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Hey all!
I want to share my experience with you
I graduated in a Bachelor's degree program in the engineering field and want to apply for a MBA-master's degree program which requires 500 points in the GMAT exam. My mother tongue is not English.
Therefore, I thought the quant-section will be easier than the verbal one. Since I also needed to take the TOEFL test, I decided to take this before the GMAT. I have read on the internet that the TOEFL is a good preparation for the GMAT verbal part (now that I did both, I don't think that there are a lot of simmilarities).
Due to the COVID19-regulations my preparation time was a wee bit unorganized, especially in the beginning.
I planned to start preparing for both, the TOEFL and the GMAT in the beginning of April 2020. I took the TOEFL in May and actually before this date, I planned to prepare for the GMAT, but actually focused more on the TOEFL. Actually, I started to prepare for the GMAT on approx. May 15th. I didn't work and could focus on preparing for the exam the whole day (at least in theory
- but sometimes I had a little lack of motivation). Since I have seen a lot of comments on the internet like "I just scored 700" I expected a score of 500 would be easy to get and maybe that is why I sometimes wasn't that motivated to study. Well, maybe those people who weren't proud of his/her scores just didn't write comments, but I didn't hink of that. After I was done with the TOEFL, I registered for the GMAT online exam (before I prepared for the GMAT or did any mock test). I felt confident and thought that 4 weeks will be enough for the preparation.
Ok, what did my preparation look like? - First I borrowed two e-books of the library ("GMAT For Dummies, 7th Edition" and "1,001 GMAT Practice Questions For Dummies"). I picked those two books since those were the only ones that were available. Since I thought I am strong in mathematics I started with the quant-section in the 1001-practice questions book and... wondered. I felt like the exercises in this book are super easy and I thought "If the questions in the GMAT are really that easy, why are those with scores of 700+ so incredible proud of their performance?" There are two possible reasons to explain that: 1st - I am super smart (which I am actually not my experience proved that already), 2nd - the questions in that book are too easy (I thought that the likelihood of this reason is great). Therefore, I looked it up on the internet and found some comments of people who said the questions in these books really are easier than on the actual test. They recommended the Offical Guide instead. I bought the official bundle (Offical Guide, Verbal Review, Quant Review) and the official advanced questions book. These books were all used ones. Since there are markings with pencil in front of the correct answers in 3 books I don't recommend you to buy used books. Also, the codes in the front of the books were already used and the condition of the books clearly indicated that they are used. I really think it is worth to buy new books instead of used ones!
I did all the questions in the Verbal Review book and the Quant Review book once. I didn't watch the time most of the time. I checked my "feeling" once or twice with a youtube-timer-video and a page that repeats youtube videos automatically (so my computer beeped every two minutes). After that I tried one mock test (the 1st test of MBA-com you can do for free).
In this mock test I felt that the quant section was way too easy and the verbal section normal. I noticed that my timing is more or less ok - I needed to guess only 1-3 questions in the end and I thought that this is not too bad for a first try. Also, I tried to use the online white board provided on the homepage of MBA-com and didn't pay too much attention to the time - I checked it several times and noticed that I was fast enough.
My overall score in this test was 550 - Q 38, V 28, IR 3. I wanted to review my wrong answers but actually there were no answer explainations, so at some point I just stopped the review, since it took too long. I didn't do any IR questions before that mock test. Furthermore, I decided not to take any mock test again because of the missing explainations. Still, I would recommend to do at least one mock test before the real GMAT since the test will look exactly the same on the real GMAT and it's good to see where the buttons are and to get used to the test's look.
After this mock test I started to do more exercises in the OG (one week left until the test). I wondered why I only got so many easy questions in quant and why I "only" scored 38 in my strong section. I have done around 150 questions (easy and medium level) in problem solving and didn't focus too much on verbal anymore. Maybe I should have focused more on verbal, since this score is lower, but actually I didn't.
My problem with verbal was - most of the time - that I just didn't understand what the text said. For example, I read a RC-passage completely and more or less got the big idea of the passage but actually not too much of the details. I have watched some youtube videos in which they recommended only to read some parts of the passage, but I noticed that I don't even get the big idea of a text anymore if I don't read everything (including the examples). Sometimes, I only got 1 out of 5 correct, which would be the same if I just didn't read the passage at all but guessed. For IR I just picked the answer that sounded best to me and maybe these choices were a wee bit random sometimes, too. On youtube videos they said you should try to identify a weakness in the passage and find an answer choice that adresses this weakness - again, I couldn't really apply this advice. Last but not least: SC - this was actually my best part out of those verbal exercises, since there were some common grammatical structures that repeated a lot. Sometimes I also picked random answer choices, but before I did that, I could at least elliminate some.
