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At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
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Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
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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.
Ugh.
Well, here I am, after some 50 days of preparation, with a mediocre 680 and a math score of someone who has trouble adding 2 and 2. So, how did it all start?
Two years ago, when I graduated from undergrad in finance, I decided to go for a masters degree. As I always do, I thought of this in a last possible second, and was too late to apply to any decent MBA program. Was always brilliant this way. My undergrad school offered me full scholarship for Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership and I took it. I had to take the GMAT as a formality, and I did. I scored 560 (Q35, V35) without almost any preparation.
Last summer, as I was about to start my 2nd year of grad school, I realized I wanted to go for a doctorate. I knew very well I had to retake the GMAT, but being the last minute person I am, I didn't study one bit the whole summer. The worst part is that I had absolutely nothing to do this summer. Another brilliant move on my part.
So, September came and I still haven't even looked at the GMAT book. October was passing, nothing happened. Somewhere around October 25th, my super-intelligent genius brain realized I needed to actually study. Since I am aiming to apply to schools that have deadlines around January 15th, I knew the last possible date to take GMAT would be around the 23rd. I scheduled it for today and here I am now, sitting on the couch, drinking American beer (no offense American friends, but Heineken and Stela are way better than Budweiser).
Preparation:
First couple of days of my preparation, I purchased Princeton Review, Cracking the GMAT. This is the absolutely worst book you can buy for yourself. It tries (unsuccessfully) to teach you shortcuts and tricks which aren't there. Joe Bloggs, the trademark superhero of the book seems to be an absolute moron who would't be able to score more than 300 on the test. As soon as I found this forum, very helpful BB suggested that I throw away Princeton and get some real stuff. So I burnt Princeton Review with a smile on my face and got Veritas Prep Data Sufficiency and Combinatrics books, and Manhattan's Number Properties and Word Translations. I also got OG 12, OG Quant and OG Verbal reviews.
In the first GMAT Prep, I scored 640 (Q35, V41). Obviously, my math needed major makeover. Over the next few weeks, I did nothing for verbal and all for math. Manhattan's NP was tremendously helpful. I really thought my math skills went up. All in all, I took some 30 CATs. I believed this would build my stamina, as it did. My first couple of CATs were in that 640 range. Later on, on GMAT Prerp and Manhattan GMAT cats I'd score anywhere between 680 and 750. Towards the end of the prep, I've never scored less than 720, possibly because of repeated questions, I am not sure. The point is, I have never scored less than 47 on math. Going into that test center, I wanted to see this: 730, Q47, V42. That would have been perfect, and honestly, it didn't seem unrealistic. I would have been happy with 700, though. The worst part of it all is that I took last 15 days off from work (losing decent amount of money), and literally destroyed myself with studying just to make sure I reach 700.
Test:
I woke up at 9 am and started pre-planned routine. Did a short workout to get the blood flowing, took a shower, ate good breakfast, prepared snacks, reviewed AWA templates and went for the test at 1 pm. Got there at 12:05 pm and they let me start early.
AWA was as expected. Argument was flawed, I finished the essay in 15 minutes, checked spelling and continued. Issue was also a common one. Also finished in 15 minutes, then took a break. During the break, I ate an energy bar and drank some Gatorade for hydration. I fist-pumped myself and said: "Let's kill this quant section baby."
Quant started and seemed tremendously easy. First question was 300-400 level at most. Second and third were no harder. I caught myself being at question 15 with only 17 minutes passed. This may have destroyed my quant, but questions seemed so damn easy that I had no choice to click through them after checking the answers. I am not the kind that gets fooled into believing question is easy when it's not, but these were all straightforward and I thought that (although they all seemed easy) I was killing it. Somewhere around 28th question, I got a probability that didn't seem too hard. Then, I got xy plane question which I probably missed as that was my weakest area. Finished with some easy number properties. Was sure I was on a safe path to Q47, AT LEAST. Raised my hand for proctor to come take me to a break, but she was playing solitaire on her PC so I had to actually knock on glass to get her out of her game world. Repeated the same routine with snacks. Was satisfied with energy and focus levels and was ready to murder the verbal.
