GMAT Strategy

Hi everybody,

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I just took GMAT again for the second time yesterday and scored only 620. I am beyond disappointed and discouraged, and I really don't know how to proceed next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am a musician, I haven't taken a single math course since 2000, and the highest level of math class that I have taken is Algebra 2 in high school before I enrolled full time into a music school. I am also not a native English speaker, but I have been in the country for 14 years now. I took GMAT for the first time last Dec and scored 640. I prepped about 3 months for the test, and studied the quant section in OG Guide 12th, 13th, as well as OG Quant Review 2E. I also did Princeton Cracking the GMAT and Kaplan GMAT 800. I was so hyped about the test that I didn't sleep at all the night before, so I thought if I prep longer and rest well, I can do better in my next try.

For the preparation for the second GMAT test, I went through all the quant books in the MG GMAT set of 8 strategy guides, reviewed everything I did before, as well as redoing OG guide 13th. I did about 10 practice tests online, from MG (660, 690, 700), Kaplan (660), GMAT software (690, 700, 710, 730), Veritas (700), and one by Oxford MBA School (630-650). I thought I was well prepared this time, and instead I scored lower than last time. I really start to question my ability to take GMAT and maybe I should just give up.

How should I go forward with my preparation? I have gone through everything that I can on my own, and I just don't know what I missed. Please advice.

Thank you so much.

Discouraged MBA hopeful

Don't give up! I'm in a similar boat as you (scored 640 on first attempt and prepping for second attempt, which I will take in a month). I'm 550+ hours deep into gmat prep and I continue to be determined, optimistic, and confident that I will succeed! I am not an expert, so I shouldn't be the one giving you study strategy advice. But I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that you're not alone and that I think you should not give up!

Best of luck to you on your test and your MBA journey.