So all in all, my preparation was maybe not very organized, but I felt confident that 500 points should be achievable. One day before the test I noticed that you can use a physical whiteboard. Luckily I had one, but I only had one with one clear side - the other one had markings on. I decided to only use the clear side and ask the proctor in case I needed to show both sides.
Test day:
I logged into my MBA-com-account around 15 min before my exam was scheduled. A link showed up "Begin exam" which I clicked on. Like for the system check, a code is provided and you need to download the program of the system check. Everything is completely similar like for the system check. Luckily I ran the system check before and noticed that my cellphone isn't compatible with it the day before. After the system check was done, a chat window popped up and my proctor gave me some instructions (e.g. only one dry erase marker is allowed, not two).
The exam started and some regulations regarding the white board showed up. I clicked on the help button and the chat window popped up again. I wanted to ask the proctor whether it is ok that my white board has markings on one side (the one I am not using). I felt this is important, since I needed to show both sides of the whiteboard to the camera. Unfortunately this program slowed my computer incredible down that it was nearly impossible for me to write one clear sentence to the proctor. So, if I had a problem during the exam, I couldn't tell the proctor about it. Anyway, the proctor said she had a look at my whiteboard and everything is ok. So I started with the exam. The quant section was ok - it felt like medium level questions to me and I didn't need to guess too much. Also, I had no problems with the time. It went very smoothly. In the verbal section I needed to guess a lot again and most of the time I could eliminate some answer choices but still thought two answer choices are correct - so I needed to guess between those two. The difficult level felt like a very easy one - so it is a shame that I still couldn't answer the questions without guessing. After the IR instructions you could take a break by clicking on a button within a time period. Before that you needed to show your whiteboard to the camera again. Unfortunately, I couldn't remove my notes on the whiteboard well. So, I removed it the best way I could - you couldn't read anything on the white board anymore but it was like a smudged grey plate. I showed both sides to the camera and started my break. When I returned back, I tried to clean the whiteboard again and luckily this attempt was a wee bit better. With some pressure I could remove everything of the white board and now it is shiny white again. Then I started the IR section (you need to actively end the break, it doesn't end automatically!). I didn't prepare for this section - I only did the 12 questions in the mock test and reviewed the wrong answers without any answer explaination. So, actually I didn't really care much about this score.
By keeping the results of the mock test in mind, I expect my quant scores to be better than 38 and the verbal to be worse than 28. The overall score will probably be a wee bit worse than 550, but still I hope it will be above 500. Since your scores in the online exam aren't released on test day, but within 7 business days, I haven't received them yet.
All in all, the preparation time I took was ok, not too stressful - still I felt like having done enough to deserve 500 points If I won't reach this target I may repeat the test - I don't know yet (the application deadline is in around 5 weeks). Still, I hope that won't be necessary
Wori
I want to share my experience with you
I graduated in a Bachelor's degree program in the engineering field and want to apply for a MBA-master's degree program which requires 500 points in the GMAT exam. My mother tongue is not English.
Therefore, I thought the quant-section will be easier than the verbal one. Since I also needed to take the TOEFL test, I decided to take this before the GMAT. I have read on the internet that the TOEFL is a good preparation for the GMAT verbal part (now that I did both, I don't think that there are a lot of simmilarities).
Due to the COVID19-regulations my preparation time was a wee bit unorganized, especially in the beginning.
