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21 Oct 2017, 18:54
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hey all,
A little bit of background on me (maybe someone has/had a similar situation):
I'm 23 and graduated in May of 2016 with a Biology B.S. and a 3.83 GPA. My plans at that point were to enter Medical school but soon after getting some experience in the field, medicine lost its appeal to me and I wanted to move forward in my personal life and working in a different environment. I found a job part time in outside sales and soon after transitioned to full-time job in inside sales. I've been working there for just under 9 months and went from the Account Development Rep (others might call it Sales Development Rep) to the ADR Team Lead. It's been quite the transition for me and I'm just getting back into the flow of things.
I took the GMAT earlier today and scored only a 640 (Q44, V34) which, given my work experience and resume, probably wouldn't at all make me an outstanding applicant. I was shooting for more 680/690, as it's more in line with the standards of the program I want to get into, and to offset some of the weaker aspects of my application. Given that I'm applying for UIUC's MBA program and want to make the deadline for the first round of applications (3rd week of November) I figured it might be good to take another test soon and so scheduled another GMAT on November 7th.
To be honest, I feel wholly unprepared. At the moment I have VeritasPrep's online On Demand video courses with a couple of their mock exams and the GMAT OG for both Verbal and Quant. Admittedly I haven't done too much with either of the books and have been spending most of my time working my way through the VP curriculum, but it hasn't seem to done me a great deal. So since I'm more or less back to square one, I'm in desperate need for the best pointers anyone can offer given my current situation.
My experience on the test was pretty jarring; I'd thought that having taken mock tests before and having scored higher I wouldn't struggle so much, but on test day, I did more than struggle. I could work through the questions well enough to keep time and had about a minute or two at the end of each section to spare, but the questions themselves were tricky. It felt like there was no room to apply any of the strategies I'd picked up from VeritasPrep, especially in the Quant section. There were no tricks or strategies I could use to push through questions efficiently. As I recall when I took the official GMAT today there were exactly two "ah-ha" moments when I could definitively say, "I know I got that question right." Yet, when I was practicing, I was confident in at least half of the practice problems. The Verbal section was a little weird for me, too. I'd been practicing with all the techniques and methods of answering questions while taking the mock exams and they seemed to click with me. On test day though, this definitely did not feel like the case.
I have roughly two weeks before my next exam and two resources I want to get through but feel lost for where I should start. I'm thinking maybe having gone through VeritasPrep's program and had some exposure to the question, the OG might be the best way for me to start doing more practice problems. How should I best utilize the OG? Just read through it and take notes and create a log?
I do realize that hard work works, but I'm really at a time crunch and so I want to be able to utilize my efforts most efficiently. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all so much in advance.
A little bit of background on me (maybe someone has/had a similar situation):
I'm 23 and graduated in May of 2016 with a Biology B.S. and a 3.83 GPA. My plans at that point were to enter Medical school but soon after getting some experience in the field, medicine lost its appeal to me and I wanted to move forward in my personal life and working in a different environment. I found a job part time in outside sales and soon after transitioned to full-time job in inside sales. I've been working there for just under 9 months and went from the Account Development Rep (others might call it Sales Development Rep) to the ADR Team Lead. It's been quite the transition for me and I'm just getting back into the flow of things.
I took the GMAT earlier today and scored only a 640 (Q44, V34) which, given my work experience and resume, probably wouldn't at all make me an outstanding applicant. I was shooting for more 680/690, as it's more in line with the standards of the program I want to get into, and to offset some of the weaker aspects of my application. Given that I'm applying for UIUC's MBA program and want to make the deadline for the first round of applications (3rd week of November) I figured it might be good to take another test soon and so scheduled another GMAT on November 7th.
To be honest, I feel wholly unprepared. At the moment I have VeritasPrep's online On Demand video courses with a couple of their mock exams and the GMAT OG for both Verbal and Quant. Admittedly I haven't done too much with either of the books and have been spending most of my time working my way through the VP curriculum, but it hasn't seem to done me a great deal. So since I'm more or less back to square one, I'm in desperate need for the best pointers anyone can offer given my current situation.
My experience on the test was pretty jarring; I'd thought that having taken mock tests before and having scored higher I wouldn't struggle so much, but on test day, I did more than struggle. I could work through the questions well enough to keep time and had about a minute or two at the end of each section to spare, but the questions themselves were tricky. It felt like there was no room to apply any of the strategies I'd picked up from VeritasPrep, especially in the Quant section. There were no tricks or strategies I could use to push through questions efficiently. As I recall when I took the official GMAT today there were exactly two "ah-ha" moments when I could definitively say, "I know I got that question right." Yet, when I was practicing, I was confident in at least half of the practice problems. The Verbal section was a little weird for me, too. I'd been practicing with all the techniques and methods of answering questions while taking the mock exams and they seemed to click with me. On test day though, this definitely did not feel like the case.
I have roughly two weeks before my next exam and two resources I want to get through but feel lost for where I should start. I'm thinking maybe having gone through VeritasPrep's program and had some exposure to the question, the OG might be the best way for me to start doing more practice problems. How should I best utilize the OG? Just read through it and take notes and create a log?
I do realize that hard work works, but I'm really at a time crunch and so I want to be able to utilize my efforts most efficiently. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all so much in advance.
22 Oct 2017, 00:10
Kudos
Bookmarks
David H
Hi,
Few Questions i would like to knwo is how much are you scoring in your mocks and which mocks are you practicing. One suggestion anyone will give is that hope you are through with OG . OG provides the most standard questions and then only any other prep material moves in. It will be great if you can share your study part i will be able to help you in much better manner.
Best Wishes
22 Oct 2017, 07:30
Kudos
Bookmarks
Quote:
My recent scores have been around 670 and 680. I did the VeritasPrep CAD exams, as well as the mock exams provided by the official GMAT, "GMAT Prep."
, because I'm not you, and I'm certainly no expert. Think over your options again and decide wisely.
.
