Hello guys:
Just returned from the test center where I scored a 670 mentioned above.
UPD: Got a 5.5 in AWAHere is my small debrief.
(1) In fact, it was my fourth attempt. The very first one I made after preparing for only two weeks. I thought because I went to math school and knew English, I can score well on the GMAT. This was a big mistake. As a result, I scored a miserable 360 (do not remember the breakdown).
(a) The most recent prepation experience involved Knewton online course. I took all their CATs and did all homework.
(b) I also obtained an access to
gmatclub tests and took three of them un-timed.
(c) Besides, I purchased all
MGMAT study guides and studied them extensively. I also took three
MGMAT CATs un-timed and without V scoring 50-51 on Q.
(2) I took the test in Moscow at a new center on Oktyabr'skaya. For those of you who are to take the GMAT in Moscow -- please be informed that this center is much better than the one on Yugo-Zapadnaya. Computers are new, staff is polite and helpful, location is convenient (center of the city), and only one minute walk from the metro station. The only negative thing is that the test room has around eight seats as compared to around four seats on Yugo-Zapadnaya.
(3) AWA went very well. The argument was easy to attack, and I typed at least 400 words. The other essay was also easy. I followed chineseburned template in AWA.
(4) There was no surprise with Q, but I do not know what happened to me. The best reason is that I still lack some important knowledge or practice to solve difficult problems in under 2 minutes. If I were given more time, I would definately solve all the problems that appeared during the test. So, maybe I scheduled the g-date too early without excelling my speed and accuracy rate. What frastrates me most is that on my second attempt (after only one and a half month of overall self-preparation - without any decent guides) I scored a 43 in math.
It means that both MGMAT guides and Knewton helped me to improve my Q performance only by one point.(5) Verbal went very fine. In fact all the questions were comparable with those I saw in GMATprep software. I finished with 5 minutes left.
(6) All in all, today's result has confirmed my performance demonstrated during Knewton mock tests:
Here are my CATs results:
Diagnostic GMAT 11/27/2010, Q35 V28 ---- 520
Practice GMAT #1 12/20/2010 Q42 V35 ---- 620
Practice GMAT #2 01/09/2011 Q43 V26 ----- 570
Practice GMAT #3 01/14/2011 Q37 V40 ----- 620
Practice GMAT #4 01/15/2011 Q44 V40 ------680
Practice GMAT #5 01/30/2011 Q38 V34 ------ 590
As you can see, I never scored over 44 in Q. Need to stress that Knewton will not have to refund me, because I increased my score by 50 points.
(7) I am targeting at top 10 b-schools, and a 670 is not really competitive score, as my background will hardly impress adcoms to offset implausible GMAT score. So, I need 720 and am willing to employ all resources that I have to reach the goal. But... won't the fifth attempt be too weird for schools? If I decide to retake the fifth time, I will need to increase my Q score up to 48-49. Any suggestions how to do it?
Thanks guys for reading this long. Any opinion will be much appreciated.
Best,
Matt.