660 GMAT -from 480 (Q43, V14) to 660 (Q50,V29) by Non-native

[TaTum]

Hello everybody,

I am writing this debrief to encourage test takers, especially those who are non-native speakers and don't live in an English environment. Although my score didn't break into a 700 sanctuary, I was able to improve my score from 480 to 660. Thus, if my experience could help someone develop a study plan, I would be more than happy.

Much of the credit for this improvement is attributed to the Test Magic forum. I would like to say thank you to all valuable inputs in this forum. Special thanks to TBAY, Nsulham, lsr, Legolife, nikiforos, etc. I appreciated all of your inputs. I learned from test takers here not only academic knowledge and test-taking techniques but also the ability to increase mental strength. I repeated reading some threads every time I felt down. Some of them made me see light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you very much again!


My Quick Background:
I am a 31 years old, non-native from Bangkok. I have seriously started studying English as my third language, next to Thai and Japanese, from July 2007. I completed my degree in Mechanical Engineering.


Practice Test Scores, from August to November:
Princeton Review CAT1: 480 (Q43, V14)
Princeton Review CAT2: 590 (Q43, V28)
GMAT#1: 560 (Q47, V21)

GMAT Prep1: 540 (Q36, V25)
GMAT Prep1 (re): 640 (Q45, V32)
GMAT Prep2: 670 (Q49, V32)
GMAT#2: 610 (Q49, V25)

MGMAT1: 680 (Q48, V34)
MGMAT2: 640 (Q49, V30)
GMAT Prep1 (Re): 690 (Q48, V36)
MGMAT3: 700 (Q50, V35)
GMAT Prep2 (Re): 700 (Q49, V37)
GMAT#3: 660 (Q50, V29)


My Debrief:
Since there are so many useful debriefs in this forum, I will try to write my thread as concisely as possible by dividing my preparation into three periods and summarizing what I did right and wrong.


Period 1: from 480 to 560

What I did right
During this period, I studied basic concept of the GMAT. I used only The "Princeton Review’s manual" and "11th edition of Official Guide (Official Guide)". Knowing basic test taking techniques, such as process of elimination and plug-in, was useful at this moment.

What I did wrong
I underestimated the difficulty level of GMAT. I didn’t even try the “GMAT Prep software” before taking the real test. The gap between the unofficial practice tests and the official test by GMAC really injured me on the test.


Period 2: from 560 to 610

What I did right
I researched many online resources and found the greatest "Test Magic Forum" that you are reading now. The forum convenes hundreds of intelligent test takers from everywhere in the world. It is loaded with tons of information, from advising what kinds of materials are helpful to discussing how to solve the questions.

Understanding a concept of reading speed (Tips from Jamebond007) was very useful for Reading Comprehension. For non-native test takers, it is important to read each passage within three minutes in order to complete the GMAT in time. No shortcut here. Reading two or three passages a day keeps a doctor away!

Official Guide was my bible at this moment. I tried to understand all patterns of the questions I did wrong. This was very practical especially for Critical Reasoning.

Thinking of the GMAT as a jigsaw puzzle or other fun games was essential to manage my stress. I felt relieve because I needed only some pieces of information to improve the GMAT score rather than understood English as the native test takers did.

What I did wrong
I drilled the "GMAT prep software". Even though it helped me be familiar with an interface of the GMAT, the practice caused me the wrong sense of pacing because it had too many repeating questions. This conversely killed me on the test day.


Period 3: from 610 to 660

What I did right
I got back to the basics. After carefully analyzing each section of my score, I found that there was a plenty room to improve my Sentence Correction. I purchased online "Manhattan GMAT’s Sentence Correction" and "Power Score’s GMAT Sentence Correction Bible". They cemented my grammar foundation. Also, the Manhattan GMAT included six online practice tests that provided very good practices. Their explanation was detailed and easy-to-understand.

I kept practicing Official Guide as a set of SC, CR and RD everyday, and did one practice test every week. This built me up not only a sense of confidence but also a physical strength to overcome the long GMAT on the test day. Self-discipline was the key here.

I tried to increase the number of my vocabularies as many as possible because I found that I dwelled on the reading passages when the topics were about biology or social history. I liked reading online stuffs, such as "Business Week" or "Wikipedia".

For quantitative, I devoted my limited time to practice many common topics, such as remainder/factor/multiple, < or >, isosceles or impossible triangle, etc. Plugging in with suitable numbers reduced my careless mistakes and saved my valuable time on the test.

For AWA, I remembered some useful templates. Understanding how E-Rater operates was the big step in improving a quality of my writing.

What I did wrong
On the test, I had done very well until question number 20 of verbal section came. The third reading passage was about human’s brain and as long as 60 lines. I lost my concentration then. I was too confident to reach 700, so I tried to crack down the passage rather than moved ahead quickly. Unfortunately, I ended up with two unanswered questions.

Also, I studied too much before the test day. Your performance might vary upon your mental and physical conditions on the test day. Thus, sufficient sleep before the day is strictly required.


My Final Word:
I guarantee that your performance on GMAT will be directly related to the amount of effect you put. But simply doing problem will not result in score improvements. The key is to learn from the problems. Review your work to determine why you got questions right or wrong and where the difficulty lay in. Adjust your strategy on the next phase.

After completing all necessary information, the only thing holding you back could be the speed and accuracy. If you keep practicing, you should expect to see some more improvement in your score.

Good luck on the GMAT!

[chandak_anand]

Congratulations for you the jump and getting a good score. You sure have come a long way!!!!

[I_can_do_it]

Nice debrief... Can I ask how many hours you studied a day?

[sgmat]

awesome.........gud luck with thy apps!...cheers!

[mathphobia]

good work. just keep the tempo like this and get thru a good institute.

[kannn]

U r truly amazing. Good luck with thy apps.

[Gruesomeguy]

well done

[TaTum]

Thank you very much for every congratulation. It cheered me on.

I can do it,
I studied four hours on weekday and eight hours on weedend for a couple months before the test. But since my English was extremely poor, others might take much less time than I took.

[p001]

Well done, good luck to your apps.

[piju]

Amazing...Bravo..Very inspiring for those of us who grew up in latitudes where English is not spoken at all.