I planned to start preparing for both, the TOEFL and the GMAT in the beginning of April 2020. I took the TOEFL in May and actually before this date, I planned to prepare for the GMAT, but actually focused more on the TOEFL. Actually, I started to prepare for the GMAT on approx. May 15th. I didn't work and could focus on preparing for the exam the whole day (at least in theory
- but sometimes I had a little lack of motivation). Since I have seen a lot of comments on the internet like "I just scored 700" I expected a score of 500 would be easy to get and maybe that is why I sometimes wasn't that motivated to study. Well, maybe those people who weren't proud of his/her scores just didn't write comments, but I didn't hink of that. After I was done with the TOEFL, I registered for the GMAT online exam (before I prepared for the GMAT or did any mock test). I felt confident and thought that 4 weeks will be enough for the preparation. Ok, what did my preparation look like? - First I borrowed two e-books of the library ("GMAT For Dummies, 7th Edition" and "1,001 GMAT Practice Questions For Dummies"). I picked those two books since those were the only ones that were available. Since I thought I am strong in mathematics I started with the quant-section in the 1001-practice questions book and... wondered. I felt like the exercises in this book are super easy and I thought "If the questions in the GMAT are really that easy, why are those with scores of 700+ so incredible proud of their performance?" There are two possible reasons to explain that: 1st - I am super smart (which I am actually not
my experience proved that already), 2nd - the questions in that book are too easy (I thought that the likelihood of this reason is great). Therefore, I looked it up on the internet and found some comments of people who said the questions in these books really are easier than on the actual test. They recommended the Offical Guide instead. I bought the official bundle (Offical Guide, Verbal Review, Quant Review) and the official advanced questions book. These books were all used ones. Since there are markings with pencil in front of the correct answers in 3 books I don't recommend you to buy used books. Also, the codes in the front of the books were already used and the condition of the books clearly indicated that they are used. I really think it is worth to buy new books instead of used ones!I did all the questions in the Verbal Review book and the Quant Review book once. I didn't watch the time most of the time. I checked my "feeling" once or twice with a youtube-timer-video and a page that repeats youtube videos automatically (so my computer beeped every two minutes). After that I tried one mock test (the 1st test of MBA-com you can do for free).
In this mock test I felt that the quant section was way too easy and the verbal section normal. I noticed that my timing is more or less ok - I needed to guess only 1-3 questions in the end and I thought that this is not too bad for a first try. Also, I tried to use the online white board provided on the homepage of MBA-com and didn't pay too much attention to the time - I checked it several times and noticed that I was fast enough.
My overall score in this test was 550 - Q 38, V 28, IR 3. I wanted to review my wrong answers but actually there were no answer explainations, so at some point I just stopped the review, since it took too long. I didn't do any IR questions before that mock test. Furthermore, I decided not to take any mock test again because of the missing explainations. Still, I would recommend to do at least one mock test before the real GMAT since the test will look exactly the same on the real GMAT and it's good to see where the buttons are and to get used to the test's look.
After this mock test I started to do more exercises in the OG (one week left until the test). I wondered why I only got so many easy questions in quant and why I "only" scored 38 in my strong section. I have done around 150 questions (easy and medium level) in problem solving and didn't focus too much on verbal anymore. Maybe I should have focused more on verbal, since this score is lower, but actually I didn't.
My problem with verbal was - most of the time - that I just didn't understand what the text said. For example, I read a RC-passage completely and more or less got the big idea of the passage but actually not too much of the details. I have watched some youtube videos in which they recommended only to read some parts of the passage, but I noticed that I don't even get the big idea of a text anymore if I don't read everything (including the examples). Sometimes, I only got 1 out of 5 correct, which would be the same if I just didn't read the passage at all but guessed. For IR I just picked the answer that sounded best to me and maybe these choices were a wee bit random sometimes, too. On youtube videos they said you should try to identify a weakness in the passage and find an answer choice that adresses this weakness - again, I couldn't really apply this advice. Last but not least: SC - this was actually my best part out of those verbal exercises, since there were some common grammatical structures that repeated a lot. Sometimes I also picked random answer choices, but before I did that, I could at least elliminate some.
So all in all, my preparation was maybe not very organized, but I felt confident that 500 points should be achievable. One day before the test I noticed that you can use a physical whiteboard. Luckily I had one, but I only had one with one clear side - the other one had markings on. I decided to only use the clear side and ask the proctor in case I needed to show both sides.
Test day:
I logged into my MBA-com-account around 15 min before my exam was scheduled. A link showed up "Begin exam" which I clicked on. Like for the system check, a code is provided and you need to download the program of the system check. Everything is completely similar like for the system check. Luckily I ran the system check before and noticed that my cellphone isn't compatible with it the day before. After the system check was done, a chat window popped up and my proctor gave me some instructions (e.g. only one dry erase marker is allowed, not two).
