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16 Mar 2015, 03:04
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Received conditional offer from postgraduate university of my choice in November 2014 which required a score of 600+ on the GMAT, promptly booked my test date for December 11th 2014 and bought 12 private online tutoring hours.
Using the OG my tutor took me through my weakness: quant.
I was never confident, because my fundamental math is terrible. Math has always been my weakness and anytime I could avoid it during high school and university, I did. However the practice tests went fairly decently (620 – 680) using Manahattan Review’s online tests. I know that’s under what most people report, but my goal is to break 600.
Come test day my tutor was confident that I would score 700+ based on our sessions and my progress. I very UNCONFIDENT and I was literally shaking on test day: admittedly it was my own fault as the main thought I had in my head was “If you fail this you have no future.”
I passed through integrated reasoning without too much thought as my tutor advised me that it doesn’t count towards my score: AKA I don’t care about it because all I want is 600 and to get rid of this test forever.
Quant comes along, it’s going O.K. but I have guessed a couple of times so when I get to a weighted average question I get stuck because I am certain that I know how to get this one: I’m sure I spend upwards of 5 minutes on this question. Time had NEVER been an issue on my practice tests, it wasn’t uncommon for me to finish with 15 minutes to spare on those. So it didn’t even occur to me that this should be a problem.
I don’t remember the exact time and number of questions I had to blindly guess on: But for about 1 min I was just pressing random answers in order to get through the quant on time. At this point I realized that I was doomed.
Verbal was my strong suit but I don’t think there was any chance of me redeeming myself at this point, and that set the tone for my verbal effort as well.
I scored a whopping 480, to my absolute horror. I was so frazzled and depressed that I stupidly didn’t take the time to view my score breakdown and immediately cancelled my score.
In hindsight I realize that 1 month was never going to be sufficient for me, seriously lacking in fundamental math. Since mid jan I have been preparing for my resit, trying to cover more quant fundamentals as well as perfecting my verbal. My test date is for May 30th and I’m making this journey post to track my work and progress in order to push myself. If I get to mid May and don't feel confident enough yet, I can push back my test: I just need it before September...
I realize my ego is severely bruised as I haven’t yet dared to sit a practice test but I am officially doing one this Wednesday to break the ice. I have to remember that a practice test is just that: practice, and even if I do not do well this Wednesday I have just about 2 more months of practice ahead of me.
Guidance from any of you is greatly appreciated!
So far I am working my way through the OG for Quant, as well as the OG Quantitative review 2015 book. I have started using the timer app on GMATClub and find it extremely useful thus far. I also practice verbal, for the most part on GMATClub as I have exhausted my OG resources. I am a full time intern, 10 hours a day. I usually try to turn up to work 2 hours early (7am) in order to practice before work when my mind isn’t exhausted yet.
Using the OG my tutor took me through my weakness: quant.
I was never confident, because my fundamental math is terrible. Math has always been my weakness and anytime I could avoid it during high school and university, I did. However the practice tests went fairly decently (620 – 680) using Manahattan Review’s online tests. I know that’s under what most people report, but my goal is to break 600.
Come test day my tutor was confident that I would score 700+ based on our sessions and my progress. I very UNCONFIDENT and I was literally shaking on test day: admittedly it was my own fault as the main thought I had in my head was “If you fail this you have no future.”
I passed through integrated reasoning without too much thought as my tutor advised me that it doesn’t count towards my score: AKA I don’t care about it because all I want is 600 and to get rid of this test forever.
Quant comes along, it’s going O.K. but I have guessed a couple of times so when I get to a weighted average question I get stuck because I am certain that I know how to get this one: I’m sure I spend upwards of 5 minutes on this question. Time had NEVER been an issue on my practice tests, it wasn’t uncommon for me to finish with 15 minutes to spare on those. So it didn’t even occur to me that this should be a problem.