Verbal started off the way I didn't want it to. I got two decently hard SCs. First CR was alright, and the RC was about women rights (ugh I hate those and the ones about Indians, no disrespect to any Aztecs roaming on this forum). Then I got series of CRs and SCs which I found pretty manageable. Then, as if GMAT makers were reading my mind, I got, and read this carefully, a passage about WOMEN INDIANS. It was like cutting me with a knife, then pouring salt on the wound. However, I think i managed to sail pass the infinite boredom and do well on it. Just when I though that 42 on V was a sure thing, I got the first RC of my life that I could not understand. Mind you, I was some 20 minutes ahead of schedule by then, and I spent 15 minutes reading this monster on film industry, and I still HAD ABSOLUTELY NO idea what it is these people wanted me to understand. After reading this damn thing for over quarter of an hour, I thought I started to understand it. Then I read the question and almost slammed the keyboard to my face so the pain of it would distract me from the pain of this RC. I mean, the first question was using words that I have never heard before. I just want to note that I've been in the US for last 6 years, constantly reading advanced literature. Now, I know my English is far from perfect, but I do understand 99% of words I encounter. This word in the question, however, was probably created by the same person who created the damn thing so he can have some use for it (first use was for this passage, probably). I finally guessed on this devil-made question and moved on. Next question made me want to click "end exam" walk to my car, drive to GMAC headquarters and punch CEO in his face. I mean, the question was asking which argument would undermine the argument used to make an assumption of the assertion of the second paragraph, or something along those unholy line. When I finished that RC, I felt like I got beat up by 7 WWE fighters. Finished the verbal section with some easy SCs and CRs. Was doubtful of my verbal score because of that RC written in hell.
Clicked though the annoying questions and finally, when they asked me if I wanted my scores reported , I wished they had a comment box where I would type: "No, I just read passages about women Indians and film making industries, and calculated probabilities of rain in July, so I can cancel my scores." Clicked "yes" and got heartbroken. Verbal was to be expected, quant was awful. 43 is not even respectable. I am still trying to realize what exactly happened. My assumption is that, since questions seemed so easy, there were couple of hidden elements that I failed to note. Or I just suck at it, which is hard to believe since I was scoring 47-49 lately. Not sure.
Disappointed? Yes. Angry? Yes. At myself, though. Had I studied the whole summer, I'd have 730, no doubt. I learned a valuable lesson: always prepare on time, think ahead. Last minute stuff rarely works. I consider myself a fairly intelligent guy, and this fact did not help me at all. It's all about effort and skill.
Right now, I am not sure if my app is even competitive for the accounting Phd program with undergrad GPA of 3.8, grad GPA of 3.9 and good letters and essays.
Well, here I am, after some 50 days of preparation, with a mediocre 680 and a math score of someone who has trouble adding 2 and 2. So, how did it all start?
Two years ago, when I graduated from undergrad in finance, I decided to go for a masters degree. As I always do, I thought of this in a last possible second, and was too late to apply to any decent MBA program. Was always brilliant this way. My undergrad school offered me full scholarship for Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership and I took it. I had to take the GMAT as a formality, and I did. I scored 560 (Q35, V35) without almost any preparation.
Last summer, as I was about to start my 2nd year of grad school, I realized I wanted to go for a doctorate. I knew very well I had to retake the GMAT, but being the last minute person I am, I didn't study one bit the whole summer. The worst part is that I had absolutely nothing to do this summer. Another brilliant move on my part.
So, September came and I still haven't even looked at the GMAT book. October was passing, nothing happened. Somewhere around October 25th, my super-intelligent genius brain realized I needed to actually study. Since I am aiming to apply to schools that have deadlines around January 15th, I knew the last possible date to take GMAT would be around the 23rd. I scheduled it for today and here I am now, sitting on the couch, drinking American beer (no offense American friends, but Heineken and Stela are way better than Budweiser).
Preparation:
First couple of days of my preparation, I purchased Princeton Review, Cracking the GMAT. This is the absolutely worst book you can buy for yourself. It tries (unsuccessfully) to teach you shortcuts and tricks which aren't there. Joe Bloggs, the trademark superhero of the book seems to be an absolute moron who would't be able to score more than 300 on the test. As soon as I found this forum, very helpful BB suggested that I throw away Princeton and get some real stuff. So I burnt Princeton Review with a smile on my face and got Veritas Prep Data Sufficiency and Combinatrics books, and Manhattan's Number Properties and Word Translations. I also got OG 12, OG Quant and OG Verbal reviews.
In the first GMAT Prep, I scored 640 (Q35, V41). Obviously, my math needed major makeover. Over the next few weeks, I did nothing for verbal and all for math. Manhattan's NP was tremendously helpful. I really thought my math skills went up. All in all, I took some 30 CATs. I believed this would build my stamina, as it did. My first couple of CATs were in that 640 range. Later on, on GMAT Prerp and Manhattan GMAT cats I'd score anywhere between 680 and 750. Towards the end of the prep, I've never scored less than 720, possibly because of repeated questions, I am not sure. The point is, I have never scored less than 47 on math. Going into that test center, I wanted to see this: 730, Q47, V42. That would have been perfect, and honestly, it didn't seem unrealistic. I would have been happy with 700, though. The worst part of it all is that I took last 15 days off from work (losing decent amount of money), and literally destroyed myself with studying just to make sure I reach 700.
Test:
I woke up at 9 am and started pre-planned routine. Did a short workout to get the blood flowing, took a shower, ate good breakfast, prepared snacks, reviewed AWA templates and went for the test at 1 pm. Got there at 12:05 pm and they let me start early.