The exam started and some regulations regarding the white board showed up. I clicked on the help button and the chat window popped up again. I wanted to ask the proctor whether it is ok that my white board has markings on one side (the one I am not using). I felt this is important, since I needed to show both sides of the whiteboard to the camera. Unfortunately this program slowed my computer incredible down that it was nearly impossible for me to write one clear sentence to the proctor. So, if I had a problem during the exam, I couldn't tell the proctor about it. Anyway, the proctor said she had a look at my whiteboard and everything is ok. So I started with the exam. The quant section was ok - it felt like medium level questions to me and I didn't need to guess too much. Also, I had no problems with the time. It went very smoothly. In the verbal section I needed to guess a lot again and most of the time I could eliminate some answer choices but still thought two answer choices are correct - so I needed to guess between those two. The difficult level felt like a very easy one - so it is a shame that I still couldn't answer the questions without guessing. After the IR instructions you could take a break by clicking on a button within a time period. Before that you needed to show your whiteboard to the camera again. Unfortunately, I couldn't remove my notes on the whiteboard well. So, I removed it the best way I could - you couldn't read anything on the white board anymore but it was like a smudged grey plate. I showed both sides to the camera and started my break. When I returned back, I tried to clean the whiteboard again and luckily this attempt was a wee bit better. With some pressure I could remove everything of the white board and now it is shiny white again. Then I started the IR section (you need to actively end the break, it doesn't end automatically!). I didn't prepare for this section - I only did the 12 questions in the mock test and reviewed the wrong answers without any answer explaination. So, actually I didn't really care much about this score.
By keeping the results of the mock test in mind, I expect my quant scores to be better than 38 and the verbal to be worse than 28. The overall score will probably be a wee bit worse than 550, but still I hope it will be above 500. Since your scores in the online exam aren't released on test day, but within 7 business days, I haven't received them yet.
All in all, the preparation time I took was ok, not too stressful - still I felt like having done enough to deserve 500 points
If I won't reach this target I may repeat the test - I don't know yet (the application deadline is in around 5 weeks). Still, I hope that won't be necessary Wori
All the best for the results and the application for the masters Wori.
ScottTargetTestPrep
Expert
Target Test Prep Representative
Joined: 14 Oct 2015
Last visit: 14 Sep 2026
Posts: 22,739
Status:Founder & CEO
Affiliations: Target Test Prep
Location: United States (CA)
Expert reply
Posts: 22,739
Hi Wori,
Thank you for sharing. If you do end up retaking the GMAT and need some advice, feel free to reach out.
_________________
Thank you for sharing. If you do end up retaking the GMAT and need some advice, feel free to reach out.
_________________
Scott Woodbury-Stewart | Founder and
CEO |
[email protected]
See why Target Test Prep is the top rated GMAT course on GMAT Club. Read Our Reviews
Hi,
thank you both
I just received an e-mail saying that my scores are available now.
Like in the mock test I scored 550 points, however in each sections I got different scores.
Q45, V 21, IR 4 - by keeping in mind that the scores only reach from 0 to 60 per section, it feels like a huge difference compared to my mock test subscores
Maybe that score isn't balanced at all, but it will be enough for completing my application to the MBA program
I am so happy!! That I received the scores so early (my test date was on June 15th) was really unexpected!
Even I won't retake the exam now (since I reached my goal), I am curious what advice you would have given me, ScottTargetTestPrep. During my preparation I already noticed that my verbal part feels more difficult than the quantitative one. Actually, at some point I understood most of the quantitative exercises, because the "new" vocabulary, such as "perimeter", repeated. But for the verbal, there were always new vocabulary (and if there were too many of them, I couldn't guess the meaning of it anymore haha). Maybe I should start reading English magazines or newspapers :'D - not for future GMAT exams, but for my English language skills in general
thank you both
I just received an e-mail saying that my scores are available now.
Like in the mock test I scored 550 points, however in each sections I got different scores.
Q45, V 21, IR 4 - by keeping in mind that the scores only reach from 0 to 60 per section, it feels like a huge difference compared to my mock test subscores
Maybe that score isn't balanced at all, but it will be enough for completing my application to the MBA program
I am so happy!! That I received the scores so early (my test date was on June 15th) was really unexpected!
Even I won't retake the exam now (since I reached my goal), I am curious what advice you would have given me, ScottTargetTestPrep. During my preparation I already noticed that my verbal part feels more difficult than the quantitative one. Actually, at some point I understood most of the quantitative exercises, because the "new" vocabulary, such as "perimeter", repeated. But for the verbal, there were always new vocabulary (and if there were too many of them, I couldn't guess the meaning of it anymore haha). Maybe I should start reading English magazines or newspapers :'D - not for future GMAT exams, but for my English language skills in general
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