I don’t remember the exact time and number of questions I had to blindly guess on: But for about 1 min I was just pressing random answers in order to get through the quant on time. At this point I realized that I was doomed.
Verbal was my strong suit but I don’t think there was any chance of me redeeming myself at this point, and that set the tone for my verbal effort as well.
I scored a whopping 480, to my absolute horror. I was so frazzled and depressed that I stupidly didn’t take the time to view my score breakdown and immediately cancelled my score.
In hindsight I realize that 1 month was never going to be sufficient for me, seriously lacking in fundamental math. Since mid jan I have been preparing for my resit, trying to cover more quant fundamentals as well as perfecting my verbal. My test date is for May 30th and I’m making this journey post to track my work and progress in order to push myself. If I get to mid May and don't feel confident enough yet, I can push back my test: I just need it before September...
I realize my ego is severely bruised as I haven’t yet dared to sit a practice test but I am officially doing one this Wednesday to break the ice. I have to remember that a practice test is just that: practice, and even if I do not do well this Wednesday I have just about 2 more months of practice ahead of me.
Guidance from any of you is greatly appreciated!
So far I am working my way through the OG for Quant, as well as the OG Quantitative review 2015 book. I have started using the timer app on GMATClub and find it extremely useful thus far. I also practice verbal, for the most part on GMATClub as I have exhausted my OG resources. I am a full time intern, 10 hours a day. I usually try to turn up to work 2 hours early (7am) in order to practice before work when my mind isn’t exhausted yet.
16 Mar 2015, 18:50
Kudos
Bookmarks
March 17th Agenda:
Purchased MGMAT Online resources.
Looking through flashcards; will do timed practice questions from OG. Both PS and DS.
Will post progress this evening, noting problems and question types that I struggle with.
Purchased MGMAT Online resources.
Looking through flashcards; will do timed practice questions from OG. Both PS and DS.
Will post progress this evening, noting problems and question types that I struggle with.
16 Mar 2015, 20:58
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi sabineodf,
There are some aspects to your story that don't seem to "line up" quite right, so I'm hoping that you can provide a bit more information about how you studied.
1) What type of practice tests were you taking? Were they FULL-LENGTH CATs (including the Essay and IR sections)?
I ask because if your fundamental math skills were as 'poor' as you described, then the idea that you would be able to score 680 on a practice Test with just a bit of studying and some tutoring seems unlikely. This implies that something about those tests (or how you took them) did not 'match up' with the Official GMAT. You also describe having a BIG pacing problem on Test Day that you had never experienced during practice - this also implies that something was "off" about your practice (and something could have been 'off' about Test Day itself).
2) Almost everyone practice with the free materials (including the 2 CATs) from www.mba.com, but you didn't mention them, so I'm curious if you used them or not?
With a May 30 Test Date and a September 'general' deadline, you now have plenty of time to study and improve. Making sure that you're using the proper resources and taking CATs in the proper fashion are two things that you have to be focused on with this next attempt.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
There are some aspects to your story that don't seem to "line up" quite right, so I'm hoping that you can provide a bit more information about how you studied.
1) What type of practice tests were you taking? Were they FULL-LENGTH CATs (including the Essay and IR sections)?
I ask because if your fundamental math skills were as 'poor' as you described, then the idea that you would be able to score 680 on a practice Test with just a bit of studying and some tutoring seems unlikely. This implies that something about those tests (or how you took them) did not 'match up' with the Official GMAT. You also describe having a BIG pacing problem on Test Day that you had never experienced during practice - this also implies that something was "off" about your practice (and something could have been 'off' about Test Day itself).
2) Almost everyone practice with the free materials (including the 2 CATs) from www.mba.com, but you didn't mention them, so I'm curious if you used them or not?
With a May 30 Test Date and a September 'general' deadline, you now have plenty of time to study and improve. Making sure that you're using the proper resources and taking CATs in the proper fashion are two things that you have to be focused on with this next attempt.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
