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Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
04 Dec 2017, 18:00
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First, before I share my story, let me lead with the fact that I don't encourage anyone to do what I did. I worked hard (And got lucky), but it is far better to spend more time studying, rather than rushing through it like I did.
Background
I am an American, and I graduated with my Master's degree in accounting. My undergrad was also in accounting. I have worked as an auditor since graduation. I thought about going to get an MBA, but needed to take the GMAT to see if I could even do so. I wanted to apply for the next fall, which meant I had to take the GMAT the next week to get my scores in time to apply.
Preparation
I still had my full-time job during the day, so I could only study at night. I took a pretest here on GMAT club, and it gave me an estimated in the low 700's. That was encouraging. However, I noted that I made a lot of silly mistakes while taking the test, so I kept an error log of what I had done wrong, and learned from those mistakes. That was seriously the best advice anyone could have given me. All in all, I studied for about 15 hours. I would have studied more, but I just couldn't make time.
Test Day
Test day came, and I just followed my normal routine. I didn't want to take a vacation day from work, so I worked for about four hours before I went to take the GMAT. I got there early, and got mentally ready by taking deep breaths, and just trying to stay calm. I took the test in the "Q-V-Integrated Reasoning-Analytical writing" order. I wanted to tackle Quant while my head was still in the game. The test went pretty well, but I used most of the time on each section. I think the most I ended with was three or four minutes left at the end of a section. During each break, I ate some of the snacks I brought with me. They were energy snacks like peanut butter sandwiches or fruit. I was pretty tired, but I powered through the essay and finished up. When I saw that I had scored a 720, I was elated.
Score
Quantitative: 48 (Studying paid off here)
Verbal: 41 (I dropped a bit here from the practice tests. Probably due to sentence corrections.)
Integrated Reasoning: 7
Analytical Writing: 6.0
Lesson's Learned/ Tips
First, an error log is critical. Whether you have a week to study or six months, you cannot improve your score without seeing what you are doing wrong. Next, more prep time would have been fantastic. There were several questions that I just had to guess on for Quant, because I did not know the underlying calculation or formula.
If you don't have a lot of time, like me, then focus on what you are doing wrong. Yes, there are some concepts that you may not know perfectly. But, if you know nothing about a topic, then it is even hard to use logic to work through.
The other is that studying pays off. Try to squeeze in what you can, without burning out.
Practice Tests Taken
GMAT Club (Q46 V43 Total 720)
Materials Used
GMAT Club
Varsity Tutors (They didn't always have the most complete or technical answers, but they were free. I was on a budget, so this was one of my primary driving factors)
Background
I am an American, and I graduated with my Master's degree in accounting. My undergrad was also in accounting. I have worked as an auditor since graduation. I thought about going to get an MBA, but needed to take the GMAT to see if I could even do so. I wanted to apply for the next fall, which meant I had to take the GMAT the next week to get my scores in time to apply.
Preparation
I still had my full-time job during the day, so I could only study at night. I took a pretest here on GMAT club, and it gave me an estimated in the low 700's. That was encouraging. However, I noted that I made a lot of silly mistakes while taking the test, so I kept an error log of what I had done wrong, and learned from those mistakes. That was seriously the best advice anyone could have given me. All in all, I studied for about 15 hours. I would have studied more, but I just couldn't make time.
Test Day
Test day came, and I just followed my normal routine. I didn't want to take a vacation day from work, so I worked for about four hours before I went to take the GMAT. I got there early, and got mentally ready by taking deep breaths, and just trying to stay calm. I took the test in the "Q-V-Integrated Reasoning-Analytical writing" order. I wanted to tackle Quant while my head was still in the game. The test went pretty well, but I used most of the time on each section. I think the most I ended with was three or four minutes left at the end of a section. During each break, I ate some of the snacks I brought with me. They were energy snacks like peanut butter sandwiches or fruit. I was pretty tired, but I powered through the essay and finished up. When I saw that I had scored a 720, I was elated.
Score
Quantitative: 48 (Studying paid off here)
Verbal: 41 (I dropped a bit here from the practice tests. Probably due to sentence corrections.)
Integrated Reasoning: 7
Analytical Writing: 6.0
Lesson's Learned/ Tips
First, an error log is critical. Whether you have a week to study or six months, you cannot improve your score without seeing what you are doing wrong. Next, more prep time would have been fantastic. There were several questions that I just had to guess on for Quant, because I did not know the underlying calculation or formula.
If you don't have a lot of time, like me, then focus on what you are doing wrong. Yes, there are some concepts that you may not know perfectly. But, if you know nothing about a topic, then it is even hard to use logic to work through.
The other is that studying pays off. Try to squeeze in what you can, without burning out.
Practice Tests Taken
GMAT Club (Q46 V43 Total 720)
Materials Used
GMAT Club
Varsity Tutors (They didn't always have the most complete or technical answers, but they were free. I was on a budget, so this was one of my primary driving factors)
ydmuley
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Joined: 19 Mar 2014
Last visit: 01 Dec 2019
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Concentration: Finance, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Haas '20 HBS '20 CBS '20 Wharton '20 Stanford '20 Kellogg '20
GPA: 3.5
05 Dec 2017, 22:36
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Congratulations Billad for the great score! Only one week's preparation and this score is unbelievable.
All the best for the applications.
All the best for the applications.
06 Dec 2017, 11:46
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Billad
Congrats on the score! Some people are born to crack the GMAT
If you could please throw some light on how you dealt with Verbal,
it would be very helpful.
Wish you all the best for the application process...
Thanks in advance
Congrats on the score! Some people are born to crack the GMAT
If you could please throw some light on how you dealt with Verbal,
it would be very helpful.
Wish you all the best for the application process...
Thanks in advance
