all classes taught in Chinese, so I had to learn to read/write/speak Chinese), after graduating I proceeded to work in a Chinese firm for a few years where everything was once again in Chinese. Long story short, my English has deteriorated and is now what we consider 'chinglish'. I mean I still understand, speak, and think in English, but it's just really distorted with awkward vocabulary mixed in with bad grammar.
So I decided to take the test for various reasons, primarily looking to take a break from work, gain some perspectives, student life, and to return to an English/international environment.
Preparation:
My work hours are quite long, and I often work during the weekend too, so the amount of time I had for studying was rather limited. I studied for roughly 3-4 weeks, averaging about 10-15 hours per week, I know it's not enough but I don't have much time and am trying to squeeze in to the round 2 MBA deadline. I thought my biggest weakness would be quantitative, so I spent most of 70% of my time on it. Studied independently, using Manhattan prep, GMAT official guide, cracking the GMAT (for verbal mostly).
Test Day:
Took a day off work, went for a jog, grabbed a light lunch and then went off to the test center 30min ahead of time. Felt a bit nauseous in the morning, but the light jog really helped clear the mind.
AWA:
I formulated my points relatively easily, but I realized I had a difficult time putting it into writing, probably due to not having wrote in formal english (especially an essay) for a long long time. Overall not too difficult, but need to practice English writing (even as I am writing this right now I realize I am finding it a little difficult to write coherently)
IR: Score: 8
Didn't do any prep for this other than the IR in the free practice tests from GMATprep. This was relatively easy, and had lots of time to spare. I think I must of got lucky with the questions.
Quant: Score: 52
I was really nervous about quant, but to my surprise everything went relatively smoothly, need to work a bit more on my timing. I finished with just 30 seconds left on the clock.
Verbal: Score: 25
By the time I got to the verbal section, my brain was feeling really fried. I could feel my thinking slow down. It took me 30minutes to do the first 10 questions... I spent 15 on a reading comprehension and 5+ minutes on one sentence correction. In the end I had 20 questions left with 25minutes... I ended up blind guessing the last 12 questions... I am not sure what happened, my head just went blank, all the sentence correction choices looked right to me and reading comprehension took way too long. I've read all the Manhattan Prep and Cracking The GMAT, but I honestly struggle with SC and RC. I am not sure how to improve it... Maybe I need to read more in general (books, the economist, WSJ?). The problem is I understand what the sentences in SC is saying but most of the time all 5 of the answers look right to me (maybe because I've been using and hearing bad grammar for too long).
I am looking to retake the GMAT in 3-4 weeks, will be primarily focusing on improving my English SC and RC... but I really don't know what's the best way. I am feeling really lost and desperate, for math it's quite black and white when it comes to answers, but in SC I really feel like I am playing a guessing game. I remember back when I took the SATs, the advice was 'pick the one that sounds right', but for me right now on the GMAT everything sounds right... It would be great if you guys can share with me your experience on improving verbal and what worked best for you. I should probably read more books.
Also, is round 2 of mba deadlines worth trying? Or should I just wait till next year and aim for round 1? Many thanks.
For the AWA, practice using the chineseburned guide that is on this forum. I used that exclusively and scored 6.0/6.0 on AWA.
For sentence correction, beyond reading about the rules and idioms from the guide books, look into the "meaning based" approach that is taught by prep companies like e-GMAT. You don't necessarily have to sign up for their course, but they do have free webinars on these topics that you can attend. Like you already said, in the GMAT, often all the answer choices "sound" correct, but the key to picking the right one is the meaning behind the sentence.
Reading Comprehension is a bit trickier. Improving in this for me just came with practice and knowing the types of questions that are asked. Identifying the tone of the author and why type of passage it is (facts or argument or opinion, etc.) can help you narrow down answer choices too.
Finally, about round 2, from what I have read and heard from adcoms and students, it seems there isnt a major difference between R1 and R2. You want to avoid R3 if you can because the amount of seats left at that point are very small.
For sentence correction, beyond reading about the rules and idioms from the guide books, look into the "meaning based" approach that is taught by prep companies like e-GMAT. You don't necessarily have to sign up for their course, but they do have free webinars on these topics that you can attend. Like you already said, in the GMAT, often all the answer choices "sound" correct, but the key to picking the right one is the meaning behind the sentence.
Reading Comprehension is a bit trickier. Improving in this for me just came with practice and knowing the types of questions that are asked. Identifying the tone of the author and why type of passage it is (facts or argument or opinion, etc.) can help you narrow down answer choices too.
Finally, about round 2, from what I have read and heard from adcoms and students, it seems there isnt a major difference between R1 and R2. You want to avoid R3 if you can because the amount of seats left at that point are very small.
Kurai
Joined: 18 Apr 2016
Last visit: 31 May 2021
Posts: 78
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Schools: Stanford '24 Anderson (UCLA)
GMAT 1: 610 Q47 V27
GMAT 2: 710 Q50 V37
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28 Sep 2016, 10:08
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I'm sorry a Q52?
I am pretty sure you cannot score higher than a Q51.
I am pretty sure you cannot score higher than a Q51.