AWA was as expected. Argument was flawed, I finished the essay in 15 minutes, checked spelling and continued. Issue was also a common one. Also finished in 15 minutes, then took a break. During the break, I ate an energy bar and drank some Gatorade for hydration. I fist-pumped myself and said: "Let's kill this quant section baby."
Quant started and seemed tremendously easy. First question was 300-400 level at most. Second and third were no harder. I caught myself being at question 15 with only 17 minutes passed. This may have destroyed my quant, but questions seemed so damn easy that I had no choice to click through them after checking the answers. I am not the kind that gets fooled into believing question is easy when it's not, but these were all straightforward and I thought that (although they all seemed easy) I was killing it. Somewhere around 28th question, I got a probability that didn't seem too hard. Then, I got xy plane question which I probably missed as that was my weakest area. Finished with some easy number properties. Was sure I was on a safe path to Q47, AT LEAST. Raised my hand for proctor to come take me to a break, but she was playing solitaire on her PC so I had to actually knock on glass to get her out of her game world. Repeated the same routine with snacks. Was satisfied with energy and focus levels and was ready to murder the verbal.
Verbal started off the way I didn't want it to. I got two decently hard SCs. First CR was alright, and the RC was about women rights (ugh I hate those and the ones about Indians, no disrespect to any Aztecs roaming on this forum). Then I got series of CRs and SCs which I found pretty manageable. Then, as if GMAT makers were reading my mind, I got, and read this carefully, a passage about WOMEN INDIANS. It was like cutting me with a knife, then pouring salt on the wound. However, I think i managed to sail pass the infinite boredom and do well on it. Just when I though that 42 on V was a sure thing, I got the first RC of my life that I could not understand. Mind you, I was some 20 minutes ahead of schedule by then, and I spent 15 minutes reading this monster on film industry, and I still HAD ABSOLUTELY NO idea what it is these people wanted me to understand. After reading this damn thing for over quarter of an hour, I thought I started to understand it. Then I read the question and almost slammed the keyboard to my face so the pain of it would distract me from the pain of this RC. I mean, the first question was using words that I have never heard before. I just want to note that I've been in the US for last 6 years, constantly reading advanced literature. Now, I know my English is far from perfect, but I do understand 99% of words I encounter. This word in the question, however, was probably created by the same person who created the damn thing so he can have some use for it (first use was for this passage, probably). I finally guessed on this devil-made question and moved on. Next question made me want to click "end exam" walk to my car, drive to GMAC headquarters and punch CEO in his face. I mean, the question was asking which argument would undermine the argument used to make an assumption of the assertion of the second paragraph, or something along those unholy line. When I finished that RC, I felt like I got beat up by 7 WWE fighters. Finished the verbal section with some easy SCs and CRs. Was doubtful of my verbal score because of that RC written in hell.
Clicked though the annoying questions and finally, when they asked me if I wanted my scores reported , I wished they had a comment box where I would type: "No, I just read passages about women Indians and film making industries, and calculated probabilities of rain in July, so I can cancel my scores." Clicked "yes" and got heartbroken. Verbal was to be expected, quant was awful. 43 is not even respectable. I am still trying to realize what exactly happened. My assumption is that, since questions seemed so easy, there were couple of hidden elements that I failed to note. Or I just suck at it, which is hard to believe since I was scoring 47-49 lately. Not sure.
Disappointed? Yes. Angry? Yes. At myself, though. Had I studied the whole summer, I'd have 730, no doubt. I learned a valuable lesson: always prepare on time, think ahead. Last minute stuff rarely works. I consider myself a fairly intelligent guy, and this fact did not help me at all. It's all about effort and skill.
Right now, I am not sure if my app is even competitive for the accounting Phd program with undergrad GPA of 3.8, grad GPA of 3.9 and good letters and essays.
whiplash2411
Joined: 09 Jun 2010
Last visit: 02 Mar 2015
Posts: 1,761
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 210
Status:Three Down.
Concentration: General Management, Nonprofit
Schools: HBS '17 (M) Stanford '17 (A)
23 Dec 2010, 17:14
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Hey, I'm sorry to hear about that 
I was really hoping that you'd get your dream score as well, but that said, it's not too bad. Your Verbal is still really good. How long do you have before you apply to the programs? I'm not too sure about PhD programs, but a 3.8-3.9 GPA and a 680 is a pretty good combination. Don't be disheartened, and I'm sure it was just a bad day for you.
I was really hoping that you'd get your dream score as well, but that said, it's not too bad. Your Verbal is still really good. How long do you have before you apply to the programs? I'm not too sure about PhD programs, but a 3.8-3.9 GPA and a 680 is a pretty good combination. Don't be disheartened, and I'm sure it was just a bad day for you. 23 Dec 2010, 17:21
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Whip, thanks for your kind words. I have 20 days for some apps, and some 37 days for other. It has crossed my mind to try and retake the test as soon as I can, but am afraid it would be counter-productive. Does there need to be 30 days in between attempts, or just the next month, meaning: could I take it January 1st?
