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16 Dec 2009, 10:56
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I'm to new to all of this GMAT craze. I'm not even sure there's anything worthy to be learned (for others) from my first experience. Let's see if typing it out helps me squeeze some relevant insight out of it...
Warning: I'm too wordy. Sorry I wrote a novel!
For family reasons my PhD plans changed dramatically. So recently I found myself having to face this GMAT challenge only three months after having a baby. Needless to say every time I cross the "have a good night sleep" recommendation I get stuck between laughing or crying!
I had the best of intentions, so I bought the OG 12 and Kaplan Premiere 2010. Mind you I'm facing selection procedures that greatly differ from the one I was preparing to. I'm a bit puzzled about differences between rounds on PhD applications. Browsing through the web I stumbled upon something that scared me: I thought for sure I was doomed for missing R1 so I rushed and got myself a test date that made it possible to get in R1. Great, huh? Except it gave me little over 10 days to study.
Well, 12 days turned rapidly into five (because I freaked the last week). And on those five days I only did the following: started diagnostic test on OG. Completed Verbal (above average) but gave up on Quant on question 16 (got 75% right up that point but never made it into DS problems).
Decided I needed a Math refresher and doing problems before that was a waste of time. I was good at understanding what was asked - very rarely fell for tricks built into questions - and also at basic calculation with reasonable speed. But I sorely lacked other math skills and sweat through things I could use formulas, rules, templates....none of which I remembered. So I started on Kaplan Premiere's Math refresher chapter. I read through arithmetic and algebra in between nursing sessions, never made it to geometry nor the other chapters of the book.
I'm usually a solid test taker. I scored between 93,99 and 88,13 percentile on a national test similar to GMAT without prep - not CAT, mind you - ten and five years ago. But with barely any preparation this time and 90 nights of interrupted sleep (my precious baby woke me up five times just the night before the test): no wonder I cracked on d-day!
AWA sucked. Argument one I sort of got through, despite doing it very short. But the second essay threw a very uninspiring topic at me and I barely got a couple of paragraphs in there. Started with the wrong foot.
On Quant I simply freaked out. I swear I spent more time looking at the clock and calculating how much time per question I had left than actually answering the problems. I spent way too much time trying to figure out questions I wasn't prepared for or remembering geometry formulas long gone. When questions I could answer came up I wasn't able to work on them due to time constraint + freaking out. There were at least 10 question, if not 15, that I could have answered right for sure with more 30 seconds each. But I didn't want to be penalized for not finishing and moved on several times. Still had to random guess a string in the end and didn't answer the last one.
Verbal. Took a deep breath and did my best. Finally a part of the test I felt good at: read and answered without doubt. Took my time, although I did have to rush towards the end. I managed to finish right on time. Faced one question that defied logic imho
but I was really tired at that point. And I also faced a very intricate passage on RC that took some extra time and left me unsure.
I had screwed up so bad Quant I thought about canceling the test. But I read the instructions and it didn't seem like a reasonable option not to know my score. I was actually surprised to get a 650 because I thought there was no amount of Verbal points that could help my case
So I got in there feeling despair and was out hopeful. I gave up on R1 but I'm pretty sure I meet the requirements for retaking. I know I was at my worst (sleep deprived, nervous as hell, worst time management ever) so I'm confident 650 is my lowest. If I'm capable of 650 on my worst day with barely any prep, I should be able to score low 700's with good preparation (although chances are I'll still be sleep deprived ) Am I being too optimistic?
Now I'm off to figure out a good error log and my study plan. I'll probably focus mainly on quant and a little bit on AWA. Verbal will probably be left as it is. I'm keeping my eyes on my ROI. Percentile 92 is good enough after all and I'm thinking the time I'd spend to get two points up on Verbal would easily take me 5 or 10 up on Quant.
I'm loving GMATClub and I'd like to hear your thoughts on my experience and future plans. I'll keep you posted as I advance in this journey
Warning: I'm too wordy. Sorry I wrote a novel!
For family reasons my PhD plans changed dramatically. So recently I found myself having to face this GMAT challenge only three months after having a baby. Needless to say every time I cross the "have a good night sleep" recommendation I get stuck between laughing or crying!
I had the best of intentions, so I bought the OG 12 and Kaplan Premiere 2010. Mind you I'm facing selection procedures that greatly differ from the one I was preparing to. I'm a bit puzzled about differences between rounds on PhD applications. Browsing through the web I stumbled upon something that scared me: I thought for sure I was doomed for missing R1 so I rushed and got myself a test date that made it possible to get in R1. Great, huh? Except it gave me little over 10 days to study.
Well, 12 days turned rapidly into five (because I freaked the last week). And on those five days I only did the following: started diagnostic test on OG. Completed Verbal (above average) but gave up on Quant on question 16 (got 75% right up that point but never made it into DS problems).
Decided I needed a Math refresher and doing problems before that was a waste of time. I was good at understanding what was asked - very rarely fell for tricks built into questions - and also at basic calculation with reasonable speed. But I sorely lacked other math skills and sweat through things I could use formulas, rules, templates....none of which I remembered. So I started on Kaplan Premiere's Math refresher chapter. I read through arithmetic and algebra in between nursing sessions, never made it to geometry nor the other chapters of the book.
I'm usually a solid test taker. I scored between 93,99 and 88,13 percentile on a national test similar to GMAT without prep - not CAT, mind you - ten and five years ago. But with barely any preparation this time and 90 nights of interrupted sleep (my precious baby woke me up five times just the night before the test): no wonder I cracked on d-day!
AWA sucked. Argument one I sort of got through, despite doing it very short. But the second essay threw a very uninspiring topic at me and I barely got a couple of paragraphs in there. Started with the wrong foot.
On Quant I simply freaked out. I swear I spent more time looking at the clock and calculating how much time per question I had left than actually answering the problems. I spent way too much time trying to figure out questions I wasn't prepared for or remembering geometry formulas long gone. When questions I could answer came up I wasn't able to work on them due to time constraint + freaking out. There were at least 10 question, if not 15, that I could have answered right for sure with more 30 seconds each. But I didn't want to be penalized for not finishing and moved on several times. Still had to random guess a string in the end and didn't answer the last one.
Verbal. Took a deep breath and did my best. Finally a part of the test I felt good at: read and answered without doubt. Took my time, although I did have to rush towards the end. I managed to finish right on time. Faced one question that defied logic imho
but I was really tired at that point. And I also faced a very intricate passage on RC that took some extra time and left me unsure. I had screwed up so bad Quant I thought about canceling the test. But I read the instructions and it didn't seem like a reasonable option not to know my score. I was actually surprised to get a 650 because I thought there was no amount of Verbal points that could help my case
So I got in there feeling despair and was out hopeful. I gave up on R1 but I'm pretty sure I meet the requirements for retaking. I know I was at my worst (sleep deprived, nervous as hell, worst time management ever) so I'm confident 650 is my lowest. If I'm capable of 650 on my worst day with barely any prep, I should be able to score low 700's with good preparation (although chances are I'll still be sleep deprived
) Am I being too optimistic?Now I'm off to figure out a good error log and my study plan. I'll probably focus mainly on quant and a little bit on AWA. Verbal will probably be left as it is. I'm keeping my eyes on my ROI. Percentile 92 is good enough after all and I'm thinking the time I'd spend to get two points up on Verbal would easily take me 5 or 10 up on Quant.
I'm loving GMATClub and I'd like to hear your thoughts on my experience and future plans. I'll keep you posted as I advance in this journey
16 Dec 2009, 11:29
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Bookmarks
Wow, what a story and what an awesome 1st try! I wish I could get a 650 on mine!
Best of luck on your retry.
Best of luck on your retry.
17 Dec 2009, 08:57
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Bookmarks
Thank you! 
I don't think 650 is that bad, but from what I gather it's far from what's necessary to get in the PhD Programs I'm applying for. The worse part being such a low Q: 45percentile makes it look like I'm incapable of meeting the basic requirements for research.
I was surprised to get the link to my report yesterday, only five days after my sitting. I thought it should take longer. Anyway, just want to add that my AWA score was 4.5. Lousy but not shocking since I wrote extremely short essays and did not quite finish the second one (no conclusion paragraph).
I don't think 650 is that bad, but from what I gather it's far from what's necessary to get in the PhD Programs I'm applying for. The worse part being such a low Q: 45percentile makes it look like I'm incapable of meeting the basic requirements for research. I was surprised to get the link to my report yesterday, only five days after my sitting. I thought it should take longer. Anyway, just want to add that my AWA score was 4.5. Lousy but not shocking since I wrote extremely short essays and did not quite finish the second one (no conclusion paragraph).
