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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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03 Jun 2020, 08:16
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Hey everyone, I want to share my experience so far. It has not been a fun ride and I plan on retaking in July. I am hoping this will be a fun read as well as provide hope to some going through the same journey. I am not the best writer so please bear with me.
To give some context, let me introduce myself. I am an African male. I graduated with an undergraduate 3.77 GPA from a liberal arts school with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I went to get a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from a reputable state school with a 3.56 GPA. In terms of standardized test, I have always done well in Math but always poor in Verbal. My SAT was 720 Quant, 520 Writing and 430 Critical Reasoning (2006). My GRE to get intro grad school was 800 in Quant (converted it to a range of 166-170) and Verbal of 370 (converted to a range of 142-146). I have not really put as much effort into it as it has not really been a hindrance in my engineering admissions.
First GMAT
I took the GMAT in August of 2019. I was not able to prepare the way I wanted to due to work constraints. To be honest, I also underestimated the exam because the verbal had no Vocabulary which has always seemed like an impossible task to get over. My wife even looking at my preparation told me to reschedule but I was strong headed. I got my score and I saw 590 (47Q, 25V, 6 IR and 5 AWA). My heart sunk and it was a much-needed gut check and humbling experience. I decided to try and get help so I signed up for Magoosh and got a tutor from them for Verbal while I use their materials to self-study for Quant. My tutors, by the way, were great (Sarai taught me most of the time and then I had Fred towards the end). The videos are very helpful in explaining concepts, so I highly recommend them to anyone.
Practice Test Journey
After going through most of the videos and doing lots of practice questions on their platform (finished the quant but went through about half of their verbal banks), I took a practice test on Magoosh and got 580 (46Q, 24 V). Dang, seems like I am getting worse, so I look at the question breakdowns and I see about half the questions are considered “very hard” and about quarter are “hard” in my quant section. The verbal had more even distribution. I find out that the practice test in Magoosh are not good to gauge because they adapt to how well you do in the question banks. So, a week later, I took a GMAT official prep one. This time, I got a 610 (45Q, 28V, 4 IR). Not great but there is improvement in my Verbal but looks like a drop in Quant and IR. I do another one in a week later and get a 680 (48Q, 34V, 5IR). This feels good as there is good improvements everywhere. Feeling cheap and not wanting to pay for practice test, I did the free Manhattan prep one. I heard they are harder than the real one, so I was excited for a challenge. I get a 640 (44Q, 34V, 8IR). At that time, I am seeing that as I go through the questions I miss, I am making silly mistakes/ forgetting trivial rules in math like 0 is an even number, make sure the question says integer and so on.
The very next day, I get an email from GMAC prep that their practice test 3-6 are 20% off. I pay for it and take test 3 immediately. I get a 640 (49Q, 38V, 4 IR). I start doing more practice questions on GMATclub as well as keep work with my tutors and watch the video lessons.
My next 3 practice test go like this
GMATprep 4 - 680 – 50Q, 31V, 4IR
GMATprep 5 - 690 – 49Q, 31V, 7IR
GMATprep 6 - 750 – 50Q, 41V, 7IR
Horrible 2nd test attempt
Looking at these scores, I believe I am now in the 48-50 range for math and 31-35 range in Verbal. The last practice test had way easier SC where I struggle the most. Now I feel ready for the exam. I register for a date. It gets cancelled due to COVID. I did not receive any notification. Luckily, I had checked 2 weeks before and saw the move to December 31st. I try to reschedule but no dates are available in my area. I find one 4 hours away. Before I drive the day before, I check my registration and I see it is still there on my profile so I drive towards the center with about 2 hours of torrential rainfall (the worst I have driven to since I moved to the states). I get there safely, try to calm down and sleep before the test the next day. I wake up and see my registration is still there so I drive to the center. While I check in, the proctor did not see any GMAT registered for that day. I called Pearson and they said my exam was cancelled. I am now livid. Why will you cancel it and not inform the candidate. It didn’t help that the proctor was very rude to begin with. So now, I had driven through blinding rainfall where I nearly got hit multiple times for nothing. The next available date is in 2 months. Feeling like I am ready for the exam now and not wanting to wait till then, I decided to finally give the dreadful online GMAT a try.
Online GMAT
I practice for a bout a week and feel comfortable with the whiteboard. During the test, I am realizing that I am more anxious than usual. I feel the quant section is not going as well especially some questions I know how to solve but was hard to get it going on the white board. I had to do a lot of the questions in my head. The verbal felt normal so I felt like I will get the usual range. The IR felt so easy partly because 8 of the questions were quant based. After the test, I was still holding on to hope that what I felt in the quant was not true and I was in the range of 49-50. I did not really have a bad experience with the white board. I just know some questions would have been solved better if I could do my scratch work. My results came out in 5 days. I really wish it was immediate because the wait was stressing me out.
660 – 47Q, 35V, 8 IR.
I know I should feel good about this as I am finally getting over the hump in verbal. My quant score is really disappointing me. I believe I can do better, and I really want a 720+ score because I want to be competitive for scholarships in my target schools (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Booth). Its back to the drawing board for me. Any advice on things to do for the next month to make sure I improve on my scores will be much appreciated. I hope this was interesting for you all. Expressing myself vulnerably like this is very hard for me to do.
To give some context, let me introduce myself. I am an African male. I graduated with an undergraduate 3.77 GPA from a liberal arts school with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I went to get a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from a reputable state school with a 3.56 GPA. In terms of standardized test, I have always done well in Math but always poor in Verbal. My SAT was 720 Quant, 520 Writing and 430 Critical Reasoning (2006). My GRE to get intro grad school was 800 in Quant (converted it to a range of 166-170) and Verbal of 370 (converted to a range of 142-146). I have not really put as much effort into it as it has not really been a hindrance in my engineering admissions.
First GMAT
I took the GMAT in August of 2019. I was not able to prepare the way I wanted to due to work constraints. To be honest, I also underestimated the exam because the verbal had no Vocabulary which has always seemed like an impossible task to get over. My wife even looking at my preparation told me to reschedule but I was strong headed. I got my score and I saw 590 (47Q, 25V, 6 IR and 5 AWA). My heart sunk and it was a much-needed gut check and humbling experience. I decided to try and get help so I signed up for Magoosh and got a tutor from them for Verbal while I use their materials to self-study for Quant. My tutors, by the way, were great (Sarai taught me most of the time and then I had Fred towards the end). The videos are very helpful in explaining concepts, so I highly recommend them to anyone.
Practice Test Journey
After going through most of the videos and doing lots of practice questions on their platform (finished the quant but went through about half of their verbal banks), I took a practice test on Magoosh and got 580 (46Q, 24 V). Dang, seems like I am getting worse, so I look at the question breakdowns and I see about half the questions are considered “very hard” and about quarter are “hard” in my quant section. The verbal had more even distribution. I find out that the practice test in Magoosh are not good to gauge because they adapt to how well you do in the question banks. So, a week later, I took a GMAT official prep one. This time, I got a 610 (45Q, 28V, 4 IR). Not great but there is improvement in my Verbal but looks like a drop in Quant and IR. I do another one in a week later and get a 680 (48Q, 34V, 5IR). This feels good as there is good improvements everywhere. Feeling cheap and not wanting to pay for practice test, I did the free Manhattan prep one. I heard they are harder than the real one, so I was excited for a challenge. I get a 640 (44Q, 34V, 8IR). At that time, I am seeing that as I go through the questions I miss, I am making silly mistakes/ forgetting trivial rules in math like 0 is an even number, make sure the question says integer and so on.
The very next day, I get an email from GMAC prep that their practice test 3-6 are 20% off. I pay for it and take test 3 immediately. I get a 640 (49Q, 38V, 4 IR). I start doing more practice questions on GMATclub as well as keep work with my tutors and watch the video lessons.
My next 3 practice test go like this
GMATprep 4 - 680 – 50Q, 31V, 4IR
GMATprep 5 - 690 – 49Q, 31V, 7IR
GMATprep 6 - 750 – 50Q, 41V, 7IR
Horrible 2nd test attempt
Looking at these scores, I believe I am now in the 48-50 range for math and 31-35 range in Verbal. The last practice test had way easier SC where I struggle the most. Now I feel ready for the exam. I register for a date. It gets cancelled due to COVID. I did not receive any notification. Luckily, I had checked 2 weeks before and saw the move to December 31st. I try to reschedule but no dates are available in my area. I find one 4 hours away. Before I drive the day before, I check my registration and I see it is still there on my profile so I drive towards the center with about 2 hours of torrential rainfall (the worst I have driven to since I moved to the states). I get there safely, try to calm down and sleep before the test the next day. I wake up and see my registration is still there so I drive to the center. While I check in, the proctor did not see any GMAT registered for that day. I called Pearson and they said my exam was cancelled. I am now livid. Why will you cancel it and not inform the candidate. It didn’t help that the proctor was very rude to begin with. So now, I had driven through blinding rainfall where I nearly got hit multiple times for nothing. The next available date is in 2 months. Feeling like I am ready for the exam now and not wanting to wait till then, I decided to finally give the dreadful online GMAT a try.
Online GMAT
I practice for a bout a week and feel comfortable with the whiteboard. During the test, I am realizing that I am more anxious than usual. I feel the quant section is not going as well especially some questions I know how to solve but was hard to get it going on the white board. I had to do a lot of the questions in my head. The verbal felt normal so I felt like I will get the usual range. The IR felt so easy partly because 8 of the questions were quant based. After the test, I was still holding on to hope that what I felt in the quant was not true and I was in the range of 49-50. I did not really have a bad experience with the white board. I just know some questions would have been solved better if I could do my scratch work. My results came out in 5 days. I really wish it was immediate because the wait was stressing me out.
660 – 47Q, 35V, 8 IR.
I know I should feel good about this as I am finally getting over the hump in verbal. My quant score is really disappointing me. I believe I can do better, and I really want a 720+ score because I want to be competitive for scholarships in my target schools (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Booth). Its back to the drawing board for me. Any advice on things to do for the next month to make sure I improve on my scores will be much appreciated. I hope this was interesting for you all. Expressing myself vulnerably like this is very hard for me to do.
03 Jun 2020, 08:35
Kudos
Bookmarks
Well done for 70 point improvement. Unfortunately, we can only take online gmat once in lifetime, as of current rules.
If you want to apply to prestigious schools ie. Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Booth, perhaps you need, at least, another 70 point increase.
Posted from my mobile device
If you want to apply to prestigious schools ie. Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Booth, perhaps you need, at least, another 70 point increase.
Posted from my mobile device
03 Jun 2020, 08:40
Kudos
Bookmarks
Right thanks @chondro for the reply. I plan on redoing it to get that 70 point increase in person. I am applying Round 1 or 2 for next year not this year round 3.
Posted from my mobile device
Posted from my mobile device
