You need both GMAT and TOEFL?
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02 Nov 2013, 06:34
Hi everybody,
The title above explains the situation I was in roughly 5 months ago. I am non-English native trying to get into a good business school, so not only I needed both of these tests, but also I needed to score well. So I did some basic research and thinking, and since I used informations from this forum as well, I figured that I should share my toughts on this...
- consider your time frame first. I had 6 months to prepare, take the tests and get the results, which is more than enough (consider that I lived in foreign, yet again non-English country and my English was rusty at the best; and it has been a decade since I used real math). If you have more time than this, I would suggest you just work on your language, listen, read, speak... It will help you.
- find out how much you need to score on both of these tests to get a chance in schools of your choice. I needed 700+ and 105+ so the bar was relatively high, yet richable.
- in all honesty, GMAT is waaaay more demanding than TOEFL, so if you think 100+ on TOEFL is too far at this point, go back to step one, and just work on your language. I've seen people trying to do well in GMAT but constantly failing due to their insufficient language understanding.
- if you are still reading, it means you are on the right track, and considering which one to do first (do not even think about doing in simultaneosly - you will just suck at both). My advice: forget about the TOEFL, it's easy. Go for GMAT, and give all you got. Once you are capable of getting a decent score in GMAT Verbal section, Reading and Listening in TOEFL wil be nothing but a piece of cake, trust me. Same goes for AWA and Writing section (note: I scored 38 in Verbal, so nothing fancy).
- once you have reached the level you need, take the GMAT. If you've done everything correctly, you will be where you need to be.
- make a BIG party, take a trip, or do whatever makes you happy; you deserved it.
- now start thinking about the TOEFL. Only thing you should really worry about is Speaking part, since you didn't need to speak for GMAT and TOEFL specific type of question may cause you a lot harm if you are not well prepared, even if your English is good. Check the Reading, Listening and Speaking sections just to get familiar with test format, but like I said, if you did well on GMAT this will be easy.
Now, I understand some of you may have some other plan, but this is what I did and it worked. I ended up scoring 740 (51Q, 38V) and 110 (30R, 28L, 27S, 25W). I¡ve spent a bit under 3 months preparing the GMAT and no more than 4-5 days on TOEFL.
I am 31 and have a Diplome in Physical Education and Sports; If you could do it, so can you!
I hope my experience is at least somewhat usefull, and let me know if you have some questions I might help with.
Cheers,
Marko