bcat521 Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Hello All, I have been a passive observer on this website over the past three months. I took the GMAT at the beginning of April and scored a 620 (Q37/V38). Today I took the GMAT again and scored a 740 (Q49/V42). I am extremely pleased with the outcome and would like tell you about my GMAT struggles to encourage and provide a little insight and guidance to those who are traveling along the GMAT path. Please let me preface this post by saying I am in no way a GMAT ace like 800 Bob, Ursula, and others, but just want to give my opinion in hopes that it will help somebody along the way. I will first start off by saying that I am a normal person. Not incredibly brilliant, but not stupid either. I went to a top undergraduate business school and made good grades, but don’t feel like I’m an Einstein. My point is, if I can do it, you can too. In my opinion, the test is 70% preparation, 20% intelligence, and 10% luck of the draw. When I initially sat for the 1st GMAT in April, I had already studied about 2.5 months hard. I had taken a preparatory course which I felt was pretty useless (will remain unnamed so as not to slander the company). I had read many books and felt like I was ready. However, after I received my score, I realized I was far from ready for the GMAT. Several takeaways from the 1st exam: Need to be able to look at problems from a conceptual point of view and understand what the GMAT is asking. Timing is everything – I probably guessed on the last 5 questions of each section, which is pretty stupid and in my opinion can kill your score Need to go in well rested Need to be confident Need to identify early in the process what your weak areas are. If it means taking the GMAT early to see what your initial score is, so be it. I realized after scoring aQ37/V38 that my verbal was fine, and quantitative sucked, so I did not do a single verbal problem between the 1st and 2nd exam, and concentrated only on math. If possible, set a re-take date and stick to it, but be flexible if you have time, because you don’t want to take it until you feel ready After consulting several individuals, I realized my problem. I had worked hundreds and hundreds of problems (probably thousands, but I don’t want to admit it), yet, when I went back to look at the problems I had worked, I didn’t remember the concepts or exactly what the questions were asking. So I realized that I was continuously aggregating/compiling problems to work, rather than STUDYING the information I had available to me. So, I went back through both the OG 10 and OG11 and studied every single math problem. I took GMATPREP literally 15 times (install/uninstall new questions). I asked a few questions about concepts here, but mostly read what other people asked about. But I focused only on math. When I say the test is 10% luck of the draw, this is what I mean: on the first exam, my first 2 questions were coordinate geometry, which unfortunately I did not study much, so I probably did not do well. I had about 2-3 comb/perm questions which I did not know well. On my test today, I still did not feel incredibly confident on coord. Geometry, but I didn’t receive a single question on it. And the 2 comb/perm q’s I got were pretty easy. I’m know through my studying I learned a lot, but I think the test I took today was very different from the one I took in April. On verbal, I took a “birds-eye view” approach to the section, meaning that I would read the passage/critical reasoning, think briefly in my head what I thought the answer should be, and if I saw anything that remotely resembled what I was thinking, I chose it and moved on. This helped me as it kept me from second-guessing myself and saved valuable time. The reading comp passages were so boring that I almost fell asleep in one that was talking about stars and quasars. But I can’t really offer any advice on that except state the obvious, which is focus and move on. So that’s the story in a nutshell. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with my performance. Obviously lots of prep, but at the end of the day it worked out well. Overall, the things I believe are necessary to do well in the GMAT: Official Guide 10/11. I worked through both, I know some people only use 11. GMAT PREP (uninstall/install if you have to get new questions). Helps on timing. My test scores ranged from 49-51 math, didn't do the verbal portions. Intestinal fortitude/motivation. The process sucks, no doubt about it, but if you stick with it it will work out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usawithlove Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 wow !! GREAT SCORE. Congratuations on grinding this out and coming out victorious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Da_Gr8_Mperor Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Congratulations bcat521 Wonderful score and an amazing improvement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charu_mulye Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Certainly Awesome improvement !!..Congrats.. Solving Gmatprep 15 times.. u seem to have mastered it.. Did you do nething specifically to improve your timing from last attempt to first?? or Did you have any startegy about pacing the test this time?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gschmilinsky Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 What a fantastic story and debrief. Thank you sooo much. So GMATPrep was similar to real thing? How about after all those re-downloads of GMATPrep? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBA08 Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 Congrats bcat521! That's an excellent improvement and a great score. In fact, it prompted me to finally post on this forum, after being a passive, but consistent, observer for at least 3 months now. I found your debrief particularly interesting and inspiring because, based on your debrief, I feel as though I'm in a similar boat as you were after taking the GMAT the first time. I didn't get a score I was pleased with (610 - q39, v35), and I know it's quant that is my problematic area. Based on my score, it seems as though I need to work on verbal as well, but the odd thing is that my verbal score was much lower than any practice test I had taken (normally scored between 38-42). Also, as I was taking the exam, I felt as though I was doing great on the verbal! So I'm fairly confident that I had a good case of bad luck with verbal that day. Timing was also an issue. In any case, I really have issues with the quant, and I feel stuck and unsure how to overcome these issues. One of my main problems is pacing, as I'm very rarely able to finish in time, and always end up guessing on the last few, if I even have time to complete my guessing. I'm sure this is hurting my score a great deal, and I'm wondering how you overcame this problem? Was it simply the practice tests that helped you with pacing? Also, I'm having trouble assessing my problem areas in quant. I seem to think it's DS problems, but every time I take a test I miss different types of problems. Did you keep a chart and really assess the types of problems you were missing? Or did you simply STUDY all types of problems as you mention above? As I finished the OG11, I bought the OG10, so I should be set with problems to keep me busy for a while. Any insight would be very helpful. I'm targeting 680-700 for Test 2. And again, congrats on the jump in your score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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