So I'm basically writing this in part to hold myself accountable and also to meet others who are in a similar situation. So if you fall into that second category, hit me up! Let's be each other's rock.
Anyway, I am a biology major who works among engineers and economists, all of whom got MBAs. Every one of them basically told me the same thing, "It'll be easy. Just study for two weeks a little each day and you'll be set."
So I basically did that. I figured that since I attended a top university for undergrad and am a good writer with a strong sense of proper grammar, I could kind of forego verbal, focus on quant, and do okay. I crammed the weekend before my test (on a Thursday). Game day, I felt great. I left the room after quant confident and then did verbal, which was a little shaky on the reading comp, but nothing unexpected. Finished, flicked through to my score.
630 Total. 39Q, 37V.
I was deflated. But, after a day of moping and then going to a business event and realizing "this is my element. Screw that test, I am going to get the program I want," here I am.
So I'm going to retake on June 7th or 9th (depending on my case load for work and when I can reasonably take another day off for the test.)
I'll post my game plan as I create it and am welcoming any and all suggestions, feedback, and moral support.
Current study plan: OG, Kaplan 2015 book,
Magoosh (free month, perhaps purchase if I'm feeling as though it's helping),
MGMAT practice tests, given to me by a coworker who didn't use them, and the GMAT practice tests.
Study:
2 hours per day, 6 hours on the weekends
Personal:
Eat healthy, exercise regularly, limit drinking, while still maintaining a social life conducive to not feeling like I am isolated.
More details to come! Hopefully some people are in the same boat and we can nail this thing together!
*** UPDATES ***
Day 1- Registered for a June 7th GMAT
Day 2 - Slept to my heart's content (which for me was 7:30), went to the Farmer's Market and grocery store (since this round I'm going to focus on maintaining my eating/exercise habits), OG arrived in the mail, and I began studying at 12:30 PM.
Day 7 - Received my score report: 6 on my essay. I've been focusing not only on Problem Solving, but also SC and RC to help get that score to get over the 90th percentile.
TEST RESULT: 730! That's right, 100 point increase. I didn't keep up with updates (sorry!) but I think what helped me most was REALLY focusing on verbal. I got 98th percentile, and that improved my whole score. I was 67th percentile in quant. Truly, if you can perfect your verbal that has MAJOR implications for improvement. PM if any questions!