yipeekaiay Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Forums like this provide a valuable service. I hope to make a small contribution by sharing my GMAT experience. I took the Princeton Review online diagnostic before I started to study for the GMAT, and scored somewhere between 400 and 500 (the diagnostic gave only a range). I was a little worried. After studying for a couple of weeks, I took the 1st PP, and scored a 650. I stuck to my plan (see below) and took the real GMAT last week. I got a 670, with a 66% Q score. I was an engineering major in college, and was not happy with my score - never mind business school, I thought my alma mater might want its degree back. Against conventional wisdom, I signed up for the next available session, which was 4 days later (in a new calendar month). I studied over the weekend, and got a 730 - I get to keep my degree. Now, the question most people ask by the time they get to this point in this type of post... For me, there was no secret; however, there was a plan. First, I knew that because I never faired-well on standardized tests, I would need to put in the time. I spent ~20 hrs creating a plan that I felt would give me a good chance to get the score I wanted (I thought mine would give me a 90% to score >= 700), and that I could execute (190 hours over 11 weeks). Next, I made a daily schedule including date, lesson, location, and duration. I marked my progress so that I would stick to my plan - I missed one day because of work. I ended up spending > 200 hours over the 11 weeks. Next, I took an active approach to studying - there are many good posts on various techniques - that included using not only [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and Princeton/Kaplan books, but also outside resources such as grammar texts and the web. I found that I needed "extra" explanation - especially on grammar - not covered in the GMAT prep books. Finally, I made sure that I solved ALL problems, instead of EACH problem - that was my biggest mistake on the 1st pass. Although I timed myself during every study session, I was getting so familiar with the questions that I didn't have many problems that required a lot of time. By the time I took the real GMAT, I had forgotten how to deal with the clock - I guessed on the last 7-8 math questions and didn't even finish. The 2nd pass I made sure to give enough time to solve all problems, and finished with 1 second left! One change that I made over the weekend for the 2nd pass was to keep a running total of +/- minutes based on 2 min/question. So, that's it. For those of you who are studying for the GMAT, or thinking about it: you CAN do it! Good Luck - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGMAT Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Good job! Cong. Do you have a full-time job? How did you study >200 hours in 11 weeks, that's amazing. Have you taken any class at Kaplan? Again, cong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbond007 Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Heartiest Congratulations Yipeekaiay! This is really nice to see your 60 points improvements in just 4 days. Thats really great! Verbal 41 is also a sound score. I guess, you are a native english speaker. Please Keep sharing your experiences and suggesting us how to improve our VERBAL section. We, the non-native English speakers, always find it challenging to score 40+ in Verbal. Thanks James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friendlydragonca Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Congrats Yipeekaiay First of all, you are clearly deserving of a 700+ score on the GMAT. Aside from innate ability, you obviously have excellent discipline and orgaizational skills. But consider this: According to ETS, the standard 'measure of error' (or something like that) on the GMAT is 28 points, and that you will be within 28 points of your 'true' score on the GMAT 2 out of 3 times. So, I would guess that you had a run of bad luck the first time you wrote the test - perhaps you got a mix of questions that were more challenging to you than to others for whatever reason, or you got really tough experimental questions that you had to waste precious time on. If this is true, your score on the second test would be more accurate measure of your ability. I just mention this because it was a gutsy move to re-take the GMAT 4 days later. In your place, I would have taken a day or two of rest, then sat down, analysed where I went wrong, drawn up a new study plan, and spent a few weeks of study before I took the 2nd test. But there is a lot to be said for your strategy - it worked, and the GMAT monster is now off your back and off your mind. Fortune Favors the Brave! :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sibs Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Congratulations Yipeekaiay . Excellent performance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arisnb Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Congratulations Yipeekaiay!!! Anyway, I'm new here. Wish I was aware of this site before I took my first gmat a couple weeks ago. The result was disappointing. I panicked and ran out of time in the verbal section. I got 590 (Q45;V27). I was hoping for a better result in the quantitative too. That didn't happen either. Planning to retake in a month time. Any pointers would be totally appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truly Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 Wait, how did you spend 11 weeks studying, if you took the test 4 days later? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Good job! Cong. Do you have a full-time job? How did you study >200 hours in 11 weeks, that's amazing. Have you taken any class at Kaplan? Again, cong. I work full-time and spend and spend c.a. 330 hours in 18 weeks preparing for GMAT. Bets, DMJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gschmilinsky Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Great post, albeit antiquated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamGmat Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 O boy...... What an improvement !! Great great job........ Your sheer determination is quite rare........heartiest congrats... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mook1000 Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 what did you do to improve your Quant? for them most part, did you just familiarize yourself with as many GMAT type Q's as possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbage100 Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 I thought under Pearson if you take once....you cant schedule it within a month (irrespective of calendar days) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gschmilinsky Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Guys, this is an old post that I brought back. The test was taken in 04. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbage100 Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Oh!!!..ok